Thames Landscape Strategy - Hampton to Kew -

Arcadian Diary - December 2004

At long last the final stage of the ‘London’s Arcadia’ Heritage Lottery Bid has been awarded for the riverside between Twickenham and Richmond Lock (called a Stage Two Pass). It has been a lengthy process as there are so many stages and criteria which have to be fulfilled. With this final go ahead we now have funding, which we have to match through our own fundraising activity, and we can start work on the ground in the New Year.

Although there have been a number of works carried out already such as improvements at Chitty Hole next to Buccleugh Gardens and River Lane in Petersham the bulk of the Arcadia project has been on hold awaiting this important decision.

The first project to be carried out is timed to take place in January along Cholmondeley Walk in Richmond between Twickenham Bridge (the A316) and the Friars Lane. The works here include the replacement of unsightly areas of tarmac with grass, removal of redundant features such as broken bench stands, restoration of bollards and signs and tree planting.

At the end of last year the magnificent Cholmondeley Walk copper beech had to be felled due to a disease called ‘meripilus gigantes’ or in English, ‘giant polypor’, leaving a brick planter that soon filled up with rubbish. Due to the nature of the disease no tree can be planted in the same spot, as it will also succumb to the disease so replacement trees will need to be sited near-by. One of the more interesting species that has been chosen is a new type of elm tree that has proved to be resistant to Dutch elm disease. Old photographs of the river dating before the 1970’s show just how much the landscape was dominated by these magnificent trees so their re-instatement, if successful, will be a marvellous step forward.

Another initiative started by the Thames Landscape Strategy has been gathering a pace recently in order to breathe new life into the use of the Arcadian Thames between Hampton and Kew. What the plan is attempting to do is to turn around years of decline in boating on the Thames linked to the wider needs of visitors, wildlife and locals.

The importance of this was brought home to me by a conversation I had just over a month ago in a central London pub as I was waiting for a friend. An American couple were sat next to me with a Kew Gardens shopping bag stuffed full of gifts. As my friend was late I started chatting to the Americans about Kew and they mentioned that they were over to England for a weeks holiday and had visited the usual places – the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and Hampton Court. What amazed me though was that they had no idea that Kew and Hampton were so close together and that the river that flowed past both these sites was the same – let alone that it was the Thames. and that both attractions were linked by a trip boat.

This is exactly the sort of information that we need to be getting across to visitors (and quite probably many Londoners too!). Given the right conditions both Hampton Court and Kew Gardens (and many places in between) could form part of the most wonderful outing, connected to each other by a trip boat. One of the great problems in achieving this though is the constant silting up of the river. One only has to walk between Richmond and Kew at low tide to see just how low the river gets. These exposed muddy beaches are a fantastic habitat for wildlife but play havoc with the trip boat schedules.

Back in September, the Heritage Lottery Fund ‘London Team’ were taken out on a boat trip between Hampton Court and Kew Gardens to show them just how much heritage we have along our stretch of the river. Somewhere alongside Isleworth we were explaining the problems of connecting these heritage sites with each other by water transport due to the lack of dredging in order to maintain a viable channel. As we were chatting the boat run aground on the river bottom despite having one of the most experienced London Waterman as a skipper who was navigating a course down the deepest part in the river. At low tide there is simply not enough depth to allow navigation.

Effectively this now means that on many days there is only one trip boat that connects Westminster with Kew, Richmond, Kingston and Hampton Court Palace that has to dash through this most beautiful section of the river to catch the tide. This single act demonstrated better than anything we could have said to the Heritage Lottery Fund of the need for grant aid to be made available for the Thames if we are to reverse the decline in river use. By linking our projects to improvements in river infrastructure and tourism we can make a real difference to the way that the river is used. The next stage would be to find ways of funding new trip boat stops, ferry points and moorings for visiting boats. That would be the best Christmas present the river could have.

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