PLA’s Thames Vision 2050 'brought to life' on National Poetry Day

To mark the launch of the Port of London Authority’s (PLA) Thames Vision 2050, a poem called ‘This River’ has been created, which celebrates the Thames’ past, present and future.

The poem ‘This River’ was developed during a series of workshops led by poet and founder of The Creative Writing Breakfast Club, Laurie Bolger, and young people, with a range of connections to the River Thames.

Thames Vision 2050 puts an emphasis on establishing the river as an excellent place to work, live, visit, get active as well as be a thriving habitat for nature. By creating the poem, the PLA wanted to bring the Thames Vision alive. The river should be protected for future generations, so it was important to have young people coming together across key areas of the vision, to talk about what the river means to them.

“I held various workshops, writing with participants, and then I took different lines that they wrote, and different ideas, and put them together in a poem... I think it’s come out beautifully.” - Laurie Bolger

Once the poem had been created, the group of young people took part in a recital of ‘This River’, which was filmed on the banks of the Thames.

The participants were; Beauty Marshall from the PLA, Tommy Allison and Rosie Johnson from Port of Tilbury, Storm Smith-Suckoo from Thames Active, Chloe Russell from Thames Estuary Partnership, Annabel Taylor-Munt and Sean Ross from Thames Festival Trust and Tashi Spence from Fulham Reach Boat Club.

Alistair Gale, PLA Director of Corporate Affairs said: “Making the Thames accessible to all is one of our five priorities for action. It’s fantastic to see this demonstrated through the words of the young people who created this poem.”

Beauty Marshall said: “I loved working on the poem, it was nice to hear everyone’s stories as to how they are connected to the river. I really enjoyed writing and getting creative and the final product was so meaningful to everyone involved”.