Tideline Stories – cleaning the Thames and capturing its tales

On a crisp October morning, local residents and workers joined Tideline Stories, our event exploring shared hopes for a cleaner Thames through a beach clean at Ernie's Beach and reportage drawing workshop at Topolski Studio. The day was organised with artist-in-residence, Alice Angus, with support from Recorra for the beach clean.

This workshop built on conversations started earlier this year at Reimagining the River where we investigated the future of our riverside in the context of climate change and the need to raise local flood defences by 2050. A key ambition that emerged from those discussions was this desire for a cleaner river. Tideline Stories provided an opportunity to continue that conversation through collective action and creativity.

While removing litter from the river's edge, the group took time to sketch, taking inspiration from their surrounding landscape and the objects revealed by the tide. Alongside the expected finds of food wrappers and coffee cups, more surprising discoveries included a cricket ball, child's booster seat and car tyre. The morning's efforts captured observations and shared aspirations for the river while also removing 28.4kg of rubbish from our foreshore. The resulting artworks inspired by the day will be exhibited locally later this year.