Category archives: Ebb & Flow

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. […]

In a somewhat belated effort by our government to control the spread of the deadly virus Covid-19, our world changed overnight. ‘Lockdown’, ‘social distancing’, and ‘super-spreader’ entered the everyday lexicon. Advertisements warning that we were in a state of “National Emergency” now flooded the media. Movements were restricted to essentials: among them we were allowed […]

These last few weeks of a restrictive but necessary lockdown have had their difficulties, hardships, uncertainties, and raw grief but for me there has been one consolation, a respite from all this: the river Thames. Though I have been limited to one part of the embankment in central London for my own walks, thanks to […]

Over the past weeks of lockdown, I have had the chance to discover more about Eric Carpenter’s wide-ranging work along the Thames. It seemed from our initial meeting and following email exchanges that he held his time with Cory in particular affection. From 1984 until his retirement in 2008 Eric was employed by Cory Waste […]

Working for fifty years on and around the Thames, Eric Carpenter has a map of the river, its tributaries and canals indelibly etched into his brain. I’m lucky to meet him in St. Katharine Docks a couple of weeks before *lockdown* as not only has he told me something of his life on, and love […]