Wenceslaus Hollar's mid-seventeenth-century drawing of The Thames below Westminster Pier is more than a record – it is a window into daily life. Commissioned by Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel, as part of a project to document the city, Hollar's work offers details both grand and intimate.
The Thames below Westminster Pier
c.1638
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) 
The river hums with activity: rowboats line the pier, a larger vessel at the mooring pole transports goods, and figures step on and off the dock in a steady rhythm. On one side of the image, commerce and travel play out on the water; on the other, stately buildings rise in quiet permanence. With this juxtaposition, Hollar reveals a simple truth about London's past – its growing grandeur through history is inseparable from the great river that sustained it.
To fully appreciate Hollar's drawing, it is helpful to look to Hollar's Long View of London from Bankside (1647).
The Long View of London from Bankside
1647, etching by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–1677) 
In this printed panorama, boats of varying sizes span the length of the Thames. To emphasise the impact of boats on the city's success, Hollar has helpfully labelled the names of key locations associated with new industry, such as Three Cranes and Fishmongers Hall. The former demonstrates how noteworthy it was deemed back in the 1640s to have three cranes in one location, the latter alludes to the prosperity of fishing at the time.
Another key feature flagged by Hollar are the eel ships, visible in sheet 3 of the etching.
Historically, these were barges from Holland that transported live eels to London. Eels naturally lived in the Thames, but the presence of Dutch eels coming in literally by the boatload shows that the city is becoming so prosperous and populous that it depends on additional sustenance from abroad – all made possible via the Thames.
Although the overall message conveyed by the drawing of The Thames below Westminster Pier can be better understood by looking to Hollar's famous print, the drawing more effectively demonstrates how real life unfolded. Unlike the grand panorama, which presents the Thames as a vast stage for commerce and industry, the drawing brings viewers closer to the water's surface, immersing us in the rhythms of everyday activity.
The Thames was not merely a scenic backdrop to those who drew it: its presence represented London's lifeline, the artery through which goods, people and ideas flowed, transforming detached districts into an abundant metropolis.
Navigating eastwards, the next port of call is Wapping Stairs, the Thames.
Wapping Stairs, the Thames
c.1790
Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) 
This drawing by Thomas Rowlandson dates from the 1790s and depicts a waterman, identifiable by his short full-skirted coat with a large oval badge on the arm, attentively helping a woman onto his wherry – a small wooden boat used to transport goods and people.
At this interchange, two passengers on an arriving wherry wait as the woman embarks the neighbouring boat. It is very calm and civil. The waterman of the arriving boat smiles at the woman who is holding up his own passengers. It is, therefore, interesting that Rowlandson depicted a similar scene in a very different way in a later satirical printed series 'The Miseries of London' in 1807.
Miseries of London
1812, etching, by Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827) 
In the later etched scene, a familiar woman depicted in a less flattering way marches hastily downstairs towards wherries, clutching many goods. Watermen clamber over her, pulling at her, and shouting at her to board their boat. The print makes a satirical comment on the annoyances of living in the city – specifically, here, having to tolerate pushy watermen seeking business.
However, there is also a commentary on greed with the Thames at the centre. This woman could not shop in abundance without the taxi services that the river enables. Similarly, the waterman could not scramble for fares without the river to work on. In etching this scene, Rowlandson implied that the Thames is a reason as to why London is becoming a centre of greed.
The earlier drawing, however, tells a truer version. By sitting on a wherry observing how people really interact in the moment via the quick sketch, Rowlandson provided a less dramatic version of events. While the print revels in exaggeration for a mass audience, the drawing captures a city grateful for the Thames – the artery that keeps it moving.
Moving west and about 80 years into the future, we are now On the Thames at Chelsea with James Abbott McNeill Whistler.
On the Thames at Chelsea
c.1870
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) 
This drawing is less realistic than the previous drawings. Here, Whistler was trying to say something about people's relationship with the river via new modes of expression. Standing looking over towards a barely visible Battersea, the viewer can just see barges to their right. Everything merges into one shimmering connected mass.
In terms of style, Whistler was fusing his interest in the compositions of Japanese prints with French Impressionism. You can watch more about these influences in this video from Dulwich Picture Gallery.
By blending these two influences, Whistler created a stylised scene with light rippling through humans, structures and water. The light connects all these features together in a way that charges the people with the same energy as the river and its surrounding industrial equipment. Whistler conveyed what it was to be a nineteenth-century inhabitant of London: someone charged with the same dynamism as its industry, and that industry was indebted to the Thames.
Heading back East for the final stop on this tour is Edward Bawden's St Paul's from the Thames.
Edward Bawden (1903–1989) 
The boats in this picture are more advanced – in addition to wooden vessels, there are now steamboats. One passenger ferry carries strangely oversized people on board. Given that commuting via boat on the Thames had declined in the mid-twentieth century due to buses and the Underground being more reliable, the passengers are likely to be sightseers.
In Bawden's ink drawing, the Thames becomes a stage for appreciation and leisure. Emphasising people at leisure marks a change in the purpose of the Thames – a change seen in this 1950s documentary by the British Travel Association.
Instead of predominantly serving as an artery through which goods, labourers and industry move, these passengers enjoying the London skyline demonstrate that the city has become spectacle in and of itself. This is emphasised by the way lines are rendered – like Whistler's drawing, this work's style is as important as the subject in conveying meaning.
Thick straight lines articulating multi-century architecture demonstrate that the city is solid, enduring and monumental. Simply, it is something worthy of coming to see, and the Thames – the river that raised this place – provides the best seat in the house from which to do so.
Three centuries separate Hollar and Bawden. The first stood at Westminster Pier and outlined how a place was rising from a river, the other stood at Southwark Bridge and recorded how the place had become a spectacle worth experiencing from that same river.
London from Somerset House
1825
Edward William Cooke (1811–1880) 
From the works of Rowlandson and Whistler, we can observe that the Thames had been central to Londoners' lives – from as simple as the lifeline that got them from A to B, to as abstract as the metaphorical energy that courses through their being.
For centuries, those who have inhabited London have been drawn to the water that has both divided and united their sense of place. For centuries, artists who have drawn the Thames as subject have used it as a port from which to tell a story. To draw the Thames, it seems, is to draw London and its people becoming.
Fern Insh, art historian and arts engagement specialist
This content was funded by the Bridget Riley Art Foundation.
