Thames Festival Trust - Last Chance: Thames Lens 📷 An End Of Year Note From Our Director 🎉

 

Director Adrian Evans CVO at the Art Explora Event, Paris | Photo: Matthieu Joffres Art Explora A Message from our Director on 2025 2025 was an extraordinary year for Thames Festival Trust, connecting young people and communities to their local rivers, and each other, through our arts, heritage and education programmes. Find out more and watch an episode from this years' docu-series here! We achieved many milestones this year and hosted the 28th Totally Thames festival in September! We completed our inaugural ‘Lost & Found’ heritage traineeship programme, which we hope will develop further in 2026 and onwards, and  were fortunate to collaborate on our River of Hope schools project with partners in Dorset, Newham, Norfolk & Tees Valley and with France and Ethiopia too.  To cap it all off, we were delighted to win the prestigious Art Explora European Award for our very exciting 2026 project 'Turning The Tide' with artist Catherine Yass. Watch out for further details in the New Year! In 2025, we worked with 11,000 students and reached an audience of 453,500 people in-person and online. We hope you will join us in making 2026 even better! Wishing you and your loved ones Season’s Greetings as the year draws to a close.   Adrian Evans CVO Director Watch our 2025 Docu-series Photos left to right Rekindling by Compagnie Carabosse | Photo: Milo Robinson Lighting up the Lea at Cody Dock | Photo: Milo Robinson Mudlarking Exhibition in Roman Amphitheatre | Photo: Milo Robinson Thames Lens Launch 2025 | Photo: Milo Robinson Tideway Blackfriars Public Realm Opening 2025 | Photo: Milo Robinson Thames Lens Winner | First of Many Sunsets, Subhajit Ghosh Deadline Soon: Thames Lens 2026 Photography Competition In collaboration with Port of London Authority, we are thrilled to announce Thames Lens 2026 is now open for entries! Thames Lens encourages photographers to get out and explore the River Thames with their creative lens. We have six distinct categories, each of which speaks to a different facet of the river and all offer fantastic potential for amazing photography. This year we have also launched a new video category in collaboration with the Illuminated River Foundation.  Winners and runners-ups will be exhibited in central London. Prizes include vouchers for photography kit, a year’s membership to the Photographer Gallery, Hop-on Hop-off tickets courtesy of Uber Boat by Thames Clippers, and much more. Under 30? Tick the box in the submission form and be in with the chance to win a special extra prize. The competition closes to entries on 11.59pm Friday 9 January 2026. The winners will be chosen by a panel comprised of representatives from Thames Festival Trust and Port of London Authority.  Submit your entries Quick links We are a registered charity, donate to help us continue our work.

Thames Festival Trust - Thames Lens Now Has A Video Category 🌊 📷

 

Photo: Thames Lens Winner. First of Many Sunsets, Subhajit Ghosh Thames Festival Trust partner with Illuminated River Foundation as part of Thames Lens 2026 Take part in Thames Lens now! In collaboration with the Illuminated River Foundation, Thames Festival Trust is excited to announce a brand-new video category for 2026 as part of its annual photography competition, Thames Lens. With video becoming one of the most powerful ways we consume and share stories, this new category marks a bold step forward, allowing new ways for all photographers and videographers to engage with the River Thames in today’s digital world. Spanning nine bridges from London Bridge to Lambeth Bridge, Illuminated River is the world’s longest public art commission. An orchestrated series of artworks using LED lights brings the city’s bridges to life, transforming the River Thames at night. Thames Lens encourages photographers and videographers to explore and capture moving and still images of the River Thames. To consider the river’s place at the heart of the capital city and to record the diverse ways in which we interact with it. The Illuminated River Foundation will sponsor two prizes for this new category: one open to third-year photography students at Ravensbourne University, and another open to the general public. Both will invite participants to capture the bridges on video using any device, from smartphones to professional cameras. Trustee of Illuminated River Foundation Sarah Gaventa comments: For centuries, the Thames has been a muse for painters, poets, and in more recent times, photographers, filmmakers, and digital creators. It is the heart of the city, framed by iconic landmarks and alive with stories from throughout history. By day it inspires reflection and memory; by night it dazzles with striking beauty. We’re delighted to introduce this new Thames Lens category which embraces the evolving ways we experience media and will help to capture the subtle play of light across the bridges and the powerful ways people connect with the installation. Thames Lens is an annual photography competition, now in its 20th year. In addition to the new video category with the Illuminated River Foundation, the competition has five categories for photographers to respond to: ‘River City’, ‘River of Life’, ‘River People’, ‘Working River’ and Photojournalism. The competition winners are shown as part of the annual Totally Thames festival in September 2026. Thames Lens is delivered in partnership with the Port of London Authority. Thames Festival Trust gratefully acknowledges their sponsorship.  Take our short survey... Quick links We are a registered charity, donate to help us continue our work. #supportthearts Find out how to support our work

Thames Festival Trust - London's Lost Village: Deep Dives #6: 25 Years of Trinity Buoy Wharf | A Look Back

 

The rescheduled date for the last in our 'Deep Dives' series London's Lost Village: Deep Dives #6: 25 Years of Trinity Buoy Wharf Tue 25th Apr 2023 | 6:30pm - 8pm | Online To mark twenty-five years since the opening of the modern Trinity Buoy Wharf we will take a deep dive into the development of one of London’s major creative hubs. Joining host Marieta Evans will be Cynthia Grant, Denise Jones and Eric Reynolds. Supported by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Trinity Buoy Wharf Trust and Royal Docks. Find out how to watch online A Look Back... 2016-2017 A Look Back: A Short History of Thames Barges [2016] Read the article Floating Dreams: One Dream, Many Stories [2016] Read the article 7 Unexpected Things You Might Find in the Thames [2016] Read the article Thames Lens: Our 2017 Winners [2017] Check out the photo gallery Back to the River: Exploring the Changing Landscape of Bankside [2017] Watch the short film Working River: Portraits [2017] Check out the photo gallery

Thames Festival Trust - Bubble Town, Giant Cheques, Heritage Discussion Catch-up 🛶😎🚤

 

Photo: Milo Robinson Reflections: Over 26K Raised For The RNLI Last week we presented a cheque for £26,440.38 to the RNLI at the HQS Wellington to help pay for the construction of a new lifeboat station at Waterloo Bridge. The money was raised by the participants, partner organisations and promoters of the Reflections event that was part of Totally Thames in 2022.  Look at the gallery of photos from the donation event Our short animated film for the Bubbletown project London's Lost Village: Welcome To Bubbletown ‘Welcome To Bubbletown’ is a collaboration between Faraday School, Josh Knowles, and Thames Festival Trust as part of the London’s Lost Village project. In summer 2022 students at Faraday School learned about the history of their local area including Trinity Buoy Wharf, the East India Docks and Orchard Place. Reflecting on this, the students used recycled materials to create Bubbletown: a utopian fantasy world based on the principles of eco-engineering. Watch our short animated Bubbletown video Reflections @ Totally Thames 2022 Reflections: The View From Butler's Wharf The Company of Watermen & Lightermen of the River Thames hosted guests on the Dixie Queen at Butler's Wharf Pier for Reflections this year. We were down on the pier to check out what was happening. Watch our short film of the guests at Reflections Watch past heritage talks... London's Lost Village: Deep Dives #2: The History of Thames Shipbuilding Join us for the second of our 'Deep Dives', as we explore the history of shipbuilding at Bow Creek. Watch Deep Dive's #2 online London's Lost Village: Deep Dives #1 - The East India Docks Watch our recorded panel discussion that explores the history of the East India Docks. Watch Deep Dive's #1 online London's Lost Village: The Faraday Effect Watch our recorded interview with the curators of The Faraday Effect. Watch The Faraday Effect online Rescheduled & upcoming events River of Hope @ National Maritime Museum On till 12th Jan 2023 An exhibition of magnificent artwork created by young people around the world reflecting on their hopes and aspirations for the planet. More info on the River of Hope exhibition Photography Walk & Caffenol Developing Sun 27th Nov 2022 Join visual artist Olga Suchanova on the photographic journey around the river Thames and learn how to develop film in coffee. Buy tickets to Photography Walk & Caffenol Developing Create your online account now! Join the Thames Crew for free to get all the news direct to your inbox and to gain access to exclusive content! Sign up for an online account now