Thames (Roman, Tamesis), river in southern England, the longest and most important river in England. It rises in four headstreams the Isis (or Windrush), the Churn, the Coln, and the Leach on the south-eastern slope of the Cotswold Hills, in Gloucestershire, near Cheltenham. The streams converge on Oxford and flow generally south-east to Reading, through a gap in the Chiltern escarpment. The Thames thereafter follows a generally eastern course through London, and a few kilometres below Gravesend it expands into a wide estuary and enters the North Sea. It is about 340 km (210 mi) long. At London Bridge (see London's Bridges) the width of the river is about 265 m (870 ft); at thames cruises Woolwich, 448 m (1,470 ft); at Gravesend pier, 732 m (2,400 ft); 5 km (3 mi) below Gravesend, 1,180 m (3,870 ft); at Nore Light, 10 km (6 mi); and at its mouth, between Whitstable and Foulness Point, the estuary is 29 km (18 mi) across. The Port of London and Docklands. The area designated as the Port of London extends from Teddington Lock, which is about 16 km (10 mi) west of the city and the limit of the tidal water, downriver to the outer limit of the Tongue light vessel, a distance of thames boat hire 150 km (93 mi). Ocean-going vessels navigate to the upper part of the river through Tower thames pleasure cruises Bridge: these are mainly cruise ships. During the 19th century the docks, at the hub of Britain's worldwide trade, made London the world's busiest port. Rapid decline set in after 1945, however, and shipping is now much diminished. Bulk cargoes of aggregates are shipped by coasters up river as far as Fulham, thus avoiding many lorry loads travelling on the city's roads. In the reverse direction, much of London's domestic rubbish is transported in containers to landfill sites towards the estuary. Cargo handling thames hotels takes place on about 100 riverside wharves between Deptford and Canvey Island as well as at enclosed docks at Tilbury. On average 52 million tonnes of cargo is handled in the port annually, making it Britain's largest general cargo port.
It has two oil refineries at Shellhaven and Coryton, and the only cane sugar refinery in the United Kingdom at thames restaurants Silvertown near the Thames Flood Barrier. The Ford Motor Company at its Dagenham riverside works manufactured and shipped completed cars to continental Europe by sea (in 2002 the company switched to producing diesel engines). The whole region has been boats for sale uk designated as a development area by the government under the title of Thames Gateway Initiative. The London Docklands, in the capital's East End, have especially declined greatly since the mid-1960s, and the areas closest to the city have been rezoned for housing and commercial development. A Conservative government initiative in the 1980s to regenerate the area led to some business relocation at sites such as Canary Wharf, the construction of Britain's thames property tallest building, Canada Tower (also known as Canary Wharf Tower), and the redevelopment of riverside warehouses as luxury apartments. The part of the river immediately below London Bridge is called the Pool. Two embankments have been formed, one on the northern shore from Blackfriars Bridge to Westminster and one on the southern shore from Westminster Bridge to Vauxhall. Between Hampton Court and the Tower of London the river is crossed by 20 road and 9 rail bridges. corporate entertainments london The world's first bored tunnel was built under the Thames by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel from 1825 to 1842. The latest road bridge is the QEII Bridge opened by Elizabeth II in 1991. Sited east of the city, it joins the counties of Essex and Kent, and is the north-south link of the M25 London orbital motorway (the Dartford tunnels are the south-north link). In June 2000 the Millennium Bridge the river thamesopened, London's only dedicated pedestrian bridge across the Thames. It was also the first new bridge to be built over the river in the capital for more than 100 years, and connects St Paul's Cathedral to the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in Southwark. However, the bridge was forced to close the day after it opened due to safety concerns. After proposed modifications were undertaken the bridge reopened in early 2002. In January that year, the first inland emergency lifeboat service in England was launched along the Thames in London, with stations at Chiswick Pier, Gravesend, Teddington, and Tower Pier, and with headquarters at the Thames Barrier.
