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River Views: Transformations on the Thames

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2016

Roger Woodley
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Extract

‘The key to London is the Thames. Without the river, the city might not have existed and would certainly not have flourished.’ So runs the topographical argument for London’s origin and successful growth. It stems from the Romans’ choice of a crossing-point between a hill on the north bank opposite a rare spot of firm land — an island at high tide — among the marshes to the south. This was the first location up the tidal stream clear of marshland on both sides, and from it the Roman road network fanned out in all the necessary directions. There seems to have been no significant settlement in this place before.

Type
Section 4: Growth & Change in London
Information
Architectural History , Volume 44 , 2001 , pp. 115 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain 2001

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References

Notes

1 The quotation is from Saunders, Ann, The Art and Architecture of London (London, 1984), p. 11 Google Scholar.

2 The characteristics of river towns are discussed in Kostof, Spiro, The City Assembled (London, 1992), p. 40 Google Scholar.

3 See Milne, Gustav, The Port of Roman London (London, 1985)Google Scholar.

4 Horace Walpole wrote: ‘From boats on every side were discharged water-rockets and fires of all kinds; and then the wheels which were arranged along the rails of the terrace were played off; and the whole concluded with the illumination of a pavilion on the top of the slope, of two pyramids on either side and the whole length of the balustrade to the water ... I never passed a more agreeable evening.’ (Quoted in Weinreb, B. and Hibbert, C., London Encyclopedia (London, 1983), p. 280 Google Scholar.)

5 For example, the presentation of the bridge in Visscher’s map (1616) and the paintings of Samuel Scott et al.

6 Another vivid example has now become more prominent with the advent of the Gilbert Collection: a giant keystone representing the Thames in the massive arch which was once the main river entrance.

7 Canova’s comment on Waterloo was: ‘the noblest bridge in the world, worth a visit from the remotest corners of the earth.’ (Quoted in Weinreb and Hibbert, op. cit., p. 932.)

8 Not that one would wish to argue that Telford’s proposed single iron span of 600 ft would have enhanced the appearance of the area.

9 Although it has been argued that Dance’s public silence when his plans were not pushed by the City, despite their approval by a parliamentary committee, suggests that he was not serious about them ( Barker, F. and Hyde, R., London as it might have been (London 1982), p. 45 Google Scholar).

10 For example, the Lord Mayor’s show took place on the river. Frost Fairs (this author is compelled to admit) were another pleasant public celebration.

11 Even so, the river façades of Billingsgate (1874-78) and the Custom House (1825–28) still relate most successfully to the river. But see note 13 below.

12 In literature, the polluted Thames becomes of wider symbolic significance: e.g. Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend (1865).

13 Particularly absurd are the trees in front of the Custom House.

14 Perceptions of a bridge as a continuation of a street go back as far as Palladio (Quattro Libri, III, Ch. iv).

15 A nice summary of the Festival: ‘Cheerful, touching, funny, a little awkward, slightly self-conscious, and wholly admirable’ — Saunders, op. cit., p. 379.

16 And quite unintended by the architects concerned. J. M. Brydon can never have imagined that we would be aerial voyeurs of the circular arcade hidden within his government offices in Whitehall.