The Thames Project: a guide to the blog posts

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Last updated: 10 May 2026

The Thames Project is my long-term photographic response to the River Thames: a personal portrait of the river in the early twenty-first century, from its seasonal source in the Cotswolds to the estuary beyond London.

This page is a living index to the blog posts that relate to the project. I have grouped them roughly according to the changing character of the river as it flows from west to east: the seasonal source; the rural Thames; the affluent Thames; the tourist Thames; the regenerating Thames; and the industrial Thames down to the Yantlet Line. These are rule-of-thumb working categories rather than strict boundaries, but they help make sense of the project as it develops.

For a fuller introduction to the project, start here:
The Thames project

1. The project as a whole

  • The Thames project
    Project introduction; source-to-sea structure; personal and family connections; living history; GPS mapping; first book; future second edition.
    This is the best starting point for understanding what I am trying to do with the project.

2. The seasonal source

The beginning of the Thames is not a simple fixed point. Around Thames Head the river may be dry after a long summer, or flowing strongly after winter rain. This part of the project is about seasonality, hydrology, deep time, and the difficulty of saying exactly where a river begins.

3. The rural Thames

This is the stretch from around Waterhay and Cricklade, where the Thames begins to behave more like a continuous river, down towards Reading. It is still underdeveloped in the blog index, although it is likely to become a major part of the eventual project.

  • Future entries will be added here.

4. The affluent Thames

From Reading downstream towards Vauxhall, the Thames becomes increasingly associated with villages, rowing, large houses, bridges, locks, pleasure boating and the settled cultural landscape of the middle Thames.

5. The tourist Thames

This is the London Thames of bridges, monuments, embankments, evening light, familiar views and accumulated memory: the river as spectacle, route, history and public stage.

6. The regenerating Thames

Downstream of the older ceremonial and tourist river, the Thames passes through areas shaped by docks, redevelopment, high-rise offices, transport infrastructure and changing patterns of work and habitation.

  • The looming of Canary Wharf
    Canary Wharf; redevelopment; the modern eastern city; scale, distance and the presence of the financial district.
  • Future entries to add here: Greenwich, Deptford, Isle of Dogs, Limehouse, Leamouth, the River Lea, the Royal Docks and the Thames Barrier.

7. The industrial Thames and the estuary

Below the Thames Barrier the river broadens and changes again. Industry, shipping, infrastructure, marshes, mud, birds, windfarms and the horizon all become part of the story. This is where the Thames becomes estuarial, ambiguous and open-ended.

  • Two stones and a line
    Yantlet Line; Crow Stone; London Stone; Southend; Isle of Grain; historic boundary; administrative end of the Thames; estuary and sea.
  • Future entries to add here will cover aspects of the Thames from the Thames Barrierto the Estuary.

8. Archive and related Thames posts

Some older posts were not necessarily conceived as part of the specific Thames Project, but they now form part of the wider archive of Thames-related work. They may become useful reference points as the project develops.

9. Themes to follow

As the project grows, I expect some recurring themes to become clearer:

  • Sources and beginnings: Thames Head, Seven Springs, the River Churn and the seasonal behaviour of the upper river.
  • Water level and closeness: photographs made from low viewpoints, often close to the surface of the river.
  • Rowing and human use: scullers, eights, clubs, landing stages and the rhythm of oars on the water.
  • Reflections and weather: mist, still water, rain, winter greys, dawn light and evening colour.
  • Living history: places where the past remains active in the present.
  • Industry and renewal: docks, barriers, towers, redevelopment, infrastructure and working river edges.
  • Margins and endings: mud, marsh, birds, shipping, windfarms, stones, boundary lines and the estuary horizon.

10. Planned future posts

This section is deliberately provisional. It will change as I continue photographing and writing.

  • The Thames from Waterhay and Cricklade to Lechlade.
  • Locks, weirs and the managed freshwater river.
  • Tributaries and confluences.
  • Reading to Henley and the transition into the affluent Thames.
  • The London Thames from Vauxhall to Greenwich.
  • Greenwich, Canary Wharf and the regenerated eastern river.
  • The Thames Barrier and the psychological transition into the lower river.
  • The industrial river below the Barrier.
  • Shellness, birds, windfarms and the open estuary.

This page will be updated as new Thames Project posts are added.