Ferry replaces rotten and removed Temple footbridge

Pizza chef deliv­ers ferry ser­vice amid bridge clos­ures
Special delivery: Justin Whelan on Bryan Ferry, which will transport passengers at Hurley.

1 May 2026
A NEW com­munity ferry service link­ing the river­sides at Hur­ley and Temple has been launched.

The elec­tric, solar-powered boat called Bryan Ferry will carry walk­ers from one side of the River Thames to the other while Temple Bridge remains closed.

The cross­ing, just upstream from Temple Lock, was shut in May 2023 after sur­vey­ors from the Envir­on­ment Agency said it had “deteri­or­ated faster than expec­ted”.

The agency is now work­ing to com­pletely replace it after the side spans of the bridge were found to be in “very poor con­di­tion” fol­low­ing an inspec­tion in Feb­ru­ary. [This will take years]

Busi­ness­man Justin Whelan came up with the idea for the cross­ing ser­vice so walk­ers can avoid using the diver­sion, which takes them on to Temple Lane, a 60mph road.

The ven­ture, which oper­ates from Temple Lock, is described as a “labour of love” and has taken a year to develop, which included the res­tor­a­tion of the 50-year-old ves­sel.

Mr Whelan, 58, said: “As soon as the bridge stopped being avail­able to people, I recom­men­ded to some friends with boat hire busi­nesses to set up [this ser­vice] but it was simply not fin­an­cially viable for them.

“The bridge diver­sion took people on to a rel­at­ively busy road so I thought, if no one else is going to do it, then I might as well do it myself. I bought the boat for this pur­pose a year ago.”

The 12-pas­sen­ger boat will carry walk­ers across the river as part of a wider route between Mar­low and Hen­ley.

Mr Whelan, who has lived on boats between the two towns for 20 years, said: “The Thames Path can’t be com­pleted without detours now because the bridge is down. I spend a lot of time on the water and I was aware there was a lot of frus­trated people. It seemed there were many reas­ons to do it.

“People get­ting out and people’s men­tal well­being — walk­ing in nature is fant­astic for every­body — so there needed to be a solu­tion. It was one of those I could do, so I chose to do it.

“I would go through the locks on my boats and occa­sion­ally give people a lift from one side to the other because they star­ted a walk and then failed.

“There was a lot of frus­tra­tion because of the detour. Once you’ve walked and been told you can’t walk on, you’ve got to walk back again, so it throws people’s day com­pletely out.

“I hope this will reduce the chance of some­body get­ting hurt on the road, and it means more people can enjoy the coun­tryside around where we live.”

Mr Whelan, who owns Pir­ate Pizza, a boat which sells pizza on the Thames, includ­ing in Hen­ley and is also a chim­ney sweep, believes the greater good of provid­ing the ser­vice out­weighs the fin­an­cial bene­fits.

“It’s a slightly afford­able loss,” he said. “It won’t make a profit. If I star­ted it any earlier, then I’d run out of money, so I’m try­ing to make my money last as long as humanly pos­sible. I think I’ve been a con­sumer for too long and I want to be more of a cit­izen. I’m in a situ­ation where I can afford the time and it’s time to pay back. Not hav­ing the bridge is a huge dis­ad­vant­age for people and it has been massively well-received.”

The ferry will run between 10am and 3pm on Wed­nes­days, Sat­urdays and Sundays and this could expand to seven days a week dur­ing the school hol­i­days once a volun­teer rota is estab­lished.

Dogs and bicycles are wel­come on board. Pas­sen­gers can board from the Temple side and travel across to Hur­ley, or vice versa, with fares set at £2.50 each way for adults and £1.50 for chil­dren under 12.

Last May, the Depart­ment for Envir­on­ment, Food and Rural Affairs inves­ted £500,000 to be split equally into repairs for Temple Bridge and Marsh Lock Horsebridge in Hen­ley, which has been closed since May 2022 fol­low­ing com­plaints about its con­di­tion.

[Following a structural inspection, the Environment Agency closed Marsh Head Horsebridge in May 2022 due to numerous structural and safety concerns.]

The refurbishment of this bridge is being treated as a priority as we know how important it is to both local people and visitors using the Thames Path.

A spokes­man for the Envir­on­ment Agency said that it was pro­gress­ing out­line designs for a replace­ment bridge at Marsh Lock, which will meet cur­rent stand­ards.

Thames Path Diversion at Marsh Lock

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From The Henley Standard
By ANAKA NAIR news@hen­ley­stand­ard.co.uk