Thames Ditton Island

From Dittopedia

There are three islands in the River Thames near Thames Ditton. Thames Ditton Island, the largest of the three, is 350 yards long and has 47 houses and a population of around 100. On the second largest, Boyle Farm Island, is a single house, home to just one family. Swan Island, between the two, is the smallest. ^[1]

History

In Victorian times, the slipway, with its riverside inn, provided a useful dock for the passage of goods and people up and down the river. Large sailing barges from the Port of London would moor here to load or unload, their crews and attendant waggoners taking rest and sustenance at the inn. ^[1]

The Island was then not much more than an overgrown, muddy, tree clad hump, but the skiffs of the day trippers from Kingston would be moored there to allow their occupants to enjoy a riverside picnic. In the early part of the 20th century came the fad for riverside weekend bungalows: the idea spread and a number of holiday chalets were built on the Island. Life there must have been a matter of indoor camping, as there were no facilities of any kind: water and paraffin had to ferried over in cans, and only the smarter sheds had a roof over the earth closet. ^[1]

As time passed, the attractions of the waterside location drew more and more people, so that by 1930 the whole of the perimeter was covered in wooden bungalows, with the owners' boats moored at the bottom of their gardens. It was the building of the suspension bridge in 1939 that really opened up the Island as a place for permanent occupation. ^[1]

As well as providing passage on foot, it also carried the water, electricity and gas in, and the sewage effluent back out to the town drains. Originally leased from the island's owner, the publican at the Olde Swan, by 1963 all the houses had passed into freehold ownership and a limited company was formed to take over the bridge and adjacent gardens and to provide maintenance services. ^[1]

References

• 1. Wikipedia
• 2. Burchett, P. 1984. A Historical Sketch of THAMES DITTON. Surrey: Thames Ditton and Weston Green Residents' Association. ISBN 0-904-81120-4.

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