Skulferatu #56 - River Thames Foreshore by Trig Lane Stairs, Paul's Walk, London

 

Many times, as I’ve walked around central London, I have passed stairs leading down into the murky waters of the Thames.  Sometimes, if I’m lucky, the tide is out, and I can take a stroll along the foreshore to do a bit of mudlarking.  I am not a very dedicated mudlarker though, so my collection of items recovered from the mud and sands of the Thames amounts to not much more than a jar full of clay pipe stems and a couple of water worn plastic toys.

 

Trig Lane Stairs lead down to the foreshore from Paul’s Walk, near to the Millennium Bridge.  I have passed these many times, but never ventured down them.  So, while out killing some time before meeting up with a friend, I came across them and decided to go down and have a look around.  The stairs themselves are not for the faint hearted, or doddery old farts like me, as they are quite steep.  However, I managed to get down them without any mishaps.

 

Foreshore of the Thames with the Millennium Bridge in the background

 

View from the foreshore over to the Tate Modern

 

Under the Millennium Bridge

 

I took a little time wandering around the shore which was a mish mash of pebbles, water smoothed bricks, sand and mud.  Amongst all of this were piles and piles of animal bones.  Brown with age and mud I assumed they must hark back to a time when there was a slaughterhouse or butcher’s nearby.  Or maybe just lots of ale houses selling mutton on the bone with the waters of the Thames being an easy place to dispose of all the waste.  Then there were the thousands of clay pipe stems and pieces of the pipe bowls, these being the fag ends of their day.  I collected up a few of these and wondered who the smokers were who had puffed away on the coarse tobacco in them a couple of hundred or so years before.  I suppose it could be anyone from a great literary mind or political thinker to a gin soak.  I ain’t ever going to know, but its fun to imagine the life of the person who had puffed away on it.

 

View from foreshore by Trig Lane Stairs

 

View over the Thames to the Shard

 

As more people began to make their way down the stairs to explore the shore, I found a place to discreetly leave the Skulferatu who had accompanied me down there.  I left it in a small sandy patch, just under the Millennium Bridge.

 

Skulferatu #56

 

Skulferatu #56 in the sand on the shore of the Thames

 

Map showing location of Skulferatu #56

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 51.510631

Longitude -0.098475