THE THAMES AND THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
'The Thames', said John Burns, 'is liquid history.' From the estuary to its source in a Cotswold meadow near Cirencester, the river has witnessed most of the major crises in the life of England. The Tower, St Paul's, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, the University of Oxford. . . all stand within a stone's throw of the Thames.
Big Ben—seen here in the middle distance—began to chime in 1859. It owes its name to Sir Benjamin Hall, who was then Commissioner of Works. This famous clock has never varied more than four seconds from Greenwich Time; only twice has it failed (once, in 1944, during an air raid). The river is still a highway for commerce. In 1968 some thirteen million tons of coal were carried by water, and the Port of London had five thousand barges or lighters.