Harper-Thames investigates the ongoing removal work targeting a stretch of the river she’s apparently been standing near for years without knowing
Work to remove what’s known as “Wet Wipe Island” from the River Thames is officially underway, and having lived near this river for years without ever once googling what that specific name actually referred to, I finally did the research this week and now genuinely wish I hadn’t.
Why I’d Managed To Avoid Learning This Particular Piece Of Local Trivia For So Long
A combination of genuine incuriosity and, in hindsight, a fairly reasonable instinct that some names are simply self-explanatory enough that further investigation would only make things worse.
What Wet Wipe Island Actually Is, In As Much Detail As I’m Willing To Provide
Exactly what the name suggests, a mass formation built up over years from improperly flushed wet wipes accumulating in one particular stretch of riverbed, which is a sentence I did not expect to type with a straight face this week.
How This Discovery Has Actually Changed My Relationship With My Own Riverside Walks
Considerably, and not for the better, given that I now think about this specific formation every single time I walk anywhere near that particular stretch of the Thames Path.
Whether I Think This Removal Work Represents Genuine Progress Worth Celebrating
Absolutely, unreservedly, and I would like to personally thank whoever is doing this specific job, which I would not do under any circumstances myself.
What This Whole Discovery Revealed About How Little I Actually Know About The River I Claim To Love So Much
Mostly that loving a river from a comfortable distance is considerably easier than understanding exactly what’s happening beneath its surface, and that some ignorance, in retrospect, was genuinely bliss. More uncomfortable Thames discoveries continue at bohiney.com.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com
