Petersham put-in (Greater London)
Petersham put-in is a slipway on the tidal River Thames at the end of River Lane in Petersham, on the Richmond upon Thames riverside, roughly three miles downstream of Teddington Lock and just upstream of Richmond Bridge and Richmond Lock and Weir. The launch sits beside Petersham Meadows, on the opposite bank from East Twickenham.
Downstream, the first obstacle a paddler meets is Richmond Lock and Weir, a mile and a half below the launch, the furthest downstream of the Thames's forty-five locks and the only one owned and run by the Port of London Authority. Its three vertical steel sluice gates, each 20 metres wide and weighing 32.6 tonnes, are suspended from a Grade II*-listed footbridge completed in 1894. Beyond the weir stands Richmond Bridge, an eighteenth-century stone arch dating from 1777, the oldest Thames bridge still standing in London.
On the near bank, the launch sits beside Petersham Meadows, a 24-acre grazed water-meadow whose lower ground floods in winter. The view across the meadow from Richmond Hill has been protected by its own Act of Parliament since 1902, and the whole reach, the River Thames and its tidal tributaries here, is registered as a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation.
Nearby
National Trust café in the grounds of Ham House, about a mile south along the Thames Path.
Café by Marble Hill Park, on the opposite bank near East Twickenham.
Conditions to check
The reach is fully tidal only for around two hours either side of high water; for the rest of the tide the level is held above roughly 1.72 metres above Ordnance Datum by the sluice gates at Richmond Lock and Weir downstream.
SourceRichmond Lock and Weir, just over a mile downstream, holds its sluice gates lowered for most of the tide; when they are down, an exclusion zone runs from the lock islands across the river to the Middlesex shore, and river traffic must pass instead through the lock alongside.
SourceMost years the Richmond Lock and Weir gates are drawn off for engineering work for about three weeks in the autumn, during which the river between Richmond and Teddington is not held at its usual level and the bed is exposed at low water; the Port of London Authority's current notices to mariners give this year's dates.
SourceThis reach is part of a working navigation patrolled by the Port of London Authority and used year-round by rowing crews and other river traffic.
SourceOther launches nearby
1 launch within 168m- 168m north
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