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Brian Cathcart: George James Symons should be living at this hour, for he was a man who loved the rain and loved to hear it spoken of.

Cambridgeshire firefighters defeat Oxfordshire colleagues in a rowing contest on the Thames.

Brian Cathcart: George James Symons should be living at this hour, for he was a man who loved the rain and loved to hear it spoken of.

The foundation stone is laid of an international railway station expected to help regenerate east London.

Plans to build a road crossing across the River Thames in east London win backing from the city's transport body.

At least 30 people die after a pleasure cruiser and a barge collided on the River Thames.

A cargo of bombs that sank in the Thames during World War II could cause one of the biggest non-nuclear explosions ever

BBC News Online takes a trip down the sewers to find out what lies beneath London.

Another night of heavy rain results in a further 500,000 tonnes of sewage pouring into the River Thames.

That landmark of maritime  Greenwich, the Cutty Sark, is in danger of total collapse say her custodians.

Online resource for our area, the site for property , restaurants , shops and information on the Community

Online resource for our area, the site for property , restaurants , shops and information on the Community

Online resource for our area, the site for property , restaurants , shops and information on the Community

Online resource for our area, the site for property , restaurants , shops and information on the Community

Online resource for our area, the site for property , restaurants , shops and information on the Community

More than 50,000 tonnes of sewage has flowed into the Thames after rainfall in London, the Environment Agency says.

Planet Ark gives you up to 40 'World Environment News' stories every day from the Reuters news agency. Nearly 10,000 environmental news stories are fully searchable at this site along with environmental news pictures, free environmental software

Many roads and streets in Chiswick flooded this Tuesday as a violent thunderstorm was accompanied by an exceptionally heavy fall of rain. Estimates are that up to 1.5 inches of rain fell in a half hour period a level that would normally be high for the whole of the month of July in London.

The storm overwhelmed the existing water infrastructure and Thames Water was forced to pump untreated sewage into the Thames before it was forced onto residential streets through manhole covers. This has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of fish causing destruction to the local Thames eco-system that will take years to repair.

The storm hit West London worst of all with reports of massive hailstones hitting Hammersmith reminiscent of a scene in the recently released film on global warming, 'The Day After Tomorrow.' In  Hyde Park 3 teenage girls were reportedly hit by lightening with one having to be resuscitated by paramedics.

Car alarms across town were set off by the storm and office workers and householders struggled to save buildings from the effect of flooding as drains proved unable to cope with the rapid fall of rain. Fishers Lane was completely flooded and cars were unable to pass.

Residential roads such as Staveley Gardens (pictured above) also saw severe flooding. A storm drain in Bath Road was completely overloaded with the Stamford Brook area badly hit - see pictures below.

The District line between Turnham Green and Richmond also had to close. Elsewhere in London the Hangar Lane underpass was closed due to flooding.

The floods had tragic consequences with the downpour forcing Thames Water to pump one million tons of sewage into the river to avoid waste water flowing onto the streets. The discharge caused the worst pollution incident in the Thames for nearly two decades with tens of thousands of fish in the Kew and Brentford area being killed. According to the Environment Agency although there are only a limited number of dead fish on the foreshore there are thousands more on the bottom. They say fish stocks could take at least two years to recover.

Thames Water, who have just announced a 16% increase in charges, insisted that they had no other option. The pumping of raw sewage into the Thames is a regular occurrence during times of heavy rainfall but this incident was unusual in its intensity. The capital investment necessary to avoid such occurrences would be £1 billion. This would involve a giant channel 20 miles long being built to funnel excess water during stormy weather.

Ken Livingstone has pointed the finger of blame at local authorities for the way in which storm drains backed up causing widespread flooding on the roads. He said he would be asking them to report on drain cleaning measures following the Summer recess.

London Borough of Hounslow pointed out that storm drains are the responsibility of Thames Water, and not the Council. They say the do carry out gully-cleansing with a rolling programme that involves clearing 100 gullies a day. There is also a weekly clean-up of reported sites to deal with lone incidents that are reported. Blocked gullies should be reported to the Customer Services Team on 020 8583 5555, with an address, location and a brief description of the problem.

London's Victorian water networks need to be modernised to fight leaks and sewage floods.