The Thames Path - A Walker's Guidebook

This guide leads the walker from the Thames Barrier in London to the source of the Thames 180 miles away. Opened as a national trail in 1996, the ‘towpath’ route leads past a string of London’s historic buildings and through tranquil countryside to the river’s source in Gloucestershire.

London to the Source

This book is a guide for those walking 180 miles upstream along the Thames Path from London to Gloucestershire, and is therefore an alternative to the official Countryside Agency guide designed to assist walkers heading from the river’s source downstream to the capital.

Towpath to the National Trail

As early as the 1880s there was a suggestion that the Thames towpath, falling into disuse as traffic turned from the river to railways, should be preserved as a long distance recreational route. In the next century the call was taken up after the First World War by the Council for the Protection of Rural England and after the Second World War by the Thames Conservancy’s River Thames Walk Committee. Thirty years later the Ramblers’ Association and River Thames Society managed to persuade the Thames Water Authority and the Countryside Commission to produce a feasibility study on a continuous route from London to the source making use of the remaining sections of towpath. This was eventually published in 1985 and government approval for the Thames Path was given in 1989. The route was officially opened, following the creation of 16 miles of new riverside path and three bridges, in 1996.

The 180-mile Thames Path from London to Gloucestershire is the only long-distance route to follow a river throughout its length from tidal waters, and also the only one to pass through London and major towns. As much as 90% of the path is public footpath or bridleway.

London

The birth of a riverside path in London coincides with a realisation that the capital’s waterway offers great opportunities both on and off the water. In the 1980s it looked as if the Thames might become merely a highway for barges taking London’s rubbish downstream to Rainham or Mucking Marshes. However, by 1986 the Pool of London had as many as 36 cruiseliners and naval vessels passing under Tower Bridge in a year. Now piers have been built for a riverbus service.

As many as 44 different bird species have been recorded at the Thames Barrier where the national trail starts. The tidal-Thames, fishless at the start of the 20th century, is the cleanest metropolitan river in the world, with an estuary supporting 115 species of fish and playing a part in supporting North Sea fish stocks. Salmon, extinct in Greater London since 1833 due to pollution, returned in the 1980s. Smelt, a cousin of the salmon, thrive in good water and congregate below Gravesend in winter and in spring come upstream in shoals to spawn at Wandsworth. Eels pass through central London in early summer. London now has an increasing number of swans, although only a few years ago they were so scarce that the annual swan count was abandoned.

Upper Reaches

Long before the Thames turns non-tidal, near the Greater London boundary, the river becomes a green corridor running out of the capital. The upper reaches are varied. The water can be a busier highway at Maidenhead and Henley than in London. Elsewhere, especially above Oxford, water and towpath can be both beautiful and lonely. Here accommodation and transport needs to be carefully planned.

In the Home Counties and even in far-off Wiltshire there are reminders of London. Duchy of Lancaster territory is encountered around the Savoy and at Kempsford; Shelley knew the Thames from London to Lechlade, and William Morris lived by the river both at Hammersmith and near the end of navigation at Kelmscot. Stone for St Paul’s Cathedral came downstream from Oxfordshire.

The Source

The climax to the 180-mile walk is an empty field with an often dry spring. Fortunately there is a nearby pub with strong Thames connections and the first convenient railway station since Oxford.