London's Famous Heart Goes Live on the Internet

Posted on January 7, 1998

The world-famous shapes of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are going live to the world as part of an exciting new venture on the Internet in Britain -- the Livesights ThamesCam.

A camera based at the Imperial War Museum's famous Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast is providing online live images of an entire Thames riverscape panorama -- ranging from Tower Bridge and the Tower itself in the east, taking in the full length of the anchored warship, and extending towards London Bridge and the City skyline in the west.

Internet users around the world can log on to catch the live scene on the river around the clock, with constant activity on the water and the shore in daylight, and the spectacular floodlighting of the Bridge, the Tower and HMS Belfast -- overlooked by the lights of the City of London -- by night.

Mr Coxall said that the concept of live webcams had already proved remarkably popular with Internet users, and could only become more so as increasing numbers of people connected to the World Wide Web. Experts forecast that more than 250-million people around the world are likely to be hooked up to the Internet by the end of this century.