Buckinghamshire, England

Marlow put-in

Launch — A slipway at the river end of St Peter Street, on the Buckinghamshire bank just downstream of Marlow Bridge. The Environment Agency records it as St Peters Road Slipway.

Parking — Pound Lane car park, at the main gates of Higginson Park, is the nearest council car park and is about 650 metres away on foot. It is open at all hours with a 72 hour maximum stay, and charges apply between 7am and 7pm. On-street parking on St Peter Street itself is free for one hour only.

Access — St Peter Street is a public residential street running down to the river, with no gate, barrier or height restriction recorded at the slipway.

Season — Rowing regattas restrict the reach upstream of Marlow Bridge on dates each spring and summer, under Environment Agency river restriction notices.

Regulations — The Environment Agency is the navigation authority for the non-tidal Thames and requires unpowered craft, paddleboards included, to be registered between Cricklade Bridge and Teddington Lock. Membership of British Canoeing, which trades as Paddle UK, covers this in place of a separate registration.

A slipway on St Peter Street in Marlow, on the River Thames close to Higginson Park and Marlow Lock. The Thames Path runs along this bank through the park, and the reach above the lock runs 2.7 km upstream to Temple Lock.

Lock Island sits in the river just below the launch, dividing the lock cut from the weir stream. The Environment Agency's gauge upstream at Marlow Lock gives a normal range of 0.06 to 0.45 metres, against a highest level on record of 1.24 metres in February 2014.

Marlow Rowing Club's boathouse stands on the Berkshire bank about 170 metres from the slipway, so rowing craft launch onto this reach within sight of the put-in. Bisham church sits at the water's edge about 870 metres upstream, and Bisham Abbey National Sports Centre about 1.2 kilometres up is the marker the Environment Agency's regatta notices use for the top of the Marlow course. Longridge, a British Canoeing recognised paddlesport centre, sits about a kilometre downstream on Quarry Wood Road.

Nearby

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The Little Green Boat Company

Café in Higginson Park serving hot drinks, food and ice cream; the same operator runs self-drive boat hire from the park.

Website

The M Café

Café inside Court Garden Leisure Complex on Pound Lane, with an outdoor terrace.

Website

Hurley Riverside Park

Camping and touring caravan park on the Thames at Hurley, about 4 km away, with its own slipway, shop and shower blocks.

Website

Conditions to check

Weir

Marlow Weir lies on the reach between Marlow Bridge and Marlow Lock, which is the water this slipway opens onto.

Lock

The Environment Agency's facilities list for Marlow Lock, downstream of the launch, records only a toilet and a drinking water tap. No portage or landing for unpowered craft is listed.

Source

Boat traffic

The reach upstream of the bridge is the Marlow regatta course. On race days the Environment Agency puts the navigation channel on the Berkshire side, with racing craft in a buoyed channel in the centre and a smaller one on the Buckinghamshire side.

Other

The Environment Agency displays red strong stream and yellow stream warning boards at its Thames lock sites, and updates the published river conditions once a day by 11am.

Source

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