Take a tour along the River Thames in the 1930s

Boats lie grounded in the mud along Battersea Reach. The chimneys of the Lots Road power station, which tower over Chelsea, emerge from the still mist. Turner’s use of light and dark add some atmosphere and mystery to the dull day.

This photograph looks east over King’s Reach, a stretch of water named to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of King George V. Lighters are moored in the foreground. And in the background, Blackfriars Bridge is flanked by St Paul’s Cathedral and the Oxo Tower.

Londoners enjoying the sunshine and low tide at Tower Beach, by the Tower of London. It officially opened in 1934 after 1,500 barge loads of sand were imported to the site. But East Enders had been playing on the stony foreshore for decades before.

In the foreground, lightermen are preparing a group of lighters, flat-bottomed barges used for loading or unloading ships, to be towed by tug boats. The SS Petrel passes to the right. This steamship was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine during the Second World War.

This historic – and supposedly haunted – pub dates back to the 16th century. You can still grab a cold pint there today. In 1961, Turner tragically drowned at nearby Wapping Pier while trying to untangle a rope from the propeller of his boat. His body washed up here, on the foreshore below the pub.

In the distance, among some particularly dramatic cloud coverage, sits the coal-powered Barking Power Station in Creekmouth, on the north bank of the river. From the 1930s to the 1950s, it was known as the largest steam-generating power station in Europe.

Turner photographs a sailing barge passing Purfleet Jetty in Erith Reach. This stretch of the lower Thames was once part of the historical county of Kent, and is now part of the borough of Bexley. The boat has been heavily loaded and is travelling towards London.

Eventually, Turner and Robertson ended up in Southend-on-Sea. Turner’s photographs were published in his wife’s book Thames Portrait in 1937.