Pink Floyd, Torpedoes and Palace - Thames delights

Sunday, 31 July 2011 14:17

Once Sunbury was behind us it was not far before we were looking for our weekend mooring.

Sunbury riverside houses

All the riverside properties in this area have their own boats: cruisers and day boats abound .....

We continued downstream past Molesey Reservoirs on the south (Surrey) bank and the outskirts of East Molesey. Platt's Eyot is off the north (Middlesex) bank. The island was probably the site of a Parish Wharf in the C16th and has a long history of boat building, firstly by Tom Tagg in 1866.

Approaching Platt's Eyot

It is linked to the north bank and the waterworks there by a bridge. The boatyard was taken over by Morritz Immisch, a German engineer who built electric launches. The red brick building is the former alternator station for charging the launches and there were charging points upstream on the way to Henley for his customers.

Boatyard on Platt's Eyot

John Thorneycroft, builder of naval high speed motorboats and destroyers at Chiswick and later Southampton, based his building of wooden hulls here in the early 1900s. During both world wars, Thorneycrofts were famous for  the CMBs (coastal motor boats: click for a photo) - very fast launches that could skim over minefields and carried torpedos. Sadly, there is only one survivor of these unique boats.

Large boat shed on Platt's Island

The boat sheds were built with high security in mind as the CMBs were so important to the Navy's coastal operations. Thorneycroft's boats took world speed records, including "Miss England III" in 1932, the first boat to achieve 120mph.

Port Hampton Ltd now owns the boatyard, providing moorings, boat repair and light industrial units.

Port Hampton: the building could do with a little TLC

So we came to Hampton, a late C18th village with a ferry to the south bank. It probably deserves exploring, but we had another location further downstream in mind.

Hampton Ferry

Hampton church

The village was built around Hampton House, or Garrick's Villa. David Garrick, the famous Shakespearean actor, bought the house in 1754 as a country retreat. He built a temple in the riverside garden and put a statue of Shakespeare in it. Sadly there was a major fire at the house in 2008 and it is now "under wraps", being restored.

Garrick's Temple

Some of the riverside garden was sold to the owner of Astoria Studio. This beautiul studio is "moored" on the river. It was adapted as a studio by David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd, for those who are not 60's children!). Built in 1911 for impresario Fred Karno, it could house a a 90 piece playing orchestra on deck. It seems rather fitting that it is now owned by another musician.

Astoria - a grand houseboat

We went through Molesey Lock and under Hampton Court Bridge. Below is Hampton Court, best known as Henry VIII's home. Unsurprisingly the moorings for Hampton Court Palace were full, it was rather late in the day by now.

Hampton Court "official" moorings, first 24H free and £5/night after to a max of 72H

We were not bothered as we knew there were free moorings a little further downstream, against the appropriately named "Barge Walk" and opposite Thames Ditton Island.

Moored against Barge Walk

It was a fair walk back to Hampton Court Palace, but a much quieter mooring and would be great to visit the palace from and spend the weekend. It would be good to settle for a day or so. A day at the Palace, a TV signal for the Grand Prix and near enough for a visit from John's second cousin Simon. Great!

River Thames, above Runnymede to Thames Dittton Island
4 hours 8 minutes, 15.35 miles, 5 locks