IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Mortlake High Street, LONDON, SW14 8HQ

There is something sad about Mortlake - so much went on here in past centuries, and so much has vanished without trace. I took this photo from Mortlake High Street, looking north towards the Thames, The distant trees - in sunlight - are on the far side of the river. The little grassy patch is known as Tapestry Court - there's a marble slab marking the site of 'The Lower Dutch House, part of Mortlake Tapestry Works 1619-1703'. The works - manned by Flemish weavers - were a royal establishment, under the patronage of James 1 and subsequent Stuart monarchs. Facing the river, on a wall, there's a little plaque commemorating John Dee - 'Renaissance polymath'. He was an alchemist, and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I - who was known to visit him at home here. Dr Dee died in 1609, and it seems that the tapestry works was built on what had been his land. Historians are generally suspicious of John Dee, saying that by claiming occult powers he sought to influence affairs of state. I'm no student of that era, so I'd better not comment. The watercolour 'Panorama of the Thames', painted in 1829, shows all manner of buildings along the riverside - grand houses as well as lesser dwellings, a tithe barn, pottery works, maltings. http://www.panoramaofthethames.com/1829/guide/mortlake-tapestry The maltings were the thin end of the wedge - later in the century hundreds of yards of riverside were to be taken up by breweries. Of the buildings shown in the 1829 panorama, few are recognisable now. The church is still there; and downstream there's the White Hart, upstream there's the Ship. Otherwise - though there are rumours of redevelopment - the mortal remains of breweries disfigure the riverbank. And along the Thames towpath you walk in the shadow of hundreds of yards of blank brick wall . . .