Basic HTML Version
14
City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
It’s a great year to be on the River Thames. A great year to be in
London. A once in a lifetime sort of year. I expect that many of
the people in your group will have enjoyed a cruise on the River
Thames at some time in their lives but I’m guessing that very
few will have enjoyed the glory of the river after dark.
When we started running our special Christmas Cruises fifteen
years ago the River was quite a different place. From the Barrier
to Greenwich there was barely a light aside from the perpetual
flame from the vodka factory! Now we board alongside one of
the most popular concert venues in the world. An iconic building
that’s starred in a James Bond movie no less. This year for the
first time you’ll see the gondolas of the new Thames Cable Car
swooshing to and fro above our boat. Dusk is just falling as we
set sail at 4-00pm and by the time Wren’s Royal Hospital comes
into view at Greenwich its dark and the lights twinkle in the
windows of the beautiful riverside apartments that now line the
banks of the old river all the way to central London.
Canary Wharf is a blaze of light, our very own Manhattan.
Inside the London Rose it’s warm and cosy with a fully licensed
bar selling the usual range of bar drinks as well as hot drinks.
A Christmas Cruise favourite is hot chocolate, with or without
a shot of Baileys. The London Rose can accommodate way over
200 people but we restrict it to 150 so there is plenty of room.
There is a seat inside for everyone but we also have a massive
open deck. If we have hardy types on board, Blackwater Estuary
souls from Maldon say or coastal folk from Ramsgate the open
deck is very popular. It must be that Viking blood! But we
encourage even the softest landlubbers from Epsom say or
Aldershot to come outside when we sail beneath a floodlit
Tower Bridge. It is unforgettable. The picture, to the right, of
Tower Bridge with the UK’s new tallest building The Shard
framed between its bascules is one I took last December during
one of our Christmas Cruises on board the London Rose.
The London Rose is ideally suited to sightseeing cruises with
two cabins and a great view through huge picture windows from
wherever you sit. We used to run the cruise on the old Viscount
which was one of the Dunkirk Little Ships but we are still in
the safe and entertaining hands of the same family.
The Campions have worked on the River Thames for
generations. Some of you will remember Old George who used
to sit up in the Viscount wheelhouse skippering the boat and
sharing with us his encyclopaedic knowledge of the river.
In the 1940s George served his six year apprenticeship to
become a Freeman of the Company of Watermen and
Lightermen like his father and grandfather before him and
worked on the river man and boy for over 60 years. He was
a tugboat skipper at the time the docks started to close and he
watched the world around him change. In 1980 he took the
plunge and bought his first cruiser The London Belle plying
for trade between Greenwich and the Thames Barrier. Then
came the Viscount and collaboration with other London river
families to operate services between Greenwich and the centre
of London. The London Rose he named for his wife of sixty
years. Some of you might remember Old George’s legendary
commentary on the Christmas Cruise. Sailing beneath the
Millennium Foot Bridge he’d tell us how it had been built in
Germany by Germans, a totally unnecessary but marvellous
emphasis from a man who remembered the Blitz and who
couldn't quite accept that all it finally took was a bridge for the
Germans to make us wobble!
George is now retired and enjoying, would you believe,
cruises! Sadly without his Rose who he lost a couple of years
back. At the wheel now is his son who shall forever be known
as Young George even if he lives to be a hundred. With him is
his son .... Craig. Don’t be too disappointed, Craig’s eldest son
is called George Campion. Craig has inherited the silver
tongued gift of the gab from his granddad. He is very good to
listen to, a pleasant conversational style full of facts, anecdotes
and river humour. It’s terrific stuff. The men are joined on
board by their wives, sisters and aunties who serve behind the
bar. It’s a proper family affair. A London family affair in an
increasingly international and corporate world.
The London C