Twickenham Riverside – December 1988
I used to be instructing on Tuesday thirteenth December 1988, and along with a colleague took a gaggle of pictures college students from the faculty to Twickenham, probably to view an exhibition on the Orleans Home Gallery, or maybe simply as a photographic outing.
My first thought once I appeared on the contact sheet immediately was that it might be for the present I helped to organise there in 1988, metropolis information city blues…. It had been an attention-grabbing present, with pictures from ten of us who had been a part of a gaggle known as Framework, every displaying their very own group of images – these exhibiting had been Carol Hudson, Peter Jennings, Terry King, myself, Tony Mayne, Derek Ridgers, John RJ Taylor, Laurence Ward, Randall Webb and Anton Williams. Terry was the primary organiser and I labored with him to maintain the group operating.
However on checking I discover that present was relatively earlier within the 12 months and I believe we had been simply taking faculty college students to a fairly protected and attention-grabbing space a brief practice journey away the place they may first be taken for a stroll to acceptable places across the riverside and parks after which be left to work unsupervised taking photos whereas their tutors in all probability took a lunch hour relaxation in a riverside pub.
It was surprisingly tough to get some college students to truly take images, so we organized outings akin to this the place we would supply an appropriate location and temporary to ensure even they’d some materials to work with within the darkroom. They had been all required to make not less than 36 exposures so they’d a movie (black and white in fact) to develop and make prints. Some college students made positive they’d time to get to a pub too, although there have been sufficient in Twickenham for them to keep away from the identical as their two tutors.
However I did take some photos myself in the course of the outing, and listed here are just a few of them. I took two variations of this picture, trying upriver from the west finish of the Embankment, one with the brand new Minox GTE and the second I believe with a Leica M5 utilizing the 35mm Summilux f1.4 lens. The picture above is with the Minox, which had a MC Minoxar 35mm/2.8 lens and is just a bit sharper, although the distinction would possibly properly be within the precise focus distance chosen. However although the Minox was extremely small and light-weight – the smallest 35mm full-frame digicam ever made, it might ship distinctive outcomes.
You’ll be able to nonetheless launch boats at Twickenham, the place on the junction of Church Land and Riverside a roadway leads down into the river. When the tide is low you’ll be able to stroll down this and get a view downriver. On the best boats are moored by Eel Pie Island and within the centre of the picture you’ll be able to simply see Richmond Hill between the timber.
And though there’s a footbridge throughout to Eel Pie Island as proven within the high picture of this put up, residents nonetheless have to hold tide tables useful, because the Twickenham Embankment finish of the bridge nonetheless floods on these days when the moon aligns with the solar at full and new moon to offer Spring Tides.
The balustrade is round what’s now Champion’s Wharf Play Seaside, and the wall is across the finish of the riverside part of York Home Gardens and part of the archway main via to that is simply seen. The earlier image confirmed the slender sloping pebbles above the waterline which I walked out on to take this image.
Surprisingly I don’t seem on this event to have walked via York Home Gardens and didn’t {photograph} the ‘Bare Girls’ or Italian Fountain simply via that gateway and on the left, however continued alongside Riverside, taking just a few photos of the homes beside it earlier than reaching the sumptuous constructing of the White Swan pub.
Now you can drink The Bare Girls, the bestselling beer produced by Twickenham Brewery, a 4.4% golden ale made with Herkules, Celeia and Chinook hops and CAMRA’s 2019 Champion Golden Ale of London. However the brewery solely opened in 2004, and Bare Girls was first launched in 2013, so I can’t recall if or what I drank there in 1988. However I’ve loved it on the White Swan and elsewhere extra just lately.
Earlier than stepping into a pub we did go all the way down to the riverside a bit alongside from the White Swan, and I made a number of photos of this boat coated in vegetation. Aside from this it appeared in fairly usable situation and was nonetheless firmly moored. The Thames right here continues to be tidal, although the Richmond half-lock downstream stops the water completely flowing out.
A second image in a lot the identical space reveals a smaller boat in relatively cleaner situation, firmly moored and roped down on the mud. Within the background at proper is the white home on the nook of Lebanon Park and Riverside. That is the place Twickenham Ferry used to run throughout the Thames to Ham Home, passing simply downstream of Eel Pie Island.
The ferry was licensed by the homeowners of Ham Home, the Dysart household (and generally referred to as Dysart’s Ferry) and the primary written point out of it was in 1652. I final went throughout with my father to see Ham Home within the mid-Seventies, not lengthy earlier than it ceased operation. There had for some years been a dispute about its proper of manner on this slipway. I took the {photograph} beneath in 1979 when the river was flooded and there have been boats moored there which had been these used for the ferry in higher climate to row individuals throughout and there have been nonetheless notices for ready passengers nonetheless on the fence.
My contact sheet from December 1988 reveals we walked additional on, with photos of moored boats near the place the nonetheless operational Hammerton’s Ferry, a Johnny-come-lately from 1908, nonetheless runs when climate and water circumstances permit. An on one in all these frames (not digitised) a small determine by the water’s edge stands taking {a photograph}, with the balding head of my instructing colleague, one other Peter. This was the place I made my last picture of the day, after which I strongly suspect we made our manner again in the direction of a riverside pub earlier than assembly our college students for the practice again to school.
Tags: beer, faculty outing, Embankment, ferry, Framework, London, London Images, Minox, Bare Girls, Richmond, River Thames, Riverside, college students, Twickenham, Twickenham Ferry, White Swan
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