Sunbury Court Island: Footbridge and Tower
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Sunbury Court Island: Footbridge and Tower by Nigel Cox as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Sunbury Court Island: Footbridge and Tower
Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 7 Dec 2008
Sunbury Court Island used to be part of the estate of Sunbury Court Image until the death of its last private owner in 1910. The island's potential as a site for attractive riverside homes was subsequently recognised and construction was rapid after the end of the First World War. The 1920 Edition of the Ordnance Survey mapping shows the island as bare but by 1934 its entire length had been built on. However the dangers of living on an island in the Thames were brought home during the devastating floods of December 1927 when all the newly built bungalows had to be evacuated. This is the footbridge and only dry access to the island. In the distance is the entrance tower, which was actually built to house a sewage pump, not to repel invaders... The house on the downstream tip of the island was once owned by Ben Lyon and Bebe Daniels, who were the stars of the BBC radio comedy series ‘Life with the Lyons’ from 1951 to 1961.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.409118
Longitude
-0.39508