King Charles’ busy week of royal events continued on the water!
The monarch, 76, boarded a hybrid Thames Clippers Uber Boat in Westminster on Wednesday, May 7, for a ride along the famous London waterway.
He met with employees as he traveled on the Mars Clipper, one of three boats the Thames Clippers company currently has serving 24 piers along the River Thames. He also chatted with CEO Sean Collins, learning more about the company’s investments in hybrid and hydrogen power.
“It’s a nice way [to travel],” the King remarked, according to The Daily Mail.
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King Charles in London on May 7, 2025
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After a 10-minute ride, the royal group disembarked for a visit to the Thames Tideway Tunnel project at Bazalgette Embankment.
Known as the London “super sewer,” the tunnel was officially opened by the King after 10 years of construction. Measuring 25km long and able to hold more than four million gallons of sewage, the Tideway project was built to help divert waste away from the Thames and keep the iconic river cleaner.
The London sewers were originally constructed during the Victorian era, when the capital city held just around four million people. The system has struggled in recent years due to increased population, rainfall and climate change.
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King Charles in London on May 7, 2025
Tideway CEO Andy Mitchell welcomed the King, showing off the project’s high-tech tracking systems — which have measured nearly two billion gallons of waste diverted away from the Thames since August 2024 — and unveiling a plaque bearing his name.
“The King was fascinated with detail and the quality of the space,” Mitchell later said of the monarch’s visit. “The team were absolutely thrilled with his comments on the quality of the work here. In an average year, there are 40 million tons [of sewage] and we will be preventing the vast majority of that from going into the river.”
King Charles also met with some of the 25,000 workers on the project and spoke with poet Dorothea Smartt, whose poetry about the River Thames is inscribed on the Tideway’s ventilation columns.
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King Charles in London on May 7, 2025
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The monarch has been a lifelong proponent of environmental causes and conservation projects, and his royal calendar often reflects that passion.
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On Tuesday night, King Charles attended the premiere of Ocean with David Attenborough, the latest nature documentary hosted by the beloved English biologist, at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
The film, which is set to debut in cinemas before airing on NatGeo and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, focuses on sharing “the story of how we can, and must, restore the glory of Earth’s vast, interconnected waters,” according to a press release.
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