Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

I'm from London, OH. I grew up in a borough in the south west of the city, in streets like these:

...

London is built on clay, and with clay (bricks). You have to travel about 25 miles out of the city if you want to see an outcrop of rock or a farm animal, but the city has some nice parks, and of course a river:-



This photo is taken at about mid-tide: the river will rise about 5 feet and cover the concrete ramp. Alternatively, it might drop 5 feet and expose a band of mud and gravel three or four times wider than it is in the pic. As the mud gets sloppier, walking to the water's edge at low-tide is a struggle between curiosity and mild disgust.
And notice the airplane? The flight path to Heathrow Airport follows the river for safety reasons, though no pilot has ever made an emergency landing in the Thames afaik. If you stand on a London bridge, there's always a plane in the sky: as one disappears to the west, the next one rolls in from the east. (Pre-covid data )