This Jubilee year will see the greatest flotilla of ships to sail down the Thames for more than 350 years.
It will reprise the great heritage of the Thames as the capital's "grandest street" and bring to life the 500 years of enterprises and ambitions that a new exhibition aims to depict.
In a year of landmark cultural events, Royal River at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, takes its place on the podium - although "watermark" would be a more suitably aqueous adjective.
From the grand Canaletto at the entrance, through to the gilded figureheads, chalices, trumpets, uniforms and miniatures, this is an authentic and opulent experience of the Thames as royal and political canvas.
Among the artefacts are the oldest known copy of Handel's Water Music, Anne Boleyn's personal music book, and stern carvings from royal yachts.
Ahead of the opening by the Queen, on Wednesday, guest curator David Starkey toured a preview.
He said: "This exhibition is a feast for the eyes and the senses. It evokes the sights, sounds and even the smells of half a millennium of royal river pageantry and popular celebration. Royal River also shows how the grandest river pageants have been used to celebrate. the coronation of Tudor and Stuart Queens.
"What more appropriate way of celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, who will herself lead another grand royal river pageant?"
Using the establishment of the Woolwich Royal Dockyards 500 years ago as its starting point, the exhibition thematically and chronologically depicts the river's popular fortunes.
For much of the 500 years, the Thames was the focus of city's celebrations but, as the river became an open sewer, London turned up its nose.
The construction of the Embankment was the high water mark of this rejection although the Palace of Westminster, without water gates, indicated the general displeasure.
The Lord Mayor's procession, as captured by Canaletto, moved from water to land in 1857 but this grand exhibition, and the Thames Jubilee Pageant in June, may finally signal a return to royal favour.
- Until Sept 9, Royal River: Power Pageantry And The Thames, National Maritime museum, rmg.co.uk
Image © National Maritime Museum
