Peter Kent is an artist, illustrator and local historian who lives on this street. Later on the walk you will see his sketches on plaques showing the history of the riverscape. This is one of the few interviews that I did specially for this walk; most are from the archives. Peter really knows the river well, and his house over-looks the river here. I was particularly struck by the gate down to the beach here, which as you can see from this photograph, used to be busy.

At high tide water sometimes comes under the gate; the surround-sound recordings sometimes remind you about the tide; of course, when you walk the route, the river is likely to be a completely different height. The recordings sometimes include something that might make you turn and look, but isn't there. This is to remind you that these recordings exist in three presents at the same time: the present of the time the voice was recorded; the present of when the route was recorded and the sound edited; and the present that you are sensing when you do the walk. Sometimes these three dimensions work in a similar way, and you won't really notice a particular story, or the sound recording, because they fit in with your present surroundings, knowledge and mentality. But sometimes I hope you will find that one of the dimensions will work quite out of synchronicity with the others, and you will be surprised, shocked or moved by a story or a sound. That is why it is so important to actually experience the route while you are listening, if you possibly can.