Testimonials:

The River Thames is now as it probably always has been, all things to all people, an endlessly changing, complex mixture of larder and lavatory, barrier and highway, playground and sacred space.

People assume they can change and control the river, but in the end we are just playing catch up to the processes of erosion and deposition, time and tide by which the river changes itself. The best we can do is to record and try to understand them.

The river can even play tricks with time.  A three and a half thousand year old timber can come out of the mud looking fresh as yesterday, while yesterdays buildings and boats are spun apart, corroded, torn and twisted in its currents.

On the foreshore that change is tangible, twice a day everyday the foreshore changes as the tides ebb and flow and somehow a little something of everyone who uses the river ends up here.  That is why to me as an archaeologist it is one of the most rewarding and exciting places to work and to bring art, archaeology and education together, as seamless as the river itself, which is as it should be.

In the end, this project, Take me to the River, has been a dialogue with change and with the river.  The objects from the mundane to the stunningly evocative, constitute a constant dialogue with their makers and users the people who dumped, dropped or carefully and with devotion, placed them in the River; while the dialogue between the participants, artist, archaeologist, teachers and children, has been about different ways of seeing and describing, bounded only by curiosity and imagination. That is appropriate because the River is big enough to embrace us all and all our views of it, and, as such, belongs to all of us.  It is a place where we can search, meet and be inspired.


Andy Brockman, Archaeologist.

The Magic Lab. Philomena

Doing the laser. Nicky

University and Foreshore when we were digging and finding stuff. Afsara

The story writing. Shane

When we went outside. Ardit

I think the best bit was being on the foreshore and the university. Russell

When we had to go. Ellis

Having to dig with a spoon on the worst part of the foreshore. Omoleye

Nothing. Philomena

Talking and sitting. Afsara

Put a carpet on the floor. Shane

Washing our objects. Chris

Nothing. Nicky

Nothing. Crl

Keep it the same. Ellis

Nothing it was fun already. Afsara

Have more artwork and more sessions on the foreshore. Omoleye

Maybe some more free time! Philomena

Let us play Playstation and Xbox360. Russell

Maybe we could have see all of the university? Lilian

Could hve been the summertime. Ms Woorren

The best thing ever. Ellis

I think going to the university is a good thing and I'm going to study art and design. Omoleye

It was great, thankyou. Philomena

Great. Afsara

It was really fun using the computers. Callum

Its really really really good. Carl

Very fun and exciting. Lilian