London Teddington Locks! (#0378)

There’s actually three locks visible here, though they might be hard to see. The boat in the picture (the ‘Gin Sting’!) is headed towards what is referred to in Wikipedia as the ‘launch lock’ that runs along the shore. On the left side of the island is the wider ‘barge lock’ and barely visible next to that is the ‘skiff lock’. Confusing here (at least for my orientation) is that, due to the twists of the Thames at this point, the boat is going west but downstream (towards the North Sea, which is to the east). The earlier-posted satellite photo may make this clearer.

The term ‘launch lock’ used by Wikipedia was initially confusing to me since I think of a boat that would be described as a ‘launch’ as being about the size of a skiff, and there is a separate ‘skiff lock’. I asked a British contact and his description led me to compare the British and American definitions of ‘launch’. It turns out ‘launch’ in British English includes ‘motor driven’ transport boats while the American definitions does stress smaller boats. So, speaking ‘British’, a launch would included boats similar to the narrow boats used for freight hauling in the 1800’s and into the early 1900’s.

Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddington_Lock

(Part of a documentation of 2018 exploration/reflection on Brexit and populist movements in Europe, keyword Europe2018)