My first studio space was a section of attic above the boatyard, also occupied by a stone-carver, a painter, a sculptor and hundreds of huge spiders. A man of dubious dentistry, big glasses and extremely filthy feet complete with webbed toes, Henry acquired the yard in the mid 1980s with the aim of creating "little spaces for people to work in alongside the boatyard activities."
Eel Pie Marine Centre was set up by possibly the oddest of the bunch, Henry Gastall. The eclectic bunch of boaties and artists occupying this place were even more haphazard.
#Eel pie island slipways full
Up until this point, despite growing up in the area, Eel Pie Island was just a place which featured vaguely in my head as part of the riverside vista I had never ventured over the bridge before and certainly had no idea of its captivating history.Īs a 21 year old, still full of the 'I can do anything' exuberance of youth, Eel Pie Marine Centre looked fantastic - and indeed it was an intriguing mish-mash of boats, boathouses, dry docks, slipways and sheds and that was just the structure. A couple of friends had just moved into a workshop space in the boatyard so I went to visit them. I was not long out of college and wondering where three years of studying photography were going to take me. It was around 1988 when I came across Eel Pie Marine Centre. My last visit was in '58 and the hotel still stood, although very delapidated.Eel Pie Marine Centre & Eel Pie Boatyard - Michele Whitby Eel Pie homeĮel Pie Marine Centre & Eel Pie Boatyard by Michele Whitby (June 2009) We managed to pull her out of the river and resuscitate her and take her to the town slip where an ambulance picked her up. One of the Rivercars was involved in rescuing a drowning woman who had evidently absconded from a care home and was attempting suicide from the shallow spit opposite the upstream end of the Island. One day there was a very strong tide and we were both pushing and pulling the oars and still the tide took us downstream to the end of the island where we just managed to get ashore - very scary! If I was on the island before he arrived I would meet him at the town slipway and row him across in a dinghy.
#Eel pie island slipways mod
My uncle used to work for the MoD at Shell-mex house in London and commuted to and from Twickenham station. The island residents varied immensely from the arty-crafty types to a practicing solicitor. Mainly furnished with settees and armchairs which were very tatty. There was a stage at that end and to its left a small staircase leading into the hotel and bars.
I recall the dancehall was facing the river on the right hand side of the hotel as you faced Ham Common across the main stream. I saw several up-and-coming trad bands there but my uncle left the Island before the rock era started. I recall one had to have a "passport" for the Jazz Club held in the hotel ballroom. The hotel's owner, Michael Snapper, had the bridge built probably around 1957/8. Some occasionally fell in (I'm not sure if any drowned). It was like a big punt and quite unstable when overcrowded with the bearded masses. There was no bridge then, just a chain-ferry worked by a ferryman. It was the beatnick era and loads of them would arrive from the mainland on a Saturday night. There were two slipways, one in the dock and the other between the house and the hotel. The dock held quite a few houseboats and there was quite a friendly community of people in them.
There was a handrail all round the roof and a small Gazebo in the centre. It was then a single story bungalow with a flat roof approached by stairs from the path to the front door facing the dock. The Chalet, built partly over the entrance to the dock, was quite old by the 50s (probably early C20th). Frank had two other sites at Kingston and Hampton Court. These were 4-seat open hire boats with a 2 cylinder piston engine driving a reversible pitch screw. My "uncle" Frank (Francis Thornton-Glide) owned a dock adjoining the hotel's upstream side and the hire business was called "Rivercars". Eel Pie Island in the mid-late '50s - John C Snelling Eel Pie homeĮel Pie Island in the mid-late 50s by John C Snelling
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