The zone is approximately 600m long and 70m wide. Since the 1940s, houseboats have been permanently moored on the upper part of the foreshore, connected to land by a series of pontoons. At present the only safe permanent access from the waterfront to the foreshore is via a set of stairs located on the Embankment, downstream of Battersea Bridge (over 1km away). Once upstream of the bridge, the only safe passage to the site is across a narrow area in front of the moored houseboats which means it is easy to become cut off, especially as the tide comes in very quickly. It is also possible to access the foreshore directly from the houseboat pontoons via moored vessels or temporary ladders . Both of these routes are somewhat unsatisfactory and the amount of both personnel and equipment that can safely be brought to the site is limited. The unstable nature of parts of the foreshore surface suggests that some areas have been scoured in the past (possibly due to the movement of vessels across the foreshore), although it seems unlikely that any large scale dredging has occurred on the site. The resence of ‘soft’ areas, masked by silts, makes the site very dangerous for those unfamiliar with it.