Tidal Thames to Brentford

We had a very pretty view from the boat of  Kingston-upon-Thames waterfront last night.  Today we set off for the 1/2 hour journey to get to Teddington Lock at 11:30 (in time for the tide change) and our journey down to Brentford.

On the way we saw some very strange house boats (there were three in a row here)   …………..

………………..and also some very cute ones!

On our arrival at Teddington Lock we moored up behind a wonderful old wooden boat.

James took the opportunity to chat to the owner and it turned out that the boat was built for the first owner and then immediately commandeered for Dunkirk.  

Through Teddington Lock and we were on the tidal section of the Thames and going quite fast with the outgoing tide.  The enormous Ham House dominates the river and surrounding area just before we get to Richmond.

Approaching Richmond Bridge, built in 18th century it’s said to be one of the prettiest on the Thames.

After Richmond Bridge comes Richmond half tide lock (at the far right of the bridge) and the movable weir.  Luckily, one of the gates of the movable weir was raised for maintenance and we could see exactly how this structure works.  It was built in 1894, beautifully painted and is probably more attractive than Richmond Bridge.

It was great to speed through the vast areas of open water……..

….. soon getting to Thames Lock at Brentford and the start of the canal network.  As we turned off the river into the lock channel we really felt the pull of the tide trying to take us further down the river and we had to pile on some extra power to get us in.
There isn’t much mooring here at Brentford above the gauging locks at the moment, due to construction of apartments next to the canal, so we’re breasted up with nb ‘Tartan Rose’,who we came down with from Teddington.  It’s not very picturesque here but we’ve decided to call it a day and tackle the Hanwell flight of locks tomorrow.