This article lists the islands in the River Thames, in England. It excludes many of the smaller lock islands that were created when weirs and locks were built, and also some very small islands that immediately adjoin the larger ones. The Isle of Dogs and Isle of Grain are no longer islands although their names remain. Westminster used to be on an island called Thorney Island. Some other so-called islands are also now just promontories, often marked by a small ditch.
Most of the islands are natural, but a few were created by rerouting of the navigation channel. Many Thames islands are called "aits" or "eyots". Aits are usually longer thinner islands that have built up through an accumulation of silt.
Read more about Islands In The River Thames: List of Islands, Oxford Floodplain, Lock Islands
Famous quotes containing the words islands, river and/or thames:
“Consider the islands bearing the names of all the saints, bristling with forts like chestnut-burs, or Echinidæ, yet the police will not let a couple of Irishmen have a private sparring- match on one of them, as it is a government monopoly; all the great seaports are in a boxing attitude, and you must sail prudently between two tiers of stony knuckles before you come to feel the warmth of their breasts.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I wander thro’ each charter’d street,
Near where the charter’d Thames does flow,
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, marks of woe.”
—William Blake (1757–1827)