Port of London Authority v Ashmore (The “Atrato”) – Ch D (Stephen Smith QC sitting as a Deputy Judge of the Chancery Division) – 8 May 2009

Real property – Adverse possession – Sailing barge moored adjacent to bank of River Thames for 26 years – Whether barge owner had acquired title to riverbed by adverse possession

The defendant owned the sailing barge Atrato. He had purchased Atrato in 1980. In 1983 he sailed her to Albion Wharf (now known as Albion Riverside) in the Thames, close by Battersea Bridge; he dropped anchor, tethered her to the bank fore and aft via the mooring rings set into the wall. She had been there ever since.