Thames River — Blackfriars Bridge

Well fall is in its climax here. As I am somewhat behind in writing so then am I behind in my photos. No not behind in taking photos, just in showing them to you - here are some images that I took over a week ago. They are from along the Thames riverside, the Thames runs right through the middle of London (yes also that London but I mean this London) and provides its own tranquil beauty to our city. What you have to understand is that photos below were all taken within the core of our downtown or very near it. 350,000 people walk around in these woods in the middle of our city. I must admit it is one thing that keeps me sane in living here. I much prefer to live next to the ocean like Amsterdam or New York and being Dutch the little parts that make me desire to live next to the sea. So here in the middle of the Great Lakes, I am grateful to have a river and bridges to cross. None of these Bridges is compaprable to the Brooklyn Bridge or the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in New York. More on this later.

I took these images on a very warm Sunday along the Thames river just as the leaves were about to change, some already changing colour. My family and I, in the many years we’ve lived here, have walked, cycled, and seen these sites time and time again. They never cease to please me – whatever BS is going on in my life I can always go to the river and find my thoughts and my expression of thanks to God for creating such beauty.

Gibbons Park from the west bank of the Tames River.

fall leaves under the Gibbon’s Park footbridge

That then takes me to bridges. London has no bridges of any world quality as the aforementioned bridges in New York. That said it does have two charming old steel arched bridges. The bridge below is named The Blackfriars Bridge. It crosses the Thames River from the downtown to a charming neighbourhood called Blackfriars. My parents have lived in this since I was about 14 or since 1970. Even though I lived near this bridge for a large part of my life as a youth; even now, I visit it frequently. In fact I love this bridge so much I did a painting / photographic piece on it in the 80’s. I’ll talk more about that work some other time but I will show you the watercolour portion of it below. I regret that the painting looks a helluva lot better in life than here but you’ll have to go to Museum London to see it as they have it in their collection.

Here’s my favourite bridge in London and were you to visit me here, we’d walk along the banks of the Thames from Gibbons Park to the BlackFriars Bridge, along to Harris Park and up to the Museum that houses my painting below in the downtown. We might even stop at my parents for a coffee along the way as they like me to visit. By the way, the painting below was painted in 1984-85.

The Blackfriars Bridge from the west bank of the Thames River

my painting of the bridge from near the same view some 22 years ago

GP