London Thames Barrier (#0234)

From a different angle and further away, another shot of the closed gate that’s near the south shore and of one of the wider gates in the main channel. I didn’t focus on it at the time, but the narrow gate to the left of the closed gate (a little difficult to see) indicates one of the positions that the gates can be open – they can be rotated to the top so that they are above and parallel to the water line, rather than blocking flow. The GOV link provides a good description of how the gates work.

In the distance is the development at Canary Wharf, a good illustration of the importance of the gates for protection from a tidal surge from the North Sea. The Daily Mail link below has an image of the area that would be flooded without the Thames Barrier – in that image, the China Wharf area (all in the flood zone) is the area surrounded by a large u-shaped dip in the Thames.

The Thames has a long history of flooding from tidal surges, from very heavy rains inland, and from the unfortunate times when heavy inland rain combines with very high tides. A 1953 North Sea Flood that killed 307 in the UK was the impetus to come up with a form of defense, but a means for defense was not figured out until 1966 and the construction didn’t begin until 1974, finishing in 1984. (See the Gizmodo link.) The barrier is regularly tested and was relatively lightly used as defense until recent history – per the Daily Mail link, it was used as a defense 29 times in the winter of 2013/14.

Sources:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Barrier
Gov link: www.gov.uk/guidance/the-thames-barrier
Gizmodo link: www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/10/behind-londons-wall-of-steel-designing-the-thames-barrier
Daily Mail: www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2559399/Thames-Barrier-turns-30-Stunning-images-reveal-complex-machinery-thats-shielding-London-floods.html

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