‘It remains largely unknown and unvisited’ Peter Ackroyd on the Thames Estuary, from ‘Thames: Sacred River’ (2007)
LINES of geometry and solitude. The black line of saltmarsh meeting the water, the grey band of the estuary, the horizontal far shore of Kent, the arc of the wintered sky, the decurved beak of the curlew crying its own name into the silence. Downstream on the vanishing plane of bleak water, the giant cranes of DP World London Gateway, metal praying mantis. Looking along the graffiti-strewn, two-yard-high concrete sea wall: in each direction as far as the human eye can see, no one. Not one soul.
Flat water, flat land;
