Thames Barrier

On Sunday Gavin and I went out to the Thames barrier. They built it in 70's I think to prevent floods in London. Its a really amazing structure, and they way they built it was really interesting. They had to dam up the river and pump parts out and seal it off to make it dry for laying the foundations. They have big half moon shapes that nestle on the river floor, if a flood is evident they begin to raise these up and basically it blocks of the river. Sometimes they just raise a couple and that's enough to stem the flow.

We walked back along the river for a while. It was very quiet out there. Then we had a lovely dinner at Butlers Wharf. Its a great area and I'd like to move there. It used to be warehouses for taking tea off the river boats. But its now all apartments and restaurants and shops looking out onto the river.

We had dinner at a Terrance Conran restaurant. You may have seen his books on design and architecture before. He has loads of restaurants here in London anyway, and it was really nice.

 

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