Have you ever walked over a London bridge and looked down to see the tide was out on the river, and the freshly exposed beaches were dotted with little hunched figures, picking their way across the foreshore?
Those figures were likely to be Thames beachcombers, called mudlarks, searching among the flints and gravel for fragments of London’s history. The River Thames is astonishingly generous with the bounty that it gives up to those who look for it.
Every community that lived by its banks has left traces in the river’s mud: Bronze Age swords, sacrificed to its waters; Roman pottery, broken and thrown away, and monumental statuary, iconoclastically disposed of; Tudor gold; Georgian pipes; Victorian everything.
Today’s mudlarks set out to find these traces, as they’re churned up by the Thames’ tides.
Do you fancy joining them? Or just finding out about the history found along the nearby river banks?
Come along to an illustrated talk by Ted Sandling, author of London in Fragments.
Michael Leapman, prolific writer and journalist – and a well-known local resident – will provide an introduction.
Wednesday February 8th 7pm (doors open at 6.30)
Admittance free. Refreshments available.
This talk is jointly organised by Friends of TSL and the Vauxhall Society.
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