Following the success of last year’s Totally Thames 2017 ‘London’s Boatyards/ Working River’ project, I am pleased to be commissioned again by the Thames Festival Trust to be part of Totally Thames 2018 to create portraits of previous winners and participants of the Race for Doggett’s Coat and Badge. The resulting work will be exhibited in September 2018 as part of Totally Thames 2018.
Exhibitions
- Guildhall Yard, Aldermanbury EC2V 7HH, Thu 6 – Sun 23 Sep
- Riverside Walkway, Queens Walk by Millennium Bridge, Sat 18 Aug – Sun 30 Sep
- On board an MBNA Thames Clippers boat
Since 1715, the Race for Doggett’s Coat and Badge has been passionately rowed by apprentice river workers on the Thames. It is believed to be the oldest continually competed sporting event in the world. Despite its fascinating history, little of Doggett’s is documented and it has long been overshadowed by the much more famous Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race.
Using recorded oral histories, photographic portraits by Hydar Dewachi, and 100 years of archive material made publicly accessible for the first time, The World’s Oldest Boat Race brings to life this hidden history at the heart of London. It encompasses stories of family pride and family rivalry, and a passion that kept Doggett’s race alive through two World Wars, a schism between ‘gentlemen amateur’ and ‘professional’ rowers, the decline of the docks and a fast-changing capital.
This project is delivered in partnership with London Metropolitan Archives, The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers’ and The Company of Watermen and Lightermen.
Find out more about the project on Totally Thames website and by reading these interviews with some of the oral history volunteers who are taking part in the project.
The project is supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, City of London and MBNA Thames Clippers.
