It was years since I had heard from former Surbiton journalist Jill Sanders when she emailed me out of the blue about a project she was working on with her partner, John Inglis.

Thus I found myself standing in wind and rain beside the Thames at West Molesey, wishing I was somewhere else, and waiting for them to take me in their boat to their house on Garrick’s Island.

Little did I know the next couple of hours would be so absorbing and inspirational that I have been thinking and talking about them ever since. The story begins in 1829, when Samuel Leigh published his panorama of the Thames from London to Richmond, an astonishing piece of art showing every landmark on both sides of the 15-mile stretch of river from Westminster Bridge to Petersham Meadows. Sixty feet long, composed of 46 prints glued together and folded into a concertina, it was designed for boat users at a time when the river was a prime means of transport.

Today the panorama, painstakingly drawn by artist John Clark, is of unique educational value in depicting many lost landmarks – notably the old Palace of Westminster, just before it was razed by fire – together with the vanished waterside communities, wharves, churches and stately homes of 184 years ago. However, as it was primarily for boating use, copies were routinely subjected to the ravages of weather, water and constant handling, so the few that have survived are scarred. John and Jill, who managed to find and buy a copy, have two main aims. One is to digitally restore Leigh’s production and make it available on a public website. John gave me a screened viewing of parts of the original (of which I had never heard until then) and of the contemporary panoramas he has completed to date. Beautifully filmed, with perfectly chosen music as a background accompaniment, they made me feel I was drifting along the Thames, gazing entranced at the passing scenery.

If Leigh had decided to include Kingston’s riverside in his panorama, what would he have seen there? Passing what is now Lower Ham Road he would have noted Bank Grove, a beautiful 18th century mansion set in 14 acres, and Chestnut Grove, a fine house with gardens stretching all the way to what is now Kings Roads. There was no railway then and instead of the current rail bridge, apartment blocks and Steadfast headquarters on Thameside, there was Down Hall Meadows, where cows grazed and children could pick wild flowers, followed by Turk’s, boatbuilders since 1710, and the Outrigger, an ancient pub that was rebuilt a century later. From this part of the river Leigh would also have seen the centuries-old cottages – charming from the outside but squalid within – that occupied a network of alleys known as the Back Lanes. Today much of this site is covered by John Lewis. Sailing under the handsome new Kingston Bridge, completed only a year earlier, Leigh would have passed Kingston Tannery, a gin distillery, coal wharf and several inns before reaching Town End Wharf, where incoming cargo boats unloaded. Queen’s Promenade did not exist then, but Leigh would have seen part of the beautiful grounds, and perhaps the fine 18th century mansion itself, of Surbiton Place.