Author archives: Patricia Stoughton

From the names of the London Fire Brigade vessels that clearly mark their function; the Port of London patrol launches linked to geography of the river; the RNLI’s homage to benefactors inscribed on their lifeboats; through to the Thames River Police’s commemoration of their founders and past heroes, there is much to reflect upon as […]

Revisiting an anniversary trip to Venice in 1986 while sorting out photos during lockdown, I came across these tugs captured on film by my husband. Their assertive names made me think of some of the tugs that I’ve come across and photographed on the central London tidal Thames, the most noticeable being the Cory Riverside […]

Having been restricted to our local area for walks at the beginning of lockdown, a visit to Victoria Tower Gardens for my husband and me naturally became part of the daily routine. And the stretch of river between Westminster and Lambeth Bridges became our horizon. While the key services of the Cory waste removal tugs, […]

Since the middle of March, Victoria Tower Gardens and its stretch of the Thames has been a place of refuge. A place where we have been lucky enough to feel sheltered from the dangers and fear incited by the spread of Covid-19. With the falling number of cases and the easing of restrictions, we have […]

It turns out that the month of May was the sunniest and driest May since 1957, so some of these photos of the steady return to life on the Thames might seem impossibly blue and sunny. But the daily *lockdown* walks I made with my husband in Victoria Tower Gardens really were mostly that bright. […]