The Thames from Above

This exhibit brings together two distinct elements: the River Thames and aerial photography. The river, from its source in Gloucestershire in the west of England, to where it meets the North Sea in the east, has supported human activity for millennia. The places along its banks and the activities of the people who live and work there have been recorded over the centuries by writers, painters and photographers. A unique record of the River Thames has been created by Aerofilms Ltd, the world's first commercial aerial photography company. The firm undertook scores of sorties to photograph from above the places, buildings and activities associated with the Thames. The photographs in this exhibit were taken between 1920 and 1954 - a period of great change imposed on the landscape and one punctuated by the consequences of the Second World War. It begins in the west and follows the flow of the river as it passes villages, towns, England's capital city and beyond, concluding at the estuary resort of Southend-on-Sea.  

This photograph shows the newly-built Oxford Corporation Waterworks, with its row of five workers' cottages. It was built to increase the supply of water for the city of Oxford by drawing water from the Thames, filtering it and then pumping the water to a reservoir near the city. At the bottom of the photograph is Swinford Bridge, built in 1767 for the Earl of Abingdon, the local landowner. Above the bridge is Eynsham Weir, which was also owned by the Earl, and Eynsham Lock, which cuts across the bend in the river and allows boats to safely by-pass the weir.

At the time this photograph was taken, Abingdon was the county town of Berkshire. Its status allowed the town to host Assize courts that heard serious trials for criminal and civil offences. For two hundred years the Assizes were held in the County Hall, the tall building on the edge of the Market Place, seen in the centre-left of the photograph. It was built between 1678 and 1683 and was designed by Christopher Kempster who was Christopher Wren's master mason during the building of St Paul's Cathedral. Spanning the river is the 15th-century Abingdon Bridge, seen here before it was widened and partly rebuilt. At the end of the bridge is Abingdon Gaol, a Y-shaped prison built between 1805 and 1811.

The first Henley Regatta took place in 1839 and was given royal patronage in 1851. The races for amateur rowers became so popular that the event grew from a one-day regatta to cover five days of competition. For many years spectators could watch the races from the river. Small pleasure craft lined the finishing straight several boats deep, and moored house boats were used as floating stands at the river bank. 

Danesfield House was first built in the mid-18th century on the site of an Iron Age hillfort overlooking the Thames. The house was rebuilt by the end of the century and was again transformed at the end of the 19th century and again in the 1920s. After a short period as a school it was requisitioned by the Royal Air Force, becoming RAF Medmenham and specializing in photographic intelligence. In 1948 it became a divisional headquarters with the house being used for officers' accommodation. This photograph clearly shows the mass of military buildings erected in the grounds.

Dominating the foreground of this Aerofilms photograph is the Jesus Hospital, a complex of almshouses. It was founded by William Goddard in the early 17th century and was built in the 1620s. The hospital originally comprised around forty dwellings, a chapel and a chaplain's house. The number of dwellings has since been reduced to sixteen. Until recently it was under the care of the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. Bray is currently famed for being the location of two of the four three-star Michelin Restaurants in England; the other two are in London.

In the early 18th century Hurst Park became a sport and leisure resort for Londoners. Visitors could enjoy archery, boxing, cricket, golf, cock fighting and horse racing. It was also a favoured spot for duels. A new race course was laid out in the 1890s, which included the erection of an unpopular fence that acted as a barrier between the course and the river. The grandstand was subject to a women's suffrage arson attack in 1913, and the last race held in 1962. The site was redeveloped for housing. 

Seven Saxon kings were crowned at Kingston, a town that lay on the border of the ancient kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. Centuries later it was from here that Jerome K Jerome and his companions set off on their adventure in 'Three Men in a Boat' (1889). The Guildhall was begun in 1934 and completed the following year, not long after this Aerofilms photograph was taken. Designed by the architect Maurice Webb, pictorial representations of the River Thames were included in its decorative details, and the legendary Coronation Stone of the Saxon kings now stands in the grounds. Kingston has for many years been a centre for pleasure boating, and this view gives a glimpse of the Thames with a number of small sailing boats and a pair of packed pleasure cruisers passing a floating bathing platform.

Craven Cottage is the home of Fulham Football Club. With its mass of terracing and grandstand, it sits compactly between the River Thames, streets of terraced housing, a concrete works and allotment plots in Bishops Park. Designed by the now-famous football ground architect and engineer Archibald Leitch from 1905, the ground was little redeveloped until the 1960s. Fulham, along with neighbouring Hammersmith, was once described as 'the great fruit and kitchen garden north of the Thames'. The land upon which the rows of houses in the photograph were built were formerly agricultural fields and nurseries. The transformation from 'kitchen garden' to urban landscape was nearly complete by the end of the 19th century.

Battersea Power Station is one of the most recognisable landmarks of the River Thames. However, this Aerofilms photograph shows only half of the power station building that we are more familiar with today. The first part, the 'A Station' was built between 1929 and 1935, and was the largest in Europe. The second part, almost a mirror-image of the first, was begun in 1937 but not completed until 1956 when its fourth massive chimney was erected. When finished, it generated almost one fifth of London's electricity. Following public criticism, the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was employed after building work had begun to redesign the look of the power station. Scott's brick design set a standard that other power stations were to follow.

The Festival of Britain of 1951 was a celebration for the nation. It marked the centenary of the Great Exhibition and acknowledged British contributions to civilisation in industry, technology, the arts and sciences. The site chosen for London's South Bank Exhibition had been an industrial area of wharves, mills and timber yards, much of which had been devastated during the Second World War. Land was cleared either side of the approach to Hungerford Bridge for the Festival buildings. This Aerofilms photograph shows the site under construction, including the building of the circular Dome of Discovery, and on the other side of the railway line the Royal Festival Hall.

The word 'hithe' means a haven or landing-place on a river. Surrey Commercial Docks, a large group of docks built on marshland at Rotherhithe, originated when a wet dock was built in 1696. Others followed, named after the origin of their cargoes, including Greenland, Canada, Norway and Russia Docks. An obvious target during the Second World War, a raid on 7 September 1940 set fire to over a million tonnes of timber, creating one of the most intense fires of the Blitz. Decline set in after the war and the docks closed in 1969. The majority were filled as the area was redeveloped for housing and leisure, and renamed Surrey Quays.

Royal Albert Dock, seen here in the foreground, was built in 1880 to handle new, large iron and steam vessels that were replacing sailing ships. Parallel to the Royal Albert Dock is King George V Dock, which opened in 1921. Together with the nearby Victoria Dock, these three Royal Docks formed the largest area of impounded dock water in the world. The sheds lining the Royal Albert Dock were designed to handle frozen and chilled meat that was sent to Smithfield Market. Other cargoes handled at the Royal Docks included butter, cheese, grain and tobacco. They closed to commercial traffic in the 1980s and by the end of the decade the area between the Royal Albert and King George V Docks was being transformed into the runway and terminal for the new London City Airport.

The night of 31 January and 1 February 1953 witnessed a massive storm surge that caused death and destruction along the east coast of England. Sites along the River Thames were also affected. One that was recorded by Aerofilms was the Thames Ammunition Works. It was established in the 1870s on marshland between the Rivers Thames and Darent. Although protected by embankments, the flood waters submerged much of the site. Operating during the First and Second World Wars the factory eventually closed in the 1960s.

Separated by the Shellhaven Creek, this photograph shows the oil refineries at Shell Haven (right-foreground) and Coryton. Shell Haven was the first oil refinery on the Thames Estuary, operating from 1916 until 1999. The Coryton site was earlier occupied by Kynochs explosives factory, with a workers' estate called Kynochtown. It was taken over by the Cory Brothers coal merchants to develop an oil storage depot, and who renamed it Coryton. The site imported crude oil transported by ocean-going tankers, and produced motor spirit, lubricating oils, diesel and fuel oils until production finally stopped in 2012.

Our journey along the River Thames concludes at Southend, a seaside resort on the north side of the Thames Estuary. Its pier is famously the longest pleasure pier in the world. Its length of 1.34 miles (2.16 km) was necessary because of the mud flats that prevented large steamboats landing passengers closer to the shore at low tide. The pier's significance to the town was noted by the poet, writer and broadcaster, and president of the National Piers Society, Sir John Betjeman, who declared: 'The Pier is Southend, Southend is the Pier'.