Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Working boats of the Thames

London used to be a thriving commercial port, but that was a long time ago now.

It sometimes feels that there are no more working boats plying the muddy waters of the Thames, but they haven't completely died out.

Here are some dirty boats that justify themselves by what they can do rather than how they look.
From the angle you can tell that the photo was taken from somewhere unusual - can you guess where?

6 comments:

Joe said...

A crane....or a helicopter.

O Docker said...

Flying the Thames cable car, were we?

JP said...

Joe - there are indeed helicopter tours of London but this cost a lot less. It was in fact...

O'Docker: Correct! It was a trip on the cable car across the Thames.

More pics tomorrow.

Baydog said...

So now that O Docker has recently visited GB, shouldn't he be disqualified from England-related blog quizzes? I mean, he's already smart enough.

O Docker said...

Local knowledge wasn't much of a help here - I didn't know about the cable car before.

I checked Google Maps for a spot on the river bank that looked like the first photo. Much of the Thames around London can be eliminated because the banks are too shallow to allow boats to moor directly at the embankment.

Eventually, I found the spot across the Thames from the 02 arena. Google Maps streetview on the arena side clearly shows the cable car.

I think you could make a case for disqualifying idle retired types with too much time on their hands.

JP said...

I did actually wonder about whether there should be disqualifications, but then if everyone who could answer was not allowed to then there might be no solution.

It sounds like O'Docker found the cable car with an admirable amount of detective work and Google Maps skills.

Even in London the cable car is not that well known as it was opened as part of the run up to the Olympics when there was an awful lot going on.