Baker Street Elementary. Presents The Life and Times in Victorian London

Transcription

1 Baker Street Elementary Presents The Life and Times in Victorian London

2 Baker Street Elementary The Life and Times in Victorian London # 006 The Thames River 01 /29/201 7

3 Welcome to topic number 6 Today, Sherlock Holmes and I will look at the River Thames. Copyright 2017, Sherwood-Fabre, Fay, Mason, Mason

4 Just not too closely, as it is still polluted in many areas Copyright 2017, Sherwood-Fabre, Fay, Mason, Mason

5 The river will play an important part in several of our future adventures, starting with a pursuit of a murder suspect in The Sign of Four.

6 By the late 1 800s, when the Sign occurs, the river will have become much swifter, and allow for such a high- speed chase

7 19 th century MP John Burns described the River Thames as liquid history, with settlements along its banks going back to Neolithic times.

8 The name itself is believed to be the Latin derivation Tamesis of its Celtic name Tamesas, meaning dark. At 21 5 miles, it runs from Cotswold, beginning as a small stream, through London, and into the North Sea.

9 To facilitate commercial traffic, the river has more than forty locks that raise or lower boats along the way. Some of these locks date back more than 400 years and are still operated by hand.

10 In the late 1 700s, various canals were constructed to create trade routes to and from London, enriching the towns along the river as barges carried coal, wool, grain, and timber to London and other goods back to the countryside until the latter 1 800s when railroads will take over.

11 Prior to the 1 800s, the Thames would sometimes freeze, and Londoners could enjoy drinking and dancing on the ice at Frost Fairs.

12 Even Queen Elizabeth I participated in a fest to try her hand at archery

13 While the river had always been a dumping ground for the city s waste, the introduction of indoor plumbing increased the effluent into the river.

14 The Thames was so polluted by 1 858, Parliament was suspended because of the stench. Joseph Bazalgette has designed a sewer system that will carry the waste further down the river, which will include a filtration system.

15 Of course with all the other smells, or stenches, of London, the smell from the Thames isn t much more noticeable

16 Embankments were also created to speed the river and carry off more mud. As a result of the swifter river flow, the Thames no longer freezes and the last Frost Fair occurred in

17 In recent times, we have also dredged the river to increase its navigability and found numerous artifacts in the process.

18 Mudlarks, scavengers on the river banks, continue to forage the river for bits of history still buried in the mud along the Thames, dating back centuries.

19 Many of these items can be found in displays at various London museums, including the Museum of London and the British museum.

20 The speed of the river has not changed much from our times to the 21 st Century however, the water s cleanliness in the 21 st Century is a great surprise to us.

21 The dead river of our times will be now home to 1 25 species of fish, including salmon and sea trout by the 21 st Century otters will even return

22 The Thames, in the 21 st century, will be considered the cleanest river running through a major city.

23 Thanks to such ecological efforts, England s liquid history will continue to flow with a much brighter future ahead than during our times.

24 So we have completed topic 6 in our series yes, but we ll be back with another topic soon

25 References for this topic: Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes (London: Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., 2012)

26 Baker Street Elementary The Life and Times in Victorian London IS CREATED THROUGH THE INGENUITY & HARD WORK OF: JOE FAY LIESE SHERWOOD-FABRE RUSTY MASON & STEVE MASON