A short history of Greenland Dock 1806 - 1970

The 1807 CDC logo, showing the entrance
to Greenland Dock, with a granary on one
side and a sea of masts on the other.

Greenland Dock was established over the area occupied by the former Howland Great Wet Dock (1699-1807), which has been covered on a previous post. It was renamed Greenland Dock to reflect its use as a whaling dock (much of the whaling took place in Greenland waters) and the the whaling history has also been covered on a previous post (1763-1806).  This post takes up where that leaves off, in the first years of the 1800s, and ends with the closure of the Surrey Commercial Docks in 1970.  A future post will look at how it survived, its current uses and, of concern to local residents, the prospects for its future care under Southwark Council.

I had some trouble fitting in all the images that I wanted to include, so some of them are rather small.  On the other hand, you can click on any of them to see the bigger images. I have also played very fast and loose with paragraphs, splitting them where they don't actually need splitting in order to prevent images overlapping too badly. That gives it a rather fragmented feel, for which my apologies.

The Commercial Dock Company

In 1806, following the decline of the whaling industry, Greenland Dock had fallen into disrepair. It was purchased by William Ritchie of Greenwich. An entrepreneur, he believed that its fortunes could be turned around due to the rise in timber and corn imports.  He immediately began to raise finance and was so successful that a year later it became the property of the newly formed Commercial Dock Company, headed by Alderman Sir Charles Price.  It needed substantial work for conversion to a timber and grain handling dock, and was closed whilst this work was under way.  The engineer employed to make the changes to the dock was James Walker, whose likeness is captured in a statue at the top of Brunswick Quay.  Walker was only 27 years old at the time but had impressive experience working on the construction of both the West India and East India Docks where he had commanded the respect of his employers. The pre-existing buildings were demolished and were replaced with large granaries. 

The Commercial Docks in 1811

The dock was awarded an Act of Incorporation in 1811, after which it was able to operate commercially with a capacity of 350 ships.  Another dock was also completed for timber handling  and was ready for use at the opening of Greenland Dock, to which it was connected as the map to the left shows. On the map Greenland Dock is marked as "Commercial Docks" and the irregularly shaped dock above it, "New Dock," later became Norway Dock (now the development known as The Lakes).

Meanwhile, William Ritchie was busy with the creation of a  small thin dock, which was added to the south of Greenland Dock, parallel to its southern end, also shown on the map to the left.  This opened in 1811, the same year in which the Commercial Dock Company opened for business, with capacity for 28 ships.  It supplemented Greenland Dock, handling similar traffic as well as supplies for the local shipyards. It is shown on maps between 1810 and 1843.  Unfortunately I don't have any maps for the area for the 1850s or early 1860s but it had vanished by 1868, when the land was used for warehousing, so it had a relatively short lifespan of under 50 years, after which it clearly became redundant.

Greenland Dock in 1813, from a bigger painting by William Daniell in the National Maritime Museum (Greenwich)
It clearly shows the dock itself full of ships, warehouses and granaries and a dry dock that opened
out into the Thames, which was owned privately and was not part of the dock complex.  At this time
there was no connection between South Dock, shown on the far left, and Greenland Dock.  The
Grand Surrey Canal can be seen in the distance with ships passing down it.

 

The new Commercial Docks were not the only docks in Rotherhithe. In 1807 the entrance to the Surrey Grand Canal had been extended to incorporate a basin (where Surrey Water is now located) for loading and unloading ships; and at the same time the East Country Dock Company opened the East Country Dock, a long thin dock parallel to Greenland Dock to it east, so there was competition for the CDC from the word go. However, in 1850 the East Country Dock Company sold the East Country Dock to the Commercial Dock Company, which they renamed South Dock, for £40,000.  Between 1850 and 1852 the Commercial Dock Company expanded the dock, and connected it to Greenland Dock.

Greenland Dock in 1868

A connection to the rail network was established in 1855, which linked South Dock, Greenland Dock and Norway Dock.

Competition between Rotherhithe's two dock companies, the Commercial Dock Company and the more laboriously named Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company resulted in the impoverishment of both.  Eventually the losses became untenable, business sense kicked in, and in 1865 the two companies were merged to form the Surrey Commercial Docks Company.  The two separate dock systems were connected by two locks where they ran along side each other, which enabled them to form one integrated, albeit complex dock network with entrances from the Thames from Greenland Dock at one side of Rotherhithe and Surrey Basin at the other. 

The Surrey Commercial Docks Company

John Wolfe Barry

The various ponds and docks of the system were renamed, making it much easier to distinguish them from each other because when they were originally built, most were just numbered and some of the numbers were duplicated across the two systems.  Greenland Dock retained its name.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1868 (above)  shows that Greenland Dock was lined with granaries as well as a steel yard and a small area of timber sheds.  The capacity of Greenland Dock had been extended by its connection to South Dock and the addition of Norway Dock, which by now flowed into Lady Dock, Acorn Pond, Lavender Pond and Globe Pond, a ribbon network of docks and ponds that had greatly expanded the capacity of the Commercial Dock Company.

In his book London's Docks, John Pudney's view of matters during this period was that  the Surrey Commercial Docks were more stable financial entities than those to the north: "While the dock systems on the north bank had proliferated in disarray, with much competition and little managerial competence, those on the south bank in the Surrey Docks system had prospered, with a regular regular dividend of 6 per cent, and had kept up with the needs of the times."  He puts this down to the sensible management of the directors, who were timber and grain merchants whose strategy was to retain existing customers and attract new ones by making continuous improvements.  Timber handling had begun to dominate throughout the Rotherhithe docks, together with grain, and as timber ships were not particularly long, there was no demand for big locks or docks.

Greenland Dock in c.1876, by Morgan and Laing

It was only when ships began to change that the owners of the Surrey Commercial Docks began to look at how to adapt.  New technologies had resulted in much bigger and faster ships that required bigger locks, docks and improved cargo handling solutions. Their solution was time-consuming, eye-wateringly expensive, and ultimately doomed to long-term failure.  Finding themselves in major competition with other Thames docks built towards the end of the 19th Century, it became clear that to stay competitive changes would have to be made to parts of the Rotherhithe dock system.  These were centred on Greenland Dock.  The plan to extend Greenland Dock, which was to include its connection to Canada Dock, was seriously ambitious. As you can see in the map below, the Grand Surrey Canal passed along the end of the dock and any dock extension would mean cutting across the canal's route.  There were also major roads that would have to be re-routed to accommodate the dock's new size, the dock railway would no longer be able to extend beyond South Dock, and  there were plenty of buildings in the way of the expansion, both industrial and residential, that stood in the way and would have to be purchased and demolished.  Once the decision was made and an Act of Parliament obtained, all of these changes could be implemented.  The engineer hired to make these changes was James A. MacConnochie.  MacConnochie had worked at a number of other sites, including Canada Water, and began work in 1894.  He had not been working on the project for long when he died in 1895, and was replaced by John Wolfe-Barry, a very experienced dock engineer who was knighted in 1897 for his work on Tower Bridge.  See his biography on the Grace's Guides website.

These two maps are designed to show the changes made
Greenland Dock between 1894 and 1914.  In 1894 it was a
short dock opening out on to the Thames with the Grand Surrey
Canal (in pink) running past its end.  In 1914 the dock was
now so long that the Surrey Grand Canal passed across its
middle.  At the end of the dock, a cut was established
(in lilac) to connect it with Canada Dock.  The unusual
lock walls extend into the dock, creating two "fingers"
(as they are still known today) either side of the
lock walls, and are highlighted in turquoise.

The extension works took ten years to complete and were hampered by repeated encounters with the highly unstable Thanet sand, which kept filling foundations and required major engineering work to neutralize.  The extension of the entrance lock was achieved by building it into the dock itself.  This meant that long vessels could use the dock but at the same time a second set of gates within the lock meant that smaller vessels could use the dock without using excess water. Water management within the dock system was an ongoing headache, with levels changing considerably during over a 24 hour period. The lock gates were operated with hydraulic machinery, which remains in position today. 

When completed in 1904, the dock measured 2250ft by 450ft and its lock was 550ft by 80ft, the measurements that it retains today.  It had cost a staggering £940,000. To put the cost into perspective, today the equivalent to £940,000 would be £53,636,400 (with thanks to the National Archives Currency Converter for their wonderful conversion application).

Greenland Dock remained connected to the Norway Dock section of the earlier Surrey Commercial Dock system and at its southern end, where the underpass to Surrey Quays Shopping Centre is now located, there was a new connection to Canada Dock, allowing ships to pass between the two largest docks in the system.  The Grand Surrey Canal now passed straight over the centre of the dock, which must have been an interesting navigational experience for all concerned.  The railway, which had reached as far as Norway Dock stopped just short of South Dock, meaning that cargo had to be offloaded from train wagons and onto road transportation for the onward leg of the journey - a far less efficient way of cargo handling than before.  The main dock roads had to be significantly re-routed and a swing bridges were installed to carry the road over the cut between Greenland Dock and Canada Dock and over the locks into both parts of the Grand Surrey Canal, thereby adding interruptions to traffic that are caused the same sort of traffic jams that build up at level crossings. 

Most of the bridges around Greenland Dock were moved here from elsewhere, but the bolted cast iron lattice-truss bridge manufactured by Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. was added to its current location in 1904 when the lock was extended.  A magnificent structure, the bridge is one of the best features of Greenland Dock.  It was not fixed in its position. Its two parts could be swung to each side when tall ships needed to pass through the lock.  It was operated by vast hydraulic jiggers that worked by pushing water at very high pressure through pistons in the cylinder equipment to open and close the two halves of the swing bridge.  The hydraulic equipment is still preserved today in the pits next to the bridge on each side, although they no longer function.  Although the lock gates, the granite steps and the hydraulic gear have been preserved, the lock is now blocked off. The Grade II listed bridge was renovated in 1987 and still looks good.  

The delightful lock buildings, consisting of the harbour master's cottage and the tide gauge house were also built at this time at the side of the extended lock, both of which remain in situ. They were built when the dock and the lock were extended between 1894-1904. They were probably designed by James McConnochie (who is also thought to have been responsible for the dock offices on Surrey Quays Road) for the Surrey Commercial Dock company.  They are single-storey structures built in a pale yellowish brick (the yard office was of a paler, whiter brick), with a black brick plinth visible along the bases. The doors and windows set under red-brick jack arches with white keystones, and each building was topped with a black-tiled hipped roof (again, the exception is the Yard Office, which has a gabled roof).  Chimneys were provided for much-needed heat. They are lovely little buildings, nicely designed and were clearly intended to be good looking as well as functional. The lock keeper's office at Greenland Dock lock, headed by the Lock Keeper, was the equivalent of the modern edifice overlooking South Dock's lock entrance.  It was manned in thee shifts by teams whose role was to process ships in and out of the lock when the tide was right.  A lock keeper's office would have sat at every lock into the network of docks in Rotherhithe, and paintings of the office at the entrance to Surrey Basin survive.  The gauge house, next to the lock keeper's office, contained the equipment for determining the state of the tide.  It was essential for the correct operation of the lock for this to be precise.  The equipment consisted of a tide gauge that indicated the level of the river. 
 

Hydraulic machinery that operated
lock gates after the 1865 Greenland
Dock expansion and improvements

Many of extant features of the dock date to this time, including the hydraulic capstans, the rounded iron bollards, and hydraulic cranes that travelled up and down the dock along tracks. 

The expense of the newly expanded dock was not met by income from the timber trade, which was now in decline, and the company resorted to price-war tactics to try to win trade from other Thames docks, which benefited no-one.  The survival of London's docks was to fall on the shoulders of the Port of London Authority.

The Port of London Authority

In 1909 the Port of London authority was formed. Problems with river congestion, uncompetitive commercial docks and antiquated dock handling systems had plagued London for years.  Official investigations  were followed by the introduction of a Bill introduced by David Lloyd George and carried through parliament by Winston Churchill, receiving Royal Assent as the "Port of London Act, 1908," in December 1908. The decision was made to take the docks out of private ownership and amalgamate them under a single government body, the Port of London Authority (PLA), which also took on responsibility for dredging the main channel of the Thames and, following the First World War, upgrading parts of the newly consolidated London dock system.

Artist's impression of the Surrey Commercial Docks in 1909, the
year that the Port of London Authority became responsible for them.
Greenland Dock is the long expanse to the right of the picture, and
this painting shows clearly how Greenland Dock connected into
Russia Dock, the dog-legged dock that lies perpendicular to it
and into which it has a cut in the centre of its length.

In the Surrey Commercial Docks plenty of modernization took place, but in Greenland Dock it mainly took the form of new open-sided timber sheds for the deal timber trade and the building of a  general cargo warehouse of 75,000 square foot.

Alaunia at Greenland Dock

Although the main cargo handled at the Greenland Dock was timber, as well as some perishable foods, during the inter-war years one of the more unusual regular visitors was a division of the A-Class fleet of Cunard cross-Atlantic cruise ships.  Cunard's acquisition of ships of the Thomson Line in 1911 established Cunard's first direct service between London and Canada, and was the reason that Cunard acquired premises in Greenland Dock.  Following losses during the First World War (which included all of Cunard's A-class ships), eleven new "intermediate" ships were built by the Cunard company.  These had been designed to bridge the gap between their small and large, sometimes vast vessels and fulfilled a very useful role for Cunard.  Of these eleven, five made up the replacement A-class ships that moored at their home base in Greenland Dock.  All very similar, the Albania, Ausonia and Andania were sister ships whilst the Ascania and Alaunia differed in several ways. They were all turbine-driven and could reach 13-15 knots. They had particularly beautiful lines.  After the expansion of its lock, Greenland Dock was one of the few Thames docks capable of handling ships of this size.

Writing in 1929 the eternally enjoyable A.G. Linney loved the winter-quiet and bird life of the timber ponds, about which he admitted to feelings of sentimentality, but he was really unimpressed by Greenland Dock, which he described as "being kept busy by the arrival and departure of massive, modern-type, ugly and utilitarian steamers bringing huge quantities of provisions of all sorts from North America." But he couldn't help being fascinated by the ships that brought in timber during the late Spring and early summer:  "rustyish , sea-battered Baltic tramps with queer tall funnels and names painted amidships; plain dingy British cargo boats with little to give them grace;  and a certain yet undoubted proportion of elderly barques and barquetines."  Linney loved the Surrey Commercial Docks and was visiting just as the old sailing ships were becoming almost anachronistic anomalies.

Timber being unloaded from a ship onto the quayside
at Greenland Dock, beneath one of the mobile cranes
in 1927 (the crane tracks still survive
in places along the side of this and other docks)

Greenland Lock, filled with spritsail barges, 1930s
Port of London Authority archive

The Second World War

Canadian Cold Store, bombed in 1940

I have yet to write a post about how Rotherhithe was torn about during the Second World War by German bombing raids, but it was catastrophic.  The war lasted between 1939 and 1945 and the so-called Blitz began in September 1940. All of London's docks, reflecting moonlight, were easy targets for bomber planes and as important commercial centres of England's capital city were strategically obvious targets.

The Surrey Commercial Docks, its ships and warehouses, were devastated.  The losses throughout Rotherhithe were appalling. 

Greenland Dock's timber yards suffered repeated attacks and, thanks to the combustibility of the timber and the deliberate use of incendiary bombs, frequently burned but fortunately the loss of life was relatively small compared with the rest of Rotherhithe.  Damage was mainly to property.

the Dog and Duck public house before
its destruction in 1944

The Canadian Cold Store burned out in 1940, a building established in the early 1900s to accommodate perishables, mainly dairy products, imported from Canada.  The LDDC archive photograph, above, shows it with flames pouring out of it's roof and windows.  The heat must have been staggering.

One ship, the SS Empress Tristram was hit by a V1 flying bomb on 23rd June 1944 at 0413, killing five people. The bomb hit the portside decking and penetrated though to the engine room. The same ship was struck again by a V1 on the 12st July was moved to Greenland Dock for repairs. There was severe damage to 3 and 4 holds and a further six people were killed. The nearby SS Peebles was also damaged.  

The Dog and Duck pub, which sat between the lock entrances of Greenland and South Docks was obliterated along with other buildings by a VII rocket in October 1944, injuring 16 people.  The Dog and Duck was a famous old pub, but never rebuilt.

The Beginning of the End

Greenland Dock 1958

The 1958 photograph to the left shows a mixture of long low timber stores as well as more traditional warehouses at the top end of the dock.  Cranes line the quaysides but much of the heavy lifting was still carried out by manual labour, emptying cargo into lighters, small un-powered vessels of the sort that are gathered around the two ships in the foreground. The connection to Canada Water, now the underpass leading to Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, is clearly visible at the bottom of the photograph, with the road passing over it as it does today, on a lift bridge.  Whenever one of the Rotherhithe bridges was lifted to allow ships to pass through, massive traffic jams built up, remembered with more annoyance than nostalgia by some of the former dock workers who still live in the area.  The gathering of small vessels in the middle of the photograph mark the eastern entrance to the Grand Surrey Canal.  Opposite it is the inlet that led into another part of the dock system along the western route of the Grand Surrey Canal.

Greenland Dock in the snow, early 1950s

In spite of the appearance of activity on Greenland and other docks, the Surrey Commercial Docks never really recovered from the Second World War.  Cunard, for example, ceased to use Greenland Dock for its A-Class liners, other commercial fleets had been reduced during the war, international trade had changed and many shipping companies had to make fundamental changes in order to survive the post-war years.

Added to the serious difficulties that the post-war years imposed on the London docks, the main nail in its coffin was the shipping industry itself.  The entire character and organization of cargo handling operations was changing and all the associated ships and dockside technology were adapting accordingly.  Container transportation, new packaging systems and palletization, all involving increasing automation and much less manual labour, began to replace traditional methods.  These were serviced not by the older dock systems but by new dedicated docks that were positioned nearer to the mouth of the Thames, could handle larger vessels and included new state-of-the-art equipment.  The old inner Thames dock systems were being left behind very quickly.  Stuart Rankin gives some startling figures for the tonnage being handled, shown in the graph below, indicating the declining income of Rotherhithe's docks.  

Individual docks and ponds began to be blocked off and filled in even before the official closure of the Surrey Commercial Docks.  The PLA gained approval for the official closure in April 1970 and cargo deliveries were slowly run down until there was very little traffic by September of the same year.  As W. Paul Clegg puts it: "By the year-end it was all over, the last ship being the Russian timber carrier Kandalakshales (4673grt) which left on 22nd December.  The Russian services were transferred to the Royal Albert Dock, while others went to India and Millwall, and Phoenix Wharf."

By 1977 the land had been sold into the ownership of the Greater London Council (now defunct) and Southwark Borough Council, and most of the remaining docks were in-filled for safety reasons.  Various warehouse facilities remained in use, but the commercial life of the docks and its supporting infrastructure was effectively over.

In 1699 the Howland Great Wet Dock was established, and it took 271 years for the shipping adventure to come to an end.  Fortunately for Rotherhithe, the London Dockland Development Corporation came along and rescued Rotherhithe, salvaging traces of its heritage at the same time.  Greenland Dock is now surrounded by residential homes that overlook a very different vista, and this will be the subject of a future post.

Kandalakshales, the last ship to sail from the
Surrey Commercial Docks in 1970

Pacific Reliance (9337grt) in 1971.  A regular
of Greenland Dock, she transferred to the Royal
Docks after the closure of the Surrey Commercial
Docks in 1970

In this post I have not covered the two dry docks at the end of Greenland Dock that opened out onto the Thames and flanked the lock.  The post is already so long that I thought that these would be better covered on a post of their own.  They were not owned by the dock companies and were operated privately, so there is a solid argument for treating them separately at some point in the future.  



As usual with the dockland and shipping history of Rotherhithe many, many thanks are due to Stuart Rankin's excellent research.  He was by no means my only source, but where would I be without his booklets to give me a kick start?

Update re planning application for The Clipper pub?

I am somewhat out of touch with what has happened with the planning application (14/AP/1407) for The Clipper pub on Rotherhithe Street, but I just checked Southwark Council's page for it and it is now marked as "withdrawn."  I know that there was a huge flood of objection to the planning application from residents in the immediate vicinity of the pub, so this must have influenced the decision.

It appears to have been replaced by a new application 14/AP/4337, again available on the Southwark Council website: "Demolition of existing building and the erection of replacement four storey building comprising commercial unit (Use Class A1 or A2) at ground floor and basement level and 6 flats on first, second and third floors, associated car parking and amenity area." 

If anyone has any further information do let me know.

St Helena's Tea Garden and Tavern, Corbett's Lane, Rotherhithe

The St Helena tea gardens and tavern in 1843

St Helena's tea garden and tavern shared a site to the south of Lower Road.  they are marked on the 1843 map to the right as a small pink block.  According to Edward Walford, writing in 1897 (in Old and New London. A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places - The Southern Suburbs, Volume VI), the tea gardens were opened in 1770 and closed in 1881 and, by the time he was writing, the site had been built over.  There is no indication of why the gardens and tavern were name St Helena.  They were established before Napoleon had been exiled to the island of the same name, and none of the saints of that names seem to be obvious candidates.

At one time the tea gardens and tavern sat on the rural edges of Rotherhithe and were, as a result, a major attraction.  In their heyday they were visited by such fashionable people as the Prince Regent (the future King George IV, 1762-1830) so it must have been quite a significant rural attraction.  Walford  says that a newspaper advert in May 1776 "announces that there are tea, coffee and rolls every day, with music and dancing in the evening."  There were also the gardens, which were supposed to be very pretty, including pleasure lawns, a number of ornamental ponds, trees, two Chinese pavilions and some statues.  It was surrounded by hay fields, unimaginable today.

However, as the docklands grew more successful and the area in which the gardens were located became less rural, it became more of an attraction for local people.  Walford emphasises that the tea gardens were "chiefly supported by the lower classes of the neighbourhood, the families of men who worked in the docks.  In the summer there were brass bands and dancing platforms, singing, tumbling and fireworks, for the selection of the merry souls of 'Redriff;' but the place never attained more than a local celebrity or affected to be a rival of Ranelagh or Vauxhall" (page 138) thereby putting it firmly in its place, just in case it had any remaining delusions of social grandeur.  According to another source, the Gardens also had sports displays, tight-rope walkers and similar circus-type events, and a remarkable-sounding centrifugal railway, about which I would love to know much more! 

The St Helena Tavern and Tea Gardens in 1839.
From the Ideal Homes website at http://bit.ly/1CHbGcq

According to Warwick Wroth (The London Pleasure Gardens of the Eighteenth Century, 1896) in 1832 "the gardens occupied about five acres and a half, and in this year the performers advertised included Mr. G. R. Chapman 'from the Adelphi and Astley's' as organist and musical director, Mrs. Venning, 'from the Nobility's Concerts,' Miss Wood, 'the Infant Prodigy, only six years of age,' and Miss Taylor who performed 'many difficult airs on that delightful instrument, the Musical Glasses'."

Both the tavern and the tea gardens stood on Corbett's Lane, which no longer survives but ran parallel to today's Rotherhithe New Road.  It is now St Helena Road. The 1843 map at the top of the page shows its original location (shaded in pink and marked as the St Helena Tea Gardens) just south of today's one-way system, where Plough Way crosses Lower Road and begins to extend towards the Old Kent Road. 

The St Helena Tavern in 1870 by J.T. Wilson
© The Southwark Art Collection

The watercolour on the right shows St Helena's Tavern as it looked in 1870. It is significantly different from the 1839 version above, and suggests that the tavern may have been rebuilt or at least significantly modified at some point between the two dates. been rebuilt.  The painter of the 1870 watercolour , J.T. Wilson, was a water colour painter who specialized in landscapes and who was well respected.  He exhibited at a number of galleries, including the Royal Academy of Arts, and his interest in this as a subject matter is an indication of the reputation that the tavern and tea gardens had in the late 1800s.  Bizarrely, in this picture it looks as though it has a satellite dish on its roof!  I haven't found a photograph with good enough resolution to see what it actually represents - but my best guess is a clock.

The 1868 Ordnance Survey map of North Deptford shows the St Helena Tea Rooms as quite a substantial property surrounded by trees.  Further along Corbett's Lane, to the east, is the St Helena Tavern.  They are both shown on the scan of the 1868 map below, highlighted in pink (click image to expand). At the top of the map, to give an easy point of reference, Surrey Docks station is highlighted at the apex of today's one-way system in green.  Lower Road is the large diagonal road marked as Deptford Lower Road.  Both the tea rooms and the tavern are clearly shown lying to the south and west of dense areas of residential terraces and railway lines and it is obvious, looking at the map, that they would soon become subsumed into the advancing urbanization of the area.

The 1868 Ordnance Survey map of North Deptford

Wroth says that the concerts, dancing and other amusements continued until about 1869 but that at that time the gardens appear to have been closed for a while before passing, in 1874, into the hands of Messrs. W. H. and J. R. Carter "who erected an orchestra and a dancing platform, and provided music and fireworks for an admission of sixpence. The gardens had fallen into a neglected state, but the walks were once more well laid out, and the old chestnut trees, the elms and planes were still standing." 

Although it was almost inevitable that the tea rooms would become a casualty of urban expansion, many pubs were incorporated into new communities and survived quite happily.  However the St Helena Tavern was apparently closed in 1881 along with the tea rooms.  Both were presumably sold to developers. 

By 1889 the area in which the tea garden had been located was shown on Charles Booth's 1889 Descriptive map of London Poverty.  It is a densely residential area, full of rows of terraces, of which Corbett's Lane was one.  The area, on Booth's map, was a mixture of poor and mixed (some comfortable and some poor) housing, and the idea that this was once an admired and valued rural area seems so unlikely.

In the 1916 Ordnance Survey map of North Deptford, Corbett's Lane had undergone a name change and was now, appropriately, St Helena Road.  The scene was very different, a mass of residential streets, row upon row of them. Again I have highlighted Surrey Docks station to give a point of reference, and the area under pink is more or less where the St Helena tea gardens and tavern used to be located (click to expand the image).

The area in 1916, on the Ordnance Survey
map of North Deptford

The terraces were also demolished and replaced by blocks of flats.  I find this sad, as the few vestiges of the terraces that survive show that they were really attractive buildings. Today the area in which the tea rooms and tavern were located is one of Rotherhithe's most congested residential areas and it is now covered by the block of flats at 23 St Helena Road, part of the Silwood Estate (there is a photograph of the present building on the Geolocation website). 

The China Hall, Rotherhithe

China Hall, 1916

The China Hall is a pub on Lower Road, facing Southwark Park (141 Lower Road, London SE16 2XL). The site has a very lively history.

In 1719 a pub on the site was called the "Cock and Pye Ale House."  It later became the "Marsh Gate" and records show that in 1776 it was leased to Jonathan Oldfield, at which time it was called the "Green Man."  Oldfield was a trader, dealing in tea and china, a classic example of a late 18th century entrepreneur.  He built a theatre on land next to the pub, a wooden building that could hold 500 people and staged plays and hosted musical concerts; this was named the China Hall.  The prices for seats were 3s for boxes, 3s for the pits and 1s for the gallery. 

George Frederick Cooke

During 1778 George Frederick Cooke 1756-1812) acted there.  Cooke was a famous and influential actor, whose acting style had a great impact on the more famous Edmund Keane, but at the same time he was an alcoholic and notoriously unreliable.  His last role had been at Covent Garden, but his behaviour disrupted his career:  "He now frequently appeared behind the scenes in a state of complete inebriation, or rather insensibility, in despite of all his friends could say to dissuade him from it.  He was accordingly laid upon the shelf for the remainder of the season" (from Roach's New and Complete History of the Stage, 1796).  He sought work at smaller theatres, including the China Hall, which was a success, his name attracting good audiences.  He was probably a good match for the China Hall, which itself apparently caused some disruption and was the subject of several complaints due to the noise and the undignified behaviour of its customers.

Another actor, who also performed at the China Hall in the 1778 season and was in several performances with Cooke, was Edward Cape Everard, a dancer, actor and musician, whose autobiography Memoirs of an Unfortunate Son of Thespis was published in 1818.  According to the book Eagan to Garrett: Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660-1800 (Highfill, Burnim and Langhans 1991), Everard performed in numerous plays at the China Hall including The Devil to Pay, The Busy Body, The Clandestine Marriage, Romeo and Juliet, Venice Preserv'd, High Life Below Stairs, The Earl of Essex, The Fashionable Lover, Cross Purposes, The Irish Widow and The London Merchant.  Other plays that were performed there, according to Edward Walford, were The Wonder, Love in a Village, Comical Courtship, and The Lying Valet.

The theatre burned down on 26th June in 1778 or 1779 (the various sources are in dispute) but according to Everard, a temporary wooden structure was erected in the gardens  in which The Merchant of Venice was performed only four days later on 30th June.  The temporary theatre, apparently little more than a large shed, remained in place for at least six weeks.  Oldfield was not deterred and re-opened again, but the new building was destroyed in a storm, after which Oldfied threw in the theatrical towel.  However, the China Hall re-opened in 1787 as a tavern.   Writing in 1872, Edward Walford  says that it had been "a picturesque building partly surrounded by an external gallery."

The China Hall faced land that was occupied by market gardens (today Southwark Park).  Across the park a that was called the Halfpenny Hatch (not to be confused with the Deptford path of the same name) led to the pub, starting in blue Anchor Road crossing Lower Road and, according to some accounts, extending to the Dog and Duck tavern, which was located near to the entrance of the docks.  The pathway was subject to a toll payment, but anyone drinking at the pub was refunded the toll fee.  Both the China Hall and Halfpenny Hatch path are still visible on the 1843 B.R. Davies map (picked out in green and red respectively).   Here, the Halfpenny Hatch extends to the Grand Surrey Canal at the bottom end of the Commercial Dock Company's land, leading into Deptford Road (now Salter Road).

The China Hall obviously suffered some other terminal indignity and for reasons unknown was rebuilt in the 1860s, albeit with the same sign that had adorned the previous building. 

The site of the theatre became a well known tea-gardens, with the during the Victorian period.  By the mid 1800s China Hall Road has been established, which later became Rotherhithe New Road.

Map of the Rotherhithe Estates in 1849
(from Codrington) showing China Hall Road,
now Rotherhithe New Road

A photograph of the pub in 1916 (at the top of this page) shows a brick-built building with a wide ground floor frontage with wide windows divided by pilasters. The first floor has four tall, slender arched windows. It was an end of terrace building, and to its left it was connected to other buildings looking out onto a narrow pavement and the street beyond, including a hairdresser and what appears to be a tiny newsagent advertising "ices."  The hairdresser, to the left of the China Hall, has the same style of windows and was probably built at around the same time, although it is shorter and narrower.

By 1920s the tea gardens that had originally belonged to the China Hall were absorbed into the Surrey Commercial Docks as part of a timber yard.  Tea gardens were a popular feature of late 19th and early 20th Century Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, but like the more famous Bermondsey Cherry Gardens, they all fell out of fashion.

Although the 1916 photograph clearly shows the China Hall as an end-of-terrace unpainted brick-built building, today the brick has been painted and is now invisible and the building, with an extension to the rear, is detached from its neighbours.   There used to be a road along the side of the pub, once known as Providence Row, shown in the photograph below as the stump where two cars are parked.  Just to the right of the picture is a narrow passage called China Hall Mews.  Providence Row is still shown on the 1868 and 1914 Ordnance Survey maps, terminated by a railway cutting, a siding of the East London Railway that ran along the end of the docks and under the Thames via the Thames Tunnel.

The China Hall today, by Chris Lordan
(under Creative Commons licence)

South Dock as it was 30 years ago

A great video on the SE16 website today showing South dock as it looked 30 years ago.  If you're interested in trying to pick out which buildings were there before the modern developments, it's a fascinating insight.  I've written about South Dock on a previous post, and somewhere between the 19th century and early 20th century warehouses and the modern development we see today, there were some really very shoddy buildings!  Functional, though, even though not aesthetically pleasing.

http://www.se16.com/2875-what-south-dock-looked-like-30-years-ago

Hilton Hotel, Rotherhithe Street - Sold!

Thanks to the anonymous person who today left a comment on an earlier post pointing out that the EMEA Properties website indicates that the Hilton Hotel on Rotherhithe Street has now been sold.  I've had a look around the web, but no information is leaping forth, so if anyone knows anything, please do tell!

The Grove Street yard under Barnard, Dudman and Adams 1763 - 1795

The Grove Street Yard in 1827, 32 years after the death
of William Barnard, but showing its position in
relation to Greenland Dock (just on the edge of the image
at the top) and the victualling offices to the south.  It is
still referred to as Mr Dudman's Yard, after Barnard's
senior partner.  Thanks to the worldgeneaology.blogspotblog for
posting the image.

The Barnards were one of the most prominent of Rotherhithe'S ship builders. The earliest of their enterprises on the Thames began with William Barnard and his partners, building ships mainly for the Royal Navy and the East India Company.   Although it was possible to determine which ships were built in the Grove Street yard when it was the sole base of operations, this detail became lost when William Barnard purchased a lease on the Deptford Green yard.  None of the ships built by the Barnards are assigned to either of the yards in the documentation, making it impossible to determine which yard produced which ships.

The Grove Street yard was just over the former border between Surrey and Kent, now the border between Rotherhithe (Southwark) and Deptford (Lewisham).  That border lies immediately upriver from South Dock, and follows a line that used to be marked by a river called the Earl's Sluice, now covered over and emptying into the Thames under a yellow sign that reads "Sewer Outlet 30 metres Out From This Board"  Perhaps more tangibly, there is now a piece of freestanding wall along that section of the Thames Path that marks the former boundary, and was one of the walls of the bridge that crossed the Earl's Sluice.  Even though the site is strictly speaking off Rotherhithe turf, I've included it because it is so near that it makes precious little difference.

In the 18th Century, when William Barnard and his partners began to work at the Grove Stret Yard, it was located not far from the Royal Dockyard and was sanwiched betweeen the victualling office and Greenland Dock, making it a very convenient location. It was  bound to the south by the victualling offices, to the west by Grove Street itself and to the north by Plough Way, which terminated in the George Stairs.  Grove Street still exsits, but the yard is long gone.  The George Stairs also still exist, but they have been replaced probably several times since the 1700s, in the original location.

From John E. Barnard's "Building Britain's Wooden
Walls" 1997. Page 52, showing the large wet dock
at the Grove Street yard.

The Grove Street yard was the first presence of the Barnards into the Thames area as shipbuilders.  Formerly, John Barnard had been a shipwright and shipbuilder in Ipswich and Harwich.  His son, William (born in 1735) followed in his father's footsteps and may have served his apprenticeship at Deptford.   He worked at the Harwich yard from around 1756, during the Seven Years War.  He married his wife Frances in 1760.  In partnership with William Dudman, an experience shipwright and shipbuilder 15 years his senior, he built seven vessels at his father's Ipswich yard

In 1763 William Barnard, William Dudman and a third partner, Henry Adams who owned a yard in Hampshire, took a 30 year lease on the 9-acre Grove Street yard with its 450ft frontage, also known as the Lower Wet Dock and later the Dudman yard.  It had one large wet dock, two dry docks and three building slips, as well as a house, and was therefore well equipped for the newly established business. William Dudman and his family took up residence in the yard's residential building.  The business opened in 1764, and appears to have operated under a number of names.

French Corvette Boyonnaise boarding HMS Ambuscade
during the action of 14th December 1798
by Louis-Philippe Crépin 1798
(Source:  Wikipedia)

The lease on the yard had been taken out for a 30 year period, during which the partnership was maintained.  For the first decade the partnership specialized in East Indiamen, althouth they also received Naval contracts.  Between 1763 and  1772 alone they launched seven East Indiamen - Ponsbourne, Grangy, Bridgewater, Resolution, Royal Henry, Royal Charlotte and Ankerwick.  In his 1997 book "Building Britian's Wooden Walls" John E. Barnard says that it was customary for East Indiamen to to return to the yard that built them for refitting and repairs, so each ship built represented ongoing business for the yard. In 1771 the Navy began to once again allocate contracts to private shipyards, and the Grove Street Yard received orders for two 74-gun Ships of the Line named Hector and Sutlan. 

In 1772 the 52 year-old William Dudman died, leaving the 37 year-old William Barnard in charge.  He seems to have recovered quickly from the loss of the senior partner, overseeing the buils of 12 ships between 12 vessels, which included 8 naval contracts. The Naval vessels built between 1771 and 1779 were Ambuscade (a 5th rate / 32 gunes), Hector (a 3rd rate / 74 guns), Experiment (a 4th / 50), Hound (a 40-gun sloop), Pelican (a 6th / 24, which has a role in the Mutiny on the Bounty story), Zephyr (a 14-gun sloop) and Pandora (a 6th / 24).  Hydra and Zephyr were both purchased on the stocks.

Between 1777 and 1778 four East Indiamen were built at Grove Street:  Mount Stuart, Royal Admiral (later converted to a Naval 3rd rate), Royal Bishop and General Barker. 

Painting by Louis Le Breton showing Tonnant in the
foreground and Majestic in the background.
National Maritime Museum (Source:  Wikipedia)

At some point, William took William Dudman's son John into partnership, allocating a one fifth share to him.  John had worked at the Grove Street Yard, and continued to live in the family home at the yard.  In 1779 William Barnard rented, in his own name, a yard in Deptford Green in Butt Lane, another substantial enterprise with a dry dock and two slips as well as two dwellings and gardens.  His family moved there to make their home in the bigger of the two dwellings. The lease originally ran until 1786 but was renewed at that point to run until 1859.   However, he continued to run the Grove Street Yard.  It is at this point where it becomes difficult to tell which yard built which ships; although Naval vessels were recorded according to yard, the East Indiamen were not.  It is known that eight naval vessels were built at Grove Street during this period:  Orpheus (a 5th rate / 32 gun), Africa (a 3rd / 64), Andromache (a 5th/ 32), Carnatic (a 3rd / 74), Iris (a 5th / 32), Solebay (a 5th  / 32), Majestic (a 3rd / 74) and Orion (a 3rd / 74). 

A story that John Barnard tells in Building Britain's Wooden Walls shows how private shipbuilders were at the mercy both of the Navy Board and the political situation.  The conclusion of hte American War of Independence in 1771 and the subsquence Peace of Paris in 1783 meant that naval ships were no longer in such high demand.  The Deptford Green yard had two ships ready for launch in late October and late November 1784 respectively on their slips, but the Naval Board wanted to delay the launch until 1785, which would have tied up the yard's slips and prevented future shipbuilding work at the yard.  A flurrly of correnspondence followed, and it was eventually agreed that the ships could be launched, freeing up the slips, but that payment would be delayed until a later date.   Although Tremendous was launched on the date originally planned, Majestic remained in situ until February 1785.   These and the 1785 Zelous (Deptford Green) and the 1787  Orion (Grove Street) were the last ships to be luanched for the Navy by William Barnard, but he continued to build East Indiamen - 28 in both yards between 1780 and 1790.

William Barnard became an expert on the subject of rescuing ships that had run aground, a sort of 18th Century salvage expert.  In the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London he wrote An Account of a Method for the Safe Removal of Ships That Have Been Driven on Shore, and Damaged in Their Bottoms, to Places (However Distant) for Repairing Them. By Mr. William Barnard, Shipbuilder, Grove Street, Deptford; Communicated by Nevil Maskelyne, D. D. F. R. S. and Astronomer Royal (January 1, 1780), an insight both into the task that he undertook on this occasion, and into the language of the day.

Model of HMS Orion at the Vancouver
Maritime Museum (photo by "The High Fin Sperm Whale"
(Source:  Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0).

John Barnard also tells the sad story of the last five years of William Barnard's life, which was marked by conflict with his partners, a disagreement that reached the courts.  The least on the Grove Street yard was due to expire on 25th December 1793, and both Henry Adams and John Dudman wished for renewal;  Barnard, however, wished to dissolve the parnership and work alone at his Deptford Green yard.   He wrote a letter of resignation to the other two partners but this was contested by Adams who claimed that Deptford Green was part and parcel of the business owned by the partnership.  Barnard was forced to take the matter to the Court of the Chancery to have his case heard.  Although the case was settled out of court in February 1794, and the partnership had been dissolved by the time the Grove Street yard lease was due for renewal.  Few ships were built during this period, and Barnard died in March 1795.

William Barnard was survived by his wife Frances and their two sons, William and Edward George (shipwright apprentices), and three daughters, Ann, Frances and Elizabeth.  The business passed into their control and they continued to run it out of Deptford Green and later the former Wells yard north of Greenland Dock in Rotherhithe.  Frances eventually died in 1825 at the age of 88.


The story of the Barnards in Rotherhithe continues, already covered on an earlier post.

Some of the ships mentioned in this post will be looked at in greater detail in future posts.

As with the previous post, this piece was almost entirely dependent upon the research of John E. Barnard, captured in his book Building Britian's Wooden Walls:  The Barnard Dynasty c.1697-1851 (Anthony Nelson 1997).

 

Lavender Dock, Lock and Pumphouse

Timber handling in the
Surrey Commercial Docks, 1930s

In the early 1800s timber imports began to increase substantially, leading to a requirement for more timber-handling facilities.  There was plenty of land behind Norway Dock (today's "The Lakes" development) and in 1811 No.3 pond was built, directly to the north of Norway Dock to which it was connected by a small cut, and later named Lady Dock.  Lavender Pond was the third in the succession of timber ponds that were added, each connected to its predecessor by  a cut - No.4 in 1812 (which later became Acorn Pond), No. 5  by 1827 (renamed Lavender Pond in 1864) and finally, much later, the small No. 6 pond by the 1861 (Globe Pond).

The building of Lady Dock had to accommodate Commercial Dock Road (now Redriff Road), which passed over the cut between Norway Dock and Lady Dock.  The other cuts were crossed by foot bridges.  See the maps of 1876 and 1914 at the bottom of the page.

Lavender Lock was truncated and the pumphouse was
built behind it, but hte remains of the lock are
clearly visible where it opens out onto the Thames

Like its neighbours, the purpose of Lavender Pond was to float timber.  The floating of timber was a very efficient form of storage.  The timber, already cut into shape, was organized into rafts, which was moved by skilled rafters and could be maneuvered in that form out onto the Thames (see photograph at the top of the page).  

The Commercial Dock Company had planned for a new lock entrance to this part of their system, near the apex of Rotherhithe as a second access point for large ships so that they did not have to negotiate Greenland and Norway Docks to access the inner docks.  They obtained an Act of Parliament in order to carry out the works in 1860.  Although the lock that opened in 1862 and opened into Lavender Dock was designed for small rivercraft, it was sufficiently large to handle larger vessels as well (320ft long, 34ft wide and 18.5ft deep).   Although it ceased to be functional in the late 1920s its foreshortened remains are still in situ, visible from the Thames Path and Rotherhithe Street.

The Lavender Pumphouse, facing into the remains
of Lavender Pond, now a nature reserve.

In 1864 the Commercial Dock Company, which occupied the top half of Rotherhithe, was ammalgamated with their competitors the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company, which occupied the lower half of Rotherhithe and included the Grand Surrey Canal.  The combined company was named the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, and links between the two systems were created and it was at this time that the docks and ponds were renamed. 

Water-loss was an ongoing problem in the docks.  Stuart Rankin writes that up to 2ft could be lost from seepage, through the use of locks and leaking lock gates and evaporation between tides.  An LDDC document says that as much as 4ft could be lost during neap tides (when high tides are at their lowest).  In order to maintain levels a decision was made to build a pumping station the purpose of which was to pump water from the river to maintain dock levels. In 1928/29 the Lavender pumping station was built to a design by the Port of London Authority, which had taken over responsibility for all the London docks in 1908.  Lavender Lock was closed at the same time, again to reduce water loss, although it was not removed and remains in situ today.  

The Lavender Dock Pumphouse was built over the infilled inland end of the sealed off lock (SE16 5DZ), and was separted from the Thames-side section of the lock that remained by a draw bridge that allowed traffic to cross Rotherhithe Street.  It was made of the ubiquitous yellow brick known as "London stock" and was provided with a round ornamental oculus window in the tympanium at one end, the PLA logo in the circular window frame at the other end, and big rectangular windows with gauged arches inset into rectuanguar recesses.   The sills beneath the window recesses were made of a charcoal-coloured brick that was much-used in this area.  It was an impounding pump station, a design that had already been tried and tested in other docks in London, as early as 1828.   Its pumps were driven by electricity. 

By 1932 Acorn and Lavender Ponds had been deepened to serve as docks and were provided with timber sheds.  The increasing popularity of plywood over deal boards meant that new storage facilities were requried.  Plywood is an artificially assembled composite made of thin sheets of wood veneer that were glued together;  they would have delaminated if exposed to water.

Priming Pump from Surrey Docks, now
at the Brunel Museum.
Photograph by Mike Peel
(www.mikepeel.net) CC-BY-SA-4.0

When the docks closed in 1969 the station was closed, but one of the pumps was moved to the Brunel Museum where it is still preserved. The rest of the machinery went for scrap. The Pumphouse was renovated in 1981 by The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) at the cost of £270,000, preserving some of the water as a large pond, and creating a small but attractive wetland and woodland wildlife zone of 2.5 acres (now maintained by The Conservation Volunteers, which was formerly the Trust For Urban Ecology). Lavender Pond received a Green Flag Community Award in 2012, and it continues to be supported by the volunteers of the Friends of Lavender Pond.

In 1988 the Pumphouse became a museum, the Lavender Dock Pumpuhouse Education Museum.  The museum was divided into three parts, with one section dedicated to local history, the Rotherhithe Heritage Museum.  Although it was awarded a Southwark Civic Award for its work in both 2002 and 2003, the museum was closed by Southwark Council in 2011.  There is a post by councillor Lisa Rajan on her blog about the closure.  The Pumphouse Educational Trust was was awarded a Blue Plaque in 2011, which was unveiled on June 12th of that year.  It has since been used as a storage facility by a local business.  It is a charming building, unique to Rotherhithe, which fortuitously survived the Second World War bombings that destroyed so much of Rotherhithe's heritage.

Although the land around the Pumphouse was classified as a Local Nature Reserve (LNR) in 2005, and is on Public Open Land, the Lavender Pumphouse is worryingly not listed, and must therefore considered to be under potential threat from development.   The terms of the land as a Local Nature Reserve does not preserve either the building or the land from planning projects, as this statement from a Southwark Council website makes clear: "A LNR does not enjoy immunity from possible future development or planning ‘applications’. However, as the Lavender Pond site is Council owned, it is unlikely that there will be any applications forthcoming for alternative uses in the foreseeable future. The site is already designated as Metropolitan Open Land, under the new Unitary Development Plan.  Should there be any planning applications in the Future; and the LNR designation agreed.  Members would have to take into account the LNR designation as a material factor."

The Heritage Museum collection is now held by Redriff School, and visits can be arranged in the evening by prior appointment only but may be subject to change if the premises are required for school activities.

1876 and 1914. Lavender Pond is at the very top of Rotherhithe. The 1976 map clearly shows
where the lock entered Lavender Pond from the Thames, crossed by Rotherhithe Street.

Planning Application for the Clipper Pub, Rotherhithe Street

Further to yesterday's post, thanks very much to Michelle for the planinng reference for the Clipper Pub:  14/AP/140.

As Michelle says, the cut-off date for making your comments on this application is 27th June 2014.  For full details, including documents, see the Southwark Council planning page for this application: http://bit.ly/1ueDtfb.  The planning officer for this application is David Cliff whose contact details are: 020 7525 4351 or planning.applications@southwark.gov.uk.

An artist's impression of what the new development will look like is shown above.  The short description on the Southwarm website is as follows: "Demolition of existing building and erection of new building comprising commercial unit (Use Classes A1 or A2) at ground floor and basement levels; and six residential dwellings on first, second and third floors, along with associated car parking and amenity area."  The developer is McCullochs. 

I cannot work out where the "associated car parking and amenity area" is to be located, as the only immediately visible land is the children's play area next to the Clipper, at the entrance to Russia Dock Woodland.   The Vehicle Parking section of the developer's application form shows that two car parking spaces are to be allocated, and that seven other spaces are to be allocated for "other" purposes but it is not stated what these "other" purposes are (that part of the form has been left blank).

Site plans and consultation details are on the Documents page (from which the image shown on this post is taken).

Update re The Clipper Pub, Rotherhithe Street

I have been asked many times about what is happening to The Clipper, the former pub on Rotherhithe Street near to the Hilton Hotel, one of the few 1930s buildings of this very distinctive type remaining on Rotherhithe.  

I heard today (with thanks to Charles) that there is now a small notice on the pub itself saying that the pub is to be knocked down and replaced with a four-storey modern building, which will include six apartments.  Only two carparking spaces have been allocated.

There is only a 21 day window to respond to the planning application and I can't find the planning application number on the Southwark Council website, so I'll try to go up there tomorrow and find out what's on the sign that has been attached to the pub.  I don't know when the sign was put up and therefore I have no idea how many days are left for people to respond.  

If you are local to the pub and have views about this, please go and have a look at the notice and respond either online or in writing to the planning application.

Wildflowers in Russia Dock Woodland

I walked across Rotherhithe from Greenland Dock to the Hilton the day before yesterday, and it was nice to see it looking so green and vibrant.  It has clearly benefited considerably from all the sun and rain.  Last year there were various areas fenced off, and although it was unclear what for, it was clear that something was being planned.  Today I walked past one of those areas and it was full of wild flowers, with a laminated page of A4 attached to the fence to say that it was designed to attract butterflies.  There were very few butterflies or bees around today, but the display of wild flowers was beautiful.

Apart from the verdant effusion, which was lovely, there were lots of people using the green to sunbathe or to watch their children play.  Around Globe Pond, various ducks, geese and coots, all with their young in tow, were foraging for leftovers provided by the numerous people who had been feeding them bread.  

 

Yatala, the fastest of the Orient Line ships, 1865-1872

Yatala. Painting by Thomas Goldworth Sutton.

Yatala, a 1127 ton clipper, was completed in 1865 for the Orient Line.  She was built by Thomas Bilbe, who specialized in tea and wool clippers, and worked out of Cuckold's Point in Rotherhithe, where the Hilton Hotel is now located.  Bilbe has been mentioned on previous posts about other ships that he built:  Orient, Wynaud and Borealis. A most remarkable man, some of his enterprises seem highly questionable when considered from a modern perspective.  He built, for example, a ship that was armed with canons which was designed to operate in the illegal opium trade,  and he transported Chinese coolies as cheap labour.  However, he was an inventor of genuine talent and skill, pioneering a new method of iron hull framing and inventing a mechanical slip, which he patented.   The slip can still be seen today immediately next to the Hilton Hotel's car park on Rotherhithe Street, its engine house preserved immediately behind it, facing onto Rotherhithe Street.

Yatala was specifically designed as a passenger ship for the Orient Line, although she also carried cargo.  It is unclear how Bilbe became involved with the owners of the Orient Line, but he built a number of clippers for them (when they were operating under the names James Thomson and Co. and Anderson, Anderson and Co.) at the Rotherhithe yard.  His first commission for them was Celestial, which he built for James Thompson and Co. in 1851 and the last were Yatala in 1865 and Argonaut in 1866, both of which Bilbe built with his business partner, the former shipmaster William Perry.

Yatala was the name of both a town on the Gold Coast in eastern Australia and a rural district near Adelaide in South Australia, an Aboriginal word, but this particular Yatala was probably named for an earlier Yatala of the Orient Line, a 65ft wooden schooner, built at Port Adelaide in Australia and launched on July 28th, 1848.   She was a composite (iron framed) clipper registered with a tonnage of 1127 tons, was 204ft long, 35ft wide, with a depth of 21ft.  The had two decks, three masts and carried full rigging.  Although she conformed to the Lloyds Registry requirements, she was not registered with Lloyds, for reasons unknown. 

There is a lovely account of Yatala's launch in 1865 from the South Australian Register, dated 14th August 1865:

Orient Line of Packet Ships.— A correspondent sends us the following:— 'A splendid new ship of 1127 tons register, specially built for this line, was launched on the River Thames on the 10th June, from the yard of Messrs. Thomas Bilbe and Co., Nelson Dock, Rotherhithe, the well known builders of the Orient and Coonatto. As the vessel glided into the water she received her name from Mrs. W. L. Marchant with the usual ceremony. After the launch the company, including upwards of 100 South Australians, ladies and gentlemen, accompanied by the band of the London Scottish Rifle Corps, proceeded in a steamer, hired for the occasion, to the Ship Tavern, at Greenwich, and partook there of an excellent luncheon, provided by the owners of the ship. Among other loyal and customary toasts the health of Mrs. Marchant, who had named the ship, was proposed by the Chairman, Mr Anderson, and enthusiastically received.  Mr. Marchant proposed 'Success to the Yatala, and Captain Legoe's health.' Mr. Purdy. Mr. Bakewell, and Mr. Paxton spoke ably on subjects connected with South Australia. The Yatala is a composite ship (iron frame and wooden planking) her length is 215 feet, her breadth 35 feet, her depth 21 feet 4 inches. Her graceful, almost yacht-like appearance inn the water was the subject of general remark, and as everything has been done that money and science can do to make the Yatala worthy of the Orient Line, and equal to the requirements of the colony for passenger and general purposes, we venture to predict that the good wishes expressed at Greenwich for her success will at least be approximately fulfilled. We have seen plans of the ship, but of the unrivalled accomodation and comforts provided on board colonists ganerally will no doubt have the opportunity of judging for themselves when Captain Legoe arrives here with this Yatala in the end of October. The Murray, hitherto commanded by Captain Legoe, was to sail from Plymouth on the 1st July in command of Captain Smart, late chief officer of the same ship, with a large and valuable cargo and a full complement of passengers. The Yatala was to follow, sailing from Plymouuth on the 1st of August.

Her captain from her launch until her demise was Mr John Legoe, who had held a Certificate of the Board of Trade since 1856 as Master Mariner.  He had regularly run the route from London to Adelaide since 1861, and had had great success at the helm of the Murray, which was a fast ship built for Anderson of the Orient line to run between Plymouth and Adelaide carrying both passengers and cargo.  At the time of Yatala's wreckage off the coast of France was listed as a part-owner of the ship. 

Yatala was the fastest of the Orient Line ships.  In 1867, and for 14 years she shared the record of completing the voyage from London to Adelaide with Devitt and Moore's clipper City of Adelaide in 65 days. In 1866 both ships left Adelaide late in December 1866, headed for Plymouth, and engaged in a friendly race.  Races from one port to another were common, and a ship's worth was measured partly on the speed with which she completed a journey each season.  City of Adelaide (which, with the Cutty Sark is one of the last two remaining composite clippers to have survived into the 21st Century) was under the command of Captain Bruce.   The following account comes from one of the ubiquitous Australian shipping newspapers, the South Australian Register, dated  June 11, 1867:

The Ocean Race – The interest which has been excited by the race home between the two celebrated clippers, YATALA and CITY OF ADELAIDE, will be increased by the extracts from letter which we publish below. It is clear that they are about a match in speed. A lady passenger on board the ship YATALA on her last voyage writes:-

"We arrived on the 8th April, and were in the Docks at about 5 o’clock. Captain Legoe is deservedly popular; he is such a nice person, so kind, attentive, and obliging; the perfection of a captain and a seaman, always at his post and attending to his duty. The ship is beautifully clean, kept in order, and well found. When we went into the Cape it was in the teeth of a strong south-easter, and of course we had to tack. We afterwards heard on the shore that numbers of people were watching the vessel, and the exclamation was – ‘That ship has a first-rate seaman on board’. We went in with one tack, which they say is a most unusual thing, and that the vessel looked beautiful, she was so well handled…. You will have heard that we beat the CITY OF ADELAIDE. Several times when we were becalmed or had light winds we saw her quite near; it was very close; but in the end we were in the Docks 48 hours before her; but the precise time I am not sure of; it was at least a day. We passed quite close to St Helena on a lovely day; we could almost distinguish the people in the streets.”

The City of Adelaide

The following is an extract from a private letter from Captain Legoe, dated London, 25th April:- “I arrived in London on the 8th instant, and Bruce (CITY OF ADELAIDE) passed through the Downs on the following morning, but did not get in dock for two days, owning to the heavy weather from the westward. We had a close run for it. I was through the Downs on Sunday, and Bruce on Tuesday following. I saw him at sea 12 days before I arrived, and as the breeze freshened I went away from him.”

To these we add the following extracts from a letter written to a gentleman in Adelaide by Captain John Bruce, then chief officer on the CITY OF ADELAIDE. His friends will be glad to see that he is promoted to the command of the vessel which his father has made so popular:- “London Dock, April 26th – No doubt this trial of prowess between the two vessels is of subordinate importance to you; but the ocean race possesses on this occasion features that should not be passed over without being noticed. The register tonnage of the ‘CITY’ is 791; of the ‘YATALA’ 1,217. I don’t know whether in Adelaide this fact is known. At the Cape, in a newspaper paragraph, they were said to be an unfair match in class, age and size. The YATALA, if you remember, took the initiative in starting from the Lightship on account of our having to wait for some papers that were forgotten.

She got under weigh at 6 o’clock, while we had a ‘five hours’ cruise in the Gulf until we got the missing documents at 11am. At daylight on the following morning we found ourselves within a short distance of our competitor, and the evening saw us abreast of each other, with a fresh south wind, and not more tan a quarter of a mile apart. The custodians of the Cape Borda Lighthouse must have taken notice of us as they would have an uninterrupted view of the course for many miles.

During the night we did not steer parallel courses, for the next day the ‘YATALA’ was nearly hull down in a S.W. direction. Fog came on and lasted three days – rather unusual on the Australian coast I should imagine. The wind, E., was of course very light, as is the case with fogs. Light and variable winds characterized the passage to Cape Lewin, which we rounded on 7th January. On the 12th a large vessel was seen astern. Speculation was rife, and tendered to one conclusion – it was the ‘YATALA’. This probed so far on the 13th that the rig corresponded to the ‘YATALA’s. On the 14th all doubts were removed, as she was near enough to exchange signals. At noon on that day we were in Lat. 30o S., long. 100o E.

The ships parted company during the day, the wind a pleasant and increasing south east trade. Tedious weather succeeded in a few days, and we made slow progress to the Cape. On February 10, off Cape Afulhas (land in sight), the ‘YATALA’ was seen three miles ahead of us, gradually increasing the distance; the wind at the time was of the description that figures in sea logs as ‘faint, variable airs’. Three days afterwards (13th February) we anchored at Table Bay at 10pm. The ‘YATALA’ reached the same place at 6pm, four hours sooner. It blew hard from the south east during our stay, which terminated on the 16th, both ships leaving within half an hour of each other, ‘YATALA’ first. The ‘CITY’ crept up in the night, and the following evening she was six miles ahead. A head wind sprung up separating the ships. The ‘CITY’ made all speed through the trade winds S.E. and N.E.

To our amazement the ‘YATALA’ appeared right astern, in lat. 27o N., long. 40o W., on the 23rd March. It was calm at the time. The ‘YATALA’ brought a breeze with her, and both ships were again in competition. Heavy weather came on soon after, and on arriving in the Downs we got information from the tug steamer that the ‘YATALA’ had gone up the river the day before. The steamer that took her up came down to look for another job, and picked up our ship. We were detained 48 hours in consequence of the violence of the N.W. winds. Nothing happened to mar our comfort or enjoyment; fine weather nearly all the time. I am promoted to the command of the ‘CITY’. In the meantime my father will superintend the building of a new larger ship. The ‘YATALA passed the Downs 24 hours before our ship.”

The record of 65 days was held until the famous Torrens broke it in 1881.  Yatala's longest run was between Plymouth and Adelaide in 88 days, her last trip.

A typical entry for the arrival of Yatala in the Monthly Shipping Summary for England, published in Australia, is this brief entry from the South Australian Register on 13th October 1869:  "YATALA. Ship. 1127 tons. J.Legoe, Master, from London; 22 passengers.  General cargo." 

Beltana (from a painting by H. Percival)

Yatala only sailed for seven years.  Together with the clipper Beltana, with whom she entered an informal race, she left Port Adelaide on the 19th December 1871, bound for London under Legoe. She was carrying 35 hands and 35 passengers, and cargo of wool, copper, tallow and wheat, amongst other items, a cargo that the South Australian Advertiser referred to as "an ordinary cargo, but a large and valuable one."  She was wrecked on the 27th March of 1872, after only 7 years of service near Gris-Nez, north of Boulogne, France. All lives were saved, the survivors being taken to the nearby village of Andreselles, and most of her cargo of wool was recovered, but the ship was a total loss.  Beltana arrived home safely, but even that voyage had been plagued with ill luck and the ship's captain, Richard Angel, lost his command of the ship on arrival, having run her aground without reporting the incident, causing damage that caused the ship to leak so badly that she had to pull in for repairs.

There was a detailed technical account of the last hours of Yatala's journey as recounted to a Court at the Greenwich Police-Court by the ship's master John Legoe reported in the South Australian Advertiser.  Present at the proceedings wre the Magistrate, Nautical Assessors, a represetative of the Board of Trade and another for the owners. The Master, John Legoe, had no legal representation.  the courts were asked to consider whether the loss of the ship was an accident or caused by negligence, and witnesses were produced to testify.  The Court's conclusion was as follows:

Taking all the circumstances into consideration, the Court is of the opinion that the Yatala was lost by the default and careless navigationof the Master, Mr John Legoe; but, giving due wieght to the evidence that has been adduced in his favour as to his long service and character, adjudge that his Certificate be suspended for six calendar months from this date.

This was followed up the following day, July 3rd 1872, also on the South Australian Advertiser, by an account of the event by one of the passengers, Mr John Richardson, who was on board with his family and gave a very different and far more personal account of what it felt like to be on the wrecked ship and how the rescue was actioned.   

She finally settled down nearer to the shore, very near to a small plateau of rock, upon which after great difficutly the passengers were landed.  This is very easily and soon told, but the detail was truly dreadful and never shall I forget that night.  A cry, "Everybody come on deck and dave yourselves if you can."  Men, women and children rushing up in their nightdresses; some screaming, some imploring help, the sea washing over them . . . .The captain ordered all the passengers to go below, as he was going to cut away the mast, and there would be great danger to those remaining on deck from the falling yeards etc. . . . It was indeed an awful sight to see most of the large ship cut away, the falling of the heavy yards and spurs into the sea, and hear them crushing against her sides, and the sea washing over all, a gale blowing and quite dark.  It was indeed a fearful sight.  After the masts were cut away the hull was comparatively quiet, and the captain ordered the boat to be lowered, which, after great difficulty, owing to the position of the ship, was completed in safety.  The Gendarmes, who had now gathered in good numbers on the rocks, made into the sea with a rope, which they fastened to the head of the boat, and they fastened to the head of the boat, and the sailors to one at the stern, so that they had good command of her in the surf.  A rope was then made fast to the bullwarks of the vessel, and lowered to the boat, and by this rope the women and children were lowered one at a time in the most deplorable condition, half-naked, shivering from cold, the spray washing over them, the night dark, and the wind howling.

The passengers and crew were lucky; other clippers had been lost with all hands.

With thanks to the Trove website (http://trove.nla.gov.au/) for its wonderful archives.