2-640-536 - © CM Dixon/Heritage Images

Barges in the Pool of London. River Thames and Tower Bridge, London, 1962. Part of the Tideway of the Thames, the Pool of London was navigable by tall-masted vessels bringing coastal and later overseas goods. Of vital importance to London for centuries, the river was lined with nearly continuous walls of wharves running for miles along both banks, and hundreds of ships moored in the river,