Thames River Walk

This is kind of old news, something we did last month. It recently made #2 on H’s top ten list, but it was something I enjoyed so much I still wanted to post something about it. One of the pleasures of living where we do in Kew is easy access to the Thames River Path. This walkway is an English equivalent to a national trail, extending from the source of the Thames far in the west in rural England down to the river barriers, where it empties into the sea. We did our own little patch of it, walking from our flat in Kew four miles up the path to Richmond. This Richmond is “royal” Richmond, reputedly named after King Henry VII’s previous title (he was the Earl of Richmond before he became king), and had a royal palace there that is now largely demolished. In its day, however, it was one of the favored Tudor palaces, and the place where Queen Elizabeth died. This is one of the last surviving bits.

It was a lovely day with perfect walking weather, sunny and cool, and we had plenty of company along the trail. There are a number of sites to see along the way, which keeps the walk interesting. One of the first is Kew Palace, another of the royal palaces. It does not really live up to the usual grandeur of a palace in that is quite small and decidedly plain. It is not very big and not very fancy, but for those of you who remember the movie “The Madness of King George” the palace is where King George was confined for part of said madness.

Continuing up the path one walks along the side of Kew Botanical Gardens for quite a while, as it really is a massive place. We’ve spent a lot of time over the last couple of months in the Royal Botanical Gardens and have grown really fond of the place. About where the gardens run out, there is a new site on the opposite bank of the Thames that catches the eye.

This is Syon House, the early modern and long time home of the Dukes of Northumberland, once one of the most powerful peers of the realm. It was originally a monastery, famously founded by King Henry V. But with the dissolution of the monasteries during the Protestant Reformation, it passed into private hands, and the Northumberland family has owned it for four centuries. It’s a fun reminder of a period when the greatest nobles, and indeed the royals themselves, all had palaces on the river Thames. Not only for the scenery, but because the river was a far safer and faster way of coming and going from London.

One thing you might have just noticed with the above pictures is how low the Thames is here. This is not because of the terrible drought conditions in England, but because the Thames has severe high and low tides. You don’t really notice this as much in central London because it is regulated a bit, but you can see how drastically the river rises and falls. Its amazing to think that the ocean is leagues away, and it affects the Thames way up here. So here I am enjoying the Thames beach a little past Syon House…

and this is the same spot when we did the return walk after lunch, when the tide was quickly rising…

Notice where the tree is – I would’ve been in water thigh deep to have been in the same place, and there was probably another 20 feet of high tide to go!

After enjoying a mile or so of greenery and wildlife, we reached the outskirts of Richmond, our destination. We started probably about half a mile further down the trail from Kew Bridge and pier. Almost there!

With this Edwardian landmark, we had reached the end of our river walk in Richmond proper. (I wish I had some black and white film for this particular image).

But there was plenty to see in Richmond itself, which is a lovely (and posh) riverside town. We had lunch in an extremely popular riverside pub, the White Cross, site of another monastery once upon a time (England was lousy with ‘em).

After lunch at the pub, we turned around for the return walk home. Once we reached Kew, we turned in to the town for the final walk back to our flat, where we had one last treat on our riverside walk, a little slice of bucolic England right here in the London suburbs.

Kew still enjoys its “commons” or green, where the lovely late 17th c. parish church, St. Anne’s sits, and where the local cricket team still practices on weekend afternoons. We rested our aching feet for a while and watched the local side practice on a cool summer afternoon before returning home, a little tired, but very happy with our walk up the Thames River path.

-JEE