The Thames Barge Driving Race under oars' or "sweeps" and ride tidal river currents alone, up river. The event commemorates the skills of lightermen who moved freight this way along the Thames up until the 1930s and in a wider context it encourages ongoing interest in moving cargo via water and as a way to recruit younger people back into river trades.The teams are normally made up of employees of Thames Lighterage companies, Port of London Authority or are sponsored by local businesses. The best places to view the race are Tower Bridge, London Bridge and Westminster Bridge. During the 1970s Britain suffered a major
Grand Panorama of London from the Thames further east to the Isle of Dogs and covered the south bank of the Thames to the Royal Victualling Office at Deptford. This version made small changes to Hungerford Bridge which had been completed in 1845. Grand Panorama of London from the Thames The Grand Panorama of London from the Thames is an 1844 woodcut engraving depicting the north bank of the Thames river in London (then the world's largest city) running from Western Stone Wharf by the unfinished Houses of Parliament (the tower to house Big Ben is not yet constructed) to the Belfast, Cork, Leith and Glasgow Steam