Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
The River Thames contains over 80 islands ranging from the large estuarial marshlands of the Isle of Sheppey, Isle of Grain and Canvey Island to small tree-covered islets like Rose Isle in Oxfordshire and Headpile Eyot in Berkshire. Some of the largest inland islands — Formosa Island near Cookham and Andersey Island at Abingdon 
— were created naturally when the course of the river divided into separate streams, while Desborough Island, Ham Island at Old Windsor and Penton Hook Island were artificially created by lock cuts and navigation channels. Chiswick Eyot is a familiar landmark on the Boat Race course, while Glover’s Island forms the centrepiece of the spectacular view from Richmond Hill. Islands with a historical interest are Magna Carta Island at Runnymede, Fry’s Island at Reading and Pharaoh’s Island near Shepperton. In more recent times Platts Eyot at Hampton was the place where MTBs were built, Tagg’s Island near Molesey was associated with the impresario Fred Karno, and Eel Pie Island at Twickenham was the birthplace of the South East’s R&B music scene.
Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster (commonly known today as the Houses of Parliament) were built on Thorney Island which used to be an eyot.
The River Thames has served several roles in human history, being an economic resource, a water highway, a boundary, a fresh water source, also 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 by coining the expression “The Thames is liquid history”.
In London there are many sightseeing tours in tourist boats, past the more famous riverside attractions such as the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London as well as regular riverboat services co-ordinated by London River Services.
The river almost inevitably features in many books set in London. Most of Dickens’ other novels include some aspect of the Thames. Oliver Twist finishes in the slums and rookeries along its south bank. The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle often visit riverside parts as in The Sign of Four. In Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, the serenity of the contemporary Thames is contrasted with the savagery of the Congo River, and with the wilderness of the Thames as it would have appeared to a Roman soldier posted to Britannia two thousand years before. Conrad also gives a description of the approach to London from the Thames Estuary in his essays The Mirror of the Sea (1906). Upriver, Henry James‘ Portrait of a Lady uses a large riverside mansion on the Thames as one of its key settings.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Saturday, January 2nd, 2010
The British Bobby was organized in the late 1700’s, essentially becoming the first police force as we know them today. Until the start of the Industrial Revolution which brought thousands flocking into cities, most crime was combated by the local constabulary with the help of the occasional citizen patrol. As the cities became more crowded, organized police forces were established to protect business interests. In 
England, one of the most prominent organized police forces was the Thames River Police, created in 1798 to deter thefts along the London wharves.
The Thames River Police, numbering about 80 full-time men, policed by establishing a patrol presence in the London port. The private police force was so effective that Parliament authorized money to add the men to the public payroll. The public was suspicious of waves of permanent police roaming the streets, but the plagues of urban ills brought on by surging immigration and mounting poverty began to weigh on Londoners.
It took the vision of 41-year old statesman Robert Peel, later a two-time Prime Minister of England, to establish the world’s first permanent police force. In 1829 Peel sponsored the Metropolitan Police Act which passed Parliament. As the founder of the police force, the men on patrol became known popularly as “peelers” or “bobbies.” The former nickname faded away and the moniker “bobbies” lives on today.
Much of which Peel created lives on today as well. He believed that the police force should operate from a centrally located headquarters which should be easily accessible to the public. Of prime importance would be recruitment, selection and training of the police force. All “bobbies” would be dressed in proper uniforms and be paid a full-time weekly wage. Peel established a system to determine crime rates to measure the effectiveness of the new force.
The police would be responsible only for crime detection and prevention which would be accomplished by the establishment of regular patrol areas, known as “beats.” Historically, police would only show up after a crime had been reported. Peel wanted his men to become familiar figures to the public within specific geographic zones. He reasoned that a conspicuous, known figure would be able to better elicit help from the citizenry in the event of a crime. By becoming familiar with the people and places on his beat, the “bobby” could readily recognize suspicious things out of place and help deter crime. The patrol concept would be universally adopted by police forces the world over. It was Robert Peel’s greatest innovation.
To maintain organization among his men on patrol, Peel adopted a paramilitary structure of command. Lacking such a line of command, it would be all too easy for the “bobbies” to lapse into the uncommitted ways of their watchmen predecessors. Peel’s men were to be patient, impersonal and, above all, professional.
The Metropolitan Police Act was initially limited to the outer parts of London and did not apply to the mile-square City of London. The “bobbies” were not immediately popular and were often jeered at on patrol. The preventive tactics proved successful, however, and the police force showed skill in handling erupting street riots. Crime prevention was not the only duty of the “bobbies.” They kept a lookout for fires. They lit streetlights as they walked the beat. They called out the time.
The Bobbies were issued with a wooden truncheon carried in a long pocket in the tail of their coat, a pair of handcuffs and a wooden rattle to raise the alarm. By the 1880s this rattle had been replaced by a whistle.
To be a Bobby the rules were quite strict. You had to be 6ft tall (or as near as possible), and have no history of any wrong-doings.
These men became the model for the creation of all the provincial forces; at first in the London Boroughs, and then into the counties and towns, after the passing of the County Police Act in 1839. An ironic point however; the Lancashire town of Bury, birthplace of Sir Robert, was the only major town which elected not to have its own separate police force. The town remained part of the Lancashire Constabulary until 1974.
Early Victorian police worked seven days a week, with only five days unpaid holiday a year for which they received the grand sum of £1 per week. Their lives were strictly controlled; they were not allowed to vote in elections and required permission to get married and even to share a meal with a civilian. To allay the public’s suspicion of being spied upon, officers were required to wear their uniforms both on and off duty.
The public was won over and the police began patrols in the City of London in 1839. Slowly the concept of the police force expanded to rural areas. In 1856 Parliament finally mandated that police forces be established in outlying provinces. By this time police departments were forming in the United States and the rest of the world based on Robert Peel’s model.
Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off
