London's other marathon

Yesterday we decided to head into London to walk along the south bank, in the hope of seeing the Great River Race, part of the Totally Thames Festival, which has events throughout September.

Our route took us from London Bridge to Surrey Quays, following The Thames Path, a walk with great views of the river and full of interest, passing HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge, The Brunel Museum and Surrey Docks Farm.

HMS Belfast

Along the way we came across various art installations, funded by the LDDC, when the obsolete and derelict wharfs were replaced by expensive apartment blocks. Huge anchors and ships’ propellers echoed the maritime past, but most interesting were a couple of sculptures depicting local events.

The first was by sculptor Diane Gorvin of a family group: Ada Salter, her husband Alfred and their daughter Joyce along with her cat. Driven by social conscience, in 1896 aged 30 Ada had moved to London, working in the slums as a Methodist ‘Sister of the People’, where she met Alfred a brilliant bacteriologist from Guy’s Hospital, whose social conscience also drove him to find ways of improving the health and living conditions of the impoverished slum dwellers of Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.

Ada Salter, Joyce and her cat

They knew political reform was essential, first joining the Liberal party and then being active in the Independent Labour Party, although having become Quakers their influence was limited during World War One, when they were vilified for their pacifism and attacked by stone throwing mobs.

Ada’s dedication to the local community was impressive:

• 1909: First woman councillor in Bermondsey and first Labour woman councillor in London.
• 1911: Recruited women to trade unions, leading to the women’s strike known as the ‘Bermondsey Uprising’, when she organised food for the strikers starving families.
• 1914: National President of the Women’s Labour League.
• 1922: First woman mayor in London, launching with Alfred an experiment in municipal government known as the ‘Bermondsey Revolution’.
• 1931: Chair of the National Gardens Guild, after her ‘Beautification Committee' had planted 9000 trees, offered prizes for best window boxes and gardens, and filled public spaces with playgrounds, musical events and sports.
• 1934: Deployed by the LCC to beautify London and establish London’s Green Belt.

Meanwhile Alfred was equally active, becoming MP for Bermondsey in 1922 and promoting free medical treatment, a health centre, a solarium for TB sufferers, and films about hygiene shown from vans on street corners.  By 1935 this ‘NHS before the NHS’ halved infant mortality and virtually eliminated death in childbirth. While Alfred pushed through a vast slum-clearance programme, Ada was busy designing model council houses and together they destroyed most of Bermondsey’s slums.  Tragically, their denial of privilege and living amidst disease-ridden slums led to their only child dying from scarlet fever in 1910 aged 8. The ensemble of statues depicts Alfred imagining Ada, Joyce and her cat in happier days.

The next statue was at Cumberland Wharf where the Mayflower left for America with the Pilgrims in 1620. Their story is well known, with their survival dependent on aid from members of the indigenous people, particularly Squanto who spoke English, having escaped from enslavement by a British explorer.  Close examination of the statue, named ‘Pilgrim’s Pocket’ reveals it to be rather a weird depiction.

The Pilgrim's Pocket statue

It shows the ghost of William Bradford (Governor of the New Plymouth colony) behind a local boy reading the story of America in Sunbeam Weekly, a 1930's comic book. Local artist Peter McLean has certainly achieved a lighthearted feel to the work, with Bradford looking shocked to see how the USA has evolved since that first landing.  The governor’s pocket itself is packed with significant items, including a totem pole and fish to represent the Wampanoag tribe, an A-Z dated 1620 to navigate around America, a lobster claw showing that seafood was an important part of the diet, and a cross to symbolise their faith.  The comic book contains references to gunslinging cowboys, the railroad, the iconic Statue of Liberty, cars, aircraft, the Space Shuttle, Mickey Mouse and even King Kong.

As we reached Rotherhithe the first of over 300 boats taking part in the Great River Race appeared.

There were a huge variety of boats with anything from 2 to 16 rowers or paddlers. They included Gigs, replicas of the boat used by Oxford in the first Oxford & Cambridge University Boat Race (OCUBR) in 1829.

A Shallop, similar to The Queen’s Shallop built in 1689 for William of Orange’s consort, Queen Mary II

According to the handicap system, the smallest and slowest boats had left first, but many were rapidly being overtaken by faster boats, making for some competitive racing accompanied by much shouting from the coxes and cheering from supporters on the bank.

S.O.S.

You have to wonder how many of the crews kept going all the way to Ham, a distance of 21.6 miles, albeit on the incoming tide. Some clearly didn’t as we witnessed one crew being rescued after being swamped by the wake from one of the numerous sightseeing tourist boats.

Dragon Boat

Fastest and noisiest of all were the dragon boats, crewed by 16 paddlers with a drummer in the bow and a steerer at the stern.