The 1875 Albion Dry Dock at the former Decathlon site

I have updated this post since I first wrote it on 9th April 2016, with information provided most generously by the Museum of London Archaeology's Magnus Copps, who came to the site on the 27th April 2016 to explain the site, its past and its future.  He provided some excellent new information about the brick work, the use of concrete and the structure that sat over the dry dock from at least 1914.  Thanks too to Kate Mensforth for organizing the sessions.

The dry dock shown to the left has become quite a local celebrity in the last month, but for those who are new to this topic, a warehouse-type structure that was formerly a Decathlon sports store was taken down as part of plans for a new development that will sit along the edges of the former Canada Dock (now Canada Water) and the former Albion Dock (now Albion Channel).  During the work to establish foundations an old dry dock was rediscovered, and is really well preserved.  Thanks to the developers for the new viewing platform outside the entrance to the remaining Decathlon.  Climb up a short flight of stairs and you have a perfect view of the site, with the remains of the late 19th Century dry dock clearly visible at the far side of the site.  It is really quite huge!  Wonderful to have the opportunity to see something so splendid emerging so unexpectedly from the ground, and in relatively good condition.

Click on any of the photographs to see a bigger version.

The parallel development of the two dock systems.
Davies map 1843

The dry dock is essentially part of the story of the amalgamation of two dock companies, the Grand Surrey Canal and Docks Company and the Surrey Commercial Dock Company.  The first commercial dock to be built in London was the Howland Great Wet Dock, which was begun in 1699 and opened in 1700.  Greenland Dock sits over the area that was once occupied by the much smaller Howland Great Wet Dock.  The dock passed through different owners until it was eventually purchased in 1807 by the specially-formed Surrey Commercial Dock Company, and new docks and timber ponds were built in a line to the west, each flowing into the next.  At the same time, the Grand Surrey Canal Canal company had been formed in 1801 to build a canal that eventually reached Croydon and Peckham.  It opened in 1804 but was by no means the commercial success that its investors had hoped for, and the success of the nearby docks encouraged the Grand Surrey Canal Company to ask for permission to start building docks.  This being granted in 1811 the company and immediately started using the canal infrastructure to create a dock system of its  own which, running east to west, was more or less parallel to that of the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, with whom they were now in serious competition.  Accordingly, the Grand Surrey Canal Company eventually changed its name to become the Grand Surrey Canal and Docks Company.  Price wars followed, undermining both companies, and the decision was taken to amalgamate them into one large company, which became the Surrey Commercial Dock Company in 1864.  The situation at this time is reflected in the 1868 Ordnance Survey Map.  [This history is the short and simple version, but you can read more about the full and rather complicated story on my previous posts, which I have listed at the bottom of this one.]

The old cut from Main Dock (renamed Albion
Dock) into the old Albion Pond.
Godfrey Ordnance Survey Map of 1868
Click to expand.

Following the amalgamation of the two companies, various decisions needed to be made about the future of the docks.  One of the first things to change was the name of individual docks and timber ponds, with Main Dock being renamed Albion Dock.  Links were made between the formerly separate dock systems, with new cuts and locks between the two, but more ambitious plans were being rolled out.  The dry dock is not shown on the 1868 map, but it is on the 1894 map, and this is because it appeared as the result of major engineering works to expand the dock system.  The second even more considerable difference between the two maps was the addition of Canada Dock, connected to the older Albion Dock of 1860.  The course of Albion Dock is today marked by Albion Channel, the small canal that links Surrey Water (formerly Surrey Basin) and Canada Water.  In 1875 Canada Dock was created, a vast, strangely shaped and ambitious piece of engineering that carried the dock over the area now covered by the shopping centre and car park, established specifically to handle the vast new iron vessels and their high-volume cargoes.  It became the biggest dock in the system at this time.  This area had been in use as timber ponds.   

As shown on the map to the left, a cut connected Main Dock and Albion Pond.  A bridge passed over the cut, but there are no archaeological traces remaining of that bridge to show what it looked like, and there are no known photographs of it surviving.  

The dry dock showing the new Canada Dock
together with the place where the old cut was,
replaced by the dry dock, in red, and the
new cut between Albion Dock and Canada
Dock in green.

In the new scheme, Canada Dock replaced Albion Pond and most of Canada Pond, but Quebec Pond and Centre Pond were retained to its east.  Canada Dock had to be connected to Albion Dock, just as Main Dock had been connected to Albion Pond, in order to link it into the rest of the network.  

The original cut from Main Dock into Albion Pond shown in the red circle on the map above was far too small to be suitable for the new, larger ships that Canada Dock was built to handle.  So the old cut  was closed at its southern end and converted into the dry dock that we see on the Decathlon site, making excellent use of the former link between Main Dock and Albion Pond.   This is shown on the map to the right in red.  A new entrance, much wider and longer, was established to its west to link Albion Dock and Canada Dock, and is also clearly visible on the 1894 map, marked in green on the map to the right. 

So we know that the dry dock dates to roughly 1875, which is why it is not on the 1868 map but is so clearly shown on the 1894 and 1914 maps as a dock in the bottom edge of Albion Dock.   It was around 4.5m deep.  I would guess  that it was used for repairing barges and lighters that were essential to the loading and unloading of cargo from the ships that used the docks.  Full automation never took over in the Surrey Commercial Docks, and in spite of large cranes along many of the wharves barges and lighters were part of the permanent dockland landscape of Rotherhithe, an essential but often battered component of cargo handling. The dry dock probably remained in use until quite late in the history of the docks prior to their closure in 1970.  It was still above ground during the construction of Canada Water tube station, which took its name from the surviving square corner of Canada Dock, and was captured in a photograph in 1996 (see the photo at the end of this post).  The dock must have been filled in and buried shortly after that.

Given that the Albion Dock dry dock has been buried for around 20 years (or more probably because of it), it is in remarkably good state of preservation.  The photos on this page show that it was made of at least two types of brick.  The pale beige stock brick along the sides belongs to the original cut between Main Dock and Albion Pond.  When it was converted to a dry dock black engineering brick was added at the lock end, a type of brick that was in common use around the docks in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  The black engineering brick was often used on corner pieces of docks and locks, and particular properties that made it valuable for this purpose.  Where the modern rectangular block of grey cement now stands were a pair of lock gates.  At the opposite end cement was used to block and reinforce the former cut to create a dry dock.  Cement was a new material at this time, and most uses of it had been somewhat experimental up until around 1870.  At the dry dock it was poured into an armature of wooden planks (a technique called "shuttering") until it was set, leaving unmistakeable marks of the planking along the sides of the concrete, clearly visible in one of the photographs below.  Given that it has survived for over 140 years, this early use at Albion dry dock can be said to be a firm success!  On the 1914 Ordnance Survey map an additional black line surrounds the dock, and this shows the outline of an open-sided structure that was built over the top of the dry dock.  A photograph of it (or a newer version of it) survives from 1975. 

The dock has been professionally surveyed and recorded by the Museum of London Archaeology (MOLA), who have a watching brief to monitor the site.  

As to the future, we were told different things at the 6pm and 6.30pm talks by the representatives of the development.  At the 6pm talk the woman told us that the dry dock will be preserved in the basement of the new development, but although it will not be visible it is possible that guided tours will be available.  At the 6.30pm talk a man, this time, said that it would be sealed beneath concrete and would not be available to visit.  So who knows?  I daresay we'll find out after the building has been built.  At least MOLA has been given access to survey it.

The photographs below were taken during April 2016.
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And from the London Docklands blog, here's this wonderful photograph from 1996, showing the water-filled dry dock at far left, roughly half way down the photo in the green area during the construction of the Canada Water tube station.

With thanks, as usual, to Stuart Rankin's booklets about the history of the area, and to Magnus Copps from the Museum of London Archaeology for coming to talk to local residents about the site on 27th May 2016.
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To find out more see some of my earlier posts:

The development of the Surrey Commercial Dock system 1609 - 1909
http://russiadock.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-development-of-surrey-commercial.html
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A history of the Commercial Dock Company: A history of Norway Dock and the timber ponds 1811 - 2014
http://russiadock.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-commercial-dock-company-history-of.html
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The development of Albion Dock and the timber ponds of the Grand Surrey Dock and Canal Company
http://russiadock.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-development-of-docks-of-grand.html
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The establishment of Canada Dock by the Surrey Commercial Dock Company in 1875
http://russiadock.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-establishment-of-canada-dock-by.html

Notes re Canada Water Masterplan exhibtion 5th February 2016

I've at last written up some thoughts re the Canada Water Masterplan as revealed on Friday 5th February 2016 at British Land's exhibition in Surrey Quays Shopping Centre. Not my happiest day of the year to date http://bit.ly/1NYhZMs 

Canada Water Area Action Plan exhibition 5th February 2016

Update:  The full story with more pictures is now on my SE16 planning blog at: https://trackerzone.wordpress.com/2016/02/07/canada-water-masterplan-exhibition-on-5th-february-2016/

I said that I would put all my planning stuff on my other blog, and I will do so with a commentary, but in the meantime, whilst I try to feel a bit less depressed about the whole thing and get my head around what I want to say, here are some images of what they have planned for us after their planned 15 years of construction traffic, noise, dirt and chaos.  Basically, they are telling us to kiss the Rotherhithe we know goodbye.

I took the photos at today's exhibition at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre.  There were loads of information boards and booklets, and apparently these should be on a website somewhere but I haven't yet gone looking.

The type-written labels superimposed on the photos are mine, which I added to help people orientate themselves.  Much of it is so unrecognizable that if it wasn't for Greenland Dock, Canada Water and Southwark Park it would be difficult to know exactly where you were.

Click on any image to see the bigger version.

Planning and development issues - a new home

I've moved planning issues to a new home, a dedicated blog called "trackerzone" (a name that is explained over there, but has nothing at all to do with planning).  All the local history and other posts were getting completely lost in the general torrent of planning issues, so it seemed like time for a change. I figured that for people interested in local history it would be frustrating to wade through planning posts, and for people interested in planning, local history posts would be distracting, so I've separated them out.

I will continue to let people know where when there are new planning updates on the other blog, but I will no longer post the full contents here. 

I have copied a year's worth of planning posts from this blog over there (the formatting is still a bit odd on the older posts, but all the content is there and the formatting will be sorted soon)

You will find four new posts on the new blog, which have not been posted here, as follows.

Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Community Council Agenda 27th January 2016 (with a link to the agenda and minutes of the last meeting)
https://trackerzone.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/bermondsey-and-rotherhithe-community-council-27th-january-2016

Letter from Southwark Council re location for new Leisure Centre (with photographs of the letter)
https://trackerzone.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/letter-from-southwark-council-re-leisure-centre-location-consultation

Canada Water Area Action Plan Newsletter February 2016 (with scans of the newsletter)
https://trackerzone.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/canada-water-area-action-campaign-newsletter-february-2016

Leisure Centre to be discussed at Community Council Meeting – Can you attend?
https://trackerzone.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/leisure-centre-to-be-discussed-at-community-council-meeting-can-you-attend

Boris Johnson suggests road tunnel connecting Canada Water with Clapham

It's not April 1st, so I suppose one has to take it seriously, but it still seems like something of a joke.  Thanks to the SE16.com website for posting this story on Twitter, together with a video link to the full exchange between the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, and Conservative London Assembly member Richard Tracey:
http://www.se16.com/3728-massive-new-road-tunnel-at-canada-water-suggested-by-boris-johnson

Amongst the several dozen questions that spring instantly to mind, what on earth is the Mayor planning to do with all the Clapham traffic when it arrives in Canada Water?  There are only three ways off the peninsula as it is, the one-way system is eternally congested and both Lower Road and Jamaica Road are full to capacity at busy times.  It's a while since I've driven through Clapham but unless serious improvements have been made, things are much the same at that end.   The tunnel would probably be destined to become one of London's biggest traffic jams. 

As Sir Marc Brunel (Isambard's father) discovered when he had built the Thames Tunnel, which opened in 1843 to link Rotherhithe and Wapping, you need quite a lot of room for the infrastructure at each end of a tunnel to handle traffic entering and exiting it, an infrastructure that needs to integrate with local roads.  Brunel never pulled it off, and the Thames Tunnel remained a pedestrian route beneath the Thames until it was converted to a railway tunnel (now still in use for the London Overground).  The Rotherhithe Tunnel, which opened in 1908, did have the infrastructure for road traffic, but it required the demolition of a huge number of Rotherhithe homes in order to achieve it.  So where would this infrastructure go, and what is Boris intending to knock down in order to provide a space for it?

I'm not convinced that Southwark Council would jump on this particular bandwagon - they are more focused on putting up income-generating tall buildings on any available space. Unless, of course, they see it as an additional attraction for developers who could advertise the proposed tunnel as a benefit for potential purchasers.  Who knows?  Getting into the minds of planners is quite beyond me. 

I'd say it was poorly thought through, but this just has the air of not actually having been thought through at all.  The mind boggles, quite frankly.

Canada Water Consultative Forum - Tonight's Agenda

Monday, 9^th March 2015

at 7.00 pm

Alfred Salter Primary School, Quebec Way, Rotherhithe SE16

ALL WELCOME

AGENDA

1.    Welcome and Introduction                                                                  7.00

2.    Apologies Approval/Amendments 1/12/14

3.    Matters Arising 1/12/14  

Rotherhithe & Surrey Docks Neighbourhood Planning

Brian Hodge

Broadband for Rotherhithe                                                   7.10

Brian Hodge & Damian Belson

4.    LBS Plan, Scoping Document and; CWAAP changes               7.20

           Tim Cutts – LBS

5.    BL Canada Water Masterplan -                                                        7.40

feedback from Stage 2 consultation and next steps

Eleanor Wright – BL

6.    Decathlon Site                                                                   8.10                  Tony Garner / Charlotte Steedman - Sellar  

7.    Site Updates                                                                       8.30

Albion Street former library        -  13-AP-4332 / Pauline A

Convoys Wharf                         -

Downtown                                -   Steve Cornish

Docklands Settlement                -  11-AP-2242 Lorraine Cavangh / Steve Cornish

Greenland Dock                        -

Library / Plaza                                        - 

Mast Leisure Centre                   -   BL      

Mulberry/ Kings                         -   13-AP-1429 + timetable Kim Humphreys

Open Spaces                            -   Jerry Hewitt

Site A  + B                                -   BL - Postbox   

Site C & E                                 -   12-AP-4126 Sellar’s report

Seven Islands                           -

Surrey Docks Stadium               -   14-AP-0309 / 14-AP-0310

QWIE (Woodlands)                   -   11-AP-2565 report

Hilton

8.    A.O.B.                                                                                       8.45

Date of Next Meeting

Meeting will close at 9.00 pm

The establishment of Canada Dock by the Surrey Commercial Dock Company in 1875

Canada Dock under construction 1875-6

After the amalgamation of the Grand Surrey Dock and Canal System and the Commercial Dock Company, to make up the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, various additions were made to the system, but the only major new investments were the construction of Canada Dock in 1875, which was completed in 1876, and the extension of Greenland Dock in the last years of the 19th Century.

Canada Dock was established specifically to handle the larger iron vessels and their cargo.  Engineer James Adair McConnochie, who had been appointed Resident Engineer to the Surrey Commercial Dock Company in 1865, was chief engineer on the project.  McConnochie was a successful engineer who worked in a number of British docks and was also responsible for attractive dockside architecture like the Surrey Docks Office opposite Canada Water tube station.  The dock was established on the last segment of land at the base of the peninsula, and was right up against both existing buildings along Lower Road and the immovable presence of the East London Railway.  McConnochie's main challenge was to resolve problems caused by the close proximity of the East London Railway, which was semi-subterranean and could have been under threat from both subsidence and leakage from the dock, had measures not been taken to prevent it.   As a result, Canada Dock was equipped with vast concrete walls.  It also has a slightly curved shape, which reflects that its upper part had to be built along the line of the railway.

The Michael Rizzello sculpture on Stave Hill showing the
docks as they were in 1896 before the extension of Greenland Dock. 
On the far left is Canada Dock with the slight kink
in its shape, together with the remaining ponds. 

Canada Dock replaced Albion Pond and most of Canada Pond, but Quebec Pond and Centre Pond were retained to its east.  Canada Dock was connected to Albion Dock, and from there it was linked into the rest of the network.  The original cut from Albion Dock into Albion Pond was too small to be suitable for the new, larger ships that Canada Dock was built to handle, so this was closed at its southern end and converted into a small dry dock.  A new entrance, wider and longer, was established to its west.  Canada Dock was also connected to Canada Pond, which was in turn connected to Quebec Pond and from there to Centre Pond into Russia Dock and the Grand Surrey Canal.  

Due to the new entrance (or "cut") between Canada Dock and the older part of the system, the old cut became redundant and was turned into a small dry dock for the repair and maintenance of barges and lighters.  This was unearthed in 2016, during construction work at the sit.  The dry dock has been named locally Albion Dry Dock and has been covered on a post of its own, here. The dry dock can be seen in the photograph at the very bottom of this page.

A contemporary account from 1878 was provided by Edward Walford (Rotherhithe. Old and New London; Volume 6, pages 134-142):  

"The Commercial Docks have an entrance from the Thames, between Randall's Rents and Dog and-Duck Stairs, nearly opposite the King's Arms Stairs in the Isle of Dogs. They are the property of the Surrey Commercial Dock Company. A considerable extension of their area has been made within the last few years, with a view to meeting the increased requirements of the timber trade in the port of London, by the addition of a new dock which has been named the Canada Dock. It is 1,500 feet in length, 500 feet in width, and has a water area of sixteen acres and a half. It communicates with the Albion Dock by an entrance fifty feet in width, and the quay space around is upwards of twenty-one acres in extent." 

Greenland Dock, which at that time was smaller than Canada Dock, had been the dominant of Rotherhithe's docks, but Canada Dock was much bigger and expanded the system's capacity for cargo handling and quickly began to equal Greenland Dock in importance for the Surrey Commercial Docks.  It mainly handled grain and other food products imported from Canada.

Canada Dock in 1876 and 1914

If you compare the 1876 and 1914 maps, you can see how the ponds were re-arranged to enable the extension of Greenland Dock and its connection to Canada Dock. If you are using the Firefox browser you can right click and opt to open the image in a new tab, which will give you a much better view than left clicking the image. After its extension, Greenland Dock was connected to Canada Dock at the point where the current underpass to from Greenland Dock to Surrey Quays Shopping Centre passes under the road and red bascule bridge. Quebec Dock had to be truncated quite substantially to make room for the extension.  This gave the most efficient linkage so far between the two systems that had formerly been separate and operated by competing companies.  

Canada Water was closed when the Surrey Commercial Docks finally failed and were shut down for good in 1970.  The Surrey Quays shopping centre car park takes up much of the land that this occupied, with a small section of the dock left behind to serve as a wildlife reserve. Amazingly, it was under threat from developers recently, but public reaction saved it from being destroyed.

Canada Water in 1996, the last patch that remains of Canada Dock, as
it was during the construction of the Jubilee Line station, also
called Canada Water.  The Albion Dry Dock is shown at far left, centre.
Photo from the London Docklands Past and Present site
 at (http://bit.ly/MQ4NRT)