New Thames lifeboat station 'already saving lives'

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has opened its first new base on the River Thames in 24 years which the charity says will help crews reach emergencies more quickly, and is already saving lives.

The new Wandsworth Riverside station replaces the RNLI's former base in Chiswick and will serve as headquarters for 66 volunteers and 10 permanent staff.

The Chiswick site in west London was one of four lifeboat stations established on the river following the Marchioness disaster in August 1989.

Fifty-one people died when the Marchioness pleasure boat carrying more than 130 partygoers collided with the dredger Bowbelle near Southwark Bridge.

The RNLI says one of the biggest benefits of the move to Wandsworth Riverside is its closer proximity to places where demand is highest.

Volunteer Mark Pusey, who has been with the charity for 10 years, said the impact was already being felt.

"In the last 48 hours we've had eight shouts and two of them have resulted in us saving people's lives.

"One of them was in Putney. We're maybe five minutes closer to Putney on launch, and so that tiny move of just a couple of miles has made the difference already to someone's life."

The former Chiswick station was one of the two busiest RNLI lifeboat stations in the UK.

Between January and September 2025 crews attended 215 incidents.

The new Wandsworth site has 10 times the floor space of the Chiswick operation.

"We've been living basically in a loft, a very nice loft in Chiswick, but it wasn't really fit for purpose," he said.

"This brand new building has got space for all our training needs, space for our PPE, a space from where we can launch, do water safety talks and host people. It's far more of a deserving lifeboat station for what we do."

The £4m station has been funded entirely through donations and includes a dedicated kit room with storage space for every volunteer, rest and bunk rooms and a larger crew room.

The facilities will also support the wellbeing of crews, who are regularly exposed to traumatic incidents.

Pusey said: "To have somewhere to relax, to talk, to break things down and try to make sense of what has happened is really important for the mental wellbeing of all our crew."

The charity hopes the station will become part of the local community, with plans to welcome visitors and open a new shop on site.

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