About me and this blog

I no longer update the blog but have left it here as a resource for anyone who wants to know something about the history of the area.  There is a lot to be learned about Rotherhithe's heritage, how it functioned, what it produced, who worked here, and what it looked like at various times in the past - and of course how it came to be what it is today.  When I first arrived in the area I picked up a book of two walks by Stuart Rankin, and became completely fascinated by both Rotherhithe's remarkable and very under-sung ship-building past and its complicated dockland history.  Rotherhithe's architecture comprises a fairly staggering mixture of different architectural periods, purposes and styles, and these make up a really diverse mosaic of buildings today.

The Southwark Local History Library is an very important resource for anyone researching local heritage but fortunately for people like me, who don't have the time to explore archives of primary sources, there is a lot of information available from secondary sources.  Stuart Rankin, who has published his extensive research from original documents in a series of booklets remains one of the most important resources for Rotherhithe's history and Stephen Humphrey is another very useful promoter of knowledge about the area's past. But there are many other sources of information too, both in print and online.  I have listed the principal sources of information appearing on this site in the Site Bibliography. 

I have striven for accuracy, but I apologize for any errors.   Dates, for example, are sometimes in dispute, and dates for building construction and leases of docks and wharves are often contradictory, as are launch dates for ships.  Where I have observed these discrepancies I have highlighted them, but there will inevitably cases where I have missed them.  

Best
Andie