Downstream

the Thames is the focus of an
annual regatta now around
150 years old. More
sinisterly, the river once also
featured ducking stools used
for punishing women. In
April 1745 the London
Evening Post reported, ‘a
woman that keeps the
Queen’s Head ale-house at
Kingston, in Surrey, was
ordered by the court to be
ducked for scolding, and was
accordingly placed in the