St. Margarets and Pie Island Twickenham Middlesex 101113

St. Margarets and Eel Pie Island             Twickenham Middlesex 101113

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Eel Pie Island is an island in the River Thames at Twickenham in the Borough of Richmond upon Thames, London. It is situated on the Tideway and can be reached only by a footbridge or boat. The island was know as a major jazz and blues venue in the 1960's.

Eel Pie Island was earlier called Twickenham Ait and before that The Parish Ait; even earlier the island was three separate aits. A bridge to the island was proposed in 1889, but it was not until 1957 that one was completed. Today the island has about 50 houses with 120 inhabitants, a couple of boatyards and some small businesses and artists studios. It has nature reserves at either end, but there is no public access to them.

The island is privately owned and the public can only access the main pathway from the bridge, passing all the doors and gates of the houses and businesses on the island. On a few weekends a year usually in June and December and dubbed "Artists Open Studios" the public are invited to visit the collection of art studios, known as Eel Pie Island Art Studios.

The Eel Pie Studios or Oceanic Studio at the The Boathouse on the mainland nearby, formely owned by Pete Townshend, were the location of several significant pop and rock recordings. Townshend's publishing company was called Eel pie publishing.

The island is also the home to Twickenham Rowing Club, one of the oldest rowing clubs on the Thames and Richmond Yacht Club.

The island was the site of the now legendary Eel Pie Island Hotel which was a genteel nineteenth century building that hosted ballroom dancing during the 1920's and 1930's. In 1956 trumpeter Brian Rutland who ran a local band call the Grove Jazz Band. In 1967 the hotel was forced to close because the owner could not meet the £200,000 cost of repairs demanded by police. In 1969 the Club briefly reopened as Colonel Barefoot's Rock Garden, with bands such as Black Sabbath, The Edgar Broughton Band, Stray, Genesis and Hawkwind. Other bands booked there were Free, Deep Purple, Wishbone Ash, Mott the Hopple. 

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