Tower Hill Beach
In many ways, the history of the River Thames is the history of the East End.
Ever since the Romans discovered that the area that would become London was a handy spot to cross the river, there have been settlements in the City and to its east.
And over the centuries, as the small settlement grew to become England’s capital, the crucible of world trade and the most famous city in the world, the East End has been the gateway to London.
It is via the East End’s docks and waterfronts that the goods and people who built London first set foot in the city.
And Tower Hamlets Libraries official 1998 calendar gives recognition to the great river that built our special corner of London.
The “On The Waterfront” calendar gives the Thames a starring role. You may be snug indoors as 1998 begins, sheltering against the worst of the winter, but the front cover will give you a blast of summer.
It features the “Tower Beach” – the strand of river front under Tower Bridge where the import of several tons of sand provided East Enders with a pleasure beach, while saving the train fare to Southend!
But the scene in February is a sharp contrast. A snapshot from the riverbank at Limehouse in 1895 graphically shows one of the worst winters for centuries. The Thames is frozen over, trapping ships in the ice, with snow piled high on the beach.
The decline of the docks over the last half century is apparent. Ships loom large in these pictures – literally so in October, which shows Manchester Road, on the Isle of Dogs, in 1918.
The prow of the Milverton thrusts over the dock wall, right over to the houses on the land side, dwarfing the children playing beneath its shadow.
And in January’s shot of the London Docks in 1890, a previous generation of ships are shown in their dying years, huge three-masted merchantmen queueing up to unload their wares.
The sheer number of vessels waiting in line shows just how busy the Pool of London was.
Even in 1940, the contrast is marked. St Katharine Wharf is shown when it was a bustling dock, not the spick-and-span tourist attraction it is today.
July takes us back a generation again. A pen and ink drawing shows a lighterman standing in his skiff at the entrance to West India Docks in 1810.
Once the goods of the world had been unloaded at the docks, it was the arterial system of canals, leading from the East End, which carried them to all corners of Britain.
Today, the canals have been cleared, cleaned and buzz once again with pleasure traffic.
But September shows Old Ford Lock, on the Regents Canal, in 1933, when working boats had yet to be supplanted by railways and roads.
And the lighter side of East End watersports show up in May, with the Poplar and Black- wall Rowing Club being put through their paces on the Thames in 1960.
June sees children splashing in Victoria Park Lake, in 1957, while November shows a battalion of improbably dressed 1934 bathers, waiting to take the plunge at Poplar Baths.
n On the Waterfront Calendar 1998 is available now from all Tower Hamlets Libraries, priced £3.99.