Home > River Thames
:This article is about the River Thames in southern England. For other meanings of the word Thames, see Thames
The Thames ( pronounced /temz/) is a river flowing through southern England and connecting London with the sea.
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The Thames has a length of 346 kilometres (215 statute miles). Its source is near the village of Kemble in the Cotswolds; it then flows through OxfordThis is about the city of Oxford in England. See also other meanings, including other cities. Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 ( 2001 census). Its latitude and longitude are 51°45'07" N a (where it is called the Isis, a truncation of Thamesis, its LatinAlternative meanings: See Latin (disambiguation Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and ma name), WallingfordWallingford is a small town in Oxfordshire in southern England. It is a strategically important crossing point on the River Thames, where the invading armies of the Norman conquest of 1066 crossed the Thames from south to north. Wallingford itself sits on, Reading, Henley-on-ThamesHenley-on-Thames is a town on the north side of the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead. It is located on the corner between Oxfordshire, Berkshire a, MarlowMarlow (previously Great Marlow or Chipping Marlow is a town on the very southern tip of Buckinghamshire, England. It is located on the River Thames, four miles south of High Wycombe, and four miles north west of Maidenhead. The town name is Anglo Saxon i, MaidenheadThis article is about the town in England. For other uses see Maidenhead. Maidenhead is a town in Berkshire, England, and has a population of around 60,000. The town is part of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. It lies on the west bank of the R, EtonEton is a town in Berkshire, England, lying on the opposite bank of the River Thames to Windsor and connected to it by Windsor Bridge. Until 1974 Eton was in Buckinghamshire. The town is best known as the location of Eton College, an exclusive public scho and Windsor and London.
The Thames rises in Gloucestershire, traditionally forming the county boundary, firstly between Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, between Berkshire on the south bank and Oxfordshire on the north, between Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, Buckinghamshire and Surrey, Surrey and Middlesex, and between Essex and Kent. The Thames is still used as an administrative border, though less so than it has been.
From the outskirts of Greater London, it passes Syon House , Hampton Court, and Richmond (with the famous view of the Thames from Richmond Hill), and Kew, before it passes through London proper, then Greenwich and Dartfordm and entering the sea in a drowned estuary, The Nore . Part of the area west of London is sometimes termed the Thames Valley whilst east of Tower Bridge development agencies and Ministers have taken to using the term Thames Gateway.
About 90 kilometres from the sea, upstream of London, the river begins to exhibit tidal activity from the North Sea. London was reputedly made capital of Roman Britain at the spot where the tides reached in 43 AD, but this spot has moved up river in the 2000 years since then. At London, the water is slightly brackish with sea salt.
The principal tributaries of the Thames are the River Darent, the River Ravensbourne (or Deptford Creek), the River Fleet, the River Brent, the River Lee, the River Westbourne, the River Effra, the River Ken , the River Mole, the River Wey, the River Loddon, the River Kennet, the River Thame, the River Cherwell, the River Windrush , the River Cole , the River Churn and the River Wandle.
Between Maidenhead and Windsor, the Thames supports an artificial secondary channel, known as the Jubilee River, for flood relief purposes.
