The River Thames is not even the longest river in the British Isles and a mere pygmy in comparison with many other rivers in the world, yet its significance to British and world history is immense. The river starts as a small trickle in hills to the north west of London and travels for nearly 450 km through the south of England, the centre of London and thence out into the North Sea via the Thames Estuary, meandering its way through some of England’s most picturesque towns and villages.

London is one of the major cities of the world today, but it would not have existed if it were not for the River Thames passing through it. Just before the Thames reaches London it becomes tidal and formed a natural harbour such that London has been a port since pre-Roman times. Still today, the Thames acts as an artery of communication and a trade route between Britain and the rest of the world.

As a teenager I moved from Germany to live in Oxford on the banks of the River Thames, though the stretch of the river there is called Isis. The Thames has been a fascination for me ever since. I now live in West London but am still just a short walk from the river. Its constantly changing face with the tide and the seasons, the activities on and around the river are for me compulsive viewing and inspiration. But above all there is the history of the Thames along its entire length with an infinite variety of stories that encompass birth, baptism, death, flooding, sun-bathing on the shore, the stories of the ‘Ladies Bridge’, messages in a bottle, riverside scavenging youngsters, prostitution, damaged masterpieces, and countless other whimsical, idiosyncratic and tragic happenings.

I am not alone in my admiration of the glories of the river. Notably, it has been an inspiration to many painters. There are more paintings of the River Thames than I had ever imagined could be possible. Monet painted the river repeatedly. Turner too captured the working river even revealing the early nineteenth century fumes and smoke from the city’s factories and river traffic. Whistler was yet another. In the 1860s and 1870s he was moved to paint the bustling and rapidly changing urban neighbourhoods close to the river. But when one views all these works, it is not at all difficult to understand why they all found it such an attractive, potent subject matter.

My own fascination with the Thames has now taken a more concrete form. I have made it into a project and am in the process of choosing, researching and photographing a selection of cultural and historical narratives from along its banks. The result to-date is my still unfinished work - Old Father Thames.

In 1860 Selina Young, dubbed the ‘female Blondin’ traversed a 600 metre rope across the Thames from Battersea.
Selina learned how to balance on a tight rope and it was claimed that she was the first person to dance on tight rope.
She died three years later when she fell from the wire whilst heavily pregnant.

Backdrop image inspired by the artist William Marlow.

Passengers stepped contently onto the packed deck of the steamship for their return to London after an enjoyable day spent on the beach at Sheerness. Halfway on its journey it was hit by the coal ship, Bywell Castle, a vessel three times its size. The impact sliced the smaller boat apart and it sank rapidly, throwing all its passengers and crew into the Thames. They were dragged under-water by the Thames’ currents and their soon saturated, heavy Victorian clothing. To make matters worse, people swallowed toxic waste from a nearby sewage pipe as they struggled to stay alive. The crew of the Bywell Castle and close-by fishermen saved 130 people. Over the coming days more bodies were recovered and taken to docks in east London, where thousands of people waited anxiously for news about their missing loved ones. Bodies were recovered at the time and for days afterwards, but yet more turned up on the river’s bank for months afterwards. The true death toll was never known, but it was estimated to be over 650. The Princess Alice incident was the largest loss of life ever on a British waterway, but its story has been lost in time.

The famous English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson first published ‘The Lady of Shalott’ in 1832, a poem based on one of the legends surrounding King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table. In his poem ‘The Lady’ lives isolated in a tower on an island called Shalott close to Camelot, King Arthur’s palace. She bore the curse that if ever she looked at Camelot from her window she would be punished. Her only view of the outside world was its reflection in a mirror. Too curious, she one day stole a look, the mirror shattered. Bewitched by what she had seen she climbed out of the tower window, took to a boat, and floated down the Thames River in the direction of Camelot.

On the bank of the river, she sees Sir Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s knights, and instantly falls in love with him. But he does not see her and cannot return her feelings. She dies before reaching Camelot where Lancelot finally sees her – but only as a corpse.

My image is based on the famous 1888 painting made by the Pre-Raphaelite artist John William Waterhouse, ‘The Lady of Shalott’. He portrays ‘The Lady’ as she sits in the boat as a sorrowful maiden dressed in virginal white. He heightens her sensuality with bright red lips, long flowing hair, and a low-slung sash. She has just cast off from the island, the mooring chain is still in her hand, a crucifix lies near the bow of the boat and three nearby candles suggest her spirituality. But only one of the candles remains lit, a portend of the fateful future awaiting her. The tapestry that drags in the water is one that she had woven on her loom during her lonely days in the tower.

Waterhouse painted three different versions of The Lady of Shalott. It is believed that his wife modelled for this one.

Tuberculosis was a predominant cause of death among all classes until the end of WWII and the advent of antibiotics. It was for years associated with many renowned artistic people either having the disease or surrounded by people who did, and was also known as “the romantic disease”. For a long time the only known cure was believed to be housing afflicted persons in open air sanatoria. As a young child my grandmother was suspended in an apple tree in the garden. My image shows male tuberculosis patients resting in their hospital beds in the open air outside St Thomas’ Hospital on the banks of the River Thames, opposite the Houses of Parliament, and being cared for by a beautiful young nurse. The inspiration for this sequel to my Old Father Thames project is a 1936 black and white image hanging in a corridor in the hospital.

SWAN UPPING, 2018

Swan Upping became important back in the Middle Ages in Britain. Back then, not only was the mute swan a valuable commodity and regularly traded between noblemen, but swan owners were legally bound by the Crown to mark their swans with nicks in their beaks. This activity took place annually in a ceremony called “swan upping”. Although now largely symbolic, the event still takes place today on the Monday of the third week in July, and serves to monitor the condition and number of swans on the River Thames. The year’s new cygnets can be marked when they are reasonably well grown but cannot yet fly.

FLOODING OF TATE BRITAIN, 2018

The Thames becomes tidal a few miles upstream from London. The difference in water level between low and high tide is 7 metres at London Bridge. In the past, flooding occurred regularly when strong winds blew a tidal surge up the river from the Thames Estuary and this coincided with inland flood water. High walls (the Embankments) were built along the banks of the river in London in the mid-18th Century to prevent flooding in low lying parts of the city. Despite these protections, one fateful day in January 1928 unfavourable elements coincided, the river rose rapidly to the highest level ever measured, the Embankments were breached and low-lying neighbouring areas to the river were flooded - fourteen people died, thousands were made homeless, business life was severely affected, many buildings were condemned and demolished.

The world-famous Tate Gallery with its walls full of priceless paintings was one of the buildings that was flooded. The basement was flooded to a depth of about 8 feet (2.4m), paintings were damaged, including many valuable sketches and watercolours by Turner, one of Britain’s most prestigious artists.

My image captures the aftermath of the flood in the Tate Gallery and shows a massive wet painting being carried by a group of porters to safety. Paintings were dried naturally before they were restored. Despite their emersion in muddy Thames water for several hours, miraculously only eighteen paintings were damaged beyond repair. Even more amazing was that the Turner sketches and watercolours survived. However, it took until 2011, over 80 years after the flood, before John Martin’s Pompeii could be fully restored and rehung.

In 1953 another even more massive flood caused even more damage and loss of life on the east coast of the country and along the lower reaches of the Thames, over 300 people died. It was finally decided to build a flood defence mechanism that would stop dangerous tidal surges from reaching London. The Thames Barrier was finished in 1984 and has worked successfully ever since, making floods in London no more now than a part of the nation’s history.

ESCAPINGTHE FLOOD, 2018

Flooding has occurred along the River Thames for millennia. As the size of London and its population grew, the effects of flooding grew more intense, causing considerable damage to homes, the land, disruption to people’s lives and death. High walls (the Embankments) were built along the banks of the river in London in the 18th Century but flooding still occurred. Only when the Thames Barrier became operational in 1982 was the potential for flood waters reaching London controlled successfully.

In the first half of the 20th Century flooding happened with such regularity that people living on low lying land along the banks of the Thames developed a very stoic attitude towards the flooding. Black and white photographs from that time recorded images of people having to escape their homes via the upper windows, or walking on a raised pathway of wooden planks, rowing boats or paddling improvised craft down flooded streets, as well as vehicles ploughing up to their axles through flood water.

My image shows two elegantly dressed ladies, flooded out of their basement flat, poling their way through deep flood water perched precariously on a door they had wrenched off its hinges. They tow their niece sitting in a galvanised bath with them. They also rescued their niece’s pet rabbit but could only find a birdcage in which to carry her treasure. They have a few clothes for a couple of night’s stay in less wet surroundings. In the background, the river has claimed a prestigious victim as rather expensive, locally parked car idly bobs up and down, partially submerged in the flood waters.

TRAGEDY AT THE GRAIN TOWER, 2018

The Grain Tower is an off-shore fort that was built in the middle of the 19th Century to protect the River Thames from invasion by the French navy. It stands 600 metres out to sea and can only be reached from the shoreline by boat at high tide or by a causeway when the tide is out. The tower was initially oval and three stories high with 3.6metre thick walls. It is named after the next nearest town of Grain in Kent and was manned by a gun crew housed in a barracks with officers' quarters and a store-house for provisions and ammunition. The various parts of the building were connected by elevated gangways.

The Times newspaper reported in a brief article on the 23rd May 1867, that Marie Eugenie, the young daughter of Captain E. F. S. Lloyd of the Royal Engineers had died suddenly at the Grain Tower. We can assume that she was residing in the barracks with her father and mother; also, that she probably died of tuberculosis, which was a very common cause of death at that time or experienced a fatal accident.

In my image we see the distraught father carrying the body of his precious daughter across the causeway to her burial place on the mainland in Grain churchyard.

The Crossness sewage pumping station is a stunning masterpiece of Victorian engineering with ornamental ironwork worthy of a cathedral. Located on the bank of the Thames it was the final piece to major engineering works that eliminated the cause of Great Stink of 1858 and at the same time eradicated deadly diseases from London.

The population of London increased significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries. As the population increased so did every kind of waste, it was just left to accumulate and vast quantities ended up in the River Thames, which essentially became an open sewer. Between 1831 and 1853 there were three deadly outbreaks of cholera in London, causing over 30,000 deaths.

It was during a very hot summer in 1858 when the city experienced the full impact of the stench from the polluted Thames. The smell was so appalling that the MPs considered abandoning the premises altogether. They were only able to carry on their work by hanging deodorising chemical-soaked sacking over the windows. A bill was rapidly passed in the Commons to fund a massive project to design and build a sewage system to cope with London’s waste. Sir Joseph Bazalgette, then the highly reputed chief engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works in London, was commissioned to oversee the project.

Despite its rather unglamorous purpose, this municipal building was a shrine to civic engineer Joseph Bazalgette’s cutting-edge design, with its distinctive dog-toothed brickwork exterior and an all bells-and-whistles Romanesque interior with four giant steam-powered beam engines – the real attraction for many of the admiring engineer visitors from across the UK and Europe – and a blaze of polished brass, dazzlingly painted cast-iron columns, spiral staircases and ornamented screens. This truly astonishing building was nicknamed “the cathedral on the marsh” for its architectural beauty.

''The Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe stands in supreme isolation, alone along this little stretch of the river Thames.
Lord Snowdon lived along this row and is said to have met with Princess Margaret here, as well as hosting celebrities such as Marlene Dietrich and Noel Coward.
The romance and marriage of Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret captivated the country at the start of the 1960’s.
Now their story has fascinated a new generation through its portrayal in the acclaimed Netflix drama ‘The Crown’.
I decided to create the birthday photograph Lord Snowdon took of Princess Margaret. This caused a huge interest in the media as she appeared to be naked."

One of the most popular forms of entertainment in Georgian London was boxing, or pugilism, as it was also called. Boxing was a sport that attracted huge crowds of spectators, who came to watch men fight each other without rules. Boxing was a sport that involved vast sums of money, as bets were placed on the outcome of the matches. Boxing was a sport that enjoyed fervent support from all classes of society.

But boxing was not only a sport for men. There was also an underground female boxing scene in Georgian London, where women fought each other for fame, fortune, or survival. One of the reasons why some women chose to box was to settle personal disputes or conflicts with other women. These disputes could be over money, property, reputation, or love.
They also enjoyed the attention and admiration that they received from the spectators and the media.

These women were not passive or helpless victims of their circumstances, but active and resilient agents of their choices. In Georgian society, women were supposed to be gentle, modest, and domestic, while men were supposed to be strong, brave, and public. Women were expected to obey their fathers, husbands, or masters, while men were expected to protect and provide for their families. They used boxing as a means of expressing themselves, empowering themselves, and entertaining themselves. They also used boxing as a means of challenging the norms and expectations of their society, which often limited or oppressed them because of their gender.

The function of the Crosswell Pumping Station was to bring sewage from deep underground up to the surface, store it in a massive reservoir and release it into the Thames. Later on, the system was improved to remove ‘solid’ waste that was transported in barges far out to sea. The building was not only built for functionality but also, in true Victorian style, to impress. Now restored to its past glory, it sits triumphant in an isolated part of the countryside to the south-east of London.

Due to the site’s isolation and that it needed to operate 24 hours a day for 365 days in a year and be continuously maintained to do so. As a consequence, the workers and their families lived in a small, self-contained community on the site. True to the Victorian ethic, there was a school for their children and an ornamental garden was built over the huge reservoir for all to enjoy each other’s company and join in playing games.

Throughout the centuries the River Thames has claimed the lives of crews of small boats and larger vessels, the scale of the tragedies growing with the size of the vessels involved. The danger to shipping was often accepted as a necessary risk in order to keep trade flowing into London via the docks. Many of the tragedies occurred before news was so widely transmitted, and are largely forgotten today. My image ‘Tragedy on the Thames’ is a long-overdue reflection on those who, painfully, over the centuries, lost their lives and whose memories sadly, have diminished with the passage of time.

BAPTISMS ALONG THE THAMES, 2018

Baptism is a very important activity in those faiths immersed in New Testament belief. It is a public affirmation of faith and is done before a group of people who witness the candidate’s confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Immersion in water symbolizes the washing away of sins and admission into the Church.

For many centuries full immersion baptisms were performed by Baptists in the non-tidal section of the River Thames upstream from London. It was one of the more ancient rituals on the river. Several hundred people would congregate to watch the open-air ceremony.

My image was shot on-site at Hatchett’s Ford in the ancient town of Cricklade in Wiltshire 100 miles distant from London. Baptisms still took place here right up to mid-20th Century. Even today baptism ceremonies take place along the Thames on personal request.

Although there was no concern about the tide rushing in, it was still daunting being waist-deep in water carrying a valuable camera tethered to an expensive lap-top and surrounded by precariously balanced lighting equipment. (see the 'Behind the Scenes' video).

AMY JOHNSON, 2018

Amy Johnson gained worldwide recognition and became the heroine of the country, especially among womenfolk, when, in 1930 aged 27, she became the first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia. Her plane was a second-hand de Havilland Gipsy Moth bi-plane. She named it Jason. It now hangs in London's Science Museum. She subsequently set records for flights to Moscow, New York and Tokyo and survived several crash-landings in doing so. As well as gaining her incredible pilot credentials she graduated from Sheffield University with a degree in economics.

Upon the outbreak of WW II in 1940, she along with 164 other female pilots, signed up with the newly formed Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). The job was to ferry military aircraft, fighters and bombers, single-handedly to various RAF bases around the country.

My image illustrates the tragic death of this remarkable woman. She lost her way flying in bad weather from the North of England to an air-base near Oxford and had to bail out when her plane ran out of fuel over the Thames Estuary. Crew on board a minesweeper saw her coming down on her parachute and submerge in the rough sea. The boat’s commandant jumped overboard to rescue her but was unsuccessful in saving her, instead he also died two days later from hypothermia. Amy’s body was never found.

SLUTS' HOLE, 2018

This rather extravagant name was given in the12th Century to a row of ancient tumbledown cottages nestled against the south wall of the churchyard of St Nicholas Church in Chiswick, which was then a small village on the boundary of London.

Sluts Hole was a narrow pathway lined with cottages lived in by fishermen, watermen, and small traders; their families lived in extreme poverty. It led to a landing place for a ferry over the River Thames, which was then the only crossing point for miles. It has often been claimed that the name Slut’s Hole’ came about from the nefarious other services provided to travellers by the impoverished women folk attempting to supplement their meagre income. But it has also been suggested that the name was derived from the Saxon word for ‘sluice’.

Now Chiswick is a leafy suburb in the west of London and, unsurprisingly, the street has long since been renamed. It's now called Fisherman’s Place. But, naturally, the name ‘Slut’s Hole’ still reverberates in the folklore and history of Chiswick, raising the question of the origin of such an audacious name. Indeed, there are many anecdotal indications that the old cottages truly did harbour local ladies fighting against their poverty by providing carnal pleasures to travellers crossing the river by ferry.

Just one of many comments from the period:
‘I wondered how the whores made a living and thought of passing kings and bishops on their way to Hampton Court, the Thames being the main thoroughfare from Tudor times onwards’.

Married and father of a baby daughter, Private Thomas Hughes had boarded a troopship in September 1914 to go to fight with the Third Army Corp Expeditionary Force against the Germans . An extravagant whim encouraged him to write a message to his young wife and place it in a green ginger beer bottle with a screw-on rubber stopper bottle and throw it into the sea.

The message said: “Dear Wife, I am writing this note on this boat and dropping it into the sea just to see if it will reach you. . . . . Ta ta sweet, for the present. Your Hubby.”

He also wrote a covering letter: “Sir or madam, youth or maid, would you kindly forward the enclosed letter and earn the blessing of a poor British soldier on his way to the front this ninth day of September,1914. Signed Private T. Hughes, Second Durham Light Infantry.”

Thomas died in battle two days later, aged 26. His final words written 85 years previous remained unread until in 1999 when fisherman Steve Gowan scooped the bottle up in his net as he fished for cod in the Thames Estuary off the Essex coast. The note was still dry and intact.

Private Hughes’s wife, Elizabeth, had died in 1979, 20 years before the bottle was found. Their now 86-year-old daughter, Emily, pleaded with Mr. Gowan to return the letter to her. She was only two years old when she last saw her father as he headed off to battle. Her reasoning was: “It is too late for the letter to be opened by the person it was intended for, but the next best thing is for it to be handed to his daughter. It’s incredible that something lying on the seabed for almost a century has survived intact for so long”.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759 – 1797) was an English writer, philosopher and advocate of women’s rights. During her brief career she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book and a children’s book. Today she is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and work as important influences on their views today.

She lived her adult life to the full and was known to have many ill-fated affairs, and a daughter by one of her lovers, Gilbert Imlay, whom she met in 1793 when they were both living in France. He was an American businessman, author, and diplomat. He moved to London, leaving her and their daughter behind in France. When she returned to London in 1795, she learned of his infidelity and made a first suicide attempt, taking poison, only to be saved by him. In June that same year she undertook a business trip to Sweden on Imlay’s behalf but upon her return in September she discovered that he had again been unfaithful.

In October Wollstonecraft planned anew to commit suicide, this time by jumping from Putney Bridge. She walked back and forth over the bridge in a rainstorm for some time “to make her clothing heavy with water”, thereby hoping to expedite her demise. She jumped into Thames but was again thwarted in her attempt when she was dramatically saved by an observant boatman.

She left Imlay and in 1796 started an affair with the English philosopher, William Godwin. They married in 1797, she apparently having never formally married Imlay. Their happiness was, however, short-lived, as she died in the September eleven days after giving birth to her second daughter. She was only 38.

After Wollstonecraft’s death, Godwin published a memoir in 1798 revealing her unorthodox lifestyle Without realising it, his exposures inadvertently destroyed her reputation for almost a century. However, with the emergence of the feminist movement at the turn of the twentieth century, Wollstonecraft’s advocacy of women’s equality became increasingly important contribution to the modern movement and her pioneering reputation has been fully restored.

Annette Kellerman was an Australian professional swimmer, vaudeville star, film actress, writer, and business owner. She arrived in the UK in 1905 aged 19, with the intention to swim the English Channel – she failed three times. However, undeterred, she became the first woman ever to swim any distance on the Thames. She swam from Putney to Blackwell, a distance of 27km.

On all these occasions she elected to wear a one-piece bathing suit of her own design. As women’s bathing attire at that time was still bloomers and long sleeve dresses covering most of the body but her one-piece exposing most of her body was considered very controversial to say the least. Her daring apparel became headline news in the UK press.

Two years later she was arrested in the USA for gross indecency as she continued her fight for the right of women to wear a fitted one-piece bathing suit above the knee. Years later came the two-piece bikini, then topless and nude bathing became possible on many beaches throughout the world.

Yachting and rowing clubs line the banks of the River Thames in London and its environs. Every day of the week and especially at weekends yachtsmen and rowers can be seen enjoying their hobby, whatever the weather, competitive racing being a major feature of the yachtsmen and rowers enjoyment of their sport. There is, of course, the worldwide renowned annual university boat race from Putney to Mortlake between the university eights of Oxford and Cambridge. It is also a favoured location for internationally renowned boat races such as the annual Great River Race over 21.6 miles from the London Docklands to Ham in Surrey which attracts several hundred crews from all over the globe.

The well-known London Corinthian Sailing Club was forced to relocate its clubhouse in the 1960s after its previous clubhouse was deemed unsafe having suffered severe damage from a V-1 flying bomb during WW II and was demolished. The club moved to Linden House lying a mere 200 metres upstream, a gracious refurbished Georgian building. It was decided to build an award-winning race officer’s starting box in the grounds next to the river. Not only is the race box a very attractive feature on the river, but its elevated position also affords yacht racing officials and the occasional glamorous guest an uninterrupted view along the entire race course.

Sir John Betjeman was one of the best-known poets, writers and broadcasters in the UK of the 20th century. He held the celebrated post of Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He began his career as a journalist and ended it as one of the most popular British Poets Laureate and a much-loved figure on British television.

My image shows Sir John relaxing thoughtfully at his desk in a room of a building located on a narrow peninsula of the river Thames in southeast London, now dubbed ‘The Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe’. The house had been lent to him by Lord Snowdon, a British photographer and future husband of Princess Margaret, Queen Elizabeth’s sister, for a short while when his own home had burned down. Betjeman described his time here as ‘the most restful few months I had ever spent in London’, during which he enjoyed the ‘tremendous view’, including that of ‘the wharves and Georgian brick buildings of Wapping’ across the way. He had moved his bed to the riverside of the room, going ‘to sleep to the solacing sounds of water’. At low tide he would listen to the sound of the waves rippling over the pebbles below and described how at high tide ‘after a tug had passed the water made a plopping sound right against my room wall as thought I were in a ship’s hold’.

In Victorian times the building was owned by a barge company called Braithwaite & Dean. They used it as an office where workers on their barges would come to collect their wages. Now, ‘The Leaning Tower of Rotherhithe’ stands incongruously with a very pronounced lean to the left and in splendid isolation on the bank of the River Thames, much like a single tooth in a toothless mouth.

In January 2006, a juvenile female northern bottlenose whale was found swimming in the River Thames in central London. Approximately five metres long, she weighed about seven tonnes. Her normal habitat would have been on the coast of the far north of Scotland and Northern Ireland, or in the Arctic Ocean. It was the first time a whale had ever been seen in the River Thames since records began in 1913. Sadly, the whale died the next day from a seizure as she was being rescued. Her skeleton is now exhibited at the Natural History Museum.

Durga is one of the most popular of the Hindu faith’s many deities. She is revered as a warrior goddess riding a lion or a tiger with eight or ten hands holding weapons and making symbolic hand gestures. Her mythology centres around combating evil and forces that threaten peace, prosperity and the karma of the good. She is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti).

Durga Puja is an annual Hindu celebration of the goddess held annually in September or October. During the festival, Hindus commemorate Durga’s victory over evil with prayers and readings, decorations in temples and homes, and events recounting Durga’s legend. In India and especially in West Bengal, the festival (‘puja’) always concludes with the immersion of an effigy of Durga into a river or any other water body. This age-old ritual (‘bhashaan’) bids farewell to Durga as she returns to her husband and children in their spiritual home.

The Bengali population in London celebrate Durga Puja enthusiastically over 5-days but, for health and safety considerations it has only infrequently been permitted to perform the immersion ceremony on the banks of the River Thames (2006 and 2015). This year, however, thanks to the cooperation of the Bengali charity organisation, London Sharad Utsav, and by special permission of the Port of London Authorities, I was able to shoot a recreation of this Bengali ‘bhashaan’ ceremony on the banks of the River Thames close to Putney Bridge.

My image shows the ten-armed, beautifully decorated effigy of Durga being ceremoniously carried into the river by a selected group of men as the crowd pray on the bank and chant the farewell ‘asche bochor abar hobe’ (until next year). The women are colourfully dressed for the occasion in traditional laal-paar saris and the menfolk in their equally traditional and colourful kurta.

The effigy was built 10 years ago by the charity especially for their Durga Puja celebrations that take place in Ealing Town Hall. It shows Durga riding a lion and holding a weapon in each hand. For the past decade, the idol could only be worshipped indoors during Durga Puja. This year it could fulfil its rightful role in this recreated ‘mock-up’ immersion ceremony.

In Victorian times, when it was low tide on the River Thames in London, it was a common sight to see groups of dirty, ill-clad, barefoot young boys and the occasional girl foraging on the muddy, slippery foreshore of the river. Moving on calloused feet they scavenged for anything brought up on the river that they could sell. They were aptly named Mudlarkers. Their booty might be merely wood, coal, rope or bones, truly rubbish, but if they were lucky, they could find something of higher value, perhaps buttons, coins, objects of historical value, and very occasionally, precious metal items.

Mudlarkers belonged to the poorest among society, maybe homeless orphans or children of large, destitute families. Sometimes they were joined by the elderly, also penniless, who hoped to find enough to pay for a small meal or for alcohol. Mudlarker kids were still active on the Thames until early in the 20th century. Modern day Mudlarkers go mudlarking as a hobby. They explore the muddy, shoe-sucking shores of the Thames better clothed, well shod and use metal-detecting and other sophisticated equipment to help them make their finds.