This book contains a wide range of areas along the iconic London river that can be explored. The pages are full of beautiful drawings and interesting facts, I loved flicking through the book, discovering more about areas of London, some familiar and others not so much. The coverage of the book is perfect for locals and visitors and it makes a beautiful Coffee Table book!

This book really is a love letter to the Thames. That globally famous river that gave England its capital city, and has seen history both good and bad, seen the ends of lives and the beginnings of relationships. Starting at the west end we are taken on a journey through historically beautiful sights like Hampton Court Palace, Syon House, the stretch of river that sees that annual Oxford v Cambridge boat race. We then make our way to Central London (including the City of) and Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, and Tower Bridge. Finally we need the East with more modern areas like the Thanes Barrier, Millennium dome and Canary Wharf. Each section is accompanied by beautiful illustrations of this evolving and historically significant city. But for all these famous places there an array of what seem like mundane points of interest along the way such as the Hungerford and Golden Jubilee bridges that I’ve walked across way too many times to count! I had no idea that their predecessor was the site of a murder in 1999 or that a competition was held in the mid 90s to redesign the footbridges altogether. Now I haven’t fully finished this book and it’s probably not a read it cover to cover in one sitting affair, more of a dip in and out at a leisurely pace kind of thing. But if you know anyone who loves rivers, facts, London, illustration etc this would be a perfect gift. I’m thinking of people who regularly take on the Thames Path challenge or fans of Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London.

The Thames Path Sketch Journal by Charles M Leon was a wonderful book that captures the rich history of the Thames through stunning sketches and detailed histories of the evolving structures and buildings that line its banks and span its waters, weaving together a unique narrative of power, pride, and pestilence. It was a joy to read and look at these wonderful paintings and learn the history behind them. A great book to have on your shelves or to show off on your coffee table for others to look threw. I highly recommend this book - just beautiful.

With thanks to the author, publishers CL Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an DRC of this book in exchange for my honest review. I confess to having known next to nothing about the area of London depicted in this wonderful book of illustrations prior to reading it, but felt that it gave a really good overview of it. The book starts with a short “liquid history” of the Thames from Roman times to the present day, which provides some useful context. From there, starting at Hampton Court palace, it moves eastwards along the river stopping at various points of interest along the way, providing an illustration and accompanying text for each one, before finally finishing at the Thames Barrier. I enjoyed the variety of locations that were included. While you might expect some of the more famous sites such as Hampton Court palace and Lambeth Palace to be in there, it was refreshing to see other locations like football stadium Craven Cottage, cafe’s, pubs, breweries etc. I also liked that the illustrations are not simply reproductions of photographs but very much a snapshot of the point in time that the author was there too, as demonstrated by the presence of the fire engine in the illustration of Kingston Railway Bridge because the local fire service had stopped to get their morning coffee from a mobile coffee van!