"Beachcombing" on Thames foreshore

This afternoon I went on a London Walk starting at Mansion House tube. On our way to the southern side of the Thames, just below Tate Modern we heard about the history of this part of the Thames.

Before we could go down on to the foreshore, we had our warning on veils (spelling?) disease and had to wear plastic gloves. As we did not have a Port of London Authority licence we could not dig "even with our fingers". Anything made of precious metal would belong to the Queen, anything of archeological significance would go to the Museum of London.

This is me on the edge of the Thames.

We were asked only to take a couple of things. This prevented stuff ending up being thrown away and going to a council tip somewhere. This is what I took - something that looked like pottery with a grazed glaze - they don't know what these are, 2 pieces of chalk as fancy using foraged chalk (didn't count this as part of my "2 things"!), and a button for the button box.