Best of British City Escapes - A Week on Eel Pie Island

Stroll over a narrow footbridge across the Thames river, behind Twickenham High Street and you'll find yourself on a quiet little island of tree-shaded pathways leading to a secluded colony of bohemian artists cottages, boatyards and iron gated rows of mostly modest, though currently a few under architectural renovation,  riverfront homes.

The island takes its appealing and peculiar name from its 16th Century status as mud-flats favored by the insatiable King Henry VIII, who, by popular account, traveled by royal barge from Hampton Court to frequent the tasty wares of an early eel pie stall. 

Fish monger shops throughout London were supplied with inexpensive hauls of thick, slimy eels for hundreds of years. Chopped and boiled in a spiced stock and left to set, jellied eels were a cheap staple of Eel Pie & Mash Houses in London's East End from the 18th Century.

By the 1950s, the barge heavy Thames' eel supply had significantly dwindled. The UK Environment Agency has been working on improving the water quality of the river for decades, so, in time, it may be that eel nets are seen again around the island that takes its name from this slippery specimen. 

This oddest and most charming of small islands in the Thames is best known for its raucious musical heritage. In the 17th Century, the first pub on Eel Pie Island was known as The Ship (later the White Cross). The pub was replaced by a grand Eel Pie Hotel, with dance floor, bowling alley and bar. 

Charles Dickens visited by steam boat in the 1830s and immortalized the hotel in his 1839 Novel Nicholas Nickleby for eternity:

“It had come to pass that afternoon, that Miss Morleena Kenwigs had received an invitation to repair next day per steamer from Westminster Bridge unto the Eel-Pie Island at Twickenham, there to make merry upon a cold collation, bottled-beer, shrub, and shrimps, and to dance in the open air to the music of a locomotive band, conveyed thither for the purpose…”

Charles Dickens

From our scenic vantage point, during a week on the island's leafy riverfront, it was hard to picture the place in its derelict period, after World War I.

By the 1950s, though, a trad-jazz club was launched on the island in the long-forgotten hotel. 

Into the 1960s, the phenomenon of the post-World War II teenage beatnik was taking hold in Britain and America and Eel Pie Island was perfectly poised to house a social experiment of the early rock and roll music festival mecca.  

Seeking an escape from the norm, art students and musicians flocked to the island of shacks and old tin huts, nowadays home to around 120 private residents.  

A melting pot of musical talent until police closed the hotel down for its over populated commune of squatters, Eel Pie Island drew David Jones (Bowie), Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart (who reportedly was discovered playing harmonica outside of Twickenham train station!), Pete Townsend... 

The Stones played 13 dates on the island in 1963. 

We're pictured here in one of the island's limited private holiday rental homes, a modern, stylish, white-washed riverfront house that was a haven for my family's visit with my sister and her family in Twickenham. With sizzling, record breaking summer sunshine all week, it was the best of British get-aways and one that will be hard to beat.

Peter Watts of Time Out London wrote in his 2006 article on the Island: "If the residents could raise the bridge - they probably would." 

Intriguing for its peacefulness in such close proximity to the hustle and bustle of London (Southwest trains run every 20 minutes from Twickenham Station, arriving at Waterloo in a half hour), Eel Pie Island offered high street shopping within minutes by foot, riverfront trail walkability to Richmond and waterside pubs for pit-stops along the way. 

Buses run from Twickenham High Street to Kew Gardens and Hampton Court. Heathrow Airport is about 10 miles from Eel Pie Island, making this a convenient location at the start or end of an international visit. 

Having stayed in holiday cottages throughout the UK on numerous visits in past years, the appeal of an urban escape on Eel Pie Island proved utterly and delightfully unique.