Thames and Medway Pleasure Steamers from 1935

If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the rivers Thames and Medway, you can be certain that most people will remember with fond nostalgia the well-loved steamers Royal Daffodil, Royal Sovereign and Queen of the Channel. Even now well over forty years since their untimely demise, their fame and public affection for them, is just as strong as it was in their heyday. They were simply the poor man’s ocean liner. Andrew Gladwell takes us on a long and nostalgic glance back to their short but eventful careers as well as looking briefly at the other paddle steamers that were around from the early 1920s. Today, we are lucky to see three pleasure steamers regularly sailing on the Thames and Medway but there was a period in the early 1970s when it looked like the pleasure steamer had gone from these rivers forever. Evoking memories of the steamers that once took thousands on their trips to the coastal resorts, Andrew Gladwell brings together a fascinating selection of images and ephemera of these now-lost vessels.