Thames Walk to the Source: Richmond to Kingston upon Thames (via Eel Pie Island)

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.

Alice and Marchain on the Ham House to Marble Hill House ferry.

Pigeons on fenceposts

Raja had trouble with the electricians working on her flat

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.