After almost 30 years at our current address on Hill Street, we need to find new office accommodation. Fothergills have generously allowed us to use our bijou office for a nominal rent but in early 2019 they are downsizing and so RTBP need to find a new space for our 4 staff.
Can you help with any ideas or local contacts who might have some office space to spare?
We need:
– space for 4 people: circa 20 square metres,
– ideally to be close to the boats, so either Kingston or Teddington,
– to be in a new home by February 2019!
If you have any ideas, inspiration or contacts, please get in touch with Pippa (020 8940 3509, pippa@thamesboatproject.org) in the office. Thank you!
Join Peter Finch – chairman of the River Thames Society, and an authority on the river, on a guided river cruise aboard the Thames Discoverer on Sunday 2nd September. Peter will point out local landmarks throughout the trip.
Cruise from Kew Bridge Pier to Chiswick Pier, where you will see and hear about the work of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, their boat and the equipment they use. The RNLI at Chiswick is a working lifeboat Station. If they have to respond to an emergency on the day, and are not available, then Peter will take you on a short walk to explore the delights of old historic Chiswick.
The round trip will last just over an hour and is suitable for all ages.
The Discoverer will leave Kew Bridge Pier at 11am, 12:15pm, 1:30pm, 2:45pm,
£5 per passenger + booking fee
Waitrose have done it again! Staff at their Egham branch chose the River Thames Boat Project as a beneficiary of their Community Matters scheme, which raised a further £286 for us. A big thank you to them and to their customers for supporting our work. Funding Manager, Miranda Jaggers, went to the store to say a personal thank you to James Parkin, Deputy Branch Manager, who presented the cheque.
Excitement is mounting here at the River Thames Boat Project—our new boat Thames Discoverer is on her way.
She left C .Toms and Sons’ boat yard in Cornwall first thing on Monday 5th February and was lifted from the water in Plymouth. From there she will be taken by road to Reading , where she will be put into the Thames and brought down river to Kingston next week.
Our skipper, Peter Oldham, is planning Thames Discoverer familiarisation training for our volunteer crew, following which she will be put into operation at Easter.
It has been quite a journey for the charity from deciding four years ago to go for a new boat, to working with our naval architect Graham Westbrook and Toms, to now preparing for her arrival. But none of this could have happened without the generosity of all those who dug deep into their pockets and donated — you know who you are, so a very warm thank you.
Nansi Eggleton, a close friend of Pippa Butterfield, our Office Manager, is running the Hampton Court Half Marathon on Sunday 18th February to raise money for the River Thames Boat Project. It would be wonderful if you could sponsor her. Please follow the link here to do so.
We are also running a water station at the Half Marathon outside our mooring so feel free to drop down and say hello and/or to cheer Nansi on.
A big shout out to the lovely baristas at Starbucks in Hounslow and the Starbucks Cheer for Good! campaign. If you can’t make it to Hounslow for one of their delicious coffees you can support our work by going to our Linking People Afloat page of the Neighbourly website or tweeting #cheerforgood@TheVenturer.
Special thanks to Joe Pecorelli of ZSL for our excellent foreshore walk on Saturday. Seventeen volunteers joined Joe and our own Miranda Jaggers for an exploration of the river below Teddington Lock. Joe’s work includes research projects into eels and molluscs in the Thames.
