Ebb & Flow

…taken from: London: a Pilgrimage, text by William Blanchard Jerrold, 1872

Following my previous article looking at Gustave Doré’s depictions of the ‘Thames at Work‘, here below are some of his images of the ‘Thames at Play’. And the *play* that made the most impression on him was the famous Oxford v. Cambridge Boat Race. And it was famous. An event enjoyed enthusiastically by Londoners from all backgrounds.
The day he and Jerrold were preparing to watch the race, April 6th, 1870, started out with a thick fog. A classic London smog from the days of domestic coal fires and other sources of pollution. It was “as dark as the darkest midnight… It was choking. It made the eyes ache.”, writes Jerrold.
Doré, having heard of the infamous London smogs, thought that the race would have to be cancelled. “But”, continues Jerrold, “the true Londoners present [where they were lodged], got on with their preparations, inquired about horses and carriages; gave orders; filled cigar cases; and dispatched breakfast.” Doré wondered how such a “tremendous rush along both banks of the river; the blocking of a dozen bridges; the unbroken water procession; and the moving steamers massed to the funnels with humanity”, could all have been brought about by a simple contest between two crews of university students.

The illustration above appeared in The Graphic three days after the race of 1870 described by Jerrold. Following the the Oxford and Cambridge boats, behind the official boats with the Umpire and other dignitaries, an Armada of rowing and sailing boats spreads out across the river. More boats of spectators are positioned along both banks the whole length of the course.

As Doré paints exuberant pictures of London at play around the Thames, so Jerrold describes Londoners enjoying the event and all the sideshows along with it: “The vibration of vigorous human life that thrilled along the shores on the April day when all London turned out to see a tussle between two University crews; was not that of a mournful, dejected population.”

Looking down from the more fortunate private riverside terraces; “the views of the towing paths presented a mixed population that, even in its holiday guise, showed marks of the fierce London struggle: The mechanics and their wives and children looked pale, but they were of buoyant spirits.”

Jerrold evokes the spirit and sheer popularity of the riverside festival. “The lines of boats and barges drawn up on either side of the river, leaving a fair open way to the race, and covered with motley thousands, sent forth tumultuous sounds of undying gaiety— through hours, pending the event of the day.”

Doré’s images capture the divide between the privileged observers and the less fortunate, of whose situation, as you can see vividly in other chapters of London: a Pilgrimage, both he and Jerrold are well aware.

Jerrold highlights the contrast between the normal calm of Fulham, “one of the quaintest and quietest suburbs of London where people and vehicles dribble slowly over the rickety wooden bridge to Putney,” with the arrival of the undergraduates where “every kind of light and nimble, and elegant and fast, conveyance appears on the scene”. He highlights too, the contrast between the normally “quiet handsome shores fringed with noble timber, used to no more bewildering sound than the plash of an oar, or the shambling tread of the horses along the towing path” with the noise of practice and training runs and “the coarse language of the adepts in river-side slang” emanating from riverside booths and beer houses.

He observes how the undergraduates become a familiar presence in the area, and “in the wake of these young gentlemen of England, who have plenty of money and at the same time very little experience, there follow hosts of betting men of all degrees,— from the over-dressed, sharp-visaged man who lays ten pound notes, to the coarse, bibulous vagabond who scents the shillings in the waterman’s pocket.”

That said, he describes the event as “a brave and hearty and wholesome holiday […] a treat which the young men of Oxford and Cambridge offer the Londoner every spring.”

Jerrold remarks on the enthusiasm of the crowds as the sound of the starting gun rips through the air. “There is a heaving of the entire mass a low, full murmur rolls along the river banks. A spasm of intense excitement passes through the two or three hundred thousand people who have packed themselves along the shores to see the prowess of a few University lads. Desperate fellows along the towing paths, take walls by assault, force their way into boats, hoist themselves upon the shoulders of their neighbours.”

He turns his attention to the privileged company at ‘The Limes’ where “Amid frantic shouting, amid a snowstorm of pocket handkerchiefs, and delirious ravings of purple-faced betting men, two lithe, trim, swift boats, dipping one dip and feathering one flame of light – skim along the shining way.”

Doré was clearly impressed by the energy and spirit of the young London boys “on the parapets of the bridges, dangling from arches, swinging from the frailest boughs of trees, wading amid the rushes, paddling in the mud, scrambling, racing, fighting, shouting along the roads and river paths, or through the furze of Putney Common.” Both he and Jerrold felt mixture of emotions: amusement, pity, and admiration for these “poor, pale, lean and hungry rascals, […] tossed into the thick of the battle of life, who worked valiantly trying to earn a few pence by disentangling the carriages and leading them to their owners after the event of the day was over.”

Despite criticism of London: A Pilgrimage at the time, that it gave brutal and unflattering images of London, the book was a commercial success. And as you have seen here, the portrayals weren’t entirely negative. Doré’s engravings reflected what he saw and together with Jerrold’s observations, they made up a powerful image of London and its social disparities in the late nineteenth century.

End Notes
The 2026 Boat Races will take place on Saturday, April 4th, along the 4.25 miles of the River Thames from Putney to Mortlake.
The Women’s Boat Race will start at 14.21 and the Men’s Boat Race at 15.21.

Sources and further information
London: A pilgrimage: Doré, Gustave, and Jerrold, Blanchard, London, Grant & Co., 1872.
A London Pilgrimage by Gustave Dore and Blanchard Jerrold, from the Digital Archive of India.
Doré’s London: All 180 Illustrations from London, A Pilgrimage, New York, 2004
Know your London: The Putney Aqueduct
Royal Academy: Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883)
The London Museum: Gustave Doré’s London Pilgrimage
Peter Harrington, ‘The Journal’: Doré’s London

If you are interested to see other aspects of Doré’s finely detailed work, particularly the harsh reality of life in the East End at the time, see: ‘Gustave Doré’s East End’ by The Gentle Author.

… that I have chosen from among those in: “London: A Pilgrimage”, with text by William Blanchard Jerrold, 1872.

Before working on “London: A pilgrimage” with his long time friend Blanchard Jerrold, – they met in 1855 covering Queen Victoria’s landing in Boulgone – Gustave Doré had become well known in Britain for his striking illustrations of the works of Lord Byron and an English language version of the Bible. After Doré’s exhibition and the opening of his gallery in New Bond Street, (1867-68), Jerrold suggested they collaborate on the creation of a book to bear witness to life and its inequalities in London, with illustrations by Doré and text by himself. Doré agreed and signed a contract with publishers Grant & Co., binding him to stay and work in London for three months a year, for a generous fee of £10,000.
Despite criticism that it showed London in a bad light, their book was a great commercial success. Peter Harrington writes in an article that: “Doré’s characteristic touches of grotesque fantasy appealed to the Victorians’ taste for the Gothic. His popularity was so great that he employed a team of forty wood engravers to complete his commissions.”

In the Introduction, Jerrold writes that his note books were filled with ideas for studies to be made along the Thames, before entering the streets of London including “smacks, barges, shrimp-boats, the entrance to the Pool, the Thames Police, the ship-building yards, sailors’ homes and public houses, a marine store, and groups of dock labourers…”
Admitting that it would be impossible, within the limits of a book, to do justice to “the greatest city on the face of the globe”, he explains that it will gather together : “the extremes of London life, the valiant work, the glittering wealth, the misery and the charity which assuages it, the amusements and sports of the people, and the diversions of the great and rich.”

There have been conflicting interpretations of this picture. A writer from the Media Store House describes it as “A poignant moment in time, captured beautifully by Gustave Doré’s print of ‘A Waterman’s Family’ from 1872. This powerful image tells a story of love and resilience amidst the bustling streets of London, highlighting the struggles and triumphs of everyday people living on the banks of the River Thames.” And the same writer at the Media Store House, selling the image not only as a framed print but also, curiously but why not, as a jigsaw puzzle, adds: “With each piece, you’ll uncover the story of this charming waterman family, brought to life by Doré’s masterful brushstrokes.”
The Victorians enjoyed discovering stories in pictures and here the family seems to be in some trouble, so I’m not sure that “charming” quite fits the bill, striking though the image is. A young angry, or drunken man, mouth open, arms spread wide perhaps in despair, leans back on a wall at the top of the stairs; and a doleful woman, with far away eyes, is holding onto a child. Next to her stands a young woman, with a defiant look, hand on hip; while down by the waterfront an elderly, bearded man is in conversation with another younger man.

Writing about their passage past Greenwich, Jerrold brings to life the bustle of a busy river ….”Before us the tugs went to and fro in quest of Indiamen or towing clippers that were rich with gold from the Antipodes. The hay and straw barges went gently with the tide, and we talked of a sleep upon the hay, under the moon’s light, along the silent highway.” An image realised in the picture above. He adds to the scene: “The barges of stone and grain went in the wake of the hay and the passenger steamboats cleverly rounded them, now and then with the help of a little bad language.” And he finishes this passage with an interesting reference to mudlarks: “The Greenwich boys were busy in the mud below, learning to be vagabond men, by the help of the thoughtless diners flushed with wine, who were throwing pence to them.”

A whole chapter in the book is devoted to the docks in which both Jerrold and Doré bring to life the extraordinary variety of goods that passed through them along with sailors from all nations over the world.
Sitting on some barrels by St. Katharine Dock gates on a “sultry Summer’s day” they observe the scene before them…”lost in the whirl and movement. Bales, baskets, sacks, hogsheads, and wagons stretch, as far as the eye can reach.” There is a cast of “solid carters and porters; dapper clerks, carrying pen and book; Customs men moving slowly; slouching sailors in gaudy holiday clothes; … grimy firemen (shadows in the throng) and hungry-looking day-labourers landing the rich and sweet stores of the South.”
Walking round the busy basins, they found their way – “through bales and bundles and grass-bags, over skins and rags, and antlers, ores and dye-woods, through pungent air, and a tallowy atmosphere — to the quay.”

Doré and Jerrold were particularly taken with the Concordia whose “figure-head was stretching out of the basin and overshadowing the quay. A noble representative vessel in the midst of this mast-forest , and by the banks of the busiest river in the world.”

Describing their approach to London Bridge Doré depicts the bustle and commotion of the crowds while Jerrold conjures up the soundscape: “The creak of cranes and rattle of pulleys ; the pulses of the steamships under way ; the flapping of idle sails, the hoarse shouts of sailor-throats, the church bells from many quarters; and through all, the musical liquid movement and splashing of the water, strike a cheery note in the brain of the traveller who comes to us, by the Port, to London.”
He invites his readers into another world of the senses: “The air is filled with mingled odours of fruit and fish… Oyster-shops, with cavernous depths in which hasty men are eating, as my companion has it, ‘on their thumbs’; roomy, ancient fish warehouses and fruit stores on the north side and only fish everywhere on the south side…”
All the time he notices the backdrop to London life that will be so vividly captured by Doré, “At hand the sky is webbed with rigging… And the forests of masts that stretch far inland, lend to the docks a limitless expanse in the imagination.” Closer at hand he remarks on the “dark lanes and ancient broken tenements; the corner public houses delightfully straggling from the perpendicular; the crazy watermen’s stairs; the massive timber about the old warehouses; the merchandise swinging in the air midway from the lighter to the storage; the shapeless black landing-stages; and the uncouth figures upon them…” And there to keep order as best they can, “The stern faced Thames police pulling vigorously from under our bows.”

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A number of Doré’s Thames engravings combined with Jerrold’s descriptions take us back to a Dickensian world, a world of extreme contrasts between rich and poor that still, though mitigated, echoes today. And yet, when describing and illustrating the Thames at work, they not only show hardship they also show how fundamental the river was to the commercial success of London at the centre of the British Empire. It was a world still rooted in the DNA of long established families of London and the Thames, whose history and many traditions flow inextricably along with those of the river.

Sources and further information
London: A pilgrimage: Doré, Gustave, and Jerrold, Blanchard, London, Grant & Co., 1872.
A London Pilgrimage by Gustave Dore and Blanchard Jerrold, from the Digital Archive of India.
Doré’s London: All 180 Illustrations from London, A Pilgrimage, New York, 2004
Royal Academy: Gustave Doré (1832 – 1883)
The London Museum: Gustave Doré’s London Pilgrimage
Peter Harrington, ‘The Journal’: Doré’s London
Media Storehouse ‘A Waterman’s family’

If you are interested to see other aspects of Doré’s work see: Gustave Doré’s East End by The Gentle Author