You might like to see inside one of the last Thames wooden boat builder's workshops - not much has changed since this article. Note the cramped conditions, these tunnels go back into the river bank and interconnect. If anyone would like to rent a wooden rowing boat, there are some decent ones among the usual plastic hire ones. A couple of years ago I hired a replica of the original Oxford Boat Race eight, from 1829, a 6-oar Cornish gig, stretched to 8-oar. It's at Richmond, west London.
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Photos capture centuries of boat craftsmanship on the Thames
Builders at Richmond, south west London, are seen carving, planing, sanding and polishing vessels to be sailed down the Thames, using the same techniques on which their trade was founded.