Nuneham Courtenay boathouse. I mentioned this boathouse in the previous blog entry: here’s a different view, photographed on a windy afternoon in October.
The River Thames has operated as a great highway since ancient times. Correspondingly, boats are part of the riverscape, whether for trade, transport, sport or leisure. Boats often need to be stored safely for protection from the elements or for security, so boathouses are common architectural elements of the Thames riverside.
Boathouses exist in all shapes and sizes: sometimes attached to grand mansions; sometimes for storing the racing boats of rowing clubs; sometimes they are little more than garden sheds, with a large door or gate facing the water. I've developed a mild fascination with Thames boathouses, especially the smaller ones that dot the riverside, seemingly at random and isolated from any nearby buildings.
Here is a small selection of such boathouses. Some are like garden sheds; others are parts of buildings. I photographed all of these from a moving boat in October, travelling between Wallingford and Oxford.
Variation on a theme? Maybe not a boathouse, possibly a summerhouse?
… and sometimes, sometimes, a boat just prefers security by obscurity, and hides away in undergrowth at the edge of the river :)