Tower Beach was an urban beach on the north bank of the River Thames in London, England, adjacent to the Tower of London, which was open to the public from 1934 to 1971.
The Rev PTB 'Tubby' Clayton (1885–1972) was the Vicar of All Hallows-by-the-Tower from 1922 to 1962 and the founder of the Christian movement Toc H. [1] In 1933 he and BR Leftwich published Pageant of Tower Hill (Longmans, Green & Co), which outlined a scheme to improve Tower Hill. [1] That led to the establishment later the same year of the Tower Hill Improvement Trust. [1] (The Trust still exists: since 2006 it has been called the Tower Hill Trust.) [1]
One of the Trust's earliest actions was to create an artificial beach at Tower Hill at a time when trips to the seaside were a luxury for East End families. [1] More than 1,500 barge-loads of sand were brought in to create a beach between the Tower Wharf and the Thames. The beach was opened to the public by the Lieutenant Governor of the Tower on 23 July 1934, George V decreeing that the beach was to be used by the children of London who should have "free access forever". [1] [2] There were rowing boats for hire. [2]
The beach was always closed at high tide and was closed for the duration of the Second World War. [1] It was re-opened in 1946 by the Governor of the Tower, Col Edward Hamilton Carkeet-James, but, due to river pollution, it closed in 1971. [1] The Tower Millennium Pier is partly located on the site of the former beach. [3]
The former beach is the property of the King, as the Tower extends to the high water mark, and is not ordinarily open to the public. As part of the London Open Weekend, the remains of the beach were opened to visitors in September of each year from 2014 until 2016. [4] MOLA also offer occasional guided walks on the beach, most recently in 2018. [5]
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Gloucestershire to the west. The city of Oxford is the largest settlement and county town.
Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule, suspension, and, until 1960, cantilever bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames close to the Tower of London and is one of five London bridges owned and maintained by the City Bridge Foundation, a charitable trust founded in 1282.
Thamesmead is an area of south-east London, England, straddling the border between the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Bexley. It is located 11 miles (18 km) east of Charing Cross, north-east of Woolwich and west of Erith. It mainly consists of social housing built from the mid-1960s onwards on former marshland on the south bank of the River Thames.
Richmond is a town in south-west London, 8.2 miles (13.2 km) west-southwest of Charing Cross. It stands on the River Thames, and features many parks and open spaces, including Richmond Park, and many protected conservation areas, which include much of Richmond Hill. A specific Act of Parliament protects the scenic view of the River Thames from Richmond.
The Rose was an Elizabethan theatre. It was the fourth of the public theatres to be built, after The Theatre (1576), the Curtain (1577), and the theatre at Newington Butts – and the first of several playhouses to be situated in Bankside, Southwark, in a liberty outside the jurisdiction of the City of London's civic authorities. Its remains were excavated by archaeologists in 1989 and are listed by Historic England as a Scheduled Monument.
The Port of London Authority (PLA) is a self-funding public trust established on 31 March 1909 in accordance with the Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its continuation. It maintains and supervises navigation, and protects the river's environment.
Cliveden is an English country house and estate in the care of the National Trust in Buckinghamshire, on the border with Berkshire. The Italianate mansion, also known as Cliveden House, crowns an outlying ridge of the Chiltern Hills close to the South Bucks villages of Burnham and Taplow. The main house sits 40 metres (130 ft) above the banks of the River Thames, and its grounds slope down to the river. There have been three houses on this site: the first, built in 1666, burned down in 1795 and the second house (1824) was also destroyed by fire, in 1849. The present Grade I listed house was built in 1851 by the architect Charles Barry for the 2nd Duke of Sutherland.
Weybridge is a town in the Elmbridge district in Surrey, England, around 17 mi (27 km) southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as Waigebrugge and Weibrugge in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the River Wey, which flows into the River Thames to the north of the town centre. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Bronze Age. During the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, Weybridge was held by Chertsey Abbey. In 2011 it had a population of 15,449.
The Tower Subway is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in central London, between Tower Hill on the north bank of the river and Vine Lane on the south. In 1869 a 1,340-foot-long (410 m) circular tunnel was dug through the London clay using a cast iron circular shield independently invented and built by James Henry Greathead, similar to an idea that had been not received a patent in 1864, nor built by Peter W. Barlow.
The Hertford Union Canal or Duckett's Cut, just over 1 mile (1.6 km) long, connects the Regent's Canal to the Lee Navigation in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in East London. It was opened in 1830 but quickly proved to be a commercial failure. It was acquired by the Regents Canal Company in 1857, and became part of the Grand Union Canal in 1927.
The Pool of London is a stretch of the River Thames from London Bridge to below Limehouse.
Evelina London Children's Hospital is a specialist NHS hospital in London. It is administratively a part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and provides teaching hospital facilities for London South Bank University and King's College London School of Medicine. Formerly housed at Guy's Hospital in Southwark, it moved to a new building alongside St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth on 31 October 2005.
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher ground north-west of the Tower of London moat is now occupied by Trinity Square Gardens.
East London is the northeastern part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. Containing areas in the historic counties of Middlesex and Essex, East London developed as London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of railways in the 19th century encouraged the eastward expansion of the East End of London and a proliferation of new suburbs. The industrial lands of East London are today an area of regeneration, which are well advanced in places such as Canary Wharf and ongoing elsewhere.
The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from one of its sources near Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about 185 miles (298 km) long. A path was first proposed in 1948 but it only opened in 1996.
Wittenham Clumps are a pair of wooded chalk hills in the Thames Valley, in the civil parish of Little Wittenham, in the historic county of Berkshire, although since 1974 administered as part of South Oxfordshire district.
The Aeolian Tower was an art installation on the South Bank of the River Thames in London, consisting of a 15-metre (49 ft) steel tower covered in 1200 wind-powered LEDs. The tower was in place beside the Waterloo Bridge for three days, from November 14–16, 2008. The intent in creating the Aeolian Tower was to prove in a demonstrable and clearly visible to the public fashion how green energy could be used for different purposes such as artistic and design elements.
The Thames Discovery Programme is a community archaeology project, focusing on the archaeology of the River Thames on the Tideway. The Thames Discovery Programme (TDP) was launched in October 2008 and until September 2011, the project was supported by the National Lottery and a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project is designed to communicate an understanding and informed enjoyment of the historic Thames to the widest possible audience, and to train and support members of the public to monitor and record the archaeology of the foreshore during the lifetime of the project, and into the future.
BFI Southbank is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films.
Hogsmill River Park or Hogsmill Valley is a linear park along the banks of the Hogsmill River in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in London. It stretches from the junction of Surbiton Hill Park and Elmbridge Avenue in Berrylands in the north to the junction between the river and a footpath to Manor Close in Old Malden in the south.