Marie Aguirre Blog Post 1

The boat tour on the Thames gave me a new perspective of London and allowed me to understand the city more thoroughly. The view from the Thames also gave me insight into one of the themes we have studied throughout this course, the divide of classes.
In our journey on the river, I had a unique encounter similar to the experiences that Charles Dickens discussed in his works about the neighborhoods of London. We were on the back of the boat and were taking pictures of the scenery when the dockmen approached us and gruffly told us to stand away from the edge. This happened again when they then made it clear where we weren’t allowed to cross. The manner of the men mimics the gruff and coarseness of the men who worked by the river in Dickens’ time and shows that despite the passage of time, there are still similarities in the people who work by the river.
The Vauxhall Bridge in this picture serves a double purpose as it both literally and figuratively connects north London and south London. The wealth of the city has traditionally been centered in the north and since there were few bridges spanning the Thames, there was little desire or necessity to spread across the river where the poorer and less respected people lived. With the increasing population during the Industrial Revolution, the city needed to expand to accommodate the number of people and so construction began on the south side of the Thames. This is still evident since the buildings on the south bank are much newer than those on the north bank and represent the new investments that are still occurring today. The physical bridge also allows for people to cross from the opposite sides, creating a more connected and intermingled city, centered around the Thames, with old wealth on the north end of the river and new wealth on the south.

The river tour of the Thames really gave me a chance to understand the classes of London in a way I have not yet experienced. From the displays of wealth along the river to the similarities of dockworkers in Dickens’ time compared to ours, this experience taught me that there is still a significant divide of classes in London, one that is clearly evident from the Thames.

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