Richmond Lock, Weir and Footbridge

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 lock (water navigation), weir, footbridge
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An impressive Victorian structure designed to manage the level of water in the Thames between Richmond and Teddington Lock, the most upstream point of the tidal Thames. The weir comprises three vertical steel sluice gates suspended from a footbridge. Each gate weighs 32 tons and is 66 feet wide and 12 feet in depth. These sluice gates are manipulated to ensure that the water level betwen Richmond Lock and Teddington Lock is maintained at or above half-tide level. In normal use what this means in practice is that (a) for around two hours each side of high tide, the sluice gates are raised into the footbridge, allowing ships and boats to pass through the barrage; (b) for the rest of the day the sluice gates are closed and passing river traffic must use the lock alongside the barrage. But the period of free navigation can be dramatically changed due to prevailing conditions: in drought conditions, when there is a real danger of this stretch of the river becoming too shallow to navigate, the gates will be closed for longer periods, whilst in periods of high fluvial flow they may remain open for much longer.

Richmond Lock and Weir is owned and operated by the Port of London Authority. It is also the base for the Upper River Harbour Service patrols between Putney and Teddington Lock. The footbridge is closed at night to pedestrians (after 19:30 GMT or after 21:30 when BST is in use), but nearby Twickenham Bridge provides a convenient alternative.

See the PLA website www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.cfm/id/2253/site/recrea... for photographs and a fuller explanation of the working of the Lock and Weir.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond_Lock
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   51°27'44"N   -0°19'2"E

Comments

  • Richmond Lock and footbridge is a half tide lock, designed to stop the river drying out upstream of the bridge. To see a selection of photos of the lock look at http://www.pbase.com/john_cooper/richmond_footbridge
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