An Apartment Near Thames


We stayed for the past few months at an apartment very close to the over 250 years old steel cantilever Hammersmith bridge on river Thames.  

For several centuries , and not so long ago, England was the greatest seafaring country on earth. One can easily imagine how crowded the river must have been then with naval and merchant navy ships going up and down all the time. No wonder, on both sides of the river were innumerable docking stations, wharves and warehouses, shipping men and merchandise from all parts of the globe.Goods shipped included textiles, spices, tea, sugar, tobacco, minerals and gold. Human traffic included pioneering settlers and slaves. In fact, there used to be a rich slave trader staying very close to the Hammersmith bridge. The riverside then must have been functional , busy but rather unattractive then.

With changing times and heavier seafaring dreadnoughts, shipping traffic vanished from the Thames.

Major layout changes were initiated. Walkways and jogging tracks  have been created on both sides of the Thames.  Indeed, the riverside is now a sporting waterhole and highend real estate mixed development projects. 

Where we stay, there is Putney bridge to the left and Hammersmith bridge to the right.  This tract becomes a very popular destination for the annual Oxford- Cambridge boat race regatta.( in March I think) Indeed, the river front is teeming with many modern rowing clubs. When taking a walk on the river side, one can see many pencil thin rowing boats with 1, 2, 4 or 8 rowers rowing vigorously.  Very often, these boats are chaperoned by trainers on motorboats, shouting urgent instructions on a hand held mike. 

The canoes are of micro light weight fibre and thus easily carried back to the boating club stands after the ride by the boaters themselves. Thy are usually white in color.

On our side of the river, there are quite a few very pretty, well laid out pubs. One of the pubs, I believe, was used recently in a James Bond movie. There is also the Fulham Film studio near the Hammersmith bridge. The other day, Sarah Ali Khan was seen on the bridge. 

If one walks some distance on the left side, he will come across the Fulham Football Club, they are doing good this season.

The river is full of birds...adding vibrancy and life...gulls, white ducks, black long necked cormorants, green neck mallard ducks terns, ...fluttering about or swimming gently. 

On the opposite bank, there are some wetlands. 

Billboards on the river walkwa say common seals are to be found in the river, though I didn't see any.

Thames arises from the beautiful Cotswold hilly tracts around 200 km to the  Northwest and crosses London on its way to the English channel.  

Since the sea isn't very far off , this part of the river has regular tidal highs and lows ...the water level difference can be as high as 7 metres. Because of the tidal effect, the river's flow direction changes course a couple of times daily!

The waterfront is being redesigned  rapidly with many real estate projects of co-working office spaces and studio apartments.  One wonders though about their occupancy once construction is completed especially with economic downturn looming ahead. 

Notwithstanding all these doomsday prophecies, the Thames nonchalantly and merrily chugs along.

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