The Dirty, Rude and Crude Thames

A romp through the seedier side of London with Andy Hawkins

Andy Hawkins from the Thames Explorer Trust regaled an audience in the Pier House with some of the murkier stories of the Thames as part of the Chiswick Pier Trust's series of winter talks.

Andy painted a vivid picture of a Brentford fisherman’s son being taken to court in 1721 for allegedly, “in the course of an outing on a boat with friends turned his backside over the side of the boat next the house and in a very indecent manner eased his body”.

His romp through the seedier side of London continued through Farting Lane, Sluts Hole and Naked Boy Yard.

Father Thames, he explained, has a dirty past, which led to cholera and death to those unfortunate enough to fall in and drink the water in the 19th and 18th centuries.

You can see Andy’s PowerPoint presentation on the Thames Explorer Trust website which features some wonderful pictures of the old Abbey Mills water works and historic illustrations of The Thames.

December 22, 2009