Jenny D and Watergate.

Oh wot a grey day, said Larry Grayson (?).

I’m nicking ideas today, having been stuck indoors for a week (not really); here is a ‘set’ of 3.

Main photo is the ‘utility vessel’ Jenny D that has been doing some work across the River Thames from Gravesend, at Tilbury 2. It’s spent some time moored at Gravesend’s Town Pier pontoon. Shot when it was sailing down river, it is now, apparently, sailing back upriver heading for London, although London sometimes appears as a default destination. So, I don’t know.

The building on the left of the frame is The Watergate, the river entrance of Tilbury Fort. The 2nd of 2 ‘extras’ is a 10 year old shot of The Watergate in full glory. The fort is quite a thing, pretty much intact and well worth seeing. I don’t think it ever ‘saw action’ although it did hold a number of Jacobite prisoners after the failed rising of 1745: the only recorded bloodshed occurred during a cricket match between Essex (the home team) and Kent (the away team, from across the river). Latterly, the Fort has become something of a movie star, appearing in Mike Leigh’s ‘Peterloo’ and before that, a Wonder Woman film; this caused some consternation in Gravesend when the Turkish flag was seen to be flying over the fort.

The first extra is from today and shows Juliette Greco, as a Thames ‘clipper’ beached in the mud outside Gravesend Marina. It was previously a passenger boat up river, but is now listed as ‘other’ on Marine Traffic so it may no longer be in service...