Useful links

Last updated: 19-06-2020 @ 08:42

Keep up-to-date with what’s important on the Tidal Thames.  The Port of London Authority (PLA) Notices to Mariners are here.

CRT information here.

We have been unable to find the Tideway Handbooks on the CRT site, so we have uploaded the most recent copies that we have.  Do keep checking on the CRT site – more up to date copies may appear there in due course. It’s always wise to chat with the lock-keeper at Limehouse before cruising the tideway – he may have more up-to-date links to the guides, as well as live up-to-the-minute information about the river….

In the meantime, in increasing order of fun lunacy (delete as appropriate):

Upstream Edition: tideway-handbook-upstream.

Downstream Edition: tideway-handbook-downstream

Estuary Edition: tideway-handbook-estuary

Environment Agency (non-tidal) advice is HERE.

For more adventurous cruising,  see these pages on

*  a convoy that went to the Medway in 2016

*  a cruise to the Dartford and Barking Creeks in 2018.

Nowhere near the Thames but a check list for crossing the Mersey is here.

There are lots of other places you should look:

The PLA web site has more detailed tide tables but be careful they are in real time ie Greenwich Mean Time, not British Summer Time. They have a great video of nb Madam going up the tideway at supersonic speed and they also have their Notices to Mariners – do check if any apply before you set out, don’t expect Limehouse, Teddington or Brentford Lockies to know them. The main sites are:

• PLA
• PLA site for recreational cruising (which includes narrowboats)
• Notices to Mariners
• Access to the video and their tide tables is from this page

IWA

• The IWA have a concise and very useful Thames Tideway Guide. It will cost you 30p.

Environment Agency (EA)

• It’s also worth looking at the Environment Agency Thames River Conditions website because there may be red boards displayed between Teddington and the upstream locks and remember that if those sections are on red boards the water has to go somewhere – and that somewhere will be into the tidal Thames below Teddington!

Anchors

• Wondering about anchors: Then this page is useful: . The advice coming out from negotiations between the St Pancras Cruising Club and the PLA is that an anchor should have 15m of chain and 35m of nylon warp.

St Pancras Cruising Club

• Finally and most importantly no page about the tidal Thames should fail to mention the St Pancras Cruising Club, they are the experts and they allow non-members to join their convoys on the strict condition that you attend a briefing and laugh at the Commodore’s jokes. Their web site is here. In particular look at their events page, time your trip to London to coincide with one of their trips and also have a look at their tideway guide which is worth reading.

Comment from Simon Judge:

• The code of practice for rowers above Putney, which explains what they are doing on the wrong side of the buoys, and crossing from one side to the other – I think it’s helpful for narrowboaters to know about this! There is a pocket guide here which is worth having a look at.
• The rowing information on the PLA website is all here, the full code (click here) is worth a read for the tidal information
• for those who want a decent chart of the river (also quite helpful for deciphering messages from VTS) the Imrays chart is available to buy here for £18.

 Gas, Diesel, Coal

If you need gas, coal or diesel this link provides information on the working boats still working – it covers the entire system but some of them operate around the London area.