h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The article is a teriffic romp along this great river. Here's some more...

As well as a main artery for trade along its length in the past, its lower reaches have seen great ports and docks rise and fall from St. Katherine's by Tower Bridge, past East India Docks down to the faded glories of the transatlantic liners to and fro from Tilbury.

There are some first class boozers along the south bank around Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, with a great view of the River and the arresting places where you could be chained to a pole at low tide for stealing a cabbage leaf in 19th Century society, and left to drown in a rather nasty way. Victorian values, eh ?

The jetty / wharf between the Royal Albert Dock and the King George V Dock between Beckton and Silvertown is now home to the runway at London City Airport (LCY/EGLC); a fantastic if not slightly hair-raising way in and out of the heart of the City. And we're just now in 2006 getting around to putting an arm of the Docklands Light Railway there to whisk you into London or out to the heady charms of Stratford and Beckton.

A world class feat of engineering on the epic scale (worthy of a modern day Brunel) was pulled off between 1974 and 1982 with the construction of the Thames flood barrage - the Thames Barrier - between Silvertown and Charlton. This has kept our feet dry many times since it was first swung up in February 1983.

And then there's the dome...

This is great information! I decided to leave out the 'working' Thames, as the entry was already quite long.

If I decide to write an entry about the docks etc, or see someone else doing so, then I will be sure to point them to your info here.