| By A.D. 50 it had changed course and it gave Britain its | | | | Today you can travel the same waters on passenger |
| capital after the invading Romans established | | | | ferries or tourist vessels from Westminster upriver to |
| Londinium as a port at the highest point of the tide. (it | | | | Hampton Court via Richmond and Kew, or downriver |
| now reaches farther inland due to rising sea levels and | | | | to the glittering stainless-steel Thames Barrier via |
| the fact that Britain is sinking into the ocean at a rate | | | | Greenwich. Alternatively, you can walk all or part of |
| of 14 cm every century.) | | | | the Thames Path from the river's source at Thames |
| The Romans developed the river as an international | | | | Head down to the Thames Barrier, or meander along |
| port (trade with the Continent had started in the | | | | the South Bank with its riverside tourist attractions, |
| Bronze Age), constructing mills, wharves, and bridges. | | | | restaurants, English pubs, and shopping malls. (Note that |
| The iconic London Bridge was the first crossing, lined | | | | a walk along the Embankment on the other side can |
| with houses and shops; it has been replaced several | | | | be frustrating for little kids because of its high walls.) |
| times, most recently in the 1960s when the previous | | | | When you're on the Thames, try to picture in your |
| one was taken apart and shipped to the USA. There | | | | mind's eye the Lord Mayor's processions that took |
| are now 14 bridges in central London, the most recent | | | | place from the 15th century to the middle of the 19th, in |
| being the Golden Jubilee footbridges built in 2002. | | | | barges covered with gold leaf, some rowed with silver |
| About 100km (60 miles) from the sea, the Thames | | | | oars. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Frost Fairs were |
| becomes tidal, flowing "the wrong way" toward its | | | | held on the river during winter freeze-overs, complete |
| source twice a day as the sea pushes up the estuary. | | | | with fairground amusements and stalls, performing |
| As the tide falls, the riverbed is revealed, and in the | | | | clowns, and ox roasts. |
| mud and shingle you can discover fascinating clues to | | | | Today, The Mayor's Thames Festival is a fantastic |
| London's past, including clay tobacco pipes and pottery | | | | family-oriented celebration of the Thames, including the |
| fragments. | | | | transformation of part of the shore on the South Bank |
| The Thames was most splendid under the Tudors and | | | | into a temporary urban beach. The river also hosts a |
| Stuarts, when the river-loving Kings and Queens lived | | | | variety of annual regattas, including the famous Oxford |
| in lovely waterside palaces at Hampton Court, Kew, | | | | and Cambridge Boat Race. If you are looking for |
| Richmond, Whitehall, and Greenwich, using the waters | | | | cheap flights to London and also flights to India, visit au |
| as a "royal highway." Fittingly, the Thames saw many | | | | Student Flights have excellent tour and travel |
| monarchs' final journeys in the form of stately funeral | | | | packages to your favourite destinations which means |
| ceremonies, including that of Elizabeth I in 1605, and that | | | | affordable travel for young people and the young at |
| of Henry VIII in 1547. Its said that during the overnight | | | | heart. STSF30082. Visit The Thames - London's |
| stop at Syon House his coffin came apart and dogs | | | | Famous River. |
| licked at his corpse. | | | | |