Helen Stephenson's Stroll along the Thames, September 28th, 2005

Here is Waverley arriving in London, and tied up at Tower Millenium Pier. In the central picture, she is sharing the pier with the pleasure craft Millennium City, while the final picture, which was taken later in the evening from the other side of the Thames shows Waverley with an improbably purple London skyline in the background. (It wasn't quite that colour, but it went that colour when I was getting the colours in the rest of the picture right!)

If you want to see more pictures of Waverley taken the same day, they are here.

Here are two of the many pleasure craft which ply the Thames - London Belle and Millennium City.

This view was photographed from the vantage point of Tower Bridge. The foreground of the picture shows some of the shore of the Thames (the tide was out) and part of the perimeter wall of the Tower of London. Behind that is the London skyline. From left to right: the gothic gables of Minster Court; Tower 42, the tallest building in the City of London; the Aviva builing; the Swiss Re building, which is more commonly known as "The Gherkin", with the very top of Trinity House just showing above the trees in front of The Gherkin; and the four towers of the White Tower, which is the central castle in the Tower of London complex.

I normally find a vantage point on one side or the other of the Thames if I want to view a Tower Bridge lift, but on this occasion, I was on the Bridge when it lifted to allow a Thames Saling Barge to pass through. It gives a different view of a Bridge lift from those commonly seen.

On the left is a static picture of Tower Bridge, just before it was lifted to allow passage for a Thames Sailing Barge; while on the right we have a 41-frame animation of a Tower Bridge lift for a Thames Sailing Barge, taken from the vantage point of Tower Bridge itself. I didn't use a tripod, so I'm afraid that this is a somewhat wavery animation.