Richmond Lock (1928) - Richmond upon Thames, UK - High Level Marks on Waymarking.com

7 January 1928 was the date of the last very serious flooding incident on the tidal River Thames. On this day the river walls were breached or overflowed throughout riverside London. Westminster Hall was flooded, as was the Tate Gallery at Pimlico and the moat at the Tower of London filled with water for the first time in eighty years. In total, fourteen deaths were recorded.

The floods had been caused by high water levels coming down the river as snow from a few days earlier melted, meeting with a storm surge coming up the river as the result of a depression over the North Sea. As a consequence of the floods, river walls were raised in many areas. But it was to be many more years before the Thames Barrier was to be built.

Richmond is close to the upper limit of tidal waters in the Thames and was the furthest point upriver that flooding of significance was recorded. The floods reached Richmond at 2am. Old Deer Park was covered with three feet of water and a foot of water covered roads close to the river with basements flooded in nearby buildings.

The water level is marked at Richmond Lock on a green metal plate set into the wall of the red brick building below the footbridge on the Richmond side of the river.

The plate is inscribed ‘P.L.A. - FLOOD LEVEL - 7th Jan 1928’. PLA stands for Port of London Authority.

Natural or man made event?: Natural What type of marker?: Wall plaque. When did this occur?: 7 January 1928. Website related to the event..: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
A picture showing the level along with any markers telling of what had occurred can be used. Better yet would be a picture of you or someone standing next to the high level mark, that would show if you would have been just wading or completely submersed.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   12/17/2020 Master Mariner visited it