7th January: The River Thames

On this date in 1928 fourteen people were drowned in London and thousands made homeless when the Thames Embankment and part of the Chelsea Embankment collapsed. It was the last major flood to affect central London. Here are some facts about the river Thames.

1. The Thames is 346 km (215 miles) long and is the longest river which is entirely in England. It's the second longest in the UK - the Severn is longer.
2. There are several places which claim to be the source - including Thames Head in Gloucestershire and Seven Springs, Gloucestershire. Ordnance Survey says it is at Trewsbury Mead.
3. The river was called Tamesas by the Celts, and Tamesis by the Romans. The name is thought to mean "dark". Similar words meaning "dark" occur in several languages including Irish, Welsh, Russian and even Sanskrit. The bit of the river which flows through Oxford is historically called the Isis, and there were cartographers in the Victorian era who thought the entire river should be called that, at least up to the point where it is joined by its tributary the Thame and becomes the "Thame-isis". In ancient times, the part of the river in what is now London also had a different name - Plowonida, meaning "flowing river". It was the part which was too wide to ford. The name was give to a settlement on the banks, which the Romans Latinised as Londinium - so London was quite possibly named after its river.
4. The river has over 80 islands, 200 bridges, 44 locks, six ferry crossings, more than 20 tunnels and a cable car crossing. There are more than 37 rowing clubs along its length. It meanders through several counties: Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Essex, Kent and Greater London. It is policed by five different police forces, and there are four lifeboat stations.
5. Looking at the river as it flows through London, one would be forgiven for thinking no-one in their right mind would drink the Water - however, two thirds of London's drinking water comes from the Thames (purified first, thankfully). It is said that a drop of rain falling into the Thames at its source in the Cotswolds will be drunk by at least eight people before it flows into the Thames Estuary.
6. Before 1865, most of the city's waste was dumped into the river. In 1858, the stench from all the sewage in the river was so bad that Parliament had to be suspended. It was “The Great Stink” that convinced parliament that London needed a sewer system.
7. From Teddington down to the sea the river is tidal with a tidal range of 7 metres (23 ft).
8. Roughly one dead body a week is fished out of the river by police - mostly suicides. In 1795, Mary Wollstonecraft (feminist and mother of Mary Shelley), threw herself off of Putney Bridge after her lover left her for an actress. She was pulled out of the river by a boatman. She wasn't dead, however, just unconscious and lived to tell the tale.
9. The Luftwaffe used the Thames to navigate to London – as soon as they saw the distinctive u-bend they knew that they were at the docks. While many people drained their ponds and pools there was not much they could do about the river!
10. In 2006 Lewis Pugh became the first person to swim the full length of the Thames from outside Kemble to Southend-on-Sea to raise awareness of global warming. It took him 21 days, although he had to run the first bit as a drought had stopped the river from flowing near to the source. Since then, in 2011 comedian David Walliams swam the 140 miles (230 km) from Lechlade to Westminster Bridge and raised over £1 million for charity.

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