Chiswick Eyot is a narrow, uninhabited ait (

river island River Island (stylised as RiverIsland and abbreviated as RI) is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis (entrepreneur), Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores ...

) of the

Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after th ...

. It is a tree- and reed-covered rise on the

Tideway The Tideway is the part of the River Thames in England which is subject to tides. This stretch of water is downstream from Teddington Lock. The Tideway comprises the upper Thames Estuary including the Pool of London. Tidal activity Depending ...

Chiswick Chiswick ( ) is a district in West London, split between the London Borough of Hounslow, London Boroughs of Hounslow and London Borough of Ealing, Ealing. It contains Hogarth's House, the former residence of the 18th-century English artist Wi ...

, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and is overlooked by Chiswick Mall and by some of the Barnes riverside on the far bank.

Position

Chiswick Eyot lies beside

The Championship Course The Championship Course is a stretch of the River Thames between Mortlake and Putney in London, England. It is a well-established course for rowing races, particularly the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. The course is on the tidal reaches of t ...

and marks the approximate half-way point of

The Boat Race The Boat Race is an annual set of rowing races between the Cambridge University Boat Club and the Oxford University Boat Club, traditionally rowed between open-weight eights on the River Thames in London, England. It is also known as the U ...

s (OUBC versus CUBC Men's and Women's first eights (1st 8+s) races) and the country's international

Head of the River Race The Head of the River Race (HORR) is an against-the-clock ('processional') rowing race held annually on the River Thames in London, England, between eights, other such races being the Schools' Head of the River Race, Women's Head of the River R ...

among others. A green pole stands on one end used for timings by rowers of that course, at the southwest, church end of the island. It is the most downstream island purely in the Thames, since

Canvey Island Canvey Island is a town, civil parish and reclaimed island in the Thames Estuary, near Southend-on-Sea, in the Castle Point district, in the county of Essex, England. It has an area of and a population of 38,170.Office for National Statistics. ...

and two nearby islets in the lower estuary are co-fed by creeks, while the

Isle of Sheppey The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England, neighbouring the Thames Estuary, centred from central London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the districts of England, local government district of Borough ...

is skirted by much flow from the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, West Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

. Small craft can pass between Chiswick Eyot and Chiswick Mall on the north bank for about two hours at

high tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

, but the small channel is generally impassable. At low tide it is possible to walk to the

tidal island A tidal island is a raised area of land within a waterbody, which is connected to the larger mainland by a natural isthmus or man-made causeway that is exposed at low tide and submerged at high tide, causing the land to switch between being ...

, though this is discouraged, both because it is now a nature reserve, and to avoid the risk of being cut off by rising water. Visitors can readily be trapped as the shape of the river causes the tide to rise locally twice as rapidly as it falls, while the tidal range is large, at over .

History

Chiswick Eyot is one of 43 unbridged tidal islands which can be walked to from the mainland of Great Britain. The eyot was long-owned by the

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

of Chiswick and its natural successors the Ecclesiastical Commissioners until 1934 when ownership passed to the local council. Little is known of its archaeology. St. Nicholas Church, Chiswick, whose tower was built in the 15th century, is 200 metres (yards) west of the island. Thus an early medieval parish church is beside it as with Isleworth Ait, Eel Pie Island (Twickenham Ait) and others upstream. The eyot was used during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

mostly for the growing of grass and osiers (basket willows, used for basketry, furniture, cart-making, as well as cattle fodder). Its south-west end, opposite end and east has become indented. The island is partially submerged (excluding trees) by the highest tides. The naturalist C. J. Cornish wrote in 1902 that the river bank of Chiswick Mall beside the eyot had once been a "famous fishery"; he recorded that "perhaps the last"

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

was caught between the eyot and Putney in 1812, and expressed the hope that if the "purification" of the river continued, the salmon might return. He noted that people had "taken" the wild irises from the eyot, but that marsh marigold, camomile,

comfrey ''Symphytum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae, known by the common name comfrey (pronounced , from the Latin confervere to 'heal' or literally to 'boil together', referring to uses in ancient traditional medicin ...

, ragged robin,

buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about 1750 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed worldwide, primarily in temperate an ...

s and many composites still grew there.

Local nature reserve

The London Borough of Hounslow declared the island a local nature reserve of

Greater London Greater London is an administrative area in England, coterminous with the London region, containing most of the continuous urban area of London. It contains 33 local government districts: the 32 London boroughs, which form a Ceremonial count ...

in 1993.

Notes

References

External links