River Life

 

I mentioned that our daughters live near Hampton Court and the river Thames - west of London and about 30 min on the overland train from the city's central train station - Waterloo.

The walk to the Thames from each of their houses is only a few minutes and on their side of the river (South Bank) there is a tow path for long stretches along the bank.  The tow path was created years ago during the industrial revolution (1790’s) for horses to pull riverboats along, and is now a 3 person wide walking and cycling path in the navigable areas of the Thames interrupted only where some boating club or properties managed to get exclusive rights to that section of the river bank.  Although the tow path does not provide access for the entire trip there is a 17 day/16 night walking trail that covers the Thames from its source to London with many sections along the tow path.

In West Molesey there are houses right on the edge of the water on the North Bank that appear to be built to float on the river and in some places, small islands on the Thames that are covered by properties with access to the islands only by boat.

A floating house on the river raises a bunch of questions (my granddaughter asked “if you jump really hard in there will the house bounce?”) and of course I’m interested in how you dispose of trash and how the sewage works - particularly if you have one of these houses on an island!

The floating houses are cheaper than the built houses on solid land - in this part of London houses sell for around 875 000 pounds for a family-sized semi-detached, whereas a floating house might cost around 375 000 pounds but comes with the catch that you have long term leases of the river frontage that have to be renewed (and it is not clear how much these leases cost).  20 years is described as a rare long-term lease.

Floating houses take on a new meaning when you come across some of the riverboats moored along the Thames.

  These are like van-life sized boats that are sometimes permanently moored and sometimes living under the threat of action because they are moored illegally.  Boats on the non-tidal part of the Thames (above the many locks that are used for navigation) are allowed to be moored for no longer than 24 hours at a time but owners often park their boats and wait to be cautioned about their mooring before moving a few feet along. 

 In some places the riverboats have little fences and barriers set up to mark off their private property and appear to have been moored there for years. 

 I don’t know if they have special permits or are simple moored somewhere where a blind eye is turned to their illegal mooring.

In January 2022 a man was fined 800 pounds for illegally mooring two riverboats near to a lock in Molesey.  He refused to move other than for a few feet when he was ordered to .  The order claimed that he was blocking navigation at the lock and he was eventually towed while on one of the boats, having refused to speak to the officers.  He “showed contempt for the rules” according to a newspaper report of the court case and had previously been ordered to move.  It took between October 2018 and March 2019 to get him to move and then the court battle took until Jan 2022 where he ended up having to pay the fines and court costs amounting a total of 21 000 pounds.

It is possible to buy a riverboat for less than 100 000 pounds but getting a permanent berth is a big extra expense although it looks like in some areas near here you can get a berth with electricity and a sewage and water hookup for around 11 000 pounds a year.  These are very rare and in high demand.  It looks like for around 200 000 pounds you can buy a boat that has an established mooring agreement but it is not clear how long the mooring leases are in this case either.

The description of what appears to be the perfect mooring arrangement that includes electricity, water and sewage came alongside another that described the preferred sewage mechanism of “cassette” style toilet waste disposal and made me wonder about the summer swims and stand up paddle boards on the Thames in this area…. how many of the people on illegally parked riverboats take the trouble to dispose of their sewage safely?

I'm pretty convinced that living on a boat or on a floating house is not going to be a compelling argument for us - though I can imagine spending maybe six months on one at some point in the future as a potential long vacation... it might have to wait till I retire because I doubt there'll be reliable internet along the way unless the 5G rollout gets us a mobile option.