Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Fulham Cottage Riverstand Update

There's some sort of a football thing going on right now, so here's a post related to that sport.

Over the last year or two, observers of traffic on the Thames will have noticed a number of structures such as the one above and below being towed upriver.

These were all heading the same way from Tilbury up to Fulham, in particular to the redevelopment of the Fulham football club stadium, for the new Riverstand.

Here these pre-fabricated sections are fitted together using a crane on a barge floating nearby:



Getting the barges up to Fulham is challenge given the number of bridges, some of which are very low. So the passage plans have to take account of the tide and bridge heights, and it can take 2 days to get them up from Tilbury Docks with the right river depths and bridge clearances.

There's a useful video here.


It's really coming together:


I'm not a great football watcher but there should also be a new riverside walk which I'm looking forward to trying out.


Updated: stand as of this afternoon:



6 comments:

Greg Wesson said...

It's really coming together, and I think it'll be a very interesting addition to the waterfront. And with the river path being connected, that'll mean uninterrupted waterfront walking from Putney Bridge to Furnival Gardens.

JP said...

Agree, it will be great to be able to walk all the way from Putney Bridge to Hammersmith Bridge along the north bank.

All that would be needed then would be to re-open Hammersmith Bridge so can do the loop - but that seems to be a lot harder task!

Greg Wesson said...

Inspired by well-known London Blogger DiamondGeezer, last year I mapped out how much of the Thames Path in Hammersmith and Fulham was actually beside the Thames. I worked it out (as present) as 74%. The opening of the path at Craven Cottage (and re-openning the bit under Hammersmith Bridge) would probably take it over 3/4! (https://gregwcollections.travellerspoint.com/9/).

I fear Hurlingham will forever be inaccessible to the hoi polloi like myself, but lots of developments between Wandsworth Bridge and Chelsea Creek could open up even more.

And I'd love Hammersmith Bridge to reopen to cyclist and pedestrians. Opens up lots of running routes I've not seen for a few years.

JP said...

Thanks for that link - very good post! Hopefully when the Thames Tideway Tunnel is finished a bit more of the Thames path will become available at its Carnwath Road site. Finishing the Lots Road development should also help. Have you seen the fake canal round the corner from Lots Road? I've a blog post on it planned - might be my next one.

One year the Open London Festival included tours of the Hurlingham Club so I managed to have a look round - but they haven't included it for a long time. Very fancy indeed!

I follow DiamondGeezer - lots of good stuff on his site.

Bursledon Blogger said...

Moving those sorts of heavy and massive structure around on water must a lot of fun, and not without some drama. if I had my time over gain I might have trained for marine based civil engineering if such a thing exists.

JP said...

I once visited the operations to remove the half-tide weir where the Wandle River met the Thames:
https://captainjpslog.blogspot.com/2017/02/removing-wandle-half-tide-weir.html

The work was being done by a company called Land & Water:
https://www.land-water.co.uk/

That sounds a lot like a marine civil engineering company