Words in Progress: Travelling Along the Thames

This week on my writing blog, with my recent story, Lucky of Love in mind, I’m looking at another aspect of London, the River Thames.

Given the state of the roads in 17^th century England, mired by lack of upkeep and the dangers of highwaymen, the river along which the city was built was an all-important transport route.

In Lucky in Love, my MC Owen has to take a short trip upriver to Hammersmith to deliver an important message. This sub-plot made me dive deep into researching tides, times and methods of transport.

Water taxis and informal ferries, known as “wherries” in this period, were nothing new. With only London Bridge spanning the river, they were the quickest way of getting from the north to the south bank. Incidentally, a quick check led me to this fascinating blog on London’s bridges. Well worth a look!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, the Palace of Whitehall had several exits leading directly to the river. These weren’t just functional. There were also musical interludes, firework displays and water pageants that took place on the river for special occasions. When using the Thames as transport, the king and his retinue would have travelled in considerable luxury in the royal barge to the palaces at Greenwich and Hampton Court.

Owen doesn’t have such extravagant options and has to haggle with a waterman to negotiate a price for his trip. In Restoration London, Liza Picard describes the kind of small boat that Owen hires with “one or two men rowing and one or two passengers sitting at the other end.” She comments that the river would have been crammed with such sturdy craft, “in the 20 miles between Gravesend and London Bridge there were more than 1,400 ships.”

In working out the logistics of Owen’s journey upriver, I found the modern Thames River Boats site invaluable. It was not only helpful in calculating the approximate timings but also had some very useful information on tides as well as some lovely pictures of destinations!

Although Owen’s expedition is only a small part of Lucky in Love, I relished this research rabbit hole. I learned enough to be inspired to write about the River Thames again in a future story. Even looking through the books and websites I referenced has enthused me!