sherlockbbc | Sherlock: A Study in Locationing (6) Gabriel's Wharf pt2

Welcome back, and thanks or hanging around while I got my brains together and got some sleep. Now we have the second part of this post wherein I explain about tides on the Thames and how they can mess about with your location shooting ...

I had help on one of my visits (this was at Easter) from My and Clara from Sweden, Nubbin the Locationing Notebook with a flash drive filled with episodes to reference:

The ladder in the background is obviously where Sherlock and John climbed down to join the Yarders on the foreshore:

Here it is close up at Easter again:

and here is garienos mudlarking with me more recently in May:

Where Sherlock goes ...

... intrepid Location Hunters also have to follow:

Here he is under the second jetty looking west:

Here is that jetty in May this year:

Now to the complicated bit about tides:

The beginning sequence to this scene, with dawn breaking over the Thames was very obviously taken at low tide at sunrise in February/March (and yes I did check the tide tables for the Port of London for 2010). However by the time Sherlock and the Yarders arrive, it is in fact later in the day. There is a nice graduated tint on the sky in the shot below to make it look dawn-ish, but by the time we see this body the sun has actually moved round to the south (look at the light coming in on the mud in this shot) and it is a completely different day.

By watching the action we can see it's fairly low in the sky and coming over the edge of the river channel ( I love way Sherlock's hair is haloed by it here). I would suggest about 3/4 pm at this time of year.

An explanation of this is, because of the way the tides work you don't get low tide at breakfast time and then again easily at mid-afternoon. For example, low tide at 7.15am on the 12th Feb 2010 was followed by high tide at 1.11pm and low tide again at 7.12pm which would be after dark. You would have had to wait a few days for the tides to work round - by February 24th low tide was at 2.52pm.

The tide is also coming in as the stand there talking. It in fact moves around a bit (both down and up!) proving the shots were taken a little out of sequence.

When John is working out the time of death of the body the tide is almost lapping at his heels:

A wider angle shows the tide lower again, beyond the wooden rafting and John's head nicely in the sunlight from behind them:

Yet only a few seconds later the tide has risen quite a way and is lapping nicely at the wood:

If fact my deduction is they did the long shots first, and then the closer ones later ;-P This is also one of my favourite Sherlock locations as it's so easy to get to, and so actually like it is on screen. lt's also somewhere where I have walked many, many times myself as I followed the Thames Path the ten miles from Westminster to Greenwich. I miss doing that a great deal, and this is a lovely reminder of the good times I had doing it.

Now I am going to go quiet for a little while, as I have a very important location to finish work reporting on. Until the Americans catch up with us I can't say what it is. I have ANOTHER visit to London at the end of next week to reccie a trip with more college students, will take more photos if I get time then, and post it all that weekend.

See you there!