Royal River

The Thames was London's 'grandest street', a stage for royal and civic ceremony as well as a bustling commercial thoroughfare. Published to accompany a major exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, this magnificent catalogue charts 500 years of river-borne pomp and pageantry, including Anne Boleyn's coronation and Nelson's funeral. Illustrated with rarely seen paintings, prints and artefacts, the book also records the shipping, bridges and tunnels and frost fairs of the Thames, and the buildings that line its shores. -- Publisher's description. This lavishly illustrated catalogue, published to accompany the major exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich in 2012, explores the history of the Thames as a stage for Royal power, celebration and symbolism. It provides a thematic overview of major events and key individuals from the Tudor age onwards. Dr David Starkey, the leading authority on Britain's royal history, is the exhibition's guest curator. Dr Starkey and other experts examine the history of the Thames, London's greatest 'street'. The book includes colourful and sometimes unexpected stories of royal arrivals, coronations and marriages; the Lord Mayor's Procession and London's ancient livery companies; ship launches and bridge openings; frost fairs and boat races; and the solemn splendour of Lord Nelson's funeral procession. The catalogue is illustrated throughout with nearly 300 colour images of objects drawn from major collections, including those of Her Majesty The Queen. Many of the objects, some never seen in public before, have been specially photographed for this book.