18
Aug
2026

Penton Hook Island Has Been Closed Because Of Dangerous Trees And I Realised How Much I Rely On A Path I Don’t Even Own

A riverside diary entry on losing access to a favourite walking spot near Staines, the strange grief…

18
Aug
2026

Five Drones Crashed Into The Thames During A Light Show Rehearsal And I Watched The Whole Thing From My Kitchen Window

A riverside diary entry on witnessing a genuinely bizarre technical failure over the water, what it’s like…

18
Aug
2026

Work Has Finally Started On Removing “Wet Wipe Island” And I Have Complicated Feelings About Celebrating The Death Of A Landmark

A riverside diary entry on the long-awaited clearance of the Thames’s most notorious sandbank, what it actually…

18
Aug
2026

The Actual Source Of The Thames Dried Up For The First Time Since 1976 And It Made Me Rethink Everything I Assumed About This River

A riverside diary entry on the drought’s effect on the river’s origins far upstream, feeling suddenly small…

18
Aug
2026

I Finally Booked A Tour Of Isleworth Ait And Discovered A Tiny Wild Island I’d Been Looking At My Entire Life Without Ever Actually Visiting

A riverside diary entry on finally setting foot on a nature reserve island hidden in plain sight,…

18
Aug
2026

I Went On The Wind In The Willows Walk From Richmond To Twickenham And Understood Immediately Why Attenborough Calls This His Favourite Place On The Planet

Harper-Thames follows the Footprints of London tour through Tudor gatehouses, wildflowers, and Eel Pie Island’s surprising rock…

18
Aug
2026

I Signed Up For A London Rivers Week Clean-Up Assuming I’d Do Twenty Minutes And Left Four Hours Later Genuinely Obsessed

Harper-Thames on the Know Your Local River theme and how a single free volunteer event completely rearranged…

18
Aug
2026

I Tried Mudlarking For The First Time And Found A Piece Of Someone Else’s Entire Life Buried In The Silt

Harper-Thames joins the tide-watchers searching the riverbank for centuries of hidden treasure and comes away genuinely moved…

18
Aug
2026

I Watched Five Drones Crash Into The Thames During A Rehearsal And Felt A Strange Kinship With Every Single One Of Them

Harper-Thames on the light show that went spectacularly wrong and what it’s like to fail publicly in…

18
Aug
2026

I Finally Learned What Wet Wipe Island Actually Is And I Genuinely Wish I Hadn’t

Harper-Thames investigates the ongoing removal work targeting a stretch of the river she’s apparently been standing near…