Nocturnal river journeys: social exploration and the imperial gothic imagination on the Victorian Thames, 1850–1900

This article broadens the scope of Victorian urban exploration by extending it from the slums of London’s courts and rookeries to the River Thames, which was both a vital commercial artery and a source of fascination and fear. While the Thames supported imperial trade, it was also associated with poverty, crime, pollution, and moral decay, particularly in the eastern docklands. The article argues that the river offers an alternative perspective for understanding urban social exploration. Unlike the traditional urban landscape, where familiar markers guided explorers, the Thames presented an alien, disorienting environment of decaying warehouses, fog, and muddy riverbanks. This shift to a boat, navigating the treacherous waters of the Thames, took writers into a marine underworld that mirrored themes of criminality and poverty. The river’s oppressive atmosphere led writers to project imperial narratives of civilization versus savagery onto the landscape, blending with the macabre image of the Thames. These encounters were often filtered through an “imperial gothic” lens, wherein the river emerged as a malevolent force that threatened lives, disrupted progress, and corrupted the working-class communities of the eastern districts. By exploring these narratives, the article illustrates how the Thames, as both a literal and symbolic landscape, played a crucial role in shaping the Victorian imagination of urban decay and the tensions between modernity and the perceived threats of the primitive and the criminal.