View source for River Thames

{{short description|River in southern England}}
{{redirect-multi|3|Thames|Thames River|Tamesis|the town in Colombia|Támesis, Antioquia|the company that owns Tamesis Books|Boydell & Brewer|other uses}}
{{pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox river
| name                = River Thames
| native_name         =
| native_name_lang    =
| name_other          =
| name_etymology      = [[Proto-Celtic]] *''tamēssa'', possibly meaning "dark"
| image               = London Thames Sunset panorama - Feb 2008.jpg
| image_size          = 
| image_caption       = Panorama of the River Thames, [[Tower Bridge]] and the [[City of London]]
| mapframe          = yes
| mapframe-point    = none
| mapframe-zoom    = 6
| map_caption         = Course of the Thames
| pushpin_map         =
| pushpin_map_size    = 
| pushpin_map_caption =
| subdivision_type1   = Country
| subdivision_name1   = England
| subdivision_type2   =
| subdivision_name2   =
| subdivision_type3   = Counties
| subdivision_name3   = [[Gloucestershire]], [[Wiltshire]], [[Oxfordshire]], [[Berkshire]], [[Buckinghamshire]], [[Surrey]], [[Greater London]], [[Kent]], [[Essex]]
| subdivision_type4   =
| subdivision_name4   =
| subdivision_type5   = Towns/cities
| subdivision_name5   = [[Cricklade]], [[Lechlade]], [[Oxford]], [[Abingdon-on-Thames|Abingdon]], [[Wallingford, Oxfordshire|Wallingford]], [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], [[Henley-on-Thames]], [[Marlow, Buckinghamshire|Marlow]], [[Maidenhead]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]], [[Staines-upon-Thames]], [[Walton-on-Thames]], [[Sunbury-on-Thames]], [[Kingston upon Thames]], London (inc. [[Twickenham]], the [[City of London|City]]), [[Dagenham]], [[Erith]], [[Dartford]], [[Grays, Essex|Grays]], [[Gravesend]]
| length              = {{cvt|215|mi|km}}
| width_min           =
| width_avg           =
| width_max           =
| depth_min           =
| depth_avg           =
| depth_max           =
| discharge1_location = London
| discharge1_min      =
| discharge1_avg      = {{cvt|65.8|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge1_max      = {{cvt|370|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge2_location = entering [[Oxford]]
| discharge2_min      =
| discharge2_avg      = {{cvt|17.6|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge2_max      =
| discharge3_location = leaving Oxford
| discharge3_min      = 
| discharge3_avg      = {{cvt|24.8|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge3_max      =
| discharge4_location = [[Reading, Berkshire]]
| discharge4_min      = 
| discharge4_avg      = {{cvt|39.7|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge4_max      =
| discharge5_location = Windsor
| discharge5_min      = 
| discharge5_avg      = {{cvt|59.3|m3/s|cuft/s}}
| discharge5_max      =
| source1             =
| source1_location    = [[Thames Head]], Gloucestershire, UK
| source1_coordinates = {{coord|51|41|40|N|02|01|47|W|display=inline}}
| source1_elevation   = {{cvt|110|m}}
| source2             =
| source2_location    = [[Ullenwood]], Gloucestershire, UK
| source2_coordinates = {{coord|51|50|49|N|02|04|41|W|display=inline}}
| source2_elevation   = {{cvt|214|m}}
| mouth               = [[Thames Estuary]], [[North Sea]]
| mouth_location      = [[Southend-on-Sea]], Essex, UK
| mouth_coordinates   = {{coord|51|30|00|N|00|36|36|E|display=inline,title}}
| mouth_elevation     = {{cvt|0|m}}
| progression         =
| river_system        =
| basin_size          = {{cvt|12935|km2}}
| tributaries_left    = [[River Windrush|Windrush]], [[River Cherwell|Cherwell]], [[River Colne, Hertfordshire|Colne]], [[River Lea|Lea]], [[River Roding|Roding]]
| tributaries_right   = [[River Kennet|Kennet]], [[River Wey|Wey]], [[River Mole|Mole]]
}}
{{River Thames routemap}}<!--no line break between the two templates-->{{Thameside settlements}}<!--ditto-->{{River_Thames_bridges}}

The '''River Thames''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=Thames proncunciation.wav|t|ɛ|m|z}} {{respell|TEMZ|'}}), known alternatively in parts as the '''River Isis''', is a river that flows through [[southern England]] including [[London]]. At {{convert|215|mi|adj=off}}, it is the longest river entirely in England and the [[Longest rivers of the United Kingdom|second-longest in the United Kingdom]], after the [[River Severn]].

The river rises at [[Thames Head]] in [[Gloucestershire]] and flows into the [[North Sea]] near [[Tilbury]], Essex and [[Gravesend]], Kent, via the [[Thames Estuary]]. From the west, it flows through [[Oxford]] (where it is sometimes called the Isis), [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], [[Henley-on-Thames]] and [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]]. The Thames also drains the whole of [[Greater London]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx |title=Ordnance Survey map |publisher=[[English Heritage]] |access-date=11 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424060625/http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/mapsearch.aspx |archive-date=24 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The lower [[Reach (geography)|reaches]] of the river are called the [[Tideway]], derived from its long [[Tidal river|tidal]] reach up to [[Teddington Lock]]. Its tidal section includes most of its London stretch and has a rise and fall of {{cvt|23|ft|0}}. From Oxford to the estuary, the Thames drops by {{convert|55|m|feet}}. Running through some of the drier parts of mainland Britain and heavily abstracted for drinking water, the Thames' discharge is low considering its length and breadth: the Severn has a discharge almost twice as large on average despite having a smaller [[drainage basin]]. In [[Scotland]], the [[River Tay|Tay]] achieves more than double the Thames' average discharge from a drainage basin that is 60% smaller.

Along its course are 45 [[Lock (water navigation)|navigation locks]] with accompanying [[weir]]s. Its catchment area covers a large part of south-eastern and a small part of western England; the river is fed by at least [[Tributaries of the River Thames|50 named tributaries]]. The river [[Islands in the River Thames|contains over 80&nbsp;islands]]. With its waters varying from freshwater to almost seawater, the Thames supports a variety of wildlife and has a number of adjoining [[Site of Special Scientific Interest|Sites of Special Scientific Interest]], with [[South Thames Estuary and Marshes|the largest]] being in the [[North Kent Marshes]] and covering {{cvt|5289|ha|mi2|1|order=flip}}.<ref name="dsv">{{cite web |url=https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S1003874&SiteName=south+thames&countyCode=&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |title=Designated Sites View: South Thames Estuary and Marshes |series=Sites of Special Scientific Interest |publisher=Natural England |access-date=28 February 2018 |archive-date=2 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180302052010/https://designatedsites.naturalengland.org.uk/SiteDetail.aspx?SiteCode=S1003874&SiteName=south+thames&countyCode=&responsiblePerson=&SeaArea=&IFCAArea= |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Name==
===Brittonic origin===
[[File:Le Pilier des Nautes 01.JPG|right|thumb|180px|Image of the deity [[Esus|Æsus]] on the [[Gallo-Roman culture|Gallo-Roman]] ''"[[Pillar of the Boatmen]]"'' ]]
[[File:Father Thames, St John's Lock, Lechlade.jpg|thumb|A statue of Old Father Thames by [[Raffaelle Monti]] at [[St John's Lock]], Lechlade]]

According to Mallory and Adams, the Thames, from [[Middle English]] {{lang|enm|Temese}}, is derived from the [[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]] name for the river, ''Tamesas'' (from the hypothesised *''tamēssa''),<ref name=MalloryAdams147>Mallory, J. P. and D. Q. Adams (1947). ''The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture''. London: Fitzroy and Dearborn. p. 147.</ref> recorded in Latin as {{lang|la|Tamesis}} and yielding modern Welsh {{lang|cy|Tafwys}} "Thames".

<!-- ***** Whilst these statements are plausible they really need to be verified. *****
The Latin name can be broken down into '' " Tam..esis " ''; the second element is the origin of the name of [[The Isis]] 
{{efn| Some historians suggest the name ''Isis'' is nothing more than a truncation of ''Tamesis'', the Latin name for the ''Thames''.}}
and may be a reference to the [[Celtic Britons| Brittonic]] [[deity]] [[Esus| Æsus]].
{{efn| The deity [[Esus| Æsus]] (also ''Esus'', ''Hesus'') is known from two [[Monument|monumental statues]], one of which is the [[Gallo-Roman culture| Gallo-Roman]] statue [[Pillar of the Boatmen| '' " Pillar of the Boatmen " '']]. Æsus is shown standing beside a [[Willow| willow tree]], which he is cutting down with an axe.}}
{{efn| The [[wikt:Esino|''Esino river'']] in the [[Marche]] region of Italy might have a similar [[etymology]]. See WiKtionary <[[wikt:Aesis|''Aesis'']] > " ...river Esino "}}
{{efn| ''Brittonic Language'' *Ẹ:s (Alan James) . . . Early Celtic *ēs- or *ais- > Br *ẹ:s-; Latinised as Esus, Æsus, Hesus.{{sfn|James|2020|p=132}}}}
-->
The name element ''Tam'' may have meant "dark" and can be compared to other [[cognate]]s such as Slavic темно ([[Proto-Slavic]] *''tĭmĭnŭ''), [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''tamsi'' "dark", [[Latvian language|Latvian]] ''tumsa'' "darkness", [[Sanskrit]] ''[[tamas (philosophy)|tamas]]'' and Welsh ''tywyll'' "darkness" and [[Middle Irish]] ''teimen'' "dark grey".<ref name=MalloryAdams147 />{{efn| Chapter 5: ''The Celtic Element'' (P. H. Reaney) . . . The name is considered to be related to the [[Sanskrit]] ''Tamasa'' ("dark water"), the name of a tributary{{Efn|See [[Tamsa River]]}} of the River Ganges.{{sfn|Reaney|1969|p=72}}}} The origin is shared by many other river names in Britain, such as the [[River Tamar]] at the border of [[Devon]] and [[Cornwall]], several [[River Tame (disambiguation)|rivers named Tame]] in [[the Midlands]] and [[North Yorkshire]], the [[River Tavy|Tavy]] on [[Dartmoor]], the [[River Team|Team]] of the North East, the [[River Teifi|Teifi]] and [[River Teme|Teme]] of [[Wales]], the [[River Teviot|Teviot]] in the [[Scottish Borders]] and a Thames tributary, the [[River Thame|Thame]].

[[Kenneth H. Jackson]] proposed that the name of the Thames is not [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] (and of unknown meaning),<ref>{{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Kenneth H |author-link=Kenneth H. Jackson |year=1955 |title=The Pictish Language}} in {{cite book |editor=F. T. Wainright |title=The Problem of the Picts |location=Edinburgh |publisher=Nelson |pages=129–166}}</ref> while Peter Kitson suggested that it is Indo-European, but originated before the [[British people|Britons]], and has a name indicating "muddiness" from a root ''*tā-'', 'melt'.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kitson |first=Peter R. |year=1996 |title=British and European River Names' |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=94 |issue=2 |pages=73–118 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.1996.tb01178.x}}</ref>

===Name history===
[[File:Thames by Anne Seymour Damer.JPG|thumb|right|Sculpture of Tamesis. Downstream [[keystone (architecture)|keystone]] of the central arch of [[Henley Bridge]]]]

Early variants of the name include:

* Tamesa ([[Brittonic languages|Brittonic]]){{sfn|Reaney|1969|p=72}}
* Tamesis ([[Latin]]){{sfn|Reaney|1969|p=72}}
* Tamis, Temes ([[Old English]]){{sfn|Reaney|1969|p=72}}
* Tamise, Thamis (1220) ([[Middle English]], [[Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman French]]){{efn|Chapter 5: "The Celtic Element" (P. H. Reaney). The common ME ''Tamise'' is a French form, as is the modern spelling with the French ''Th–'' for ''T–'' (Thamis 1220).{{sfn|Reaney|1969|p=72}}}}

Indirect evidence for the antiquity of the name "Thames" is provided by a Roman [[potsherd]] found at Oxford, bearing the inscription ''Tamesubugus fecit'' (Tamesubugus made [this]). It is believed that Tamesubugus' name was derived from that of the river.<ref>Henig M. & Booth P. (2000). ''Roman Oxfordshire'', pp. 118–119</ref> Tamese was referred to as a place, not a river in the [[Ravenna Cosmography]] ({{circa|AD 700}}).

The river's name has always been pronounced with a simple ''t'' {{IPA|/t/}}; the [[Middle English]] spelling was typically {{lang|enm|Temese}} and the Brittonic form ''Tamesis''. A similar spelling from 1210, "Tamisiam" (the accusative case of "Tamisia"; see {{slink|Kingston upon Thames|Early history}}), is found in [[Magna Carta]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=Ellis |editor-last=Sandoz |year=2008 |title=The Roots of Liberty: Magna Carta, Ancient Constitution, and the Anglo-American Tradition of Rule of Law |location=Indianapolis, IN |publisher=Amagi/Liberty Fund |pages=39, 347 |isbn=9780865977099 |oclc=173502766}}</ref>

===The Isis===
The Thames through [[Oxford]] is sometimes called [[the Isis]]. Historically, and especially in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] times, gazetteers and cartographers insisted that the entire river was correctly named the Isis from its source down to [[Dorchester on Thames]] and that only from this point, where the river meets [[River Thame|the Thame]] and becomes the "Thame-isis" (supposedly subsequently abbreviated to Thames) should it be so called.{{citation needed|date=February 2023}} [[Ordnance Survey]] maps still label the Thames as "River Thames or Isis" down to Dorchester. Since the early 20th century this distinction has been lost in common usage outside of Oxford, and some historians {{who|date=February 2023}} suggest the name ''Isis'' is nothing more than a [[Clipping (morphology)|truncation]] of ''Tamesis'', the [[Latin]] name for the Thames. Sculptures titled ''Tamesis'' and ''Isis'' by [[Anne Seymour Damer]] are located on [[Henley Bridge|the bridge]] at [[Henley-on-Thames]], [[Oxfordshire]] (the original terracotta and plaster models were exhibited at the [[Royal Academy of Arts|Royal Academy]], [[London]], in 1785. They are now (2018) on show at the [[River and Rowing Museum]] in Henley).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kendal |first1=Roger |last2=Bowen |first2=Jane |last3=Wortley |first3=Laura |title=Genius & Gentility: Henley in the Age of Enlightenment |date=2002 |publisher=River and Rowing Museum |location=Henley-on-Thames |isbn=9780953557127 |pages=12–13}}</ref>

===Name legacy===
[[Richard Coates]] suggests that while the river was as a whole called the Thames, part of it, where it was too wide to ford, was called *''(p)lowonida''. This gave the name to a settlement on its banks, which became known as [[Londinium]], from the Indo-European roots *''pleu-'' "flow" and *''-nedi'' "river" meaning something like the flowing river or the wide flowing unfordable river.<ref name=coates>{{cite journal |last=Coates |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Coates |year=1998 |title=A new explanation of the name of London |journal=Transactions of the Philological Society |volume=96 |issue=2 |pages=203–229 |doi=10.1111/1467-968X.00027}}</ref><ref>Cultural Heritage Resources (2005). ''[http://chr.org.uk/legends.htm Legendary Origins and the Origin of London's place name] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110709082221/http://www.chr.org.uk/legends.htm |date=9 July 2011}}''. Retrieved 1 November 2005.</ref>

The river gives its name to three informal areas: the [[Thames Valley]], a region of England around the river between Oxford and West London; the [[Thames Gateway]]; and the greatly overlapping [[Thames Estuary]] around the tidal Thames to the east of London and including the waterway itself. [[Thames Valley Police]] is a formal body that takes its name from the river, covering three [[Counties of England|counties]]. In non-administrative use, the river's name is used in those of [[Thames Valley University]], [[Thames Water]], [[Thames Television]], publishing company [[Thames & Hudson]], [[Thameslink]] (north–south rail service passing through [[central London]]) and [[South Thames College]]. An example of its use in the names of historic entities is the [[Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company]].

==History==
Marks of human activity, in some cases dating back to [[British Iron Age|Pre-Roman Britain]], are visible at various points along the river. These include a variety of structures connected with use of the river, such as navigations, bridges and [[watermill]]s, as well as prehistoric [[Tumulus|burial mounds]].

The lower Thames in the Roman era was a shallow waterway winding through marshes. But centuries of human intervention have [[Embanking of the tidal Thames|transformed it into a deep tidal canal]] flowing between 200 miles of solid walls; these defend a floodplain where 1.5 million people work and live.
{{main|Embanking of the tidal Thames}}

A major maritime route is formed for much of its length for shipping and supplies: through the [[Port of London]] for international trade, internally along its length and by its connection to the British canal system. The river's position has put it at the centre of many events in British history, leading to it being described by [[John Burns]] as "liquid history".

Two broad [[canal]]s link the river to other rivers: the [[Kennet and Avon Canal]] ([[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]] to [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]]) and the [[Grand Union Canal]] (London to the Midlands). The Grand Union effectively bypassed the earlier, narrow and winding [[Oxford Canal]] which remains open as a popular scenic recreational route. Three further cross-basin canals are disused but are in various stages of reconstruction: the [[Thames and Severn Canal]] (via [[Stroud]]), which operated until 1927 (to the west coast of England), the [[Wey and Arun Canal]] to [[Littlehampton]], which operated until 1871 (to the south coast), and the [[Wilts & Berks Canal]].

[[Rowing (sport)|Rowing]] and sailing clubs are common along the Thames, which is navigable to such vessels. [[Kayaking]] and [[canoeing]] also take place. Major annual events include the [[Henley Royal Regatta]] and [[the Boat Race]], while the Thames has been used during two [[Summer Olympic Games]]: [[1908 Summer Olympics|1908]] ([[Rowing at the 1908 Summer Olympics|rowing]]) and [[1948 Summer Olympics|1948]] ([[Rowing at the 1948 Summer Olympics|rowing]] and [[canoeing at the 1948 Summer Olympics|canoeing]]). Safe headwaters and reaches are a summer venue for organised swimming, which is prohibited on safety grounds in a stretch centred on [[Central London]].

===Conversion of marshland===
After the river took its present-day course, many of the banks of the [[Thames Estuary]] and the [[Thames Valley]] in London were partly covered in [[marshland]], as was the adjoining [[Lower Lea Valley]]. Streams and rivers like the [[River Lea]], [[Tyburn Brook]] and [[Bollo Brook]] drained into the river, while some islands, e.g. [[Thorney Island (London)|Thorney Island]], formed over the ages. The northern tip of the ancient parish of [[Lambeth (parish)|Lambeth]], for example, was marshland known as ''Lambeth Marshe'', but it was drained in the 18th century; the street names [[Lower Marsh]] and Upper Marsh preserve a memory.<ref name="ADMills">{{cite book |author=Anthony David Mills |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DSIOAQAAMAAJ |title=Oxford Dictionary of London Place Names |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-280106-7 |access-date=25 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913153723/https://books.google.com/books?id=DSIOAQAAMAAJ |archive-date=13 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{main|Malaria in the River Thames}}

Until the middle of the Victorian era, malaria was commonplace beside the River Thames, even in London, and was frequently lethal. Some cases continued to occur into the early 20th century. Draining of the marshes helped with its eradication, but the causes are complex and unclear.

The [[East End of London]], also known simply as the '''East End''', was the area of London east of the medieval walled [[City of London]] and north of the River Thames, although it is not defined by universally accepted formal boundaries; the [[River Lea]] can be considered another boundary.<ref>''The [[New Oxford Dictionary of English]]'' (1998) {{ISBN|0-19-861263-X}} p. 582 "'''East End''' the part of London east of the [[City of London|City]] as far as the River Lea, including the Docklands".</ref> Most of the local riverside was also marshland. The land was drained and became farmland; it was built on after the [[Industrial Revolution]].

[[Canvey Island]] in southern Essex (area {{cvt|18.45|km2|disp=comma}}; population 40,000<ref>{{cite web |title=A Brief History of Canvey Island |url=https://canveyisland-tc.gov.uk/visitor-information/history-of-canvey/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085619/https://canveyisland-tc.gov.uk/visitor-information/history-of-canvey/ |archive-date=27 August 2020 |access-date=27 August 2020 |publisher=Canvey Island Town Council}}</ref>) was once marshy, but is now a fully reclaimed island in the Thames estuary, separated from the mainland of south [[Essex]] by a network of creeks. Lying below sea level, it is prone to flooding at exceptional tides, but has nevertheless been inhabited since Roman times.

==Course==
[[File:ThamesMarker.JPG|thumb|The marker stone at the official source of the River Thames named [[Thames Head]] near [[Kemble, Gloucestershire|Kemble]]]]
[[File:Thames Panorama, London - June 2009.jpg|thumb|The Thames passes by some of the sights of London, including the [[Houses of Parliament]] and the [[London Eye]].]]
[[File:River Thames.jpg|thumb|River Thames, [[Southend-on-Sea]], 2019]]
The usually quoted [[river source|source]] of the Thames is at [[Thames Head]] (at {{gbmapping|ST980994}}). This is about {{cvt|1.5|mi|km}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Thames Head, the Source of the River Thames |url=https://www.britainexpress.com/counties/glouces/countryside/thames-head.htm |website=Britain Express}}</ref> north of the village of [[Kemble, Gloucestershire|Kemble]] in southern [[Gloucestershire]], near the town of [[Cirencester]], in the [[Cotswolds]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Source |url=http://www.thamespathway.com/chapter1/the-source.aspx |publisher=THames Pathway |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085612/http://www.thamespathway.com/chapter1/the-source.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> However, [[Seven Springs, Gloucestershire|Seven Springs]] near [[Cheltenham]], where the [[River Churn|Churn]] (which feeds into the Thames near [[Cricklade]]) rises, is also sometimes quoted as the Thames' source,<ref name="BBC">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17858944 |title=Tracing the source of the Thames |first=David |last=Bailey |date=15 May 2012 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=12 September 2018 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085618/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-17858944 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Dorothy |last=Hart |url=http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/thames.htm |title=Seven Springs and the Churn |publisher=The-river-thames.co.uk |date=9 May 2004 |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=16 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100516000937/http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/thames.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref> as this location is farthest from the mouth and adds some {{cvt|14|mi|km}} to the river's length. At Seven Springs above the source is a stone with the Latin [[dactylic hexameter|hexameter]] inscription "Hic tuus o Tamesine pater septemgeminus fons", which means "Here, O Father Thames, [is] your sevenfold source".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_VCFu-2LuJgC&q=%22septemgeminus+fons%22&pg=PA11 |title=I Never Knew That about the River Thames |first=Christopher |last=Winn |date=19 April 2018 |publisher=Ebury Publishing |via=Google Books |isbn=9780091933579 |access-date=20 January 2019 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085617/https://books.google.com/books?id=_VCFu-2LuJgC&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22septemgeminus+fons%22&hl=en#v=onepage&q=%22septemgeminus+fons%22&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Spring (hydrology)|springs]] at Seven Springs flow throughout the year, while those at Thames Head are seasonal (a [[Winterbourne (stream)|winterbourne]]). With a length of {{cvt|215|mi|km}},<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Phil |title=Headwaters: Walking to British River Sources |date=2012 |publisher=Frances Lincoln Limited |location=London |isbn=9780711233638 |page=38 |edition=First}}</ref> the Thames is the longest river entirely in England. (The [[List of rivers of the United Kingdom|longest river]] in the United Kingdom, the [[River Severn|Severn]], flows partly in [[Wales]].) However, as the River Churn, sourced at Seven Springs, is {{cvt|14|mi|km}} longer than the section of the Thames from its traditional source at Thames Head to the confluence, the overall length of the Thames measured from Seven Springs, at {{cvt|229|mi|km}}, is greater than the Severn's length of {{cvt|220|mi|km}}.<ref>{{cite web |title=The River Severn Facts |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/west/severn-river/ |publisher=BBC |access-date=17 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011115541/http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/west/severn-river/ |archive-date=11 October 2007}}</ref> Thus, the "Churn/Thames" river may be regarded as the longest natural river in the United Kingdom. The stream from Seven Springs is joined at [[Coberley]] by a longer tributary which could further increase the length of the Thames, with its source in the grounds of the [[National Star College]] at [[Ullenwood]].

The Thames flows through or alongside [[Ashton Keynes]], [[Cricklade]], [[Lechlade]], [[Oxford]], [[Abingdon-on-Thames]], [[Wallingford, Oxfordshire|Wallingford]], [[Goring-on-Thames]] and [[Streatley, Berkshire|Streatley]] (at the [[Goring Gap]]), [[Pangbourne]] and [[Whitchurch-on-Thames]], [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], [[Wargrave]], [[Henley-on-Thames]], [[Marlow, Buckinghamshire|Marlow]], [[Maidenhead]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]] and [[Eton, Berkshire|Eton]], [[Staines-upon-Thames]] and [[Egham]], [[Chertsey]], [[Shepperton]], [[Weybridge]], [[Sunbury-on-Thames]], [[Walton-on-Thames]], [[Molesey]] and [[Thames Ditton]]. The river was subject to minor redefining and widening of the main channel around Oxford, Abingdon and Marlow before 1850, when further cuts to ease navigation reduced distances further.

[[Molesey]] faces [[Hampton, London|Hampton]], and in [[Greater London]] the Thames passes [[Hampton Court Palace]], [[Surbiton]], [[Kingston upon Thames]], [[Teddington]], [[Twickenham]], [[Richmond, London|Richmond]] (with a famous view of the Thames from Richmond Hill), [[Syon House]], [[Kew]], [[Brentford]], [[Chiswick]], [[Barnes, London|Barnes]], [[Hammersmith]], [[Fulham]], [[Putney]], [[Wandsworth]], [[Battersea]] and [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]. In [[central London]], the river passes [[Pimlico]] and [[Vauxhall]], and then forms one of the principal axes of the city, from the [[Palace of Westminster]] to the [[Tower of London]]. At this point, it historically formed the southern boundary of the medieval city, with [[Southwark]], on the opposite bank, then being part of [[Surrey]].

Beyond central London, the river passes [[Bermondsey]], [[Wapping]], [[Shadwell]], [[Limehouse]], [[Rotherhithe]], [[Millwall]], [[Deptford]], [[Greenwich]], [[Cubitt Town]], [[Blackwall, London|Blackwall]], [[New Charlton]] and [[Silvertown]], before flowing through the [[Thames Barrier]], which protects central London from flooding by [[storm surge]]s. Below the barrier, the river passes [[Woolwich]], [[Thamesmead]], [[Dagenham]], [[Erith]], [[Purfleet]], [[Dartford]], [[West Thurrock]], [[Northfleet]], [[Tilbury]] and [[Gravesend]] before entering the [[Thames Estuary]] near [[Southend-on-Sea]].

===Sea level===
The sea level in the Thames estuary is rising and the rate of rise is increasing.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2021/02/thames-estuary-changes.page|title=Thames Estuary report highlights changes over decade |publisher=Southampton University|access-date=13 August 2023|date=23 February 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thames-estuary-2100-time-to-plan-and-time-to-act|title=Thames Estuary 2100: Time to Plan and Time to Act |access-date=13 August 2023|date=17 May 2023|publisher=Environment Agency}}</ref>

Sediment cores up to 10 m deep collected by the [[British Geological Survey]] from the banks of the tidal River Thames contain geochemical information and fossils which provide a 10,000-year record of sea-level change.<ref name=" The application of δ13C, TOC, C/N geochemistry to reconstruct Holocene relative sea levels and paleoenvironments in the Thames Estuary, UK.">{{cite journal |url=http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/511378/1/ThamesGeochem_v10_.pdf |via=ResearchGate |title=The application of δ13C, TOC, C/N geochemistry to reconstruct Holocene relative sea levels and paleoenvironments in the Thames Estuary, UK. |last1=Khan |first1=S. N. |last2=Vane |first2=C. H. |last3=Horton |first3=B. P. |last4=Hillier |first4=C.| last5=Riding |first5=J. B. |last6=Kendrick |first6=C. |date=2015 |journal=Journal of Quaternary Science |doi=10.1002/jqs.2784 |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=417–433 |bibcode=2015JQS....30..417K |s2cid=12143258 |s2cid-access=free |access-date=20 January 2019 }}</ref> Combined, this and other studies suggest that the Thames sea-level has risen more than 30 m during the Holocene at a rate of around 5–6&nbsp;mm per year from 10,000 to 6,000 years ago.<ref name=" The application of δ13C, TOC, C/N geochemistry to reconstruct Holocene relative sea levels and paleoenvironments in the Thames Estuary, UK."/> The rise of sea level dramatically reduced when the ice melt nearly concluded{{clarify|date=August 2023}} over the past 4,000 years. Since the beginning of the 20th century, rates of sea level rise range from 1.22&nbsp;mm per year to 2.14&nbsp;mm per year.<ref name=" The application of δ13C, TOC, C/N geochemistry to reconstruct Holocene relative sea levels and paleoenvironments in the Thames Estuary, UK."/>

===Catchment area and discharge===
{{Main|Tributaries of the River Thames}}
The Thames River Basin<ref name="Map of the river Thames watershed">
Map of the River Thames watershed:
*{{cite web |last1=Barrow |first1=Mandy |title=River Thames Basin |url=https://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/riverthames/basin.htm |website=Primary Homework Help |access-date=11 April 2023}}
*{{cite journal |last1=Futter |first1=M.N. |last2=Erlandsson |first2=M.A. |last3=Butterfield |first3=D. |last4=Whitehead |first4=P.G. |last5=Oni |first5=S. K. |last6=Wade |first6=A. J. |title=PERSiST: a flexible rainfall-runoff modelling toolkit for use with the INCA family of models |journal=Hydrology and Earth System Sciences |date=28 February 2014 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=855–873 |doi=10.5194/hess-18-855-2014 |bibcode=2014HESS...18..855F |bibcode-access=free |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260598355 |via=ResearchGate |access-date=11 April 2023 |doi-access=free |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230815180942/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260598355_PERSiST_A_flexible_rainfall-runoff_modelling_toolkit_for_use_with_the_INCA_family_of_models |archive-date=15 August 2023}} Map on page 864</ref> District, including the Medway catchment, covers an area of {{cvt|6229|sqmi|km2}}.<ref name="The Environment Agency">{{cite web |url=http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33130.aspx |title=More about the Thames River Basin District |date=2 September 2011 |publisher=Environment Agency |access-date=6 November 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908011951/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33130.aspx |archive-date=8 September 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The entire river basin is a mixture of urban and rural, with rural landscape predominating in the western part. The area is among the driest in the United Kingdom. Water resources consist of [[groundwater]] from [[aquifer]]s and water taken from the Thames and its tributaries, much of it stored in large [[Reservoir#Bank-side|bank-side reservoirs]].<ref name="The Environment Agency"/>

The Thames itself provides two-thirds of London's drinking water, while groundwater supplies about 40 per cent of public water supplies in the overall catchment area. Groundwater is an important water source, especially in the drier months, so maintaining its quality and quantity is extremely important. Groundwater is vulnerable to surface pollution, especially in highly urbanised areas.<ref name="The Environment Agency" />

====Non-tidal section====
{{Main|Locks and weirs on the River Thames}}
[[File:jubilee weir.jpg|thumb|The [[Jubilee River]] at [[Slough Weir]]]]
[[File:St John's Lock and Lechlade in background.JPG|thumb|upright|St John's Lock, near [[Lechlade]]]]
[[File:River thames oxford.jpg|thumb|right|The River Thames in [[Oxford]]]]

Brooks, canals and rivers, within an area of {{cvt|3842|sqmi|km2|0}},<ref name="CEH">{{cite web |url=http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/nhmp/annual_review/feature_articles/Flow_Gauging_on_River_Thames_100_Years.pdf |title=Flow Gauging on the River Thames – The First 100 Years |year=1983|page=33 |publisher=Hydrological Data |access-date=9 November 2011|via=Centre for Ecology & Hydrology |archive-date=Dec 2, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202170904/http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/nhmp/annual_review/feature_articles/Flow_Gauging_on_River_Thames_100_Years.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> combine to form 38 main tributaries feeding the Thames between its source and [[Teddington Lock]]. This is the usual [[tidal limit]]; however, high spring tides can raise the head water level in the reach above Teddington and can occasionally reverse the river flow for a short time. In these circumstances, tidal effects can be observed upstream to the next lock beside [[Molesey Lock|Molesey weir]],<ref name="CEH"/> which is visible from the towpath and [[Hampton Court Bridge|bridge]] beside [[Hampton Court Palace]]. Before Teddington Lock was built in 1810–12, the river was tidal at peak spring tides as far as [[Staines upon Thames]].

In descending order, non-related tributaries of the non-tidal Thames, with river status, are the [[River Churn|Churn]], [[River Leach|Leach]], [[River Cole, Wiltshire|Cole]], [[River Ray, Wiltshire|Ray]], [[River Coln|Coln]], [[River Windrush|Windrush]], [[River Evenlode|Evenlode]], [[River Cherwell|Cherwell]], [[River Ock|Ock]], [[River Thame|Thame]], [[River Pang|Pang]], [[River Kennet|Kennet]], [[River Loddon|Loddon]], [[River Colne, Hertfordshire|Colne]], [[River Wey|Wey]] and [[River Mole, Surrey|Mole]]. In addition, there are occasional backwaters and artificial cuts that form islands, [[distributary|distributaries]] (most numerous in the case of the [[River Colne, Hertfordshire|Colne]]), and man-made distributaries such as the [[Longford River]]. Three canals intersect this stretch: the [[Oxford Canal]], [[Kennet and Avon Canal]] and [[Wey Navigation]].

Its longest artificial secondary channel (cut), the [[Jubilee River]], was built between Maidenhead and Windsor for flood relief and completed in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/seengland/thamesjubilee.htm |title=  Jubilee River, River Thames |first1=Chris |last1=Wheeler |publisher=UK Rivers Guide Book |date=23 January 2011 |access-date=2 April 2012 |archive-date=3 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100503110907/http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/seengland/thamesjubilee.htm |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/jubileerivermap_1200567.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930152507/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/commondata/acrobat/jubileerivermap_1200567.pdf |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title= A map indicating the location and route of the Jubilee River |website=Environment Agency |access-date=2 April 2012}}</ref>

The non-tidal section of the river is managed by the [[Environment Agency]], which is responsible for managing the flow of water to help prevent and mitigate flooding, and providing for navigation: the volume and speed of water downstream is managed by adjusting the sluices at each of the weirs and, at peak high water, levels are generally dissipated over preferred flood plains adjacent to the river. Occasionally, flooding of inhabited areas is unavoidable and the agency issues flood warnings. Due to stiff penalties applicable on the non-tidal river, which is a drinking water source before treatment, [[sanitary sewer overflow]] from the many [[sewage treatment plant]]s covering the upper Thames basin should be rare in the non-tidal Thames. However, storm sewage overflows are still common in almost all the main tributaries of the Thames<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/water-firms-raw-sewage-england-rivers |first1=Sandra |last1=Laville |first2=Niamh |last2=McIntyre |title=Exclusive: water firms discharged raw sewage into England's rivers 200,000 times in 2019 |work=The Guardian |access-date=4 August 2020 |date=1 July 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085619/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/water-firms-raw-sewage-england-rivers |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a6dd42e3bc264fc28134c64c00db4a5b&extent=146436.9576%2C27590.8012%2C854242.0922%2C563326.0668%2C27700 |publisher=The Rivers TRust |access-date=4 August 2020 |title=Is my river fit to play in? |archive-date=5 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805024256/https://www.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a6dd42e3bc264fc28134c64c00db4a5b&extent=146436.9576%2C27590.8012%2C854242.0922%2C563326.0668%2C27700 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> despite claims by Thames Water to the contrary.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thameswater.co.uk/tw/common/downloads/about%20us%20-%20corporate%20responsibility/annual-performance-report-2011-12.pdf |title=Annual Performance Report 2011/12 |publisher=Thames Water  |access-date=20 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150131021304/http://www.thameswater.co.uk/tw/common/downloads/about%20us%20-%20corporate%20responsibility/annual-performance-report-2011-12.pdf |archive-date=31 January 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Tidal section====
{{main|Tideway}}
[[File:London Stone, Staines 028.jpg|upright|thumb|[[London Stone (riparian)|London Stone]] at Staines, built in 1285 marked the customs limit of the Thames and the [[City of London]]'s jurisdiction.]]
[[File:Thames tide.jpg|thumb|Waterstand of Thames at low tide (left) and high tide (right) in comparison at Blackfriars Bridge in London]]
Below Teddington Lock (about {{cvt|55|mi|km|0|disp=or}} upstream of the Thames Estuary), the river is subject to [[tide|tidal activity]] from the [[North Sea]]. Before the lock was installed, the river was tidal as far as Staines, about {{cvt|16|mi|km}} upstream.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visitthames.co.uk/text/106/free_fishing.html |title=Free fishing |publisher=River Thames  |access-date=10 June 2010 |archive-date=29 November 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129220916/http://visitthames.co.uk/text/106/free_fishing.html |url-status=live}}</ref> London, capital of [[Roman Britain]], was established on two hills, now known as [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] and [[Ludgate Hill]]. These provided a firm base for a trading centre at the lowest possible point on the Thames.<ref>Peter Ackroyd ''London:The Biography'' Vintage 2001</ref>

A river crossing was built at the site of [[London Bridge]]. London Bridge is now used as the basis for published tide tables giving the times of [[tide|high tide]]. High tide reaches Putney about 30 minutes later than London Bridge, and Teddington about an hour later. The [[tidal reach|tidal stretch]] of the river is known as "the [[Tideway]]". Tide tables are published by the [[Port of London Authority]] and are available online.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

The principal [[tributaries of the River Thames]] on the Tideway include the rivers [[River Crane, London|Crane]], [[River Brent|Brent]], [[River Wandle|Wandle]], [[River Ravensbourne|Ravensbourne]] (the final part of which is called [[Deptford Creek]]), [[River Lea|Lea]] (the final part of which is called [[Bow Creek (London)|Bow Creek]]), [[River Roding|Roding]] (Barking Creek), [[River Darent|Darent]] and [[River Ingrebourne|Ingrebourne]]. In London, the water is slightly [[brackish water|brackish]] with sea salt, being a mix of sea and fresh water.

[[File:06 2023 Thames Barrier IMG 7506.jpg|thumb|The [[Thames Barrier]] provides protection against floods.]]

This part of the river is managed by the Port of London Authority. The flood threat here comes from high tides and strong winds from the North Sea, and the Thames Barrier was built in the 1980s to protect London from this risk.

[[The Nore]] is the [[sandbank]] that marks the mouth of the [[Thames Estuary]], where the outflow from the Thames meets the [[North Sea]]. It is roughly halfway between [[River Roach#The tidal river|Havengore Creek]] in Essex and Warden Point on the [[Isle of Sheppey]] in Kent. Until 1964 it marked the seaward limit of the Port of London Authority. As the sandbank was a major hazard for shipping coming in and out of London, in 1732 it received the world's first [[lightvessel|lightship]]. This became a major landmark, and was used as an assembly point for shipping. Today it is marked by Sea Reach No. 1 Buoy.<ref name=PortCities>{{Cite web |url=http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/nav.001008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071229125347/http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/nav.001008 |url-status=dead |title=PortCities London |archive-date=29 December 2007}}</ref>

===Islands===
{{Main|Islands in the River Thames}}

[[File:Aerial view of London City Airport 2007.jpg|thumb|right|[[London City Airport]] is on the site of a dock.]]

The River Thames contains over 80 islands ranging from the large estuarial marshlands of the [[Isle of Sheppey]] and [[Canvey Island]] to small tree-covered islets like [[Rose Isle]] in Oxfordshire and [[Headpile Eyot]] in Berkshire. They are found all the way from [[Fiddler's Island]] in Oxfordshire to the [[Isle of Sheppey]] in Kent. Some of the largest inland islands, for example [[Formosa Island]] near Cookham and [[Andersey Island]] at Abingdon, were created naturally when the course of the river divided into separate streams.

In the Oxford area the river splits into several streams across the [[floodplain]] ([[Seacourt Stream]], [[Castle Mill Stream]], [[Bulstake Stream]] and others), creating several islands ([[Fiddler's Island]], [[Osney]] and others). [[Desborough Island]], [[Ham Island]] at Old Windsor and [[Penton Hook Island]] were artificially created by lock cuts and navigation channels. [[Chiswick Eyot]] is a landmark on the Boat Race course, while [[Glover's Island]] forms the centre of a view from [[Richmond Hill, London|Richmond Hill]].

Islands of historical interest include [[Magna Carta Island]] at [[Runnymede]], [[Fry's Island]] at Reading, and [[Pharaoh's Island, River Thames|Pharaoh's Island]] near Shepperton. In more recent times [[Platts Eyot]] at [[Hampton, London|Hampton]] was the place where [[Motor Torpedo Boats]] (MTB)s were built, [[Tagg's Island]] near Molesey was associated with the impresario [[Fred Karno]] and [[Eel Pie Island]] at Twickenham was the birthplace of the South East's [[Rhythm and blues|R&B]] music scene.

[[Westminster Abbey]] and the [[Palace of Westminster]] (commonly known today as the [[Houses of Parliament]]) were built on [[Thorney Island (Westminster)|Thorney Island]], which used to be an [[eyot]].

== Geology ==
{{See also|Ancestral Thames}}
[[File:Europe20000ya.png|thumb|European [[Last Glacial Maximum|LGM]] refuges, 20,000 years ago. The Thames was a minor river that joined the [[Rhine]], in the southern [[North Sea Basin]] at this time.<br />{{legend|#c54b00|[[w:Solutrean|Solutrean]] and Proto Solutrean Cultures}}{{legend|#ca00b0|Epi [[w:Gravettian|Gravettian]] Culture}}]]

Researchers have identified the River Thames as a discrete drainage line flowing as early as 58&nbsp;million years ago, in the [[Thanetian]] stage of the late [[Palaeocene]] epoch.<ref name=terriv>{{cite web |url=http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/tertiaryrivers/ |title=History of the major rivers of southern Britain during the Tertiary |publisher=Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group |year=2006 |access-date=28 November 2007 |archive-date=11 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011112249/http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/tertiaryrivers/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> Until around 500,000 years ago, the Thames flowed on its existing course through what is now [[Oxfordshire]], before turning to the north-east through [[Hertfordshire]] and [[East Anglia]] and reaching the [[North Sea]] near present-day [[Ipswich]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The early Ice Age |url=http://www.geoessex.org.uk/the_early_ice_age.html |website=www.geoessex.org.uk |access-date=7 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160119080111/http://geoessex.org.uk/the_early_ice_age.html |archive-date=19 January 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

At this time the river-system headwaters lay in the English [[West Midlands (region)|West Midlands]] and may, at times, have received drainage from the [[Berwyn Mountains]] in [[North Wales]].

=== Ice age ===
About 450,000 years ago, in the most extreme [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]] of the [[Pleistocene]], the [[Anglian (stage)|Anglian]], the furthest southern extent of the ice sheet reached [[Hornchurch]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.essexwt.org.uk/geology/geology3.htm |title=Essex Wildlife Trust, The Geology of Essex |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021073553/http://www.essexwt.org.uk/geology/geology3.htm |archive-date=21 October 2012}}</ref> in east London, the Vale of St Albans, and the [[Finchley Gap]].

It dammed the river in [[Hertfordshire]], resulting in the formation of large ice lakes, which eventually burst their banks and caused the river to divert onto its present course through the area of present-day London.

The ice lobe which stopped at present-day [[Finchley]] deposited about 14 metres of [[boulder clay]] there.<ref>Ellison RA (2004), ''Geology of London'', British Geological Survey, p58.</ref> Its torrent of [[meltwater]] gushed through the [[Finchley Gap]] and south towards the new course of the Thames, and proceeded to carve out the [[River Brent|Brent Valley]] in the process.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/retro-a-river-worth-preserving-5989210 |title=Retro: A river worth preserving |publisher=Ealing Gazette |date=18 February 2011 |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=3 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201203173255/https://www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/retro-a-river-worth-preserving-5989210 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The Anglian ice advance resulted in a new course for the Thames through [[Berkshire]] and on into London, after which the river rejoined its original course in southern [[Essex]], near the present [[River Blackwater (Essex)|River Blackwater]] estuary. Here it entered a substantial freshwater lake in the southern North Sea basin, south of what is called [[Doggerland]]. The overspill of this lake caused the formation of the [[Channel River]] and later the [[Strait of Dover|Dover Strait]] gap between present-day [[Great Britain|Britain]] and France. Subsequent development led to the continuation of the course that the river follows at the present day.<ref name=nwriv />

Most of the [[bedrock]] of the [[Aylesbury Vale|Vale of Aylesbury]] comprises [[clay]] and [[chalk]] that formed at the end of the [[ice age]] and at one time was under the [[Ancestral Thames|Proto-Thames]]. At this time the vast underground reserves of water formed that make the [[water table]] higher than average in the Vale of Aylesbury.<ref>{{cite web |title=Buckingham Surface Water Management Plan |url=https://old.buckscc.gov.uk/media/2275771/Buckingham-phase1-swmp.pdf |publisher=Buckinghamshire County Council |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085728/https://old.buckscc.gov.uk/media/2275771/Buckingham-phase1-swmp.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Geological map of London Basin.jpg|thumb |A geological map of the [[London Basin]]; the London Clay is marked in dark brown.]]
[[File:Confluence of Rivers Thames and Brent - geograph.org.uk - 921332.jpg|thumb |The confluence of the Rivers Thames and Brent. The [[narrowboat]] is heading up the [[River Brent]]. From this point as far as [[Hanwell]] the Brent has been canalised and shares its course with the main line of the [[Grand Union Canal]]. From Hanwell the Brent can be traced to various sources in the [[Chipping Barnet|Barnet]] area.]]

At the height of the [[Last Glacial Period|last ice age]], around 20,000 BC, Britain was connected to mainland Europe by a large expanse of land known as [[Doggerland]] in the southern [[North Sea Basin]]. At this time, the Thames' course did not continue to Doggerland but flowed southwards from the eastern Essex coast where it met the waters of the proto-[[Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta]]<ref name=nwriv>{{cite web |url=http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/nweurorivers/ |title=History of the northwest European rivers during the past three million years |publisher=Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group |year=2007 |access-date=28 November 2007 |archive-date=2 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071102213709/http://www.qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/nweurorivers/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> flowing from what are now the [[Netherlands]] and [[Belgium]]. These rivers formed a single river – the [[Channel River]] (''Fleuve Manche'') – that passed through the Dover Strait and drained into the Atlantic Ocean in the western [[English Channel]].

Upon the valley sides of the Thames and some of its tributaries can be seen other terraces of [[brickearth]], laid over and sometimes interlayered with the clays. These deposits were brought in by the winds during the [[periglacial]] periods, suggesting that wide, flat marshes were then part of the landscape, which the new rivers proceeded to cut into.

The steepness of some valley sides indicates very much lower [[mean sea level]]s caused by the glaciation locking up so much water upon the land masses, thus causing the river water to flow rapidly seaward and so erode its bed quickly downwards.

The original land surface was around {{cvt|350|to|400|ft|m|abbr=off}} above the current sea-level. The surface had sandy deposits from an ancient sea, laid over sedimentary clay (this is the blue [[London Clay]]). All the erosion down from this higher land surface, and the sorting action by these changes of water flow and direction, formed what is known as the Thames [[Fluvial terrace|River Gravel Terraces]]. Sand and gravel was deposited near Beaconsfield and other places by the [[ancestral Thames]]. This sand and gravel is now being excavated.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2003 |title=Mineral Resource Information in Support of National, Regional and Local Planning Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes |url=https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527334/1/CR03077N.pdf |access-date=November 3, 2024 |website=nora.nerc.ac.uk |publisher=British Geological Survey}}</ref>
[[File:Dartford Crossing - geograph.org.uk - 1194694.jpg|thumb| The M25 goes over the River Thames]]
Since Roman times and perhaps earlier, the [[isostasy|isostatic]] rebound from the weight of previous ice sheets, and its interplay with the [[eustatic]] change in sea level, have resulted in the old valley of the River Brent, together with that of the Thames, silting up again. Thus, along much of the Brent's present-day course, one can make out the [[water-meadow]]s of rich alluvium, which is augmented by frequent floods.

== Wildlife ==
[[File:Swan Upping.jpg|thumb|Swan Upping – [[Thames skiff|skiffs]] surround the swans]]

Various species of birds feed off the river or nest on it, some being found both at sea and inland. These include [[great cormorant|cormorant]], [[black-headed gull]] and [[European herring gull|herring gull]]. The [[mute swan]] is a familiar sight on the river but the escaped [[black swan]] is more rare. The annual ceremony of [[Swan Upping]] is an old tradition of counting stocks.

Non-native geese that can be seen include [[Canada goose|Canada geese]], [[Egyptian goose|Egyptian geese]] and [[bar-headed goose|bar-headed geese]], and ducks include the familiar native [[mallard]], plus introduced [[Mandarin duck]] and [[wood duck]]. Other water birds to be found on the Thames include the [[great crested grebe]], [[Eurasian coot|coot]], [[moorhen]], [[grey heron|heron]] and [[European kingfisher|kingfisher]]. Many types of British birds also live alongside the river, although they are not specific to the river habitat.

The Thames contains both sea water and fresh water, thus providing support for seawater and freshwater fish. However, many populations of fish are at risk and are being killed in tens of thousands because of pollutants leaking into the river from human activities.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, ''Thames: The Biography''. 275.</ref> [[Atlantic Salmon|Salmon]], which inhabit both environments, have been reintroduced and a succession of [[fish ladder]]s have been built into [[weir]]s to enable them to travel upstream.

On 5 August 1993, the largest non-tidal salmon in recorded history was caught close to [[Boulters Lock]] in [[Maidenhead]]. The specimen weighed {{cvt|14+1/2|lb|kg}} and measured {{cvt|22|in|cm}} in length. The [[European eel|eel]] is particularly associated with the Thames and there were formerly many eel traps. Freshwater fish of the Thames and its tributaries include [[brown trout]], [[European chub|chub]], [[common dace|dace]], [[common roach|roach]], [[barbel (fish species)|barbel]], [[European perch|perch]], [[northern pike|pike]], [[common bleak|bleak]] and [[flounder]]. Colonies of [[short-snouted seahorse]]s as well as [[School shark|tope]] and [[starry smooth-hound|starry smooth-hound sharks]] have also recently been discovered in the river.<ref>[https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/river-thames-zoological-society-of-london-greenwich-investment-european-b965426.html] The Evening Standard, 10 November 2021</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Greater Thames Shark Project |url=https://www.zsl.org/conservation/regions/uk-europe/thames-conservation/the-greater-thames-shark-project |website=Zoological Society of London (ZSL) |access-date=29 April 2022}}</ref> The Thames is also host to some invasive crustaceans, including the [[signal crayfish]] and the [[Chinese mitten crab]].

Aquatic mammals are also known to inhabit the Thames. The population of [[grey seal|grey]] and [[harbour seal]]s numbers up to 700 in the Thames Estuary. These animals have been sighted as far upriver as Richmond.<ref>{{cite news |author=Stevenson, Chris |date=19 August 2013 |title=Seal count discovers over 700 in Thames Estuary |work=The Independent |location=London |access-date=23 August 2013 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/seal-count-discovers-over-700-in-thames-estuary-8774577.html |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085619/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/seal-count-discovers-over-700-in-thames-estuary-8774577.html |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Common bottlenose dolphin|Bottlenose dolphins]] and [[harbour porpoise]]s are also sighted in the Thames.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2007 |title=Whales, dolphins and seals returning to the Thames |work=Wildlife Extra |access-date=23 August 2013 |url=http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/thames-dolphins.html#cr |archive-date=9 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209155157/http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/thames-dolphins.html#cr |url-status=live}}</ref>

On 20 January 2006, a {{cvt|16–18|ft|m}} northern [[bottle-nosed whale]] was seen in the Thames as far upstream as Chelsea. This was extremely unusual: this whale is generally found in deep sea waters. Crowds gathered along the riverbanks to witness the spectacle but there was soon concern, as the animal came within yards of the banks, almost beaching, and crashed into an empty boat causing slight bleeding. About 12 hours later, the whale is believed to have been seen again near [[Greenwich]], possibly heading back to sea. A rescue attempt lasted several hours, but the whale died on a barge. ''See [[River Thames whale]]''.<ref name=bbcwhale>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4635874.stm |title=Lost whale dies after rescue bid |publisher=BBC News |access-date=22 October 2007 |date=21 January 2006 |archive-date=12 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312121538/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4635874.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

On 25 September 2018, a [[beluga whale]] was spotted off [[Gravesend]], more than {{convert|1000|mi|nmi}} from its habitat in the Arctic.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Weaver |first=Matthew |date=2018-09-25 |title=Beluga whale sighted in Thames estuary off Gravesend |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/25/beluga-whale-sighted-in-thames-estuary-off-gravesend |access-date=2025-07-01 |work=The Guardian |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Nicknamed "[[Benny the Beluga Whale|Benny the Beluga]]",<ref>{{Cite web |last=White |first=Megan |date=2019-01-11 |title=Benny the beluga still thought to be living in Thames, expert says |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/benny-the-beluga-latest-whale-still-thought-to-be-living-in-thames-experts-say-a4036931.html |access-date=2025-07-01 |website=The Standard}}</ref> the male mammal was spotted over the course of three months throughout the Thames. Many researchers believed the animal appeared lost or 'in trouble.' It was last seen in the Cliffe area, east of Gravesend, and is believed to have left the Thames the following January.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-08-02 |title=Benny the beluga whale 'left Thames in January' |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-49199220 |access-date=2025-07-01 |work=BBC News}}</ref>

==Human history==
[[File:Tower of london from swissre.jpg|thumb|The [[Tower of London]] begun in the 11th century, with [[Tower Bridge]], built 800 years later]]
The River Thames has played several roles in human history: as an economic resource, a maritime route, a boundary, a fresh water source, a source of food and more recently a leisure facility. In 1929, [[John Burns]], one-time MP for Battersea, responded to an American's unfavourable comparison of the Thames with the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] by coining the expression "The Thames is liquid history".

There is evidence of human habitation living off the river along its length dating back to [[Neolithic]] times.<ref>{{cite journal |first=P. |last=Needham |year=1985 |title=Neolithic And Bronze Age Settlement on the Buried Floodplains of Runnymede |journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology |volume=4 |issue=2 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0092.1985.tb00237.x |pages=125–137}}</ref> The [[British Museum]] has a decorated bowl (3300–2700 BC), found in the river at [[Hedsor]], Buckinghamshire, and a considerable amount of material was discovered during the excavations of [[Dorney Lake]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lamdin-Whymark |first=H. |year=2001 |title=Neolithic activity on the floodplain of the River Thames at Dorney |journal=Lithics |volume=22}}</ref> A number of [[Bronze Age]] sites and artefacts have been discovered along the banks of the river including settlements at [[Lechlade]], [[Cookham]] and [[Sunbury-on-Thames]].<ref name="british-history1">[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22094 The Physique of Middlesex] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928005454/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22094 |date=28 September 2007}}, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organisation, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 1–10. Date Retrieved 11 August 2007.</ref>

So extensive have the changes to this landscape been that what little evidence there is of man's presence before the ice came has inevitably shown signs of transportation here by water and reveals nothing specifically local. Likewise, later evidence of occupation, even since the arrival of the Romans, may lie next to the original banks of the Brent but have been buried under centuries of silt.<ref name="british-history1"/>

===Roman Britain===
Some of the earliest written references to the Thames ({{langx|la|[[#Name|Tamesis]]}}) occur in [[Julius Caesar]]'s account of his second expedition to Britain in 54 BC,<ref>Gaius Julius Caesar ''De Bello Gallico'', Book 5, §§&nbsp;11, 18</ref> when the Thames presented a major obstacle and he encountered the [[Iron Age]] [[Belgae|Belgic]] tribes ([[Catuvellauni]] and [[Atrebates]]) along the river. At the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell was the site of early settlements and the River Cherwell marked the boundary between the [[Dobunni]] tribe to the west and the Catuvellauni to the east (these were pre-Roman [[Celt]]ic tribes). In the late 1980s a large [[Romano-British]] settlement was excavated on the edge of the village of [[Ashton Keynes]] in Wiltshire.

Starting in AD&nbsp;43, under the [[Claudius|Emperor&nbsp;Claudius]], the [[Roman conquest of Britain|Romans occupied England]] and, recognising the river's strategic and economic importance, built fortifications along the Thames valley including a major camp at [[Dorchester, Oxfordshire|Dorchester]]. [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] and [[Ludgate Hill]] provided a defensible site near a point on the river both deep enough for the era's ships and narrow enough to be bridged; [[Londinium]] (London) grew up around the [[River Walbrook|Walbrook]] on the north bank around the year 47. [[Boudica]]'s [[Iceni]] razed the settlement in AD&nbsp;60 or 61, but it was soon rebuilt; and once the bridge was built, it grew to become the provincial capital of the island.

The next Roman bridges upstream were at [[Staines-upon-Thames|Staines]] on the [[Devil's Highway (Roman Britain)|Devil's Highway]] between Londinium and [[Calleva Atrebatum|Calleva]] ([[Silchester]]). Boats could be swept up to it on the rising tide, with no need for wind or muscle power.

===Middle Ages===
A Romano-British settlement grew up north of the confluence, partly because the site was naturally protected from attack on the east side by the [[River Cherwell]] and on the west by the River Thames. This settlement dominated the pottery trade in what is now central southern England, and pottery was distributed by boats on the Thames and its tributaries.

Competition for the use of the river created the centuries-old conflict between those who wanted to dam the river to build millraces and fish traps and those who wanted to travel and carry goods on it. Economic prosperity and the foundation of wealthy monasteries by the [[Anglo-Saxons]] attracted unwelcome visitors and by around AD 870 the [[Vikings]] were sweeping up the Thames on the tide and creating havoc as in their destruction of [[Chertsey Abbey]].

[[File:London Bridge (1616) by Claes Van Visscher.jpg|thumb|A 1616 engraving by [[Claes Van Visscher]] showing the [[Old London Bridge]], with St Mary's Overie (over-the-river), now [[Southwark Cathedral]] in the foreground]]

Once [[William I of England|King William]] had won total control of the strategically important Thames Valley, he went on to invade the rest of England. He had many castles built, including those at [[Wallingford Castle|Wallingford]], [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]] and most importantly the [[Tower of London]]. Many details of Thames activity are recorded in the [[Domesday Book]]. The following centuries saw the conflict between king and barons coming to a head in AD 1215 when [[John, King of England|King John]] was forced to sign [[Magna Carta]] on an island in the Thames at [[Runnymede]]. Among a host of other things, this granted the barons the right of Navigation under Clause 23.

Another major consequence of John's reign was the completion of the multi-piered [[London Bridge]], which acted as a barricade and barrage on the river, affecting the tidal flow upstream and increasing the likelihood of the river freezing over. In [[Tudor period|Tudor]] and [[Stuart period|Stuart]] times, various kings and queens built magnificent riverside palaces at [[Hampton Court Palace|Hampton Court]], [[Kew]], [[Richmond on Thames]], [[Whitehall]] and [[Greenwich]].

As early as the 1300s, the Thames was used to dispose of waste matter produced in the city of London, thus turning the river into an open sewer. In 1357, [[Edward III]] described the state of the river in a proclamation: "... dung and other filth had accumulated in divers places upon the banks of the river with ... fumes and other abominable stenches arising therefrom."<ref name="autogenerated2007">Peter Ackroyd, Thames: The Biography, New York: Doubleday, 2007. "Filthy River"</ref>

The growth of the population of London greatly increased the amount of waste that entered the river, including human excrement, animal waste from slaughter houses, and waste from manufacturing processes. According to historian Peter Ackroyd, "a public lavatory on London Bridge showered its contents directly onto the river below, and latrines were built over all the tributaries that issued into the Thames."<ref name="autogenerated2007"/>

===Early modern period===
[[File:Frost Fair on the Thames, with Old London Bridge in the distance - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[River Thames frost fair]], {{Circa|1685}}]]

The Stuart monarchs and the City of London organised pageants on the river, including ''[[London's Love to Prince Henry]]'' in May 1610,<ref>David M. Bergeron, ''The Duke of Lennox, 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life'' (Edinburgh, 2022), pp. 78–79.</ref> and a theatrical sea battle for the [[Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate]] in February 1613.<ref>[[Nadine Akkerman]], ''Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts'' (Oxford, 2022), p. 85.</ref> During a [[Little Ice Age|series of cold winters]] the Thames froze over above London Bridge: in the first [[Thames frost fairs|Frost Fair]] in 1607, a tent city was set up on the river, along with a number of amusements, including ice bowling. 

In good conditions, barges travelled daily from Oxford to London carrying timber, wool, foodstuffs and livestock. The stone from the [[Cotswolds]] used to rebuild [[St Paul's Cathedral]] after the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] in 1666 was brought all the way down from [[Radcot]]. The Thames provided the major route between the City of London and Westminster in the 16th and 17th centuries; the clannish guild of watermen ferried Londoners from landing to landing and tolerated no outside interference. In 1715, [[Thomas Doggett]] was so grateful to a local waterman for his efforts in ferrying him home, pulling against the tide, that he set up a rowing race for professional watermen known as "[[Doggett's Coat and Badge]]".

[[File:FaradayFatherThames.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Michael Faraday]] giving his card to Father Thames'', caricature commenting on a letter of Faraday's [[Great Stink|on the state of the river]] in ''[[The Times]]'' in July 1855]]

By the 18th century, the Thames was one of the world's busiest waterways, as London became the centre of the vast, mercantile [[British Empire]], and progressively over the next century the docks expanded in the [[Isle of Dogs]] and beyond. Efforts were made to resolve the navigation conflicts upstream by building locks along the Thames. After temperatures began to rise again, starting in 1814, the river stopped freezing over.<ref name=freeze2>{{cite web |title=Frost Fairs, London, UK |date=11 March 2003 |url=https://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A970733 |publisher=BBC |access-date=21 March 2007 |archive-date=6 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106190310/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A970733 |url-status=live}}</ref> The building of a new [[London Bridge]] in 1825, with fewer [[pier (architecture)|piers]] (pillars) than the old, allowed the river to flow more freely and prevented it from freezing over in cold winters.<ref name=freeze1>{{cite web |title=London, River Thames and Tower Bridge |url=http://www.vrlondon.co.uk/london_virtual_tour/source/lon7.html |publisher=VR London |access-date=21 March 2007 |archive-date=16 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516023416/http://www.vrlondon.co.uk/london_virtual_tour/source/lon7.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Throughout early modern history the population of London and its industries discarded their rubbish in the river.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/external/la21/articles/stink.htm |title=Thames and Waterways |publisher=London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham |access-date=17 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415055701/http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/external/la21/articles/stink.htm |archive-date=15 April 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> This included the waste from slaughterhouses, fish markets, and tanneries. The buildup in household cesspools could sometimes overflow, especially when it rained, and was washed into London's streets and sewers which eventually led to the Thames.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Jonathan Schneer |first=Jonathan |last=Schneer |title=The Thames |pages=145–146 |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2005 |isbn=9780300107869}}</ref> In the late 18th and 19th centuries people known as [[mudlark]]s scavenged in the river mud for a meagre living.

===Victorian era===
[[File:Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water. Wellcome V0011218.jpg|thumb|left|Satirical cartoon by [[William Heath (artist)|William Heath]], showing a woman observing monsters in a drop of London water (at the time of the ''Commission on the London Water Supply'' report, 1828)]]

In the 19th century the quality of water in the Thames deteriorated further. The discharge of raw [[sewage]] into the Thames was formerly only common in the [[City of London]], making its tideway a harbour for many harmful bacteria. [[Gasworks]] were built alongside the river, and their by-products leaked into the water, including spent lime, ammonia, cyanide, and [[phenol|carbolic acid]]. The river had an unnaturally warm temperature caused by chemical reactions in the water, which also removed the water's oxygen.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, "Thames: Sacred River" 272–273</ref> Four serious cholera outbreaks killed tens of thousands of people between 1832 and 1865. Historians have attributed [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert's]] death in 1861 to typhoid that had spread in the river's dirty waters beside Windsor Castle.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Wells with [[water table]]s that mixed with tributaries (or the non-tidal Thames) faced such pollution with the widespread installation of the [[flush toilet]] in the 1850s.<ref name="autogenerated1">Peter Ackroyd, ''Thames: The Biography''. 272 & 274.</ref> In the '[[Great Stink|Great Stink' of 1858]], pollution in the river reached such an extreme that sittings of the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] at Westminster had to be abandoned. Chlorine-soaked drapes were hung in the windows of Parliament in an attempt to stave off the smell of the river, but to no avail.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, "Thames: Sacred River" 272</ref>

There followed a concerted effort to contain the city's sewage by constructing massive [[Combined sewer|sewer systems]] on the north and south river embankments, under the supervision of engineer [[Joseph Bazalgette]]. Meanwhile, there were similar huge projects to ensure the water supply: reservoirs and pumping stations were built on the river to the west of London, slowly helping the quality of water to improve.

The [[Victorian era]] was one of imaginative engineering. The coming of the railways added railway bridges to the earlier road bridges and also reduced commercial activity on the river. However, sporting and leisure use increased with the establishment of [[regatta]]s such as [[Henley Royal Regatta|Henley]] and [[the Boat Race]]. One of the worst river disasters in England was on 3 September 1878, when the crowded pleasure boat {{SS|Princess Alice|1865|2}} collided with the ''Bywell Castle'', killing over 640 people.

===20th century===
[[File:London from above MLD 051002 003.jpg|thumb|The Thames as it flows through east London, with the [[Isle of Dogs]] in the centre]]

The growth of [[road transport]], and the decline of the [[British Empire|Empire]] in the years following 1914, reduced the economic prominence of the river. During the [[Second World War]], the protection of certain Thames-side facilities, particularly docks and water treatment plants, was crucial to the munitions and water supply of the country. The river's defences included the [[Maunsell fort]]s in the estuary, and the use of [[barrage balloons]] to counter [[Luftwaffe|German bombers]] using the reflectivity and shapes of the river to navigate during [[the Blitz]].

In the post-war era, although the [[Port of London#The Port today|Port of London]] remains one of the UK's three main ports, most trade has moved downstream from central London. In the late 1950s, the discharge of methane gas in the depths of the river caused the water to bubble, and the toxins wore away at boats' propellers.<ref>Peter Ackroyd "Thames: Sacred River" 274</ref>

The decline of heavy industry and tanneries, reduced use of oil-pollutants and improved sewage treatment have led to much better water quality compared to the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries and aquatic life has returned to its formerly 'dead' stretches.

Alongside the entire river runs the [[Thames Path]], a National Route for walkers and cyclists.

In the early 1980s a pioneering flood control device, the [[Thames Barrier]], was opened. It is closed to tides several times a year to prevent water damage to London's low-lying areas upstream (the [[1928 Thames flood]] demonstrated the severity of this type of event).
[[File:A London Mosaic.jpg|thumb|A view of the Thames as it passes through London, composed of 29 photos taken from the ISS in 2021]]
In the late 1990s, the {{cvt|7|mi|km|0|adj=on}} long [[Jubilee River]] was built as a wide "naturalistic" flood relief channel from [[Taplow]] to [[Eton, Berkshire|Eton]] to help reduce the flood risk in [[Maidenhead]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]] and Eton,<ref>[[Environment Agency]] (2005). ''[http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/recreation/345623/631029/346131/348128/349190/349293/?lang=_e&theme=&region=&subject=&searchfor=Jubilee+River&any_all=all&choose_order=&exactphrase=&withoutwords=&exclude_itemtype=Station%2C&include_itemtype=Acrobat%20Document%2CAttached%20File_e%2CAttached%20File_w%2CHTML%20Page%2C Jubilee River] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225045649/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/recreation/345623/631029/346131/348128/349190/349293/?lang=_e&theme=&region=&subject=&searchfor=Jubilee+River&any_all=all&choose_order=&exactphrase=&withoutwords=&exclude_itemtype=Station%2C&include_itemtype=Acrobat%20Document%2CAttached%20File_e%2CAttached%20File_w%2CHTML%20Page%2C |date=25 February 2010}} ''.</ref> although it appears to have increased flooding in the villages immediately downstream.

===21st century===
In 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world: the $350,000 International Riverprize.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://riverfoundation.org.au/our-programs/riverprize/international-riverprize/ |website=riverfoundation.org.au |title=Thiess International Riverprize – International RiverFoundation |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=1 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801131913/http://riverfoundation.org.au/our-programs/riverprize/international-riverprize/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2022, the first few miles of the river dried up due to the previous month's heatwave, and the source of the river temporarily moved five miles to beyond [[Somerford Keynes]].<ref name="New source of River Thames">{{cite news |date=5 August 2022 |title=Source of the River Thames moves fives miles for first time in its history |publisher=Gloucestershire Live |url=https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/source-river-thames-moves-fives-7428122 |access-date=12 August 2022}}</ref>

==The active river==
[[File:Houseboats - Richmond, London, UK.jpg|thumb|[[Houseboat]]s on the River Thames, in the [[St Margarets, London|St Margaret's, Twickenham]] district]]
One of the major resources provided by the Thames is the water distributed as drinking water by [[Thames Water]], whose area of responsibility covers the length of the River Thames. The [[Thames Water Ring Main]] is the main distribution mechanism for water in London, with one major loop linking the [[Hampton, London|Hampton]], [[Walton-on-Thames|Walton]], [[Ashford, Surrey|Ashford]] and [[Kempton Park, Surrey|Kempton Park]] Water Treatment Works with central London.

In the past, commercial activities on the Thames included fishing (particularly eel trapping), [[coppicing]] [[willow]]s and [[Osier bed|osiers]] which provided wood and baskets, and the operation of [[watermill]]s for flour and paper production and metal beating. These activities have largely disappeared.

The Thames is popular for a wide variety of riverside housing, including high-rise flats in central London and chalets on the banks and islands upstream. Some people live in houseboats, typically around [[Brentford]] and [[Tagg's Island]].

===Transport and tourism===

====Tidal river====
{{main|London River Services}}
[[File:Waterloo Pier 1.jpg|thumb|Passenger service on the River Thames]]
In London there are many sightseeing tours in tourist boats, past riverside attractions such as the [[Houses of Parliament]] and the [[Tower of London]]. There are also regular riverboat services co-ordinated by [[London River Services]]. [[London City Airport]] is situated on the Thames, in East London. Previously it was a dock.

====Upper river====
The leisure navigation and sporting activities on the river have given rise to a number of businesses including boatbuilding, marinas, ships chandlers and salvage services.

In summer, passenger services operate along the entire non-tidal river from Oxford to Teddington. The two largest operators are [[Salters Steamers]] and French Brothers. Salters operate services between [[Folly Bridge]], Oxford and Staines. The whole journey takes four days and requires several changes of boat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.salterssteamers.co.uk/trips.htm |title=Salters Steamers website |work=Salterssteamers.co.uk |access-date=17 May 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529030233/http://www.salterssteamers.co.uk/trips.htm |archive-date=29 May 2010}}</ref> French Brothers operate passenger services between Maidenhead and Hampton Court.<ref>{{cite web |title=French Brothers |url=http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/FrenchBros.html |publisher=Simplon |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=22 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200922032412/http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/FrenchBros.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
Along the course of the river a number of smaller private companies also offer river trips at Oxford, Wallingford, Reading and Hampton Court.<ref>{{cite web |author=Hart, Dorothy |url=http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/leisure.htm |title=Floating Down the River website |work=The-river-thames.co.uk |date=1 January 2000 |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=1 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701005259/http://www.the-river-thames.co.uk/leisure.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Many companies also provide boat hire on the river.

====Cable car====
[[File:Emirates Air Line towers 24 May 2012.jpg|thumb|The London Cable Car, over the River Thames]]

The [[London Cable Car]] over the Thames from the [[Greenwich Peninsula]] to the [[Royal Docks]] has been in operation since the [[2012 Summer Olympics]].

===Police and lifeboats===
[[File:2023-06-18 NINA MACKAY III - MMSI 232043472.jpg|thumb|Metropolitan Marine Policing Unit patrol vessel, ''Nina Mackay III'', on the Thames River in London]]
The river is policed by five police forces. The [[Marine Support Unit|Thames Division]] is the River Police arm of London's [[Metropolitan Police]], while [[Surrey Police]], [[Thames Valley Police]], [[Essex Police]] and [[Kent Police]] have responsibilities on their parts of the river outside the metropolitan area. There is also a [[London Fire Brigade]] fire boat on the river. The river claims a number of lives each year.<ref>BBC News, 24 July 2014 {{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28456639 |title=Deaths in the River Thames reached 15 last year |publisher=BBC News |language=en-GB |access-date=23 January 2019 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085624/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-28456639 |url-status=live}}.</ref>

As a result of the [[Marchioness disaster]] in 1989 when 51 people died, the [[UK government|Government]] asked the [[Maritime and Coastguard Agency]], the [[Port of London Authority]] and the [[Royal National Lifeboat Institution]] (RNLI) to work together to set up a dedicated Search and Rescue service for the tidal River Thames. As a result, there are four [[lifeboat station]]s on the River Thames: at [[Teddington Lifeboat Station|Teddington]], [[Chiswick Lifeboat Station|Chiswick]], [[Tower Lifeboat Station|Tower]] (based at [[Victoria Embankment]]/[[Waterloo Bridge]]) and [[Gravesend Lifeboat Station|Gravesend]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1739401.stm |publisher=BBC News |date=2 January 2002 |title=Thames lifeboat service launched |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=26 May 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040526015753/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1739401.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Navigation===
[[File:river.thames.viewfromtowerbridge.london.arp.jpg|thumb|Pool of London looking west, from the high-level walkway on [[Tower Bridge]]]]
[[File:Carpathia Unloading at Tilbury docks - geograph.org.uk - 2091919.jpg|thumb|A container ship unloading at Northfleet Hope terminal, [[Port of Tilbury|Tilbury]]]]
[[File:MV Geeststroom on Thames - geograph.org.uk - 360501.jpg|thumb|A ship heading downstream past [[Coryton Refinery]]]]
[[File:River Thames Rubbish Trap, London - Dec 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Waste|Rubbish]] traps are used on the Thames to filter [[debris]] as it flows through central London.]]
The Thames is maintained for navigation by powered craft from the estuary as far as [[Lechlade]] in Gloucestershire and for very small craft to [[Cricklade]]. The original [[towpath]] extends upstream from [[Putney Bridge]] as far as the connection with the now disused [[Thames and Severn Canal]] at [[Inglesham]], one and a half miles upstream of the [[St John's Lock|last boat lock]] near [[Lechlade]]. From Teddington Lock to the head of navigation, the navigation authority is the [[Environment Agency]]. Between the sea and [[Teddington Lock]], the river forms part of the [[Port of London]] and navigation is administered by the [[Port of London Authority]]. Both the tidal river through London and the non-tidal river upstream are intensively used for leisure navigation.

The non-tidal River Thames is divided into reaches by the 45 [[lock (water transport)|locks]]. The locks are staffed for the greater part of the day, but can be operated by experienced users out of hours. This part of the Thames links to existing navigations at the [[River Wey Navigation]], the [[River Kennet]] and the [[Oxford Canal]]. All craft using it must be licensed. The [[Environment Agency]] has patrol boats (named after tributaries of the Thames) and can enforce the limit strictly since river traffic usually has to pass through a lock at some stage. A speed limit of {{cvt|8|km/h|kn|1}} applies. There are pairs of [[Navigation transit markers|transit markers]] at various points along the non-tidal river that can be used to check speed – a boat travelling legally taking a minute or more to pass between the two markers.

The tidal river is navigable to large ocean-going ships as far upstream as the [[Pool of London]] and [[London Bridge]]. Although London's upstream enclosed docks have closed and central London sees only the occasional visiting [[cruise ship]] or [[naval ship|warship]], the tidal river remains one of Britain's main ports. Around 60 active terminals cater for shipping of all types including [[ro-ro]] ferries, cruise liners and vessels carrying [[Containerization|containers]], vehicles, timber, grain, paper, [[Petroleum|crude oil]], [[petroleum products]], [[liquified petroleum gas]] etc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.portoflondon.co.uk/siteimages/port%20promotion/Terminal%20location%20map%20(full).jpg |access-date=12 May 2008 |author=Port of London Authority |title=Terminal locations |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527201816/http://www.portoflondon.co.uk/siteimages/port%20promotion/Terminal%20location%20map%20(full).jpg |archive-date=27 May 2008 |url-status=dead}}</ref> There is a regular traffic of [[Construction aggregate|aggregate]] or [[waste|refuse]] vessels, operating from [[wharf|wharves]] in the west of London. The tidal Thames links to the canal network at the [[River Lea Navigation]], the [[Regent's Canal]] at [[Limehouse Basin]] and the [[Grand Union Canal]] at Brentford.

Upstream of [[Wandsworth Bridge]] a speed limit of {{cvt|8|kn|km/h|0}} is in force for powered craft to protect the riverbank environment and to provide safe conditions for rowers and other river users. There is no absolute speed limit on most of the Tideway downstream of Wandsworth Bridge, although boats are not allowed to create undue wash. Powered boats are limited to 12 knots between [[Lambeth Bridge]] and downstream of Tower Bridge, with some exceptions. Boats can be approved by the [[harbourmaster]] to travel at speeds of up to 30 knots from below Tower Bridge to past the Thames Barrier.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thames Bylaws 2012 |author=Port of London |page=20 |url=http://www.pla.co.uk/assets/120529_Thames_Byelaws1.pdf |access-date=24 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305232657/http://www.pla.co.uk/assets/120529_Thames_Byelaws1.pdf |archive-date=5 March 2014}}</ref>

====Management====
The administrative powers of the [[Thames Conservancy]] to control river traffic and manage flows have been taken on with some modifications by the [[Environment Agency]] and, in respect of the Tideway part of the river, such powers are split between the agency and the [[Port of London Authority]].

In the Middle Ages [[the Crown]] exercised general jurisdiction over the Thames, one of the four royal rivers, and appointed [[water bailiff]]s to oversee the river upstream of Staines. The City of London exercised jurisdiction over the tidal Thames. However, navigation was increasingly impeded by weirs and mills, and in the 14th century the river probably ceased to be navigable for heavy traffic between Henley and Oxford. In the late 16th century the river seems to have been reopened for navigation from Henley to [[Burcot, Oxfordshire|Burcot]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22808 |title=Victoria County History of Oxfordshire: Rivers and river navigation |publisher=British-history.ac.uk |access-date=17 May 2010 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085632/https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/oxon/vol4/pp284-295 |url-status=live}}</ref>

The first commission concerned with the management of the river was the [[Oxford-Burcot Commission]], formed in 1605 to make the river navigable between Burcot and Oxford.

In 1751 the [[Thames Navigation Commission]] was formed to manage the whole non-tidal river above Staines. The [[City of London]] long claimed responsibility for the tidal river. A long running dispute between the City and the Crown over ownership of the river was not settled until 1857, when the [[Thames Conservancy]] was formed to manage the river from Staines downstream. In 1866 the functions of the Thames Navigation Commission were transferred to the Thames Conservancy, which thus had responsibility for the whole river.

In 1909 the powers of the Thames Conservancy over the tidal river, below Teddington, were transferred to the [[Port of London Authority]].

In 1974 the Thames Conservancy became part of the new [[Thames Water Authority]]. When Thames Water was privatised in 1990, its river management functions were transferred to the [[National Rivers Authority]], in 1996 subsumed into the [[Environment Agency]].

In 2010, the Thames won the world's largest environmental award at the time, the $350,000 International Riverprize, presented at the International Riversymposium in Perth, WA in recognition of the substantial and sustained restoration of the river by many hundreds of organisations and individuals since the 1950s.

===As a boundary===
Until enough crossings were established, the river presented a formidable barrier, with Belgic tribes and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms being defined by which side of the river they were on. When English counties were established their boundaries were partly determined by the Thames. On the northern bank were the ancient counties of [[Gloucestershire]], Oxfordshire, [[Buckinghamshire]], [[Middlesex]] and [[Essex]]. On the southern bank were the counties of [[Wiltshire]], Berkshire, [[Surrey]] and [[Kent]].

Counting bridges to the far bank or to an island connected to such, the Thames has 223. From source to mouth a channel can be found with 138 bridges, plus the temporary footbridge often added during [[Reading Festival]]. The river is heavily splayed in [[Ashton Keynes]] and [[Oxford]]. Where the river is wide 17 tunnels that have been built, many of which for rail or notable electricity cables. The crossings have changed the dynamics and made cross-river development and shared responsibilities more practicable. In 1965, upon the creation of [[Greater London]], the [[London Borough of Richmond upon Thames]] incorporated the former 'Middlesex and Surrey' banks, [[Borough of Spelthorne|Spelthorne]] moved from Middlesex to Surrey; and further changes in 1974 moved some of the boundaries away from the river. For example, some areas were transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from Buckinghamshire to Berkshire. In many river sports and traditions – for example in rowing – the banks are referred to by their traditional county names.

===Crossings===
{{Main|List of crossings of the River Thames}}

[[File:Newbridge, Oxfordshire.jpg|thumb|[[Newbridge, Oxfordshire|Newbridge]], in rural Oxfordshire]]
[[File:Railway bridge Maidenhead.jpeg|thumb|The Railway bridge at [[Maidenhead, Berkshire|Maidenhead]]]]
[[File:London millennium wobbly bridge.jpg|thumb|The [[Millennium Bridge (London)|Millennium Footbridge]] with [[St Paul's Cathedral]] in the background]]

Many of the present-day road bridges are on the site of earlier fords, ferries and wooden bridges. [[Swinford Bridge]], known as the five pence toll bridge, replaced a ferry that in turn replaced a ford. The earliest known major crossings of the Thames by the Romans were at [[London Bridge]] and [[Staines Bridge]]. At [[Folly Bridge]] in Oxford the remains of an original Saxon structure can be seen, and medieval stone bridges such as [[Newbridge, Oxfordshire|Newbridge]], [[Wallingford Bridge]]<ref>{{cite book |title=The Victoria history of Berkshire |last1=Ditchfield |first1=P. H. |last2=Page |first2=William |date=1906 |publisher=Constable |location=London |doi=10.5962/bhl.title.28982 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/28982 |access-date=31 May 2021 |archive-date=11 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611232657/https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/28982 |url-status=live}}</ref> and [[Abingdon Bridge]] are still in use.

Kingston's growth is believed to stem from its having the only crossing between London Bridge and Staines until the beginning of the 18th century. During the 18th century, many stone and brick road bridges were built from new or to replace existing bridges both in London and along the length of the river. These included [[Putney Bridge]], [[Westminster Bridge]], [[Datchet Bridge]], [[Windsor Bridge]] and [[Sonning Bridge]].

Several central London road bridges were built in the 19th century, most conspicuously [[Tower Bridge]], the only [[Bascule bridge]] on the river, designed to allow ocean-going ships to pass beneath it. The most recent road bridges are the bypasses at [[Isis Bridge]] and [[Marlow By-pass Bridge]] and the motorway bridges, most notably the two on the [[M25 motorway|M25]] route: [[Queen Elizabeth II Bridge]] and [[M25 Runnymede Bridge]].

Railway development in the 19th century resulted in a spate of bridge building including [[Blackfriars Railway Bridge]] and [[Hungerford Bridge|Charing Cross (Hungerford) Railway Bridge]] in central London, and the railway bridges by [[Isambard Kingdom Brunel]] at [[Maidenhead Railway Bridge]], [[Gatehampton Railway Bridge]] and [[Moulsford Railway Bridge]].

The world's first underwater tunnel was Marc Brunel's [[Thames Tunnel]] built in 1843 and now used to carry the [[East London Line]]. The [[Tower Subway]] was the first railway under the Thames, which was followed by all the deep-level tube lines. Road tunnels were built in East London at the end of the 19th century, being the [[Blackwall Tunnel]] and the [[Rotherhithe Tunnel]]. The latest tunnels are the [[Dartford Crossing]]s.

Many foot crossings were established across the weirs that were built on the non-tidal river, and some of these remained when the locks were built – for example at [[Benson Lock]]. Others were replaced by a footbridge when the weir was removed as at [[Hart's Weir Footbridge]]. Around 2000, several footbridges were added along the Thames, either as part of the Thames Path or in commemoration of the millennium. These include [[Temple Footbridge]], [[Bloomers Hole Footbridge]], the [[Hungerford Footbridge]]s and the [[London Millennium Bridge|Millennium Bridge]], all of which have distinctive design characteristics.

Before bridges were built, the main means of crossing the river was by ferry. A significant number of ferries were provided specifically for navigation purposes. When the [[towpath]] changed sides, it was necessary to take the towing horse and its driver across the river. This was no longer necessary when barges were powered by steam. Some ferries still operate on the river. The [[Woolwich Ferry]] carries cars and passengers across the river in the Thames Gateway and links the [[North Circular]] and [[South Circular Road, London|South Circular]] roads. Upstream are smaller pedestrian ferries, for example [[Hampton Ferry (River Thames)|Hampton Ferry]] and [[Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry]], the last being the only non-permanent crossing that remains on the Thames Path.

===Hydro-power===
Whilst the use of the river to drive water-mills has largely died out, there has been a recent trend to use the head of water provided by the river's existing weirs to drive small [[hydro-electric]] power plants, using [[Archimedes screw turbine]]s. Operational schemes include:
* A privately owned plant opened at [[Mapledurham Watermill]] in 2011, running in parallel to the [[waterwheel]] driven [[corn mill]] that still operates occasionally.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cassell |first1=Paul |title=Hydroelectric power comes to Mapledurham |url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/hydroelectric-power-comes-to-mapledurham-4207122 |access-date=22 October 2019 |publisher=Berkshire Live |date=1 November 2011 |archive-date=11 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200611204658/https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/hydroelectric-power-comes-to-mapledurham-4207122 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* A hydro-electric plant at [[Romney Lock]] to power [[Windsor Castle]] using two Archimedes' screws, opened in 2013 by [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{cite news |title=The Queen goes gree: hydroelectric turbines arrive at Windsor Castle |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8749107/The-Queen-goes-green-hydroelectric-turbines-arrive-at-Windsor-Castle.html |access-date=27 August 2020 |work=Telegraph |date=8 September 2011 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085623/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/8749107/The-Queen-goes-green-hydroelectric-turbines-arrive-at-Windsor-Castle.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Osney Lock Hydro]], a community owned scheme at [[Osney Lock]] in [[Oxford]], also opened in 2013.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.osneylockhydro.co.uk/about-us/ |title=About Us |publisher=Osney Lock Hydro |access-date=15 February 2022 |archive-date=28 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228070106/http://www.osneylockhydro.co.uk/about-us/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Sandford Hydro]], a community owned scheme at [[Sandford Lock]] to the south of Oxford, opened in 2017.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/p/projects/sandford-hydro/ |title=Sandford Hydro |publisher=Low Carbon Hub |access-date=15 February 2022 |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215164843/https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/p/projects/sandford-hydro/ |url-status=live}}</ref>
* [[Reading Hydro]], a community owned scheme at [[Caversham Lock]] in [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]], opened in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/p/projects/sandford-hydro/ |title=Reading Hydro Official Opening Ceremony |publisher=Reading Hydro CBS |access-date=14 February 2022 |archive-date=15 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215164843/https://www.lowcarbonhub.org/p/projects/sandford-hydro/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Pollution==

===Treated and untreated sewage===
Treated [[sewage|waste water]] from all the towns and villages in the Thames catchment flow into the Thames via sewage treatment plants. This includes all that from Swindon, Oxford, Berkshire and almost all of Surrey.

However, untreated sewage still often enters the Thames during wet weather. When [[London sewerage system|London's sewerage system]] was built, sewers were designed to overflow through discharge points along the river during heavy storms. Originally, this would happen once or twice a year; however, overflows now happen once a week on average.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.tideway.london/the-tunnel/history/ |website=Reconnecting London with the River Thames |publisher=Tideway |title=History |access-date= |archive-date=14 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170914165600/https://www.tideway.london/the-tunnel/history/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> In 2013, over 55{{abbreviation|m|million}} tonnes of dilute raw sewage overflowed into the tidal Thames. These discharge events kill fish, leave raw sewage on the riverbanks, and decrease the water quality of the river.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jun/09/fish-thames-sewage |title=Thousands of fish dead after Thames sewerage overflow |last=Vidal |first=John |date=9 June 2011 |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 February 2018 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085623/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/jun/09/fish-thames-sewage |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/22/water-thames-victorian-london-150-years-sewer-system |title=Water, super-sewers and the filth threatening the River Thames |last=Jeffries |first=Stuart |date=22 July 2014 |work=The Guardian |access-date=18 February 2018 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085636/https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/22/water-thames-victorian-london-150-years-sewer-system |url-status=live}}</ref> A 2022 investigation by the Environment Agency found "widespread and serious non-compliance with the relevant regulations".<ref>{{cite news |last=Laville |first=Sandra |date=13 May 2022 |title=Sewage dumps into English rivers widespread, criminal inquiry suspects |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/may/13/sewage-dumps-into-english-rivers-widespread-criminal-inquiry-suspects |access-date=21 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Update on Environment Agency Investigation - Creating a better place |url=https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2022/05/12/update-on-environment-agency-investigation/ |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=environmentagency.blog.gov.uk |date=12 May 2022}}</ref> Thames Water has also published an interactive map showing discharges as they happen.<ref>{{cite news |last=Laville |first=Sandra |date=23 January 2023 |title=Thames Water's real-time map confirms raw sewage discharges |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/23/thames-waters-real-time-map-raw-sewage-discharges-rivers |access-date=21 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=EDM Map {{!}} Storm discharge data {{!}} River health |url=https://www.thameswater.co.uk/edm-map |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=Thames Water}}</ref>

To reduce the release of this into the river, the [[Thames Tideway Scheme]] was constructed at a cost of £5&nbsp;billion. It was completed in February 2025 after delays and additional costs because of the COVID-19 Pandemic.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tideway sewer hits nine-month delay |url=https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/tideway-sewer-hits-nine-month-delay |website=www.theconstructionindex.co.uk |access-date=2025-04-25}}</ref> This project collects sewage from the Greater London area before it [[Combined sewage overflow|overflows]], channelling it down a 25&nbsp;km (15&nbsp;mi) tunnel underneath the tidal Thames, so that it can be treated at [[Beckton Sewage Treatment Works]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.tideway.london |title=Reconnecting London with the River Thames |work=Tideway |access-date=18 February 2018 |archive-date=19 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180219090209/https://www.tideway.london/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-29175607 |title='Super sewer' plans to go ahead |date=12 September 2014 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=18 February 2018 |language=en-GB |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085643/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-29175607 |url-status=live}}</ref> The project is intended to reduce sewage discharges into the Thames in the Greater London area by 90%, dramatically increasing water quality.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.tideway.london/the-tunnel/river-ecology/ |title=River Ecology |website=Reconnecting London with the River Thames |publisher=Tideway |access-date= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180218210432/https://www.tideway.london/the-tunnel/river-ecology/ |archive-date=18 February 2018 |url-status=dead}}</ref> It is estimated that two million tonnes of sewage will still enter the Thames each year.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=London's super sewer won't solve the city's epic poop problem |language=en-GB |magazine=Wired UK |url=https://www.wired.co.uk/article/sewage-environment-climate-change-london |access-date=21 April 2023 |issn=1357-0978}}</ref>

===Mercury levels===
[[Mercury (element)|Mercury]] (Hg) is an environmentally persistent heavy metal which can be toxic to [[marine life]] and humans. Sixty sediment cores of 1 m in depth, spanning the entire tidal River Thames between [[Brentford]] and the [[Isle of Grain]], have been analysed for total Hg. The sediment records show a clear rise and fall of Hg pollution through history.<ref name="Rise and fall of Mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK.">{{Citation |url=http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/511959/1/Vane%20etal.%202015_RSE_Thames%20Hg.pdf |title=Rise and fall of Mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK. |last1=Vane |first1=C.H. |last2=Beriro |first2=D. |last3=Turner |first3=G. |date=2015 |journal=Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |doi=10.1017/s1755691015000158 |volume=105 |issue=4 |pages=285–296 |access-date=17 June 2016 |archive-date=12 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160812021715/http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/511959/1/Vane%20etal.%202015_RSE_Thames%20Hg.pdf |url-status=live |doi-access=free}}</ref> Mercury concentrations in the River Thames decrease downstream from London to the outer Estuary, with the total Hg levels ranging from 0.01 to 12.07&nbsp;mg/kg, giving a mean of 2.10&nbsp;mg/kg which is higher than many other UK and European river estuaries.<ref name=" Mercury contamination in surface sediments and sediment cores of the Mersey Estuary, UK. ">{{cite journal |url=http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/7405/1/Vane_et_al__2009_Mersey_Hg_9_3_09.pdf |title=Mercury contamination in surface sediments and sediment cores of the Mersey Estuary, UK. |last1=Vane |first1=C. H. |last2=Jones |first2=D. G. |last3=Lister |first3=T. R. |date=2009 |journal=Marine Pollution Bulletin |doi=10.1016/j.marpolbul.2009.03.006 |pmid=19356771 |volume=58 |issue=6 |pages=940–946 |bibcode=2009MarPB..58..940V |access-date=27 August 2020 }}</ref><ref name=" Rise and fall of Mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK."/>

The most sedimentary-hosted Hg pollution in the Thames estuary occurs in the central London area between Vauxhall Bridge and Woolwich.<ref name=" Rise and fall of Mercury (Hg) pollution in sediment cores of the Thames Estuary, London, UK."/> The majority of sediment cores show a clear decrease in Hg concentrations close to the surface, which is attributed to an overall reduction in polluting activities as well as improved effectiveness of recent environmental legalisation and river management (e.g. Oslo-Paris convention).

=== Plastic pollution ===
The Thames has relatively high levels of plastic pollution, with an estimated 94,000 [[microplastics]] per second moving through some parts of the river. These microplastics come from the breakdown of larger items but also glitter and microbeads from cosmetics.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 July 2020 |title=River Thames 'severely polluted with plastic' |language=en-GB |publisher=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-53479635 |access-date=21 April 2023}}</ref>

One study found one-fifth of macroplastics found in the river were from food packaging.<ref>{{cite web |last=Quadri |first=Sami |date=22 November 2022 |title=Food wrappers make up '20 per cent of lightweight plastic in Thames' |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/food-wrappers-river-thames-london-plastic-pollution-b1041511.html |access-date=21 April 2023 |website=Evening Standard}}</ref>

==Sport==
There are several watersports prevalent on the Thames, with many clubs encouraging participation and organising racing and inter-club competitions.

===Rowing===
{{Main|Rowing on the River Thames}}
[[File:Finish of 2007 Oxford-Cambridge boat race.JPG|thumb|Cambridge cross the finish line ahead of Oxford in the 2007 [[The Boat Race|Boat Race]], viewed from Chiswick Bridge.]]

The Thames is the historic heartland of [[sport rowing|rowing]] in the United Kingdom. There are over 200 clubs on the river, and over 8,000 members of [[British Rowing]] (over 40% of its membership).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britishrowing.org/2011/12/clubs-celebrate-17-4-million-inspired-facilities-funding/ |title=Clubs celebrate £17.4&nbsp;million Inspired Facilities funding |publisher=British Rowing |date=22 December 2011 |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=26 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926000324/https://www.britishrowing.org/2011/12/clubs-celebrate-17-4-million-inspired-facilities-funding/ |url-status=live}}</ref> Most towns and districts of any size on the river have at least one club. Internationally attended centres are [[Oxford]], [[Henley-on-Thames]] and events and clubs on the stretch of river from [[Chiswick]] to [[Putney]].

Two rowing events on the River Thames are traditionally part of the wider English sporting calendar:

The [[The Boat Race|University Boat Race]] (between [[Oxford University Boat Club|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University Boat Club|Cambridge]]) takes place in late March or early April, on the [[The Championship Course|Championship Course]] from [[Putney]] to [[Mortlake]] in the west of London.

[[Henley Royal Regatta]] takes place over five days at the start of July in the upstream town of [[Henley-on-Thames]]. Besides its sporting significance the regatta is an important date on the English [[Season (society)|social calendar]] alongside events like [[Ascot Racecourse|Royal Ascot]] and [[Wimbledon Championships|Wimbledon]].

Other significant or historic rowing events on the Thames include:
* The [[Head of the River Race]] and [[Women's Eights Head of the River Race]] (8+) (i.e. coxed eights), [[Schools' Head of the River Race|Schools' Head]], [[Veterans Head]], [[Scullers Head of the River Race|Scullers Head]], [[Head of the River Fours|Fours Head (HOR4s)]], and Pairs Head (shorter) on the [[The Championship Course|Championship Course]]
* [[The Wingfield Sculls]] on the same course: (1x) ([[single scull]]ing) championship
* [[Doggett's Coat and Badge]] for apprentice watermen of London, one of the oldest sporting events in the world
* [[Henley Women's Regatta]]
* The [[Henley Boat Races]] currently for the Lightweight (men's and women's) crews of Oxford and Cambridge universities
* The Oxford University [[bumps race|bumping races]] known as [[Eights Week]] and [[Torpids]]

Other [[regatta]]s, [[head race]]s and university bumping races are held along the Thames which are described under [[Rowing on the River Thames]].

===Sailing===
{{Main|Sailing on the River Thames}}
[[File:ThamesRaters01.JPG|thumb|upright|Thames Raters at Raven's Ait, [[Surbiton]]]]

Sailing is practised on both the tidal and non-tidal reaches of the river. The highest club upstream is at Oxford. The most popular sailing craft used on the Thames are [[laser (dinghy)|lasers]], [[GP14 (dinghy)|GP14s]] and [[Wayfarer (dinghy)|Wayfarers]]. One sailing boat unique to the Thames is the [[Thames A Class Rater (scow)|Thames Rater]], which is sailed around [[Raven's Ait]].

===Skiffing===
[[Skiffing]] has dwindled in favour of private motor boat ownership but is competed on the river in the summer months. Six clubs and a similar number of skiff regattas exist from [[the Skiff Club]], [[Teddington]] upstream.

===Punting===
Unlike the "pleasure [[punt (boat)|punting]]" common on the [[River Cherwell|Cherwell]] in [[Oxford]] and the [[River Cam|Cam]] in [[Cambridge]], punting on the Thames is competitive as well as recreational and uses narrower craft, typically based at the few skiff clubs.

===Kayaking and canoeing===
{{Main|Kayaking and canoeing on the River Thames}}
[[Kayaking]] and [[canoeing]] are common, with [[sea kayak]]ers using the [[tidal reach|tidal stretch]] for touring. Kayakers and canoeists use the tidal and non-tidal sections for training, racing and trips. [[Whitewater]] [[playboating|playboaters]] and [[slalom canoeing|slalom]] paddlers are catered for at [[weir]]s like those at [[Hurley Lock]], [[Sunbury Lock]] and [[Boulter's Lock]]. At Teddington just before the tidal section of the river starts is [[Royal Canoe Club]], said to be the oldest in the world and founded in 1866. Since 1950, almost every year at Easter, long distance canoeists have been competing in what is now known as the [[Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race]],<ref>[http://www.dwrace.co.uk/ Devizes to Westminster International Canoe Race] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200829022444/http://www.dwrace.co.uk/ |date=29 August 2020}}. Dwrace.org.uk. Retrieved on 27 August 2020.</ref> which follows the course of the [[Kennet and Avon Canal]], joins the River Thames at Reading and runs right up to a grand finish at [[Westminster Bridge]].

===Swimming===
In 2006, British swimmer and environmental campaigner [[Lewis Pugh]] became the first person to swim the full length of the Thames from outside Kemble to Southend-on-Sea to draw attention to the severe drought in England which saw record temperatures indicative of a degree of global warming. The {{cvt|202|mi|km|adj=on}} swim took him 21 days to complete. The official headwater of the river had stopped flowing due to the drought, forcing Pugh to run the first {{cvt|26|mi}}.<ref>{{cite news |title=Achieving the Impossible. A Fearless Leader. A Fragile Earth |publisher=Simon & Schuster |first=Lewis |last=Pugh |date=May 2010}}</ref>

Since June 2012, the [[Port of London Authority]] has made a [[by-law]], which it enforces, that bans swimming between Putney Bridge and [[Crossness]], [[Thamesmead]] (thus including all of central London), without obtaining prior permission, on the grounds that swimmers in that area of the river endanger not only themselves, due to the strong current of the river, but also other river users.<ref>{{cite web |title=New by-law bans swimming in River Thames |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18658853 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=1 July 2012 |date=30 June 2012 |archive-date=30 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630201256/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18658853 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Organised swimming events take place at various points generally upstream of [[Hampton Court]], including Windsor, Marlow and Henley.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Big Thames Open Water Swim Series |url=http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Fundraising/Swimmingevents/SwimforMacmillan/TheBigThamesOpenWaterSeries/TheBigThamesOpenWaterSwimSeries.aspx |work=Macmillan Cancer Support |access-date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120328143921/http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Fundraising/Swimmingevents/SwimforMacmillan/TheBigThamesOpenWaterSeries/TheBigThamesOpenWaterSwimSeries.aspx |archive-date=28 March 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Humanrace: Windsor |url=http://swimseries.humanrace.co.uk/events/windsor |work=Speedo Open Water Swim Series |access-date=1 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701194555/http://swimseries.humanrace.co.uk/events/windsor |archive-date=1 July 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Henley Swim |url=http://www.henleyswim.com/ |access-date=1 July 2012 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085639/https://henleyswim.com/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In 2011, comedian [[David Walliams]] swam the {{cvt|140|mi|km}} from Lechlade to Westminster Bridge and raised over £1&nbsp;million for charity.<ref>{{cite news |title=Walliams reflects on epic 140-mile Thames charity swim |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-14891217 |newspaper=BBC News |access-date=1 July 2012 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085638/https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-14891217 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In non-tidal stretches swimming was, and still is, a leisure and fitness activity among experienced swimmers where safe, deeper outer channels are used in times of low stream.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Davies |first1=Caitlin |title=The return of wild swimming: Swimming in the Thames is becoming the norm again |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/the-return-of-wild-swimming-swimming-in-the-thames-is-becoming-the-norm-again-10224427.html |access-date=27 August 2020 |work=Independent |date=4 May 2015 |archive-date=6 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161206084304/http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/the-return-of-wild-swimming-swimming-in-the-thames-is-becoming-the-norm-again-10224427.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Meanders===
A [[Thames meander]] is a long-distance journey over all or part of the Thames by running, swimming or using any of the above means. It is often carried out as an athletic challenge in a competition or for a record attempt.

==The Thames in the arts==
===Visual arts===
The River Thames has been a subject for artists, great and minor, over the centuries. Four major artists with works based on the Thames are [[Canaletto]], [[J. M. W. Turner]], [[Claude Monet]] and [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Artwork & Design |url=https://illuminatedriver.london/design |publisher=Illuminated River |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085639/https://illuminatedriver.london/design |url-status=live}}</ref> The 20th-century British artist [[Stanley Spencer]] produced many works at [[Cookham]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scargill |first1=Naila |title=Stanley Spencer's Love Affair With the Thames Revealed in New Show |date=18 December 2019 |url=https://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/stanley-spencer-painting-by-the-thames/ |publisher=Trebuchet |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=25 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201025132757/https://www.trebuchet-magazine.com/stanley-spencer-painting-by-the-thames/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[John Kaufman]]'s sculpture ''[[The Diver|The Diver: Regeneration]]'' is sited in the Thames near [[Rainham, London|Rainham]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Local History – Concrete Barges and The Diver |url=https://www.londonriversidebid.co.uk/news-and-events/local-history-concrete-barges-and-the-diver |publisher=London Riverside Bid |access-date=27 August 2020 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085638/https://www.londonriversidebid.co.uk/news-and-events/local-history-concrete-barges-and-the-diver |url-status=live}}</ref>

The river and bridges are portrayed as being destroyed – together with much of London – in the film ''[[Independence Day 2]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/06/24/independence-day-resurgence-and-brexit-is-this-the-most-brillian/ |title=Independence Day: Resurgence and Brexit: the most brilliant movie marketing ploy of all time? |first=Patrick |last=Smith |date=24 June 2016 |newspaper=The Telegraph |access-date=5 April 2018 |archive-date=27 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200827085637/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2016/06/24/independence-day-resurgence-and-brexit-is-this-the-most-brillian/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Aerial photography of the Thames between Rotherhithe and Woolwich (south bank) and Shadwell and Beckton (north bank) form the [[opening credits|opening]] and [[closing credits]] of each episode of the soap opera ''[[EastEnders]]''.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="154px" perrow="7" caption="The Thames in the arts">
File:Brooklyn Museum - Houses of Parliament Sunlight Effect (Le Parlement effet de soleil) - Claude Monet.jpg|Houses of Parliament Sunlight Effect (Le Parlement effet de soleil) – [[Claude Monet]]
File:Canaletto - Westminster Bridge, with the Lord Mayor's Procession on the Thames - Google Art Project.jpg|The first [[Westminster Bridge]] as painted by [[Canaletto]] in 1746
Rain Steam and Speed the Great Western Railway.jpg|[[Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway|Maidenhead Railway Bridge]] as [[J. M. W. Turner|Turner]] saw it in 1844
File:James Abbot McNeill Whistler 006.jpg|[[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|Whistler's]] ''[[Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge]]'' ({{Circa|1872}}–1875)
File:Brooklyn Museum - Foggy Morning on the Thames - James Hamilton - overall.jpg|''Foggy Morning on the Thames'' – James Hamilton (between 1872 and 1878)
File:Boating on the Thames by John Lavery.jpeg|''Boating on the Thames'' - [[John Lavery]], {{Circa|1890}}
File:James Tissot - On the Thames.jpg|''On the Thames'' - [[James Tissot]], {{Circa|1874}}
</gallery>

===Literature===
[[File:Seal St. Saviour's Dock London.jpg|thumb|A seal in the river at [[St Saviour's Dock]], London]]
The Thames is mentioned in many works of literature including novels, diaries and poetry. It is the central theme in three in particular:

''[[Three Men in a Boat]]'' by [[Jerome K. Jerome]], first published in 1889, is a humorous account of a boating holiday on the Thames between [[Kingston upon Thames|Kingston]] and [[Oxford]]. The book was intended initially to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history of places along the route, but the humorous elements eventually took over. The landscape and features of the Thames as described by Jerome are virtually unchanged, and the book's enduring popularity has meant that it has never been out of print since it was first published.

[[Charles Dickens]]' ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' (written in the years 1864–65) describes the river in a grimmer light. It begins with a scavenger and his daughter pulling a dead man from the river near London Bridge, to salvage what the body might have in its pockets, and leads to its conclusion with the deaths of the villains drowned in [[Shepperton Lock|Plashwater Lock]] upstream. The workings of the river and the influence of the tides are described with great accuracy. Dickens opens the novel with this sketch of the river, and the people who work on it:
<blockquote>
''In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is no need to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance, with two figures in it, floated on the Thames, between [[Southwark Bridge]] which is of iron, and [[London Bridge]] which is of stone, as an autumn evening was closing in.''
''The figures in this boat were those of a strong man with ragged grizzled hair and a sun-browned face, and a girl of nineteen or twenty. The girl rowed, pulling a pair of sculls very easily; the man with the rudder-lines slack in his hands, and his hands loose in his waisteband, kept an eager look-out.''
</blockquote>

[[Kenneth Grahame]]'s ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'', written in 1908, is set in the middle to upper reaches of the river. It starts as a tale of anthropomorphic characters "simply messing about in boats" but develops into a more complex story combining elements of mysticism with adventure and reflection on [[Edwardian era|Edwardian]] society. It is generally considered one of the most beloved works of children's literature<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grahame |first1=Kenneth |title=The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition |date=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0674034471}}</ref> and the illustrations by E.H.Shepard and Arthur Rackham feature the Thames and its surroundings.

The river almost inevitably features in many books set in London. Most of Dickens' other novels include some aspect of the Thames. ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' finishes in the slums and [[rookery (slum)|rookeries]] along its south bank. The [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories by [[Arthur Conan Doyle]] often visit riverside parts as in ''[[The Sign of the Four|The Sign of Four]]''. In ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'' by [[Joseph Conrad]], the serenity of the contemporary Thames is contrasted with the savagery of the [[Congo River]], and with the wilderness of the Thames as it would have appeared to a Roman soldier posted to Britannia two thousand years before. Conrad also gives a description of the approach to London from the [[Thames Estuary]] in his essays ''[[q:Joseph Conrad#On the River Thames|The Mirror of the Sea]]'' (1906). Upriver, [[Henry James]]' ''[[Portrait of a Lady]]'' uses a large riverside mansion on the Thames as one of its key settings.

Literary non-fiction works include [[Samuel Pepys]]' diary, in which he recorded many events relating to the Thames including the [[Fire of London]]. He was disturbed while writing it in June 1667 by the sound of gunfire as Dutch warships broke through the [[Royal Navy]] on the Thames.

In poetry, [[William Wordsworth]]'s sonnet [[Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802|On Westminster Bridge]] closes with the lines:

:Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
:The river glideth at his own sweet will:
:Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
:And all that mighty heart is lying still!

[[T. S. Eliot]] makes several references to the Thames in ''The Fire Sermon, Section III'' of ''[[The Waste Land]]''.

The ''Sweet Thames'' line is taken from [[Edmund Spenser]]'s ''[[Prothalamion]]'' which presents a more idyllic image:

:Along the shoare of silver streaming Themmes;
:Whose rutty banke, the which his river hemmes,
:Was paynted all with variable flowers.
:And all the meads adorn'd with daintie gemmes
:Fit to deck maydens bowres

Also writing of the upper reaches is [[Matthew Arnold]] in ''[[The Scholar Gypsy]]'':

:Crossing the stripling Thames at Bab-lock-hythe
:Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet
:As the slow punt swings round

:Oh born in days when wits were fresh and clear
:And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames;
:Before this strange disease of modern life.

[[Wendy Cope]]'s poem 'After the Lunch' is set on Waterloo Bridge, beginning:

:On Waterloo Bridge, where we said our goodbyes,
:The weather conditions bring tears to my eyes.
:I wipe them away with a black woolly glove,
:And try not to notice I've fallen in love.

[[Dylan Thomas]] mentions the Thames in his poem "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London". "London's Daughter", the subject of the poem, lays "Deep with the first dead...secret by the unmourning water of the riding Thames".

[[File:The War of the Worlds by Henrique Alvim Corrêa 17.jpg|thumb|Martian machine over the flooded Thames. Illustration from [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898)]]
Science-fiction novels make liberal use of a futuristic Thames. The utopian ''[[News from Nowhere]]'' by [[William Morris]] is mainly the account of a journey through the [[Thames valley]] in a socialist future. The Thames features in [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]''. The Thames also features prominently in [[Philip Pullman]]'s ''[[His Dark Materials]]'' trilogy, as a communications artery for the waterborne Gyptian people of Oxford and the [[The Fens|Fens]], and as a prominent setting for his novel [[La Belle Sauvage]].

In ''[[The Deptford Mice]]'' trilogy by [[Robin Jarvis]], the Thames appears several times. In one book, rat characters swim through it to [[Deptford]]. Winner of the [[Nestlé Smarties Book Prize|Nestlé Children's Book Prize]] Gold Award ''[[I, Coriander]]'', by Sally Gardner is a fantasy novel in which the heroine lives on the banks of the Thames. [[Mark Wallington (writer)|Mark Wallington]] describes a journey up the Thames in a camping skiff, in his 1989 book ''Boogie up the River''.

Many of the principal characters of the [[Peter Grant (book series)|Rivers of London]] [[urban fantasy]] series by [[Ben Aaronovitch]] are [[genius loci|genii locorum]] (local gods) associated with River Thames and its tributaries. This includes [[List of water deities#English folklore|Father Thames]], the original god of the Thames but now (in the books) confined to non-tidal reaches above [[Teddington Lock]] and Mama Thames the goddess of the tidal Thames below Teddington.

===Music===
The [[Water Music (Handel)|Water Music]] composed by [[George Frideric Handel]] premiered on 17 July 1717, when [[George I of Great Britain|King George I]] requested a concert on the River Thames. The concert was performed for King George I on his barge and he is said to have enjoyed it so much that he ordered the 50 exhausted musicians to play the suites three times on the trip.

The song 'Old Father Thames' was recorded by [[Peter Dawson (bass-baritone)|Peter Dawson]] at [[Abbey Road Studios]] in 1933 and by [[Gracie Fields]] five years later. [[Jessie Matthews]] sings "My river" in the 1938 film ''[[Sailing Along]]'', and the tune is the centrepiece of a major dance number near the end of the film.

The [[Sex Pistols]] played a concert on the ''Queen Elizabeth Riverboat'' on 7 June 1977, [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]]'s Silver Jubilee year, while sailing down the river. The choral line "(I) ''(liaised)'' live by the river" in the song "[[London Calling (song)|London Calling]]" by [[the Clash]] refers to the River Thames.

Two songs by [[the Kinks]] feature the Thames as the setting of the first song's title and, for the second song, arguably in its mention of 'the river': "[[Waterloo Sunset]]" is about a couple's meetings on [[Waterloo Bridge]], London and starts: "Dirty old river, must you keep rolling, flowing into the night?" and continues "Terry meets Julie, [[London Waterloo station|Waterloo station]]" and "...but Terry and Julie cross over the river where they feel safe and sound...". "[[See My Friends]]" continually refers to the singer's friends "playing 'cross the river" instead of the girl who "just left". Furthermore, [[Ray Davies]] as a solo artist refers to the River Thames in his "London Song".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kindakinks.net/discography/showsong.php |title=Kinks Song List |publisher=Kindakinks.net |access-date=2 April 2012 |archive-date=7 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131207032616/http://www.kindakinks.net/discography/showsong.php |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Ewan MacColl]]'s "Sweet Thames, Flow Softly", written in the early 1960s, is a tragic love ballad set on trip up the river (see [[Edmund Spenser]]'s love poem's refrain above). [[Culture Club]] are travelling the River Thames in a riverboat in the video for "[[Karma Chameleon]]". English musician [[Imogen Heap]] wrote a song from the point of view of the River Thames entitled "You Know Where To Find Me". The song was released in 2012 on 18 October as the sixth single from her fourth album ''[[Sparks (Imogen Heap album)|Sparks]]''.<ref>[http://www.imogenheap.com/tag/you-know-where-to-find-me/ You Know Where To Find Me] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017051728/http://www.imogenheap.com/tag/you-know-where-to-find-me/ |date=17 October 2012}} . Imogen Heap. Retrieved on 17 July 2013.</ref>

==Major flood events==

===London flood of 1928===
{{main|1928 Thames flood}}
The 1928 Thames flood was a disastrous flood of the River Thames that affected much of riverside London on 7 January 1928, as well as places further downriver. Fourteen people were drowned in London and thousands were made homeless when flood waters poured over the top of the [[Thames Embankment]] and part of the [[Chelsea Embankment]] collapsed. It was the last major flood to affect [[central London]], and, particularly following the disastrous [[North Sea flood of 1953]], helped lead to the implementation of new flood-control measures that culminated in the construction of the [[Thames Barrier]] in the 1970s.

===Thames Valley flood of 1947===
{{Main|1947 Thames flood}}
The 1947 Thames flood was overall the worst 20th-century flood of the River Thames, affecting much of the [[Thames Valley]] as well as elsewhere in England during the middle of March 1947 after a very [[Winter of 1946–1947|severe winter]].

The floods were caused by {{cvt|4.6|in|mm}} of rainfall (including snow); the peak flow was {{cvt|61.7|e9L|e9impgal|abbr=off}} of water per day and the damage cost a total of £12&nbsp;million to repair.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1721484 |title=Environment Agency - 1947 floods Thames |access-date=19 April 2011 |archive-date=6 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071206031534/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1721484 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
[[World War II|War]] damage to some of the [[Lock (water transport)|locks]] made matters worse.

Other significant Thames floods since 1947 have occurred in 1968, 1993, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2014.

[[File:Water canvey.jpg|thumb|The flooded [[Canvey Island]] sea front, amusements and residential areas in 1953]]

===Canvey Island flood of 1953===
{{main|Canvey Island}}
On the night of 31 January, the [[North Sea flood of 1953]] devastated the island, taking the lives of 58 islanders and forcing the temporary evacuation of the 13,000 residents.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/weather/page/0,,2208302,00.html Canvey Island's 13,000 refugees] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123112220/https://www.theguardian.com/weather/page/0,,2208302,00.html |date=23 January 2021}}. (2 February 1953). ''The Guardian'' (London), p. 1. Retrieved 29 July 2008.</ref> Canvey is consequently protected by modern sea defences comprising {{cvt|15|mi|km}} of concrete seawall.<ref name=drainage>"Canvey Island Drainage scheme 2006". Environment agency. (May Avenue Pumping Station information board).</ref> Many of the victims were in the holiday bungalows of the eastern Newlands estate and perished as the water reached ceiling level. The small village area of the island is approximately {{convert|2|foot|m|1|spell=in}} above sea level and consequently escaped the effects of the flood.

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Dartford Cable Tunnel]]
* [[Foreshore of the River Thames]]
* [[List of locations in the Port of London]]
* [[List of rivers of the United Kingdom]]
* [[Nore]]
* [[River and Rowing Museum]]
* [[Steamboat]] – reference Thames Steamboats
* [[Subterranean rivers of London]]
* [[Thames Discovery Programme]]
* [[Thames sailing barge]]
* [[Thames steamers]]
* [[Tyburn (stream)]]
{{div col end}}

==References==

===Notes===
{{notelist}}

===Citations===
{{reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book |last=James |first=Alan G. |title=The Brittonic Language in the Old North, A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence, Volume 2 |publisher=[[Scottish Place-Name Society]] |date=2020 |url=https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2019_Edition.pdf}}
* {{cite book |last=Reaney |first=P.H. |title=The Origin of English Place Names |publisher=[[Routledge & Kegan Paul]] |date=1969 |url=https://archive.org/details/originofenglishp0000phre |place=London}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |publisher=Chatto & Windus |isbn=978-0-7011-7284-8 |last=Ackroyd |first=Peter |title=Thames: sacred river |location=London |year=2007 |oclc=137313198}}
* {{cite book |edition=4th |publisher=Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson |isbn=978-0-85288-892-6 |last=Cove-Smith |first=Chris |title=The River Thames book: a guide to the Thames from the Barrier to Cricklade with the River Wey, Basingstoke Canal and Kennet & Avon Canal to Great Bedwyn |location=St. Ives, UK |year=2006 |oclc=67613526}}
* {{cite book |publisher=David & Charles |isbn=978-0-7153-8005-5 |last=Dix |first=Frank L. |title=Royal river highway: a history of the passenger boats and services on the River Thames |location=Newton Abbot, UK / North Pomfret, VT |year=1985 |oclc=14355016}}
* {{cite journal |doi=10.1080/00438243.1997.9980367 |issn=0043-8243 |volume=29 |pages=130–146 |last=Milne |first=Gustav |author2=Martin Bates |author3=Mike D. Webber |title=Problems, potential and partial solutions: an archaeological study of the tidal Thames, England |journal=World Archaeology |issue=1–special issue, "Riverine archaeology", ed. James Graham–Campbell |date=June 1997}}
* {{cite journal |last=Oliver |first=Stuart |title=Navigability and the improvement of the river Thames, 1605–1815 |journal=Geographical Journal |volume=176 |issue=2 |pages=164–177 |date=June 2010 |issn=0016-7398 |bibcode=2010GeogJ.176..164O |doi=10.1111/j.1475-4959.2010.00354.x}}
* {{cite book |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-531492-2 |last=Sinclair |first=Mick |title=The Thames: a cultural history |location=Oxford; New York |year=2007 |oclc=77520502 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/thamesculturalhi00sinc}}
* {{cite book |edition=[1st ed.], new impression |publisher=David & Charles |isbn=978-0-7153-4233-6 |volume=2: locks and weirs |last=Thacker |first=Fred S. |title=The Thames Highway |location=Newton Abbot |year=1968 |oclc=55209571 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/thameshighway0000thac}}
* {{cite book |publisher=Gresham |isbn=978-0-946095-05-6 |title=The Royal river: the Thames, from source to sea: descriptive, historical, pictorial |location=Henley-on-Thames |date=1983 |orig-year=1885 |oclc=17631247}}

==External links==
{{wiktionary|tamas}}
{{Commons category|River Thames}}
{{Wikisource|Special:Search/Thames|Thames}}
* [http://thames.me.uk/ Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide – Pictures and history and tides and poetry and conditions]
* [http://www.riverthamessociety.org.uk/ The River Thames Society]
* [http://thames-path.org.uk/ Thames Path National Trail]
* [http://riverthames.org.uk/ River Thames London Hired Boats and News Blog] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220930043016/https://riverthames.org.uk/ |date=30 September 2022}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2017/32/in-search-of-arcadia BBC 4 documentary ''In search of Arcadia'' features the river]
{{River Thames}}

{{Transport in Gloucestershire}}
{{Transport in Surrey}}
{{Portal bar|United Kingdom|Transport|England}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:River Thames| ]]
[[Category:Thames drainage basin| ]]
[[Category:Rivers of Berkshire|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Buckinghamshire|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Essex|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Gloucestershire|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Kent|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of London|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Oxfordshire|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Surrey|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers of Wiltshire|Thames, River]]
[[Category:River navigations in the United Kingdom|Thames]]
[[Category:Tourist attractions in London|Thames, River]]
[[Category:Rivers with fish ladders]]