Found at the Water’s Edge

About

Join an expert panel as they share stories of the different communities that have shaped – and been shaped by – the River Thames.

The Thames is a storyteller. It shapes the fabric of the city, dividing north from south, joining the piers of Putney with the estuary past East Tilbury; the historic shipbuilders of Deptford with modern fishing communities at Leigh on Sea. 

It continued to flow steadily as Britain’s landmass splintered from ancient Doggerland, and swept on uninterrupted for thousands of years, before being artificially rerouted by merchants building a city of trade upon its banks. As the connective nerve of London, the Thames continues to act as home, workplace and pathway, and its transitory inhabitants leave their mark. 

Thousands of years of history is washed up in disjointed fragments upon its foreshore, gifting finds, fictions and mysteries at will.

In this panel discussion, researchers and creatives whose work is inspired by the River Thames share stories of the different communities that have shaped – and been shaped by – the river. 

Presenting different ways of ‘doing’ history, from archaeology to archiving to speculative fiction, Aleema Gray, Malcolm Russell, Tom Chivers and Remiiya Badru explore how the material culture found along the river, as well as the physical landscape surrounding it, allow us to piece together narratives.