LONDON LETTER THAMES AGAIN THE HIGHWAY OF LONDON

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26492, 6 August 1951, Page 6

LONDON LETTER THAMES AGAIN THE HIGHWAY OF LONDON

♦ (From NEVILE WEBBER, London Correspondent of "The Prtse.")

London, July 27.—Not since the days of Pepys, 300 years ago, when the Thames was the passenger highway of London, have so many people travelled up and down tiie city by water, as they are doing this brilliant Festival summer. With a new sense of delight Londoners have rediscovered their waterway. They are finding it quick, peaceful, and beautiful—vastly preferable to crawling buses ana stifling tubes. This year all the 25 companies owning boats on the Thames have pooled their resources to establish a first-class service, running, from dawn to midnight, from smoky Greenwich downstream to the green loveliness of Hampton Court Palace 21 miles to the west. Their boats, sopie tiny launches carrying only a score, others, like the Royal Princess, carrying 500, are calling every few minutes at the 19 quays. In the course of a fine week-day they are carrying well over 20,000 people a day, a total that increases in the weekends to 50,000 and 60,000. Already m the three months since the season commenced just on 2.000,000 passengers have been carried: by tne end of the season in. early October this total will have been doubled. Last year only 2,000,000 were carried; in years before still fewer. A few evenings ago, a calm sunny evening when London was especially beautiful, I went upstream by boat to Battersea Pleasure Gardens. Starting from the Charing Cross pier a few yards from where Mr Pepys himself used to land after his trips down to Greenwich on Admiralty business we slipped out into a river racing fast with an ebb tide. On board there were about 300—businessmen in black bowlers and carrying the inevitable umbrella, office girls, shop girls, tired mothers returning from their shopping, and scores of wide-eyed tourists speaking a babble of tongues From the river the great buildings looked far more impressive than from terra Anna. Here was Whitehall Palace, like a fairytale castle with its hundred towers, the thrill of Big Ben slowly chiming 7.30 p.m., the Gothic loveliness of the Houses of Parliament. Across the river I remarked again at the fine proportions of County Hall, headquarters of the London City Council, whose budget far surpasses that of New Zealand. Here was the silent, gutted Doulton factory, established by a Dutch refugee 300 years ago, whose fine china has become famous the world over. It was badly bombed during the war Next to it rise the seven blocks of St. Thomas’s Hospital, which treats 100.000 patients a year, then Lambeth Palace, headquarters of the Church of England and London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and beside it the blitzed 13th century chapel where Cranmer wrote much of the Prayer Book. Here were the vastness of the Battersea Power Station, with its graceful, fluted chimneys rising 300 feet high, the fascination of barges sailing downstream, the houseboats on which thousands of Londoners live to-day. Towards midnight we came home. Now those buildings that had been mellow in the evening sun were detached and brilliant under the floodlights. In the river a hundred comet tails, while, yellow, red, and green, snaked and twisted in reflection. It was all so very pleasant that my French friend could restrain herself no longer. “Mon dieu,” she said, “your London is beautiful —even n - - e beautiful than Paris, I think.” And that, from a Frenchwoman, Is praise indeed. Sunday Morning at the Zoo

If you should ever be in T .ondon and receive an invitation to the Zoo on a /Sunday morning, wntn it is qpen only to Fellows and Members of the Royal Zoological Society and their friends, then accept it You will be vastly entertained. From far and near come the old gentlemen and ladies to stroke and feed their favourite animals. Most popular place is the monkey house. Here it is fascinating to see the way the visitors are recognised by the excited animals. Chattering and screaming, they leap about the cages the moment they spot a familiar face and will not quieten until their friend comes over. Bulging bags are opened to reveal a dozen types of nuts, fruits, meats, and sweets; there are even unheard-of things like bananas and prunes, which are unobtainable in the shops just now. Many women bring babies' bottles and even lamps to warm the milk. Amused keepers stand by to open the cages and watch the cuddling and petting. “Tffey lavish i-ore love on these monkeys than most women do on their own children,” said one of them to me. “Sat that’s the English all over—they’re crazy about animals.” Zoo attendances have slumped badly this summer since Brumas grew up and lost his attraction. To-day, once again, it is the sea lions, the penguins, the snakes, the giraffes, and

the friendly black honey bean are drawing the crowds.’ . M 21*t Party for Princess Marg*M A big Royal occasion, thoueh (♦ > a private one, will be the 21st bm day of Princess Margaret on Aum 21 A party will be held at BafflS where friends of the PrinceoS assemble from far and new evening of dancing and merrS-J There will be Scottish piper?*? course, but to cater for more sooN? cated ears a popular London S band is also likely to go north if?? weather is fine the Princes, 'i. to hold a picnic on one of the near the castle. One present sheS almost certain to receive is a bw? car from the King and’ Queen for ♦?’ Princess is an enthusiastic driver. ■ loves nothing better than about the Balmoral estate in her* ter’s Lanchester. For many her bJS’I day will prove a tong-heralded engagement is n2E' unlikely to be announced. “Abominable” British Cookiw English cooking is up as a natL, Aunt Sally again. This time trouble started when a member :!i the “We Beg to Differ” team 8.8. C. spoke with bitterness abominable, vile, and ill-cooked 1 in our public restaurants" otF? agreed with him; and in a nuE British homes the debate was tinned. The next day the Brita Hotels and Restaurants Associate, spoke up with white hot anger ing that such irresponsible statement did much harm and were quite un warranted. They said they were ■ “slanderous abuse of British caterers’ I jnust say I agree with the HotiW Association. In my view Britiah cook ing is not at all bad on the whoM but when it is bad it is shockirwl Good English cooking can bear coml parison with anything from France Italy. The worst fault of BritiA restaurants, taken by and large fa poor presentation of the meal, over cooked vegetables, and lack of imagination. But to say they an “abominable, vile”—that is goine tan far. 8

Intereat in Hone* The immense revival of interest horse riding since the war is refies ted this week in the Internationa; Horse Show at the White City About 1500 Arabs, hunters, hacks, cobs pole ponies, children’s ponies, hacknev and costers’ turnouts have been tei ing part. Many teams have com from abroad, for this show it th» greatest of its kind in the wortd. with jumping, parades and exhibitions Although many riding stables hive had to close owing to high costs others have expanded, snee it h*» become highly fashionable to ride Thousands of children are being sent for lessons and the 200 pony club, are thriving. This enthusiasm is reflecM also in the hunts, where despite mtu) higher fees and costs than before ti war, the number of hunstmen Is nc‘. falling away. Disney’s “Alice in WonderiMT The ’picture of the week is the longawaited Walt Disney version of Lewis Carroll’s classic, “Alice in Wonderland.” Although it is at times a free adaptation, mixing incidents haphazard from the title book am “Through the Looking Gfac* h generally preserves the spirit gf the author and Teniell, the great Victorian artist who originally Ulatrated them. English critics are eSKi*'ly relieved to find that AmeriSt ■ are rare, that nowhere can excel t be taken to accent. The best charters are the haughty caterpillar, '•> breathes out alphabetical smoke r from his hookah pipe (like "Y.B.L the innocent oysters, the Walrus, Mad Rabbit, and Tweedledum Tweedledee. Best action shots the scenes of the dance of the cst The songs are weak. I found sometimes delightful but more of just passably entertaining. Howev if you have a chance of seeing it t gether with its supporting featun “Beaver Valley.” a Walt Dto colour nature film, don’t miw i‘ “Beaver Valley." which haa/’w ,j won an Academy award, is sm light all the way, the mod entertair ing nature film yet produced. j The Man who Loved Traction Kaita* A few days ago an Oxfordshirs I court heard a strange, romantic .'jujIt was told by an Old Etonian .da prominent ophthalmic surgeon, named Mr Giles Romanes. Mr Romanes has always loved traction engines, nil his life he has studied them and collected them. Last week he decided to accept a challenge and race another engine for a firkin (about nine gallons) of beer. On his way to the race, however, a policeman stopped him and demanded his road licence. He had none. Despite his pleading in court that his traction engine Eileen had never been used commercially, sna despite his enthralling tale of the rare, the magistrate was relentless. Mr Romanes was fined £5.