River Views: Transformations on the Thames

Abstract

‘The key to London is the Thames. Without the river, the city might not have existed and would certainly not have flourished.’ So runs the topographical argument for London’s origin and successful growth. It stems from the Romans’ choice of a crossing-point between a hill on the north bank opposite a rare spot of firm land — an island at high tide — among the marshes to the south. This was the first location up the tidal stream clear of marshland on both sides, and from it the Roman road network fanned out in all the necessary directions. There seems to have been no significant settlement in this place before.