The Arcadian Thames
The Arcadian Thames offers unrivalled public open access and recreational opportunities and collectively contains more listed buildings, conservation areas, wildlife sites and registered parks and gardens than in any other comparable location in the UK. The river meanders through the largest connected open space in the capital – a landscape of parks, palaces, towpath walks, wild open spaces, replica watches for sale working communities and places of cultural importance that still have the capacity to inspire. The landscape we cherish today was created as a place to have fun and this is as relevant now as it was during the eighteenth century.
A countryside in the city
Each reach of the Thames offers its own special delights and leads to new discoveries around every corner. The amazing combination of natural beauty and Royal history has created a real countryside in the city – a pastoral haven, on the doorstep of Central London where humans and wildlife live in harmony. It is a place to escape the hustle and bustle of modern city life, to relax, unwind, explore and have fun. The fact that so much of the wonderful open space and rich heritage has survived to the present day is due largely to the generations of people who shaped, cared for and protected them over the past 500 years. The Thames Landscape Strategy was established in 1994 to understand these events of the past in order to take them full circle to conserve, enhance and promote the watery landscape for the next 100 years.
Take time to discover those less promoted things during your visit. The last refuge (in London) for example of the German Hairy Snail, or cormorants sunning themselves on an island branch. The electric blue flash of a kingfisher, a Tudor ice house, one of the Great Trees of London, or a working boatyard – all of this helps to make the Arcadian Thames character so rich.
Download the documents below for more information on the history of the Arcadian Thames:
TLS Arcadian Thames Executive Summary
How was the Arcadian Thames Created
The Arcadian Thames briefing sheet