London Neighbourhoods
Rotherhithe, UK
Rotherhithe, a district of south-east London, is part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, with the Isle of Dogs to the east. It borders Bermondsey to the west and Deptford to the south-east. The district is a part of the Docklands area.
Rotherhithe has a long history as a port, with Elizabethan shipyards and working docks until the 1970s. It was an British East India Company town, and was home to surrey Docxks, one of the busiest docks on the Thames. In the 1980s, the area along the river was redeveloped as housing through a mix of warehouse conversions and new-build developments. The Jubilee line was extended to the area in 1999, giving fast connections to the West End and to Canary Wharf; the East London underground line was converted to part of the London Overground network in 2010, which provides easy access to the City of London. As a result, Rotherhithe is now a gentrifying residential and commuter area, with urban regeneration progressing around Deal Porter Square at Canada Water; a new town centre with restaurant and retail units, as well as new residential developments, is emerging here around the existing freshwater dock and transport hub.
Plan and Book:
Rotherhithe: See and Do
Local Landmarks
The Mayflower TRA Hall now occupies the site of the old Rotherhithe Town Hall. The building ceased to be a town hall in 1905 when the former Rotherhithe Council merged with the old Bermondsey Borough Council and the new council used premises in Spa Road. The old Rotherhithe Town Hall became a library and a museum. It was razed to the ground by repeated bomb hits and near misses during the Second World War.
Rotherhithe had its own general hospital, St Olave's Hospital, on Lower Road close to the old town hall. Built originally in the early 1870s on land adjoining Rotherhithe Workhouse, it became the infirmary of St Olave's Union in 1875, and was renamed St Olave's Hospital in 1930. Subsequently, becoming part of the Guy's Hospital Teaching Group in 1966, it closed in 1985 and the site has been redeveloped into the residential Ann Moss Way.
The Terriss Theatre (named after the actor, William Terriss) opened in 1899 and was later renamed the Rotherhithe Hippodrome of Varieties. It stood on Lower Road by Culling Road. It was bombed in the 1940s and stood empty until demolition in 1955.
When the roundabout facing the Rotherhithe Tunnel was redeveloped in the early 1980s, several 19th century buildings were demolished including a school and a nunnery. A public house, the "Europa", described in an early 20th-century history of the area as one its oldest, was also demolished.
The Daily Mail and Evening Standard newspapers were printed at Harmsworth Quays in Rotherhithe from 1989 to 2012. The site is now the Printworks events venue.
The Angel (101 Bermondsey Wall East), now in splendid isolation in front of the remains of Edward III's mansion on the Thames Path at the western edge of Rotherhithe, is an iconic pub with a history going back to at least the 17th Century. It dates to around 1830 and may incorporate parts of an early seventeenth century building. In the 15th century an inn and rest house for travellers called The Salutation was kept at or near this site by monks from Bermondsey Priory. In 1682 The Angel was in a position diagonally opposite its present site, and was referred to by the famous diarist Samuel Pepys as "the famous Angel." Local legend has it that that Pepys and Lieut. James Cook came here and watched hsngings at the Execution Dock (Judge George Jeffreys - the "hanging judge" - presided), which was opposite; Cook prepared for his journey for Australia here.
Surrey Docks
The Surrey Commercial Docks were a large group of docks, located on the south bank (the Surrey side) of the River Thames. The docks operated in one form or another from 1696 to 1969. Most were subsequently filled in and redeveloped for residential housing, and the area is now known as Surrey Quays, although the name Surrey Docks is retained for the electoral ward.
Greenland Dock
The sparsely populated Rotherhithe peninsula was originally wet marshland alongside the river. It was unsuitable for farming, but its riverside location just downstream from the City of London made it an ideal site for docks. The area had long been associated with maritime activities: in July 1620 the Pilgrim Fathers' ship the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe for Southampton, to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage to New England, and a major Royal Navy dockyard was located just down the river at Deptford. In 1696, Howland Great Wet Dock (named after the family who owned the land) was dug out to form the largest dock of its time, able to accommodate 120 sailing ships.
Plan of the docks at the Stave Hill lookout
By the mid-18th century the dock had become a base for Arctic whalers and was renamed Greenland Dock. However, by the 19th century an influx of commercial traffic from Scandinavia and the Baltic (principally timber) and Canada (foodstuffs for London's population) led to Greenland Dock being greatly expanded and other docks being dug to accommodate the increasing number of vessels. Eventually, 85% of the peninsula, an area of 460 acres (1.9 km2), was covered by a system of nine docks, six timber ponds and a canal. Several of the docks were named after the origins of their customers' cargos, hence Canada Dock, Quebec Pond, Norway Dock and Russia Dock. The Grand Surrey Canal was opened in 1807 to link the docks with inland destinations, but proved a commercial failure and only 3½ miles of it were ever built.
The docks evolved a distinctive working culture, quite different from that of the Isle of Dogs across the river. A characteristic sight of the docks were the "deal porters", dockers who specialised in carrying huge baulks of deal (timber) across their shoulders and wore special headgear to protect their heads from the rough wood.
The decline of the docks set in after World War II, when they suffered massive damage from German air raids. The South Dock was pumped dry and used for construction of some of the concrete caissons which made up the Mulberry Harbours used on D-Day. When the shipping industry adopted the container system of cargo transportation, the docks were unable to accommodate the much larger vessels needed by containerisation. They finally closed for lack of custom in 1969. The Grand Surrey Canal was closed in 1971 and was subsequently drained and filled in. The area remained derelict for over a decade, with much of the warehousing demolished and over 90% of the docks filled in. The only surviving areas of open water were Greenland Dock, South Dock, remnants of Canada Dock (renamed Canada Water), and a basin renamed Surrey Water. In 1981, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher established the London Docklands Development Corporation to redevelop the former dockyard areas east of the City of London, including the Surrey Docks.
Russia Dock, now filled in to create Russia Dock Woodland
During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Surrey Docks were extensively redeveloped, and renamed Surrey Quays. Over 5,500 new homes were built, ranging from individual detached housing to large apartment complexes. South Dock was converted into a marina – now the largest in London – and a watersports centre was constructed on Greenland Dock. Canada Water and the infilled Russia Dock became wildlife reserves, with a woodland park planted on the latter site. Most of Norway Dock was re-excavated to form a water feature surrounded by residential development, and another ornamental feature, the Albion Channel, was created along the eastern side of the former Albion Dock, linking Canada and Surrey Waters.
St Olavs Norwegien Church
Scandinavian Connection
Because much of the former Surrey Docks had strong trade links to Scandinavia and the Baltic region, the area is still home to a thriving Scandinavian community. During World War II, in fact, it housed the Norwegian Government-in-Exile. Originally established as seafarers' missions, Rotherhithe is home to a Norwegian, a Finnish and a Swedish church. The Finnish Church and the Norwegian Church are both in Albion Street; they were built in 1958 and 1927 respectively (Rotherhithe Library is between them). There are also a number of "community centres" for the Nordic community in London, including hostels, shops and cafés and even a sauna, mostly linked closely to the churches.
Some of the redeveloped areas were built by Nordic architects, such as the Greenland Passage development by Danish Company Kjær & Richter. This gives some areas a distinctly "Nordic" feel in terms of house and street design.
The relationship with Scandinavia and the Baltic is also reflected in the names of some of the buildings (such as the King Frederik IX Tower), the street names (e.g. Finland Street, Sweden Gate, Baltic Quay, Norway Gate, Helsinki Square) or other place names (e.g. Greenland Dock). Another major influence factor was trade with Russia and Canada (mainly timber), reflected in names such as Canada Water and the Russia Dock Woodland.
The Mayflower
In July 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe and picked up 65 passengers, probably from Blackwall, then proceeded to Southampton on the south coast of England to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage to America. At that time, the English Separatists, who later became known as the "Pilgrim Fathers", were mostly still living in the city of Leiden, in the Netherlands. There they hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfshaven in the Netherlands to Southampton to join the Mayflower.
The ship's master, Christopher Jones, died shortly after his return in 1621 and is buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary's Church. No one can be sure where on the Rotherhithe peninsula the Mayflower was berthed, but the Mayflower pub near St Mary's Church claims the honour, and lists the names of the Mayflower passengers on their wall. The building itself, despite external and interior appearances, dates only from the 1950s.[32] The extent to which the pub was damaged during the Second World War, and was rebuilt or simply restored is uncertain.