Last month, a burst water main wreaked havoc on Richmond Bridge, with Tide Tables, the popular cafe situated under one of its arches, forced to close its doors as water poured through the brick work.

The cafe has now dried out and is once again hosting live performances, with next Thursday seeing the launch of a quarterly spoken word night, Rhyme and Tide.

Richmond resident Alan Franks, a musician, poet, novelist and playwright, who has even found some spare time over the past 30 years to work as a journalist for The Times, will be the night’s headline act.

Franks’ background as a writer in such a wide variety of genres suggests he is a good choice for getting Rhyme and Tide up and running, and he is hopeful that he will find an audience who reciprocate his love for language.

“What I really enjoy and what I’m doing more and more, is playing songs in front of an audience who are on the lookout for words and are there to hear the poetry as well as the music,” he explains.

During his hour-long set, Franks will be reading poems, drawn mainly from his latest collection, Unmade Roads, and performing a mixture of narrative, comedy and blues songs.

Music came before poetry for a young Franks, but his move into writing verse was perhaps inevitable considering that, once he was drawn to the radio by artists such as Tom Lehrer, Georges Brassens and Leonard Cohen, it was their lyrics that quickly became an obsession for him.

Cohen is one of the many famous figures Franks, who lives in Kew Road with his wife and fellow Times reporter Ruth Gledhill, has interviewed during his long career in journalism and, despite the playwrighting, verse-making and singing, he is adamant that his day job should not be viewed as a poor relation to these other, seemingly loftier, forms of expression.

He says: “I feel aggressive about the fact that good journalism shouldn’t find itself apologising – collating the facts and formulating them into a coherent argument is as hard a job of writing as I have had.”

It's a passionate defence and it must be a similar passion that fuels Franks’ energy for his various artistic endeavours. Either that, or the man is a machine.

Before Alan Franks’ slot, there will be an open mic session. Performers should arrive early or email hey@tide tablescafe.com to book a slot.

Rhyme and Tide presents Alan Franks, Tide Tables, Richmond, March 4, 6pm, free, 020 8948 8285, tidetablescafe. com/alanfranks.com.