The Historic River Thames: From Roman Conquest to Modern-Day Sustainability

# P.A. Ramachandran

“It is perhaps the most historic riverbed in Europe that no other river can claim.”

P.A. From Ramachandran’s book, ‘Rivers: Through the Coastal Lands of Mahasanskrit’;

NuThe river flowing through the city of London, which was the administrative center of the world for many years, the river that actually flowed through the heart of William Wordsworth, the spring of foot fever in English literature, the famous river Thames, which rewrote the history of the world and gave life to the first metropolis of modern times… the adjectives are endless. The River Thames is to the British what the Ganges is to Indians. English culture was born on its banks. That river was their safety shield in the early days.

Originating as four small streams in the snowy Cotswold Mountains of central-southern England, the Thames travels 350 km eastward to empty into the North Sea in an estuary about 29 km wide. This small river is a sign that size does not affect success.

There was a Sridhareta in London. He was a very famous cost accountant. All prominent Malayalis who visited London in the sixties and seventies were guests of Sreedharetan. I must have stayed as Sridhareta’s guest at least ten or twelve times. My brother-in-law’s younger brother, Sreedharetan, a favorite of the Malayalis.

When I was working for the Dubai Government, I had to visit many science and technology institutes in London. Later I joined TUV. When he was the manager of a company called Nord in Muscat, whenever he went to the head office in Germany, he stayed in London for two days with Sridharetan. When I go to office in the morning, I am also taken in the car. I will land somewhere in the vicinity of Hyde Park.

Just strolling around the London Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Thames River and Kew Gardens, I remember those dark days in Indian history. This city was the seat of power of the great empire that was underfoot by the giants of invasion and harmed the whole world. It was here that the Adoption Prohibition Act, the Regulating Act and the Charter Act were formulated. Wellesley, Warren Hastings, Robert Clive, Dalhousie and Mountbatten moved with the string pulled from here. A city that played a central role in the great wars that shook the world… Memories flow like the Thames.

At the time the history was written, England was neither an empire nor a famous region. The country has succumbed to the attacks from time to time and has been subjugated to its respective cultures. English was not even a language then. AD The first Roman military advance into England took place in 55 AD. Julius Caesar’s forces, however, could not conquer the region. Caesar’s river was the river Thames, which was referred to in Roman language as the Thames. But a century later, the Roman emperor Claudius crossed the Thames and conquered the region for the first time.

At that time, both sides of the Thames were marshes. The Roman army was the first to build a wooden bridge across the Thames. They also built a port on the north bank of the river. It was named London. This name later became London. The port later became a hub for cargo to other parts of Europe. They also sought the help of the River Thames to transport goods from the hinterland. London became a major trading center in Europe. After the 4th century, the Roman Empire declined in power. Their jurisdictions were reduced. The Romans soon abandoned the area. The river Thames and the port city were neglected.

Until about the 11th century, the coronation of Anglo-Saxon kings was held in Kingston. AD The Tower of London was built by King William in 1066. It was also around that time that London began to regain attention as a city. And Britain’s growth was phenomenal. A stone bridge was built across the Thames in London in 1209. Magna Carta is an unforgettable word for anyone who studies history. This historic treaty was signed by King John of England in 1215 at Runnymede on the banks of the River Thames.

After the 10th century, the city of London and the River Thames gained world attention, and commerce flourished along the river. With that, the technical facilities in the river also increased. In 1840, the world’s first underwater tunnel connected the two banks of the River Thames. The 459 meter long tunnel is still used as part of Greater London’s Underground railways. A modern-day tourist attraction, London’s Tower Bridge was completed in 1894. It has a double layered lifting section. These spans can be raised as needed to create a 76 meter span for larger ships to pass between the twin towers of the bridge.

Until the construction of Westminster Bridge in the mid-18th century, London Bridge was the only way to cross the River Thames on foot. This was later rebuilt and finally another was built in its place in the 1820s. The piers that supported the nineteen arches of London Bridge, built of stone, significantly obstructed the flow of the river. As a result, the Thames has frozen over at least eight times in the nearly 600 years the bridge has been in existence.

When I visited the Thames once in the seventies, I was able to see the deplorable state of the Thames first hand. The river was a kind of yellowish gray. It was due to extreme pollution. We cannot forget the fact that even cholera originated in the River Thames in the 19th century. The oxygen level in the river water was also drastically reduced. That is why the Natural History Museum of England declared this river as ‘Biologically Dead’ in 1957.

It can be remembered here that ‘London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down’ was written in the poem The Waste Land written by TS Eliot about the cultural decline of the 20th century. But later the law against water pollution was strictly enforced in London. A few years of efforts have brought back many species that had been threatened with extinction directly from the River Thames.

Hamdan, the current head of the Dubai Government’s Environment Department, and I once visited the Thames River Authority office and they described the plight of the Thames since World War II. The old Victorian sewers and sewage treatment plants that existed at the time were bombed and destroyed by enemy forces during World War II. It was, in a sense, a biological warfare. The pollution of the Thames led to the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera. After the war, the bankrupt British government was unable to restore these drains. After twenty years in 1960, these drains were restored.

Even after the Thames was cleaned, water sports and public bathing in the river were prohibited. Twenty thousand ships pass through this river every year. Over 400 festivals are organized on the Thames. This prohibition was due to the fact that so much was being done in connection with the river. The Thames River Basin covers an area of ​​approximately 14,250 square kilometers.

Areas along the Thames, including the City of London, often experience high tides. London Bridge in the heart of the city is a major tourist attraction. It is a great feeling to watch the big waves with the cool breeze. The Thames is characterized by waves as high as eighteen feet. The Thames is a fundamental emotion of English life. It is perhaps the most historic riverbed that no other river in Europe can claim.

The times in Britain’s history when the nepotism and favoritism at every change of government made the country riotous, the days when the sky of England was constantly covered with wars, the time of famine in the fifteenth century, the golden age of English literature enriched by Shelley and Keats, Milton, Wordsworth and indeed Shakespeare, the tragic time when people died en masse from deadly diseases like the plague, the British Queen. Under the East India Company and the Viceroys sat in Parliament on the banks of the River Thames A time when the whole world was conquered, a prosperous past when all the good things grown in the world came to Britain by ship… The Thames flows with the memories of thousands of years of history. Seeking new shores of time, waiting for new changes in the world, the tide flows.