London

It’s not just Eel Pie – the Thames is dotted with a string of madcap islands and tide-washed communities, as Time Out reveals in this guide to five of the most notable spots

Canvey Island
In the Essex estuary and home to around 40,000 people, Canvey Island has been settled for centuries. It has a strong Dutch influence from the engineers who built its sea walls. In the 1890s, entrepreneur Frederick Hester installed a monorail in a bid to turn it into a tourist resort to rival Southend. In 1953 floods killed 58, and in 1954 the Canvey Island Monster washed up on the shore – 76cm (30inches) tall, with five toes in a horseshoe shape, bulging eyes, gills and thick, brownish red skin. No explanation has ever been forthcoming. In the 1970s, the island became home to the pub rock scene, pioneered by the likes of Dr Feelgood and Ian Dury. These days, it’s best known for its football team, who play in the Conference.

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Tagg’s Island
One of the river’s most interesting islands, the doughnut-shaped Tagg’s Island at Hampton Court took its name from Thomas Tagg, a boatbuilder, who leased part of the island in 1841 and turned the pub, the Angler’s Rest (built 1852) into a hotel in 1872. Music hall impressario Fred Karno bought the island in 1912 and rebuilt the hotel as the Karsino & New Island Hotel. It had a ballroom that could fit 350 people, badminton and tennis courts, croquet lawns, a billiards room, electric lighting and ‘a German beer garden run on Munich lines’, with 70 staff. Revellers flocked there. Karno also built a houseboat, the Astoria, which is now a floating studio owned by Dave Gilmour. After going bankrupt, Karno sold the hotel in 1926 and it passed through a number of hands, at one point being used as a film location for ‘A Clockwork Orange’, before closing down in 1971. A farewell lunch on demolition day was attended Roy Hudd, Jimmy Jewel, Beryl Reid, Roy Kinnear, Ethel Revnell, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle. In 1941, AC Cars bought the island and built their famous sky-blue three-wheeled invalid Invacars there. Plans to build houses on the island were rejected and it was turned into a community for houseboats (one of which has B&B accommodation, www.feedtheducks.com).

Glover’s Island
This Twickenham island was bought by local waterman Joseph Glover for £70 in 1878, who threatened to sell it to Pears Soap to use as a site for a giant advertising hoarding. Glover used this to blackmail the council, demanding £4,000, but a public appeal raised only £50. After failing to get enough money at an auction in 1898, Glover withdrew the island for sale and in 1900 it was bought by a local benefactor for an undisclosed sum, who returned it to the council.

Trowlock Island
Boasting 29 homes and 40 residents who collectively owned the island, Trowlock Island in Teddington was in the news recently when the fare for the chain ferry that carries inhabitants across the river was increased from a nominal annual charge of £3.77 to £5,000. After appeal, this was raised to £7,000 and the islanders were told to settle out of court – leaving them with a £30,000 legal bill.

Oliver’s Island
Now uninhabited, the island that sits between Kew Bridge and Chiswick Bridge gained its name because Oliver Cromwell was supposed to have taken refuge there during the Civil War. There’s said to be a tunnel linking it to the nearby Bull’s Head pub, but it’s never been discovered.