This is a very unusual sight. Both locks are open at Teddington Lock at the peak of the high tide this evening and the flow of water is moving upstream as you can see it swirling around the gates, even though the this lock is the official end of the tidal Thames.
According to the Lock Keeper's, this spring tide (yes I know it's summer not spring!) is one of the highest this year - 7.25 meters at Chiswick Mall - and a number of locks further upstream along the river were closed to prevent flooding further down.
The Lock-keepers kindly let me nip behind the lock gates so I could capture this rare event and show both locks open. Just for a short time we were stranded on the island as both locks were forced open by the tide. It was quite exciting! (View large to see both gates open)
Nice to see this unusual event it is a lovely photo. I don't know if its Sensible for you to get excited about the possibility of being stranded though.
@barrowlane@nicolaeastwood Definitely should get out more and Rob is right, getting excited about being stranded for 10-minutes on the lock island is a bit sad, especially as the lock keeper told us not to worry as he had plenty of tea in his office (and there are toilets on the island). That's what an afternoon working on the laptop does to me!
@tristansmum Thank you, it was the first time I have seen this in over 10 years of living here (husbands been here much longer and he hadn't seen it before either). @maggiemae This chap was just one of 4 lock keepers on duty today. Partly as it is bank holiday weekend and busy at the lock but mainly to control the lock during this spring tide
@byrdlip Sorry about that, not strictly an island in that it is manmade but definitely in that it is surrounded by water! There are a lot of islands in the Thames which are called 'eyots' but pronounced 'aits' - I've got no idea why!!
August 30th, 2013
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Nice shot.