Why can't Londoners get the name of the Thames River right?

Years ago I wrote a column for The London Free Press called Celebrate the Thames. I'm ashamed to admit but the newspaper was more than simply careless when it came to the name of the river being celebrated. The newspaper editors followed the newspaper's style guide and it was wrong and it was followed religiously. I wrote about the South Branch of the Thames when I knew there was no such river. It's the Thames River: period. There is no South Branch.

Don't believe me? Check the Geographical Names Board of Canada site. You will discover that the Thames River flows from its headwaters near Tavistock southwest through Innerkip where it turns southeast toward Woodstock and London.

Both maps reproduced above are screen grabs from the Geographical Names Board of Canada online site.

And to be exact, you might like to say pedantic, there is no North Branch of the Thames River either. It is simply the North Thames River.

You may well wonder, how did I become aware of this? Well, I wanted to do a column on finding the headwaters of the Thames River. The folk at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority assured me the Thames River originated near Tavistock. The London river was not born in two places as suggested by use of the South Branch and North Branch labels use so carelessly by many, including, UTRCA itself and the Canadian Heritage Rivers folk.

If the river actually split into two branches, merging at The Forks of the Thames, then the Thames River proper would start in the downtown core of London, and that, as one can see by the map on the left, is the present mythology. And that is patently untrue.

Back in the days when London was in the running to be named the capital of Upper Canada, some believed the mythical Thames River of their dreams ran west almost as far as the Don River in Toronto.

These mad dreamers suggested a canal could be dug to link the two watersheds. According to this line of thought, the Thames River and the Don River together offered a short, safe route from Lake St. Clair to Lake Ontario via London. When this was shown to be completely ludicrous, it was just one more reason for not making London the capital. London was not sitting at the forks of a mighty river. The Thames River was not the Mississippi or even the Grand.

Why is all this interesting? Well London likes to profess a great love of the beautiful little river meandering through the city. Yet, it often seems that these folk love the mythical Thames River of years past more than the actual river of today.

The city planning department sees the river as central to their vision of  a renewed urban core. Gosh how they love the little river. Sadly, they don't love it enough to get the name right. Nor do they love it enough to consider abandoning the push to repair the Springbank Dam.

Given the choice between a healthy river and an almost stagnant reservoir at The Forks, the folk in charge at city hall choose a reservoir every time.The reservoir fits in with the myth better than the real, but little, river.

All around the globe the latest buzz word for river projects is restoration. Channels are being abandoned, dams are being demolished, rivers are being allowed to run free. The only restrictions are linked to flood prevention. But this is not happening in London despite all the grand talk about rethinking this and rethinking that.

As I write this I realize that I am being pedantic. The smallest, least meaningful mistake being made by the city when it comes to the river is getting the name of the river wrong. This naming error is simply par for this course.

There is a North Thames River and a Thames River but no mention of branches or a South Thames River.

The San Antonio River: Increasingly famous for more than just its over-commercialized watercourse

San Antonio River before the River Walk

The River Walk in San Antonia, Texas, has been called an over-commercialized watercourse by some London thinkers such as the popular newspaper columnist Larry Cornies.

His description of the San Antonio River looping through the city core is quite accurate. The loop, once known as the Great Bend, is no longer so great. It is simply a watercourse, a highly managed canal, cutoff from the main river by flood control gates. It is a water route made redundant by a bypass channel in service for almost a hundred years.

As the postcard from 1916 shows, even before the great flood of 1921, and the subsequent flood control measures, the Great Bend was being tamed. The card shows what is now the busiest section of the River Walk. Restaurants and other businesses line the canal today.

It is interesting to note that the same battle is being waged today in London, Ontario, that was once fought over the Great Bend, the looping watercourse through downtown San Antonio.

Architect Robert Hugman realized the loop, isolated from flooding, could be developed for commercial use. He came up with an imaginative plan he called "Shops of Aragon and Romula" inspired by cities in Spain. Opposing Hugman was the professional city planning firm Harland Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis. These out-of-state experts, hired by the City Plan Committee, wanted the Great Bend to be natural, pastoral, a linear park with no commercial development at water level. The Great Depression put both plans on hold.

By 1939, it appeared Hugman's River Walk plan had won. Hugman was hired and arched bridges in white limestone, concrete walkways and an outdoor theater all shortly appeared. At the same time, riverside plantings disappeared along with the water in the loop. Hugman had the channel drained temporarily. Hugman's work as called a "desecration of the beauties of San Antonio" and, less than a year into the project, Hugman was fired, leaving much (but not all) of his dream unrealized.

The River Walk languished for almost three decades before gaining solid traction in 1968 with the hosting of the World's Fair in San Antonio. The Walk was linked by a new quarter mile long channel to the fairgrounds.

San Antonio Channel: Mission Reach at Ashley Rd (Planned)

But do not assume that Hugman's dream, his over-commercialized watercourse, is the clear winning vision for the San Antonio river. Outside the protected loop, river development appears to be is taking a turn towards the green. The latest Master Plan aims to restore some of the waterway to a more natural state while maintaining flood control benefits.

The Hugman and the Harland Bartholomew dreams may yet co-exist with the support of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. The army engineers have taken the initial steps aimed at restoring the ecosystem of the river.The army corps brags:

The Mission Reach project occurs along eight miles of the San Antonio River and . . . includes restoration of pool-riffle-run sequences, river remnants, off-channel pools, sinuosity, and aquatic and riparian vegetation. Recreation is included as an ancillary, non-disruptive component of the restoration . . . The re-establishment of native herbaceous plants, grasses and wildflowers is planned along with the planting of approximately 20,000 (native) trees (and shrubs) along the riparian corridor.

Read more about the San Antonio River Improvements Project on the SARIP webpage.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Wealth Gap (HBO)

John Oliver's take on native advertising

When I worked at The London Free Press I saw how some newsfolk lived in fear of offending important advertisers.

I was promoting a story involving the big car companies. I was rebuffed again and again until someone in charge finally admitted that the paper was not going to instigate a negative story concerning the car companies.

Their advertising dollars bought more than just space in the paper; it bought a small amount of what I call editorial insurance.

Renovation is not restoration

Contrary to media reports, the construction work completed at the former Century movie theatre site has not created a showpiece of restoration. The movie theatre auditorium was demolished more than two decades ago, restoration was unlikely, if not impossible. Why? Restoration reveals, recovers or recreates a heritage period in a structure's life. This didn't happen.

Why is this important? Because one of the goals of the London Plan is heritage preservation. Hopefully the London planning department has higher standards when it comes to preservation and restoration than the local media.

Auditorium, now lost: Ontario Archives

Long entrance foyer to former theatre.

Is a San Antonio-style River Walk possible in London?

River Walk, San Antonio, Texas            Photo: Billy Hathorn

According to The London Free Press, Austin,  Texas, "turned a stretch of its river into its famed River Walk of cafes and shops . . . ."

The paper is right but it is not the whole story. It was almost a century ago when a loop in the San Antonio River was bypassed by a channel. Robert Hugman, a young architect, devised an imaginative plan for the loop isolated from the main river by flood control gates. Inspired by cities in Spain, Hugman began construction of what he called "Shops of Aragon and Romula." This loop, separated from the river for years, was developed over the intervening decades into the River Walk famous today.

The main River Walk is a loop isolated from river by flood control gates.

The River Walk is a lot of things, including a success, but it is not anything like the Thames River in London, Ontario — unless you are thinking of odours.

Both rivers, the Thames and the San Antonio, have suffered from odour problems in the recent past and sometimes from a similar cause: untreated sewage overwhelming treatment facilities during periods of heavy rain. Raw sewage mixes with storm water and both are then discharged untreated into to the river.

According to an EPA release, the San Antonia sanitary sewer system dumped more than 23 millions gallons of raw sewage into local waterways between 2006 and 2012. A 1.1 billion dollar upgrade has been announced to remedy the problem.

When it comes to the dumping of raw or partly treated sewage into a local river, London is one of the worst offenders in the province according to a Free Press story from 2013. One London politician, since voted from office, told the paper there just wasn’t enough money available to solve the issue at that time.

Like I said, London isn't San Antonio. Apparently, the Texas city has the money to fix their sewage problem.

Corruption is Legal in America