Helen Stephenson's Stroll along the Thames, September 15th, 2006

The largest of the three vessels requiring passage through Tower Bridge at 7pm was the cruise ship Seabourn Pride, seen here at her berth alongside HMS Belfast.

Having already determined from a quick glance downriver from the train on my way into Cannon Street Station that morning that Seabourn Pride was facing downriver, I decided to go to St Katharines Pier to take in the view of Seabourn Pride's bow appearing through Tower Bridge.

When I reached St Katharines Pier, I found the Sailing Barge Will was moored there. Fortunately she - if you can call a boat called "Will" a "she"! - was moored on the inside of the pier and didn't obstruct the view of Tower Bridge from pierside, although she did preclude getting uninterrupted shots from the dockside. I took this photograph of Will from the dockside before going down onto the pier.

Once on the pier, I decided to set up my tripod. As the pier moves gently up and down on the current, not all of the pictures taken from the pier have Tower Bridge in exactly the same place, but I reckoned that I could at least eliminate camera shake and might manage to take something worth running as an animation.

I had noticed from the Tower Bridge lift schedule that Seabourn Pride didn't seem to have any tugs booked, and indeed she didn't. She was already facing downriver, and she turned on her side thrusters to move away from her berth alongside HMS Belfast and then as the bascules of the bridge started to rise, she began her forward run towards the bridge. Everything was done with split-second precision and as the bascules of Tower Bridge achieved their full height, Seabourn Pride's bow started to nose through the opening. Dixie Queen, who was next in line to use Tower Bridge, put on her usual show with her three ship's horns to help Seabourn Pride on her way.

Dixie Queen, a fake stern-wheeler pleasure boat, was next in line to pass through Tower Bridge. Normally she doesn't get the bascules raised to their upright position, but her master had plenty of room for manoeuvre on this evening, as the bascules had been fully raised to allow the much larger cruise ship passage. Dixie Queen played her three ship'shorns again as she cleared Tower Bridge and also sailed off downriver.

As she sailed downriver, Dixie Queen passed by Jersey Clipper, who was waiting to sail into the Upper Pool.

Jersey Clipper was, I think, promoting the 2007-2008 Round the World Yacht Race. Although she was the smallest of the three vessels using Tower Bridge on this evening, I think that she was probably the tallest. As she sailed away up the Thames, a tug towing a barge loaded with containers took the opportunity of sailing under the lowering bascules of Tower Bridge.

Jersey Clipper came around and berthed alongside HMS Belfast in the position recently vacated by Seabourn Pride. Her crew climbed aboard HMS Belfast, where they appeared to be enjoying a rather fancy reception.

Meanwhile, a small boat was collecting up the extra buoys used by Seabourn Pride, and towing them to their "storage location" outside City Hall.

I moved to a spot outside the Tower of London to take the preceding pictures, and couldn't resist turning the camera round onto Tower Bridge. In the extra few minutes since the bridge lifts, the floodlighting had come on and twilight had deepened to the point where the bridge really stood out and was absolutely gorgeous.

I needed to go to London Bridge Station to catch my train home, and there wasn't much in it distance-wise between using Tower Bridge and London Bridge and I decided to walk over Tower Bridge. I had my eye on what train I was going to catch and wasn't slowing down too much or I probably could have had some more rather nice pictures.

I did pause on my way through the Hays Galleria for a shot of two of The Navigators. This sculpture is newly cleaned and polished and looking very nice indeed.

Then I went up the escalator to London Bridge Station and caught my train with about a minute to spare!