| Tower lifeboat station | |
| Map Type: | United Kingdom London Westminster |
| Location: | Tower Lifeboat Station, River Thames, London, UK |
| Location Country: | England |
| Coordinates: | 51.5099°N -0.1174°W |
| Building Type: | Lifeboat station |
| Material: | Pier |
| Opened Date: | 2002 |
| Owner: | RNLI |
| Website: | Tower RNLI Lifeboat Station |
The Tower Lifeboat Station is a lifeboat station on the River Thames in London, UK, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). It is located at Victoria Embankment on the North Bank of the Thames, next to Waterloo Bridge.
The pier takes its name from the original RNLI lifeboat station which opened in 2002 further downstream at Tower Pier, next to the Tower of London. In 2006 the lifeboat station moved to its present location at Waterloo Pier, formerly known as the Waterloo Police Pier.[1]
A new search and rescue service for the River Thames was announced on 22 January 2001. The RNLI was asked by the Government to provide lifeboat cover, the first time it had been specifically asked to cover a river rather than estuarial waters. This came as a result of the findings of the Thames Safety Inquiries into the collision between the pleasure cruiser Marchioness and the dredger Bowbelle, which resulted in the loss of 51 lives in 1989.
In 2002 a lifeboat station was established at Tower Pier. An E class lifeboat was placed on service at 12:00 on 2 January when the new search and rescue arrangements for the tidal reaches of the River Thames came into operation.
The station is staffed continuously to provide an immediate response and is coordinated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency from a Port of London Authority operations room at the Thames Barrier. Two of the three-person crew at each station are full-time and the third crew member is a volunteer. This enables the boats to arrive at any incident within 15 minutes.
A special framed certificate, signed by Surgeon Rear Admiral F Golden and the Chief Executive, was presented to Helmsman Mike Sinacola, Mechanic Michael Neild and Crew Member Will Lawrie for the first aid carried out on a seriously injured woman in front of a shocked crowd of onlookers during a service on 2 May 2004.[1]
New facilities on the Thames at Waterloo Pier were completed in 2006.[1]
The original lifeboat station was withdrawn from service on 13 January 2023 with the crew temporarily based at HMS President - the Royal Naval Reserve’s training facility in London near Tower Bridge.[2]
The old station was towed away on 24 January 2023 and was taken to London's Royal Docks where it is expected to be recycled for further use on the River Thames.[3]
A new, purpose built, floating lifeboat station was delivered to the site at Waterloo Bridge on 30 March 2023 [4] having been constructed over a period of 5 months at the King George V Dock in London's Royal Docks.
The new station should be commissioned in to service during April 2023.
In 2012, three new E-class lifeboat Mark II lifeboats, E-07, E-08 and E-09, joined the Thames fleet at Tower and, and served at both stations.
E-004 Ray and Audrey Lusty was retired in 2012, and E-005 Legacy moved over to Chiswick in 2018. With the arrival of a new bigger E-class lifeboat Mark III lifeboat (E-10) at Tower in 2019, Tower became the principal station for E-07 Hurley Burley and E-10 Hearn Medicine Chest.[5]
| Name | Class | Comments | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002–2012 | E-001 | Public Servant | E (Mk I) | ||
| 2002–2012 | E-004 | Ray and Audrey Lusty | E (Mk I) | ||
| Legacy | E (Mk I) | ||||
| 2006 | B-801 | The Drayton Manor | B | ||
| 2012– | E-07 | Hurley Burley | E (Mk II) | ||
| 2019– | E-10 | E (Mk III) | [6] |