There is a jaded palladian feel to the architecture along the river upstream of Richmond. I also found Eel Pie Island exuding a certain autumnal melancoly. The island has a Bohemian playing host to The Who, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, Eric Clapton, Rod Steward and Black Sabbath between 1962 and 1971 when the Eel Pie Island Hotel burned down in a 'mysterious' fire.
Trevor Baylis the inventor of the clockwork radio still lives on the island. An artists colony also remains on the island but it has a very excluding and privatised feel to it and there is the reek of serious property developer's money in the air
(Above) Graffitied fresco in cave underneath the A307 the Richmond to Kingston road which runs alongside the riverside for short distance south of Richmond.
Apart from a short section of river between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. This was the first time we had ventured onto north bank of the river although here, where the river flows from south to north, the banks of the river are more usefully described as Middlesex and Surrey banks. While the Surrey bank is more rural and has a path which follows the river bank more faithfully, I did want to visit Eel Pie Island and the only way of getting to the island is by footbridge from Twickenham on the Middlesex bank.
Apart from a footbridge at Teddington Lock there are no real bridges across the river between Richmond and Kingston. Luckily we were able to cross the river by ferry at Ham House.
Pigeons on fenceposts
Rusty mushrooms opposite Eel Pie Island
The water nymphs in York House in Twickenham opposite Eel Pie Island came from the studios of early 19th century Italian sculptor Orazio Andreoni. The were brought to England by the mining magnate Whitaker Wright who was convicted of fraud in the High Court in 1904 and immediately committed suicide by swallowing cyanide. The statues were then bought and installed in York House by the Indian industrialist Ratan Tata the last private owner of York House. Ratan Tata was returning from India when his boat was torpedoed in the Mediterranean in 1917. He died the following year and the statues were donated to Richmond Council.
Plunging water nymph reflected in the water
Reflection turned upside down
Gas cylinders at Eel Pie Island Slipways
Faces in the leaves, Eel Pie Island
River sculpture takes up the theory that the name Kew derives from the word key describing the shape of the Thames' meanders. But the river is not particularly key-shaped at Kew. Barnes is sited at a more 'pinched' meander.
Tumbled down tree on Brentford Ait (island). Ait is a name for a whole series of long and very thin islands in the river in this stretch. Others are called Lot's Ait, Isleworth Ait and Oliver's Ait.
Syon House where Henry VIII's fifth wife Catherine Howard was imprisoned before her execuction at the Tower of London. Henry VIII's body was brought here in 1547 on its way to burial at Windsor. During the night the coffin broke open and the household dogs were found the next day chewing over his bones. This was the fulfillment of a curse which had been put on Henry when he forcefully acquired Syon house. It had previously been a monastery.
Most of Isleworth church was set on fire by arsonists in 1943. The church now consists of a fourteenth century tower and a nave built in 1970.
Heron in the channel seperating Richmond Old Deer Park from the river
Twickenham Bridge's bronze-plated hinges make it earthquake-proof
Richmond Bridge (built in 1777)
The very polluted river Wandle flows into the Thames at Wandsworth. It is said to be the fatest flowing tributary of the Thames but its mouth is dirty covered in tyres and shopping trolleys. 
Drinks at the Cats Back in Putney
Toby on the approach to Putney Bridge
Riverside trees at Hammersmith
Hammersmith Bridge
Just outside Greenwich we crossed Deptford Creek which is the mouth of the river Ravensbourne. Elizabeth I knighted the adventurer Sir Francis Drake on board his ship The Golden Hind in 1581. One of the first Royal Naval Dockyards was founded here by Henry VII in 1513. It closed in 1869.
Deptford was also the place where several doomed expeditions to find a shortcut to India set off from. Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor set off on a quest in 1553 to find the 'Northeast Passage to India around the northern coast of Russia. They got as far as the White Sea on the eastern side of Finland. Most of the crew froze to death although Richard Chancellor trudged overland to Moscow to establish trade with the court of Ivan the Terrible.
Twenty years later Martin Frobisher ventured on another series of futile journeys in an effort to find a route to India around the northern coast of Canada the so-called 'Northwest Passage' His expedition explored Baffin Island, Frobisher Bay and the Hudson Straits.
Deptford was also the home of the famous English diarist John Evelyn between 1620 and 1706. The Russian Czar Peter the Great stayed in his house Sayes Court for many months in the year 1698.
In Deptford Peter developed a fondness for hot brandy spiced with pepper. While drunk on this cocktail he liked to be pushed around in a wheelbarrow by his courtiers. John Evelyn was angered when Peter the Great's wheelbarrow destroyed his favourite holly hedge.
Raja, Ray and Stefania with Peter the Great
But Peter's real interest in Deptford was to carry out a piece of early industrial espionage ie to learn about English expertise in navigation and boat building. See detail in picture below.
