I'm reading JG Ballard's Millenium People at the moment. The story is set around a ficitional gated community called Chelsea Marina. Anyhow, one of the chapters starts with a evocative description of the Thames.
The Thames shouldered its way past Blackfriars Bridge, impatient with the ancient piers, no longer the passive stream that slid past Chelsea Marina, but a rush of ugly water that had scented the open sea and was ready to make a run for it. Below Westminster, the Thames became a bruiser of a river, like the people of the estuary, unimpressed by the money terraces of the City of London.
Nick