Thames Barrier in Black & White - Fine Art Prints

by Chris Page
 
Thames Barrier in Black & White - The Thames Collection.
 
Flooding has haunted the city of London since the days of Roman sandals on cobbled streets. But it was the devastating North Sea flood of 1953 that finally spurred serious action. In its aftermath, the Waverley Committee proposed a bold idea: rather than endlessly raising riverbanks, why not build a barrier—something that could shut the tide out when the sea turned angry?
 
And so, in 1982, after decades of planning and innovation, the Thames Barrier was born at Woolwich. Stretching 520 meters across the river, its gleaming gates divide the Thames into six navigable spans—four wide at 61 meters and two at roughly 30—along with four smaller, non-navigable channels nestled between nine concrete piers. The gates themselves are marvels of engineering: hollow steel segments shaped like the cross-section of a circle, rotating into place like the curved arms of a giant clock, turning back the tides.
 
As of May 2024, the Barrier has closed 221 times—each time standing firm between London and the floodwaters that once claimed lives and land. A monument not just to modern engineering, but to a city’s ongoing defiance of the forces of nature.
 
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