14 amazing facts about the Thames you probably never knew

The River Thames at Goring weir

How Pandemics Spurred Cities to Make More Green Space for People

Cholera Transforms London and Paris

A satirical cartoon showing the River Thames and its offspring cholera, scrofula and diphtheria, circa 1850s.

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

... In the interim, raw sewage continued to overflow into the River Thames, and in the summer of 1858 it caused the “Great Stink,” an odor so repugnant it forced the closure of the Houses of Parliament and the construction of a modern sewer system that transported the city’s waste far enough away from London that the river’s tides took it out to sea. In addition, the muddy shorelines of the Thames were narrowed and replaced with embankments with riverside roads and gardens. ...

Construction Index: Tideway's tunnel visions

... Ongoing work at Albert Embankment Foreshore involves three separate foreshore cofferdams, two major excavations and three lengths of tunnel and is taking place with incredibly limited access and within metres of occupied office buildings. And yet it is just one of 24 Tideway sites in the capital, almost half of which involve some kind of intervention with the River Thames.  ...
... Nearly all of the work that is being carried out at this site takes place on the foreshore of the River Thames, hence it involves a substantial amount of temporary works. In addition, like many of the other foreshore sites, highway access is severely restricted by the presence of occupied office buildings.  ...
... The £3.8bn project under construction between Acton in west London and Beckton in the east will intercept the most polluting storm overflows and reduce the amount of raw sewage that washes into the River Thames following heavy rain. Construction work started in 2016 and is due for completion in 2024.  ...

Contentious incinerator and energy park plan on River Thames at Belvedere approved after public inquiry

... Contentious plans to build a second mass waste incinerator on the River Thames at Belvedere have been approved, in a move slammed by Labour figures across south-east London. ...
... Cory Riverside Energy said the majority of waste will be transported via barges on the River Thames, as it currently is to their existing Belvedere facility. ...

10 things you didn't know about the Queen's swans on the River Thames

A regular sight on the glorious River Thames in Berkshire is a grand bevy of swans.

Moment Woolwich Ferry twirls in middle of River Thames in thank you to NHS staff

The commuter ship, which operates in the southeast of the capital, spun to form doughnuts and honked its horn in the middle of the River Thames on Thursday night.

Seal enjoys swim during coronavirus lockdown in empty River Thames

Viewers embraced the positive side of the quarantine as they watched the jovial seal swimming in the River Thames in London

Inspectorate approves Cory’s second London EfW plant

The plant will mean the construction of a second large EfW facility on the south bank of the river Thames for Cory. It will be developed alongside its existing facility which has a capacity of 750,000 tonnes of residual waste per year. 

First stage of 'Illuminated River' Thames installation unveiled online - Southwark News

First stage of 'Illuminated River' Thames installation unveiled online - Southwark News: Cannon Street, Southwark and Millennium bridges are in the first phase of the project that will be the longest public art commission in the world once complete

'Thank you Greta': natural solutions to UK flooding climb the agenda

“Putting beavers in the River Thames is not going to keep people dry and a different solution is required. However, for some of the smaller communities you could implement woody debris dams and make sure the soil upstream is able to absorb the water. Not one size fits all. It must be an open discussion between farmers and Defra and the Environment Agency and scientists. It’s not an easy problem but I think we should be confident that we can solve it,” she says.