Screenshot
It was in Hyde Park at the great 1851 Exhibition
That Raffaelle Monti’s Old Father Thames gained public recognition
But instead of being made of marble as was the Italian’s usual bent
He made Old Father Thames out of concrete and Portland cement
If you want more details
his feet were edged by barrels and bales
And Instead of a classical sceptre suitably arrayed
Father Thames is wielding a garden spade
A big journey from Greek myth
To working class life on the Thames herewith
When the 1851 Crystal Palace exhibition moved to Sydenham
Old Father Thames moved too as part of the program
And when Sydenham was tragically burned down
A new home for the statue had to be found
Which is how it came to be led
To the source of the river at Thames Head
In the Cotswold Hills, surely its natural place
Where Old Father Thames could live with grace
Which he did but not for long
Because his remoteness encouraged vandals to come along
And it had to be moved yet again
Hopefully to end its reign of pain
This time it took the fancy
Of the Thames Conservancy
Who in 1974
Moved Old Father Thames once more
To St John’s, the Thames’s very first lock
Where the stream ends and the river starts to rock
And there it is to this day
Watching over visitors to the Thames.
His flowing hair conjuring up classical allusions
Yet umbilically linked to the neighbouring soil
