Ebb & Flow

Here is a gallery of my favourite workboat – or small tug -photographs, taken along the central London River Thames from 2019, set out in alphabetical order. During the past five years, covering the time of Covid, some of the boats have changed ownership, livery, or were bought and operate elsewhere but if you’re walking along the Thames Path between Putney and Tower Bridges, you’re sure to see some of them.

Workboats are vital operators on the river keeping things moving: fetching and carrying supplies; transporting goods; performing crew transfers; acting as safety boats; serving as platforms for filming and PR work. They undertake surveys, structural inspections both above and below the waterline, and numerous other activities associated with the maintenance of buildings, embankments and structures along the river.

Some workboats belong to specific companies, working solely for them ferrying crews to and from boats at their moorings, and others are available to hire for all kinds of work, long or short term. Workboat ALBERT photographed here, belonged to Thames Marine Services Ltd. Now converted and named ALB-E, she is London’s first fully electric workboat.

Workboat – launch ALBION was built by Mervyn Street, in Gravesend, in 1984. Black Jack Magazine explains in the Spring 2021 issue that ALBION has a “special raised bow and heightened bridge for use with barges and pontoons”. Mervyn Street’s popular workboat designs include MALAMUTE, who will feature in a later article. ALBION was sold to his son Richard Street around 2018.

Owned by GPS Marine, launch ALERT operates as a fleet support launch. She was very busy during the building of the Tideway Tunnel providing support to the company’s tug crews and delivering on several projects. “She serves as a fully functional office and is also equipped to facilitate running repairs and maintenance on fleet vessels.”

ALFIE is one of five of Livett’s fleet of six workboats that I’ve photographed along with ARTEMIS; BRAVO LIMA GB; EDDIE C; and ROMEO LIMA. She is described as a “beaver style tug” and ideal as a “filming platform, camera boat or safety boat.” You can discover more about her past projects, and her specifications and equipment here.

ANNIE M belongs to Colliers Launches and is used to carry crews to and from their mooring close to Westminster Bridge.

APPRENTICE, owned by Bill Robinson, was moored in South Dock Marina, Rotherhithe, and is up for sale. Bill Robinson and his partner Philip Donovan, work together to repair old barges to bring them back into use. However, an article by the Thames Festival Trust explains that they built a completely new barge for the Worshipful Company of Waterman and Lighterman, which won the Apprentice Barge Driving Race in July 2017.

Described as a “flexible and versatile workboat” Livett’s ARTEMIS has a wide open deck suitable for a variety of tasks. “With her shallow draft and low air draft, she is capable of working in all kinds of restricted spaces.”

Fitted with a wheelhouse and licensed to carry up to ten people, BENFLEET is mainly used by the Port of London Authority as a “crew transfer vessel on the Thames.”

Thames Marine Services operate on the Thames from Teddington to the Estuary as well as from Sheerness to Strood on the Medway, providing among others, a reliable fuel and lubricant delivery service. BOBBI has been moored here for while.

An important element in Livett’s fleet, purpose built landing craft BRAVO LIMA GB has been designed to pick up goods and passengers the length of the Thames foreshore, using slipways, stairs and beaches rather than traditional piers. She can also be carried by road for use on any of the UK’s waterways.

Small, multipurpose tug DEVICE is owned by Thamescraft Dry Docking Services based in Greenwich.

LIVETT’S workboat EDDIE C can often be seen along the central London Thames. She is used for filming or works as a safety boat during construction and engineering projects, and artistic and publicity events.

ENERGY is owned by Sargent Brothers (Thames Ltd), Northfleet, Gravesend.

To be continued…

Further Information
Thanks to Ben, a Thames Waterman & Lighterman. Explore his site the Liquid Highway, the leading River Thames source for news and info, and the worlds largest Thames vessel photo gallery, giving technical details of thousands of boats.

See Unsung Heroes, article, June 2019.

Companies including workboats in their fleets:
GPS Marine
Livett’s
Port of London Authority
Thames Marine Services
Thamescraft Dry Docking Services

Not a vast wind-blown desert of dunes but a sliver of sand on the Victoria Tower Gardens’ foreshore.

Yet peering down through a zoom lens it’s possible to imagine a desert landscape below. And over the past three years I’ve captured a variety of its forms, forms that appeal to the imagination…

With a Thames tidal range of up to seven metres, and a flow of five or more miles an hour scouring the shoreline, this small stretch of sand crowning a stony beach, is never quite the same. Rough or smooth, wet or dry, and sculpted in different sizes, the sand seems to mirror the shapes of water and at times reflects a sudden change in movement.

At other times patterns in the sand are more regular, echoing the rippling water above.

At other times the beach presents a clean, smooth surface with faint lines marking the ebbing tide…

…sometimes outlined by dark particles that have been floating in the river.

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You may have noticed other central London Thames beaches, mostly small patches of sand, revealed at low tide. The best known and largest of these is the easily accessed Ernie’s Beach on the foreshore below Gabriel’s Wharf on the South Bank. It is a favourite place for sand sculptors.

A once famous but now vanished Thames beach, Tower Beach, was created on the foreshore below the Tower of London. It took more than 1,500 barge-loads of sand to fill the allotted space between St. Katherine Steps and the Tower. It was opened on 23 July, 1934, by the Lieutenant Governor of the Tower. King George V, actively promoting the project, decreed that the beach was to be used by the children of London, who should be given “free access forever”. Always closed at high tide and throughout the Second World War, Tower Beach was re-opened in 1946. However as levels of pollution gradually caused increasing concern, it was closed for good in 1971 and the sand long since swept away.

In troubled times dominated by actions of a few, when the hopes and aspirations of most of us count for little, such escapes into the natural world and its ever-changing patterns are balm for the soul.

Sources and further information
London’s Thames Beaches, see: The Londonist
See a general view of the Victoria tower Gardens’ shoreline here.
History of the Tower Hill Trust.
Discover the history of Tower Beach by ‘Exploring GB’ here.