[Loukas]

..London's River Thames Was The Coast. Which means it means it a seaside.

London - The Coastal City
The River Thames runs through the heart of London. But where does the coast stop and the River Thames begin?

The Ordinance Survey defines what counts as coast as everywhere that has a tidal range - so how far does that extend? Mark Horton takes a journey through London's maritime history from the arrival of the Romans to the vast complex of the Royal Albert Docks, to try and answer this question. He finds that even the House of Parliament are coastal.

London is here due to its great tideway. But why did the Romans choose to settle here? Over 2,000 years ago Roman sea captains discovered its incoming tide propelled their ships from the sea to London Bridge, the first place that the river is narrow enough to build a crossing point. Archaeological remains of the original Roman bridge have been found here. The city grew up around the conjunction of river and road.

The London Docks helped make it one of the busiest ports in the world. The Royal Albert dock was built in 1874 to help trap tidal waters of the Thames and accommodate bigger ships.

Mark meets up with Terry Bowden who comes from a long line of river men who worked on the docks as a Lighterman, driving barges.

Tower Bridge use to stand in the middle of a dock known as the Pool of London. It was here that London had is very own beach created in the 1930's. Mark joins Martha Snooks and Ted Lewis, who use to come to the beach as children, and reminisce over old times.

As the city expanded the river has been made narrower and the tides have moved further up stream, now they reach as far as Teddington lock. But if it wasn't for Teddington's lock gates it would be tidal for miles and miles.

Source - BBC.co.uk


I went there today, the sand is amazing and there is one beach about 100 meters in length. Loads of people catching some raise. One thing i hated tho.. The colour of the water. I didn't want to go paddling, nobody went paddling.



Did anyone know that?