London has long been defined by the river that runs through it. In Victorian times, human figures were commonly spotted at low tide, bent over and wading in the wet mud. These “mudlarks”— a person who gains a livelihood by searching for iron, coal, old ropes etc. in mud or low tide—routinely scavenged the foreshore of the Thames, making a living by selling items that they found. Animal bones, human teeth, relics of war, religious curios, children’s toys, pins, jewels, buckles, buttons, and more… the Thames throws up surprises all the time. Lara Maiklem, or ‘the London’s Mudlark’, who began mudlarking over 20 years ago, says it’s “quite obsessive”.
London is probably the best place in the world for mudlarking. “It has 2,000 years of intense habitation (so there is a lot to find) and the Thames is tidal, which means that one can get onto the river bed to search twice a day,” says Maiklem, also the author of A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season. Mudlarking dates back to at least the 18th century.
Traditionally it was the very poor, who searched the river for anything they could use or sell. By the mid-19th century, it had become a hobby for those with a passion for history.
“I don’t dig and I don’t scrape. That damages the foreshore and there’s no need because the river delivers something new on every tide that can just be collected from the surface. It’s the direct connection with the past that the objects give me and not knowing what I'm going to find next that keeps me coming back, in all weathers,” she says. Thousands of years of habitation have left behind centuries of detritus that reveals the city’s past with every tide. From Neolithic flint tools and Roman relics to pottery and glassware across centuries, the finds are amazing.
The buzz around mudlarking has grown significantly in the last couple of decades, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, when organised and social activities were forbidden. Between 2018 and 2022, demand for licences issued by the Port of London Authority (PLA) shot up from 200 a year to more than 5,000. So much so that the PLA had to stop issuing permits to protect the integrity and archaeology of the foreshore. But those who have the licences continue to forage.
Maiklem compares the activity to a treasure hunt that will never make you financially rich, but enhances the mind, body and spirit. “The pandemic had a big impact as the river became an escape from lockdown for many. But social media brought it to the attention of the world,” she says. In 2019, the Thames Festival Trust’s heritage project—Foragers of the Foreshore, unearthed the story of London through items recovered from the Thames. It included an expansive exhibition on mudlarking and offered people a chance to meet the mudlarks who have dedicated themselves to finding London’s lost treasures.
Hannah Smiles, who was part of the project and spent two years photographing mudlarks and the artefacts they found on the Thames foreshore, says, “My interest piqued when I started finding bones and clay pipes one afternoon, walking along the Greenwich foreshore. I love history and the excitement of finding unique and unusual treasure, like a shard of Tudor pottery or a gnarly piece of animal bone, worn smooth by the tide.”
The wide range of artefacts revealed, the turning of each tide and the diversity of the mudlarks who work so hard to retrieve them, reveals London’s historic diversity. “All mudlarks are passionate about their pastime. They are in love with the Thames and say that spending time on its foreshore, on a quiet, windswept day can be a cathartic experience,” says Smiles.
Maiklem has found all sorts of things on the foreshore—a Tudor sword, a glass eye, Roman pots, coins, and a 19th-century stone statue of Ganesh. But she gets really excited when she finds shoes. The river mud is anaerobic, which means there is no oxygen, and objects made of organic material are preserved perfectly. “Pulling a 500-year-old shoe out of the mud and seeing the little creases across the top and the toe and heel marks from the original owner is the closest thing to time travel that I can imagine,” she says. It’s time to go mudlarking into the past.