Caversham and the Thames Floodplain

Caversham is on the Thames floodplain - in other words, a significant part of the local area is at risk of flooding should the River Thames should break its banks. This has in fact happened twice in Caversham over the last decade - in the years 2000 and 2003, when parts of Lower Caversham and Christchurch Meadows were covered by water.

The worst local flooding in living memory in fact took place in March 1947, when a sudden thaw followed on from heavy snow. Nire Road to the east of Caversham and the area surrounding the Gosbrook Road was extensively flooded in that year - as was the Warren to the west of Caversham Bridge. The heavy rains of late July 2007 also brought fears of significant flooding - although on that occasion Caversham luckily escaped the deluge experienced by other riverside communities.

A useful place to check if an address in Caversham is at risk at flooding can be found via the Environment Agency's 'Flooding' facility on its website. By entering an RG4 postcode, you can access a map of the local floodplain, and quickly check on individual addresses.

The floodplain map of Caversham shows that floods could affect a sizeable part of the RG4 postcode area, should the River Thames break its banks. West of Caversham Bridge, flooding would affect the lower stretches of the Warren. East of the Caversham Bridge, Lower Caversham (specifically the area south of Gosbrook Road, including Christchurch Meadows and surrounding roads) and the Amersham Road Estate lie within the floodplain. As a rough rule of thumb, the ground above the Warren (to the west of Caversham Bridge) and above the A4155 Henley Road (east of the Bridge) lies above the floodplain.