Editing River Thames (section)

==Human history==
[[File:Tower of london from swissre.jpg|thumb|The [[Tower of London]] begun in the 11th century, with [[Tower Bridge]], built 800 years later.]]

The River Thames has played several roles in human history: as an economic resource, a maritime route, a boundary, a fresh water source, a source of food and more recently a leisure facility. In 1929, [[John Burns]], one-time MP for Battersea, responded to an American's unfavourable comparison of the Thames with the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] by coining the expression "The Thames is liquid history".

There is evidence of human habitation living off the river along its length dating back to [[Neolithic]] times.<ref>{{cite journal |first=P. |last=Needham |year=1985 |title=Neolithic And Bronze Age Settlement on the Buried Floodplains of Runnymede |journal=Oxford Journal of Archaeology |volume=4 |issue=2 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0092.1985.tb00237.x |pages=125–137}}</ref> The [[British Museum]] has a decorated bowl (3300–2700 BC), found in the river at [[Hedsor]], Buckinghamshire, and a considerable amount of material was discovered during the excavations of [[Dorney Lake]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lamdin-Whymark |first=H. |year=2001 |title=Neolithic activity on the floodplain of the River Thames at Dorney |journal=Lithics |volume=22}}</ref> A number of [[Bronze Age]] sites and artefacts have been discovered along the banks of the river including settlements at [[Lechlade]], [[Cookham]] and [[Sunbury-on-Thames]].<ref name="british-history1">[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22094 The Physique of Middlesex] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928005454/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22094 |date=28 September 2007 }}, A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 1: Physique, Archaeology, Domesday, Ecclesiastical Organisation, The Jews, Religious Houses, Education of Working Classes to 1870, Private Education from Sixteenth Century (1969), pp. 1–10. Date Retrieved 11 August 2007.</ref>

So extensive have the changes to this landscape been that what little evidence there is of man's presence before the ice came has inevitably shown signs of transportation here by water and reveals nothing specifically local. Likewise, later evidence of occupation, even since the arrival of the Romans, may lie next to the original banks of the Brent but have been buried under centuries of silt.<ref name="british-history1"/>

===Roman Britain===
Some of the earliest written references to the Thames ({{langx|la|[[#Name|Tamesis]]}}) occur in [[Julius Caesar]]'s account of his second expedition to Britain in 54 BC,<ref>Gaius Julius Caesar ''De Bello Gallico'', Book 5, §§&nbsp;11, 18</ref> when the Thames presented a major obstacle and he encountered the [[Iron Age]] [[Belgae|Belgic]] tribes ([[Catuvellauni]] and [[Atrebates]]) along the river. At the confluence of the Thames and Cherwell was the site of early settlements and the River Cherwell marked the boundary between the [[Dobunni]] tribe to the west and the Catuvellauni to the east (these were pre-Roman [[Celt]]ic tribes). In the late 1980s a large [[Romano-British]] settlement was excavated on the edge of the village of [[Ashton Keynes]] in Wiltshire.

Starting in AD&nbsp;43, under the [[Claudius|Emperor&nbsp;Claudius]], the [[Roman conquest of Britain|Romans occupied England]] and, recognising the river's strategic and economic importance, built fortifications along the Thames valley including a major camp at [[Dorchester, Oxfordshire|Dorchester]]. [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] and [[Ludgate Hill]] provided a defensible site near a point on the river both deep enough for the era's ships and narrow enough to be bridged; [[Londinium]] (London) grew up around the [[River Walbrook|Walbrook]] on the north bank around the year 47. [[Boudica]]'s [[Iceni]] razed the settlement in AD&nbsp;60 or 61, but it was soon rebuilt; and once the bridge was built, it grew to become the provincial capital of the island.

The next Roman bridges upstream were at [[Staines-upon-Thames|Staines]] on the [[Devil's Highway (Roman Britain)|Devil's Highway]] between Londinium and [[Calleva Atrebatum|Calleva]] ([[Silchester]]). Boats could be swept up to it on the rising tide, with no need for wind or muscle power.

===Middle Ages===
A Romano-British settlement grew up north of the confluence, partly because the site was naturally protected from attack on the east side by the [[River Cherwell]] and on the west by the River Thames. This settlement dominated the pottery trade in what is now central southern England, and pottery was distributed by boats on the Thames and its tributaries.

Competition for the use of the river created the centuries-old conflict between those who wanted to dam the river to build millraces and fish traps and those who wanted to travel and carry goods on it. Economic prosperity and the foundation of wealthy monasteries by the [[Anglo-Saxons]] attracted unwelcome visitors and by around AD 870 the [[Vikings]] were sweeping up the Thames on the tide and creating havoc as in their destruction of [[Chertsey Abbey]].

[[File:London Bridge (1616) by Claes Van Visscher.jpg|thumb|A 1616 engraving by [[Claes Van Visscher]] showing the [[Old London Bridge]], with St Mary's Overie (over-the-river), now [[Southwark Cathedral]] in the foreground]]

Once [[William I of England|King William]] had won total control of the strategically important Thames Valley, he went on to invade the rest of England. He had many castles built, including those at [[Wallingford Castle|Wallingford]], [[Rochester, Kent|Rochester]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]] and most importantly the [[Tower of London]]. Many details of Thames activity are recorded in the [[Domesday Book]]. The following centuries saw the conflict between king and barons coming to a head in AD 1215 when [[John, King of England|King John]] was forced to sign [[Magna Carta]] on an island in the Thames at [[Runnymede]]. Among a host of other things, this granted the barons the right of Navigation under Clause 23.

Another major consequence of John's reign was the completion of the multi-piered [[London Bridge]], which acted as a barricade and barrage on the river, affecting the tidal flow upstream and increasing the likelihood of the river freezing over. In [[Tudor period|Tudor]] and [[Stuart period|Stuart]] times, various kings and queens built magnificent riverside palaces at [[Hampton Court Palace|Hampton Court]], [[Kew]], [[Richmond on Thames]], [[Whitehall]] and [[Greenwich]].

As early as the 1300s, the Thames was used to dispose of waste matter produced in the city of London, thus turning the river into an open sewer. In 1357, [[Edward III]] described the state of the river in a proclamation: "... dung and other filth had accumulated in divers places upon the banks of the river with ... fumes and other abominable stenches arising therefrom."<ref name="autogenerated2007">Peter Ackroyd, Thames: The Biography, New York: Doubleday, 2007. "Filthy River"</ref>

The growth of the population of London greatly increased the amount of waste that entered the river, including human excrement, animal waste from slaughter houses, and waste from manufacturing processes. According to historian Peter Ackroyd, "a public lavatory on London Bridge showered its contents directly onto the river below, and latrines were built over all the tributaries that issued into the Thames."<ref name="autogenerated2007"/>

===Early modern period===
[[File:Frost Fair on the Thames, with Old London Bridge in the distance - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|[[River Thames frost fair]], {{Circa|1685}}]]

The Stuart monarchs and the City of London organised pageants on the river, including ''[[London's Love to Prince Henry]]'' in May 1610,<ref>David M. Bergeron, ''The Duke of Lennox, 1574–1624: A Jacobean Courtier's Life'' (Edinburgh, 2022), pp. 78–79.</ref> and a theatrical sea battle for the [[Wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V of the Palatinate]] in February 1613.<ref>[[Nadine Akkerman]], ''Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Hearts'' (Oxford, 2022), p. 85.</ref> During a [[Little Ice Age|series of cold winters]] the Thames froze over above London Bridge: in the first [[Thames frost fairs|Frost Fair]] in 1607, a tent city was set up on the river, along with a number of amusements, including ice bowling. 

In good conditions, barges travelled daily from Oxford to London carrying timber, wool, foodstuffs and livestock. The stone from the [[Cotswolds]] used to rebuild [[St Paul's Cathedral]] after the [[Great Fire of London|Great Fire]] in 1666 was brought all the way down from [[Radcot]]. The Thames provided the major route between the City of London and Westminster in the 16th and 17th centuries; the clannish guild of watermen ferried Londoners from landing to landing and tolerated no outside interference. In 1715, [[Thomas Doggett]] was so grateful to a local waterman for his efforts in ferrying him home, pulling against the tide, that he set up a rowing race for professional watermen known as "[[Doggett's Coat and Badge]]".

[[File:FaradayFatherThames.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Michael Faraday]] giving his card to Father Thames'', caricature commenting on a letter of Faraday's [[Great Stink|on the state of the river]] in ''[[The Times]]'' in July 1855]]

By the 18th century, the Thames was one of the world's busiest waterways, as London became the centre of the vast, mercantile [[British Empire]], and progressively over the next century the docks expanded in the [[Isle of Dogs]] and beyond. Efforts were made to resolve the navigation conflicts upstream by building locks along the Thames. After temperatures began to rise again, starting in 1814, the river stopped freezing over.<ref name=freeze2>{{cite web |title=Frost Fairs, London, UK |date=11 March 2003 |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A970733 |publisher=BBC |access-date=21 March 2007 |archive-date=6 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100106190310/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A970733 |url-status=live}}</ref> The building of a new [[London Bridge]] in 1825, with fewer [[pier (architecture)|piers]] (pillars) than the old, allowed the river to flow more freely and prevented it from freezing over in cold winters.<ref name=freeze1>{{cite web |title=London, River Thames and Tower Bridge |url=http://www.vrlondon.co.uk/london_virtual_tour/source/lon7.html |publisher=VR London |access-date=21 March 2007 |archive-date=16 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516023416/http://www.vrlondon.co.uk/london_virtual_tour/source/lon7.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Throughout early modern history the population of London and its industries discarded their rubbish in the river.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/external/la21/articles/stink.htm |title=Thames and Waterways |publisher=London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham |access-date=17 April 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150415055701/http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/external/la21/articles/stink.htm |archive-date=15 April 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This included the waste from slaughterhouses, fish markets, and tanneries. The buildup in household cesspools could sometimes overflow, especially when it rained, and was washed into London's streets and sewers which eventually led to the Thames.<ref>{{cite book |authorlink=Jonathan Schneer |first=Jonathan |last=Schneer |title=The Thames |pages=145–146 |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2005 |isbn=9780300107869}}</ref> In the late 18th and 19th centuries people known as [[mudlark]]s scavenged in the river mud for a meagre living.

===Victorian era===
[[File:Monster Soup commonly called Thames Water. Wellcome V0011218.jpg|thumb|left|Satirical cartoon by [[William Heath (artist)|William Heath]], showing a woman observing monsters in a drop of London water (at the time of the ''Commission on the London Water Supply'' report, 1828)]]

In the 19th century the quality of water in the Thames deteriorated further. The discharge of raw [[sewage]] into the Thames was formerly only common in the [[City of London]], making its tideway a harbour for many harmful bacteria. [[Gasworks]] were built alongside the river, and their by-products leaked into the water, including spent lime, ammonia, cyanide, and [[phenol|carbolic acid]]. The river had an unnaturally warm temperature caused by chemical reactions in the water, which also removed the water's oxygen.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, "Thames: Sacred River" 272–273</ref> Four serious cholera outbreaks killed tens of thousands of people between 1832 and 1865. Historians have attributed [[Albert, Prince Consort|Prince Albert's]] death in 1861 to typhoid that had spread in the river's dirty waters beside Windsor Castle.<ref name="autogenerated1" /> Wells with [[water table]]s that mixed with tributaries (or the non-tidal Thames) faced such pollution with the widespread installation of the [[flush toilet]] in the 1850s.<ref name="autogenerated1">Peter Ackroyd, ''Thames: The Biography''. 272 & 274.</ref> In the '[[Great Stink|Great Stink' of 1858]], pollution in the river reached such an extreme that sittings of the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] at Westminster had to be abandoned. Chlorine-soaked drapes were hung in the windows of Parliament in an attempt to stave off the smell of the river, but to no avail.<ref>Peter Ackroyd, "Thames: Sacred River" 272</ref>

There followed a concerted effort to contain the city's sewage by constructing massive [[Combined sewer|sewer systems]] on the north and south river embankments, under the supervision of engineer [[Joseph Bazalgette]]. Meanwhile, there were similar huge projects to ensure the water supply: reservoirs and pumping stations were built on the river to the west of London, slowly helping the quality of water to improve.

The [[Victorian era]] was one of imaginative engineering. The coming of the railways added railway bridges to the earlier road bridges and also reduced commercial activity on the river. However, sporting and leisure use increased with the establishment of [[regatta]]s such as [[Henley Royal Regatta|Henley]] and [[the Boat Race]]. One of the worst river disasters in England was on 3 September 1878, when the crowded pleasure boat {{SS|Princess Alice|1865|2}} collided with the ''Bywell Castle'', killing over 640 people.

===20th century===
[[File:London from above MLD 051002 003.jpg|thumb|The Thames as it flows through east London, with the [[Isle of Dogs]] in the centre]]

The growth of [[road transport]], and the decline of the [[British Empire|Empire]] in the years following 1914, reduced the economic prominence of the river. During the [[Second World War]], the protection of certain Thames-side facilities, particularly docks and water treatment plants, was crucial to the munitions and water supply of the country. The river's defences included the [[Maunsell fort]]s in the estuary, and the use of [[barrage balloons]] to counter [[Luftwaffe|German bombers]] using the reflectivity and shapes of the river to navigate during [[the Blitz]].

In the post-war era, although the [[Port of London#The Port today|Port of London]] remains one of the UK's three main ports, most trade has moved downstream from central London. In the late 1950s, the discharge of methane gas in the depths of the river caused the water to bubble, and the toxins wore away at boats' propellers.<ref>Peter Ackroyd "Thames: Sacred River" 274</ref>

The decline of heavy industry and tanneries, reduced use of oil-pollutants and improved sewage treatment have led to much better water quality compared to the late 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries and aquatic life has returned to its formerly 'dead' stretches.

Alongside the entire river runs the [[Thames Path]], a National Route for walkers and cyclists.

In the early 1980s a pioneering flood control device, the [[Thames Barrier]], was opened. It is closed to tides several times a year to prevent water damage to London's low-lying areas upstream (the [[1928 Thames flood]] demonstrated the severity of this type of event).
[[File:A London Mosaic.jpg|thumb|A view of the Thames as it passes through London, composed of 29 photos taken from the ISS in 2021]]
In the late 1990s, the {{cvt|7|mi|km|0|adj=on}} long [[Jubilee River]] was built as a wide "naturalistic" flood relief channel from [[Taplow]] to [[Eton, Berkshire|Eton]] to help reduce the flood risk in [[Maidenhead]], [[Windsor, Berkshire|Windsor]] and Eton,<ref>[[Environment Agency]] (2005). ''[http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/recreation/345623/631029/346131/348128/349190/349293/?lang=_e&theme=&region=&subject=&searchfor=Jubilee+River&any_all=all&choose_order=&exactphrase=&withoutwords=&exclude_itemtype=Station%2C&include_itemtype=Acrobat%20Document%2CAttached%20File_e%2CAttached%20File_w%2CHTML%20Page%2C Jubilee River] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100225045649/http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/recreation/345623/631029/346131/348128/349190/349293/?lang=_e&theme=&region=&subject=&searchfor=Jubilee+River&any_all=all&choose_order=&exactphrase=&withoutwords=&exclude_itemtype=Station%2C&include_itemtype=Acrobat%20Document%2CAttached%20File_e%2CAttached%20File_w%2CHTML%20Page%2C |date=25 February 2010 }} ''.</ref> although it appears to have increased flooding in the villages immediately downstream.

===21st century===

In 2010, the Thames won the largest environmental award in the world: the $350,000 International Riverprize.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://riverfoundation.org.au/our-programs/riverprize/international-riverprize/ |website=riverfoundation.org.au |title=Thiess International Riverprize – International RiverFoundation |access-date=1 August 2017 |archive-date=1 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801131913/http://riverfoundation.org.au/our-programs/riverprize/international-riverprize/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In August 2022, the first few miles of the river dried up due to the previous month's heatwave, and the source of the river temporarily moved five miles to beyond [[Somerford Keynes]].<ref name="New source of River Thames">{{cite news |date=5 August 2022 |title=Source of the River Thames moves fives miles for first time in its history |publisher=Gloucestershire Live |url=https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/source-river-thames-moves-fives-7428122 |accessdate=12 August 2022}}</ref>