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Thorney Island (London)

 

 
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Thorney Island (London)
 
 
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Thorney Island was the eyot on the Thames, upstream of mediæval London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, where Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 and the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, in London, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom meet....
 (commonly known today as the Houses of Parliament) were built. It was formed by rivulets of the River Tyburn
Tyburn (stream)

The Tyburn is a stream in London, which runs underground from South Hampstead through St. James's Park to meet the River Thames at Pimlico near Vauxhall Bridge....
, which entered the Thames near the lowest point where it could be forded from the north bank at low tide.

Thorney, or the Eyot of Thorns, is described in a purported charter of King Offa, which is kept in the Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 muniments, as a "terrible place" — to the delight of generations of the Westminster School
Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
boys who comprise nowadays most of the permanent inhabitants of Thorney Island.

Despite hardships and Viking raids over the next 300 years, the monks tamed the brambles, until by the time of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor

Saint Edward the Confessor , son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxons List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death....
 it was "A delightful place, surrounded by fertile land and green fields".






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Thorney Island was the eyot on the Thames, upstream of mediæval London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, where Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 and the Palace of Westminster
Palace of Westminster

The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, in London, is where the two Houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom meet....
 (commonly known today as the Houses of Parliament) were built. It was formed by rivulets of the River Tyburn
Tyburn (stream)

The Tyburn is a stream in London, which runs underground from South Hampstead through St. James's Park to meet the River Thames at Pimlico near Vauxhall Bridge....
, which entered the Thames near the lowest point where it could be forded from the north bank at low tide.

Thorney, or the Eyot of Thorns, is described in a purported charter of King Offa, which is kept in the Abbey
Westminster Abbey

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, which is almost always referred to popularly and informally as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic architecture Church , in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster....
 muniments, as a "terrible place" — to the delight of generations of the Westminster School
Westminster School

The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college....
boys who comprise nowadays most of the permanent inhabitants of Thorney Island.

Despite hardships and Viking raids over the next 300 years, the monks tamed the brambles, until by the time of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor

Saint Edward the Confessor , son of Ethelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was the penultimate Anglo-Saxons List of the monarchs of the Kingdom of England and the last of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 until his death....
 it was "A delightful place, surrounded by fertile land and green fields". The Abbey's College Garden remains delightful, a thousand years later, the oldest garden in England.

The level of the land has risen, the rivulets
Stream

A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
 have been built over, and the Thames has been embanked
Thames Embankment

The Thames Embankment is a major feat of 19th century civil engineering designed to reclaim marshy land next to the River Thames in central London....
. There is now no sign of Thorney Island. The name is retained only by Thorney Street, at the back of the MI5 Security Service
MI5

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff ....
 building; but a local heritage organisation established by June Stubbs in 1976 took the name The Thorney Island Society.