The development of Albion Dock and the timber ponds of the Grand Surrey Dock and Canal Company

The Grand Surrey Canal Company was incorporated in 1801 to build the Grand Surrey Canal and, when this was complete, the canal passed across Rotherhithe and beneath Greenland Dock towards Deptford before turning south towards Camberwell (which opened in 1811) and Peckham.  See my earlier post about the development of the Grand Surrey Canal. 

The Grand Surrey Canal system in 1843 showing
the expansion of the canal to create dock areas
but before the addition of the new lock,
Surrey Basin, Albion Dock and the new
timber ponds.  Compare with the map below.

The Grand Surrey Canal was not the success that its planners and investors and hoped for, but they realized that they could develop both the canal and the surrounding areas to create inland docks of the sort already pioneered on Rotherhithe by the Commercial Dock Company (see my earlier post for the development of the CDC) . They applied for parliamentary permission to expand the the channel of the canal that led from the island basins that made up the Grand Surrey Outer Dock, and this was granted in 1811, allowing them to expand the canal to either side to form a dock with the canal flowing down the middle.  It was named the Grand Surrey Inner Dock, later being renamed Russia Dock.

The success of this venture confirmed to the Grand Surrey Canal Company that its future lay not in the canal but in the development of further inland docks.  In 1855 its named was changed to the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company, after which it set about modernizing and expanding in order to accommodate the larger and deeper vessels that were being built. The upgrades were necessary to accommodate a new and larger type of ship. When the Grand Surrey Canal was built, most of the ships traveling through the outer basins and the canal itself were wooden, and powered by sail.  With the advent of steam and the the development of steel hulls, ships became faster and bigger.  Older locks were often neither long enough nor deep enough to handle the bigger ships, and dock systems had to upgrade in order to remain competitive.  Bigger cargo holds meant a requirement for greater cargo handling efficiencies and storage facilities.  Steam ships, which were not at the mercy of tides, required a quick turnaround, and therefore cargo handling facilities needed to improve.  This all represented opportunity for the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company.

The new Surrey Lock, with narrowboats in the foreground and
timber stacked on its eastern side,  a gas light on the left. 

Land on Rotherhithe was still available, and The Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company was able to purchase land from one of Rotherhithe's biggest landowners, the Lord of the Rotherhithe Manor, Sir William Maynard Gomm.  This enabled them to substantially extend their operations, which they began with an extended lock upriver of the old one (250ft by 50ft and 27ft deep), which opened into a new basin, the Surrey Basin (3 acres in area and 27ft deep).  Surrey Basin was connected to the Grand Surrey Inner Dock, which was now extended to an area of 14 acres and 19ft and was provisioned on its west side with two big yards that extended along its length.  With two locks and two sets of basins, both newer larger ships and smaller sailing ships and barges could be accommodated easily.  Locks at each exit could seal the basin off from the rest of the network, reducing leakage and maintaining levels within the docks.  Leakage was always a problem with the Rotherhithe docks.  

At the same time construction began on Main Dock (later Albion Dock, and not to be confused with Albion Dry Dock) and four timber ponds, which were completed by 1860 and in use by 1862.  The name Albion seems to have been derived from the name of the road that ran along the western edge of Main Dock, Albion Road, which also gave its name to its western yard, and was shown on an 1862 map of the area.  The road is un-named on the 1868 and later Ordnance Survey maps.

The newly excavated Grand Surrey Dock
and Canal System, with the two lock entrances
highlighted at the top of the map.  1868.

With an area of 11.5 acres and  and a depth of 25ft, Main Dock was built mainly for handling timber.  It was flanked by three large yards, Albion Yard to the west and Centre Yard to the East and Baltic Yard to the north.  Baltic Yard sat between Main Dock, Surrey Basin and the Outer Dock.

By 1862 the Grand Surrey Canal Dock and Canal Company had added four timber ponds to their system for the first time:  Timber Ponds 1, 2, 3 and 4 (later named Albion Pond, Centre Pond, Quebec Pond and Canada Pond respectively).  These were designed to compete with similar ponds in the Surrey Commercial Dock system and were intended for the flotation and handling of timber.  The ponds were linked into the rest of the system by a connection between Timber Pond 1 and Main Dock.  

In 1864 the two companies that now operated dock networks on Rotherhithe as independent systems, the Grand Surrey Dock and Canal Company and the Commercial Dock Company amalgamated to become the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, as the result of  a price war between the two that damaged both companies and competition from dock companies north of the river. Linkages between the two systems were made, allowing them to form a single massive network that covered most of Rotherhithe.

The first lock was sealed off from the dock system in 1888 and was later used as a Thames wharf.  Today its position is marked as an inlet downriver of Pacific Wharf, the modern apartment block next to the Old Salt Quay public house.   

Partial view of the Surrey Entrance Lock from the
Thames, to the right.  From "Lure and Lore of
London's River" by AG Linney, 1932.

During the Second World War, the dock system was severely damaged by bombing.  The northeast side of Albion Dock was severely damaged during the bombing of 9th July 1944 when, just after 2pm, a V1 bomb was dropped on the dock, fell on floating timber and exploded, damaging a nearby brick building, some barges and surrounding property.  On 11th July another V1 bomb was dropped on Centre Yard, injuring six people, at 1126 in the morning.  On the same day, at 1745, another was dropped on Russia Dock, exploding on impact with floating timber and injuring two people. However, the docks were all restored after the war and continued to operate until the closure of the docks in the late 1960s. There's some great black and white footage of a ship arriving in Albion Dock not long before the docks closed in 1970, at:
http://www.bermondsey.biz/apps/videos/videos/show/13071898


Canada Dock completed this part of the dock system, and was built in 1875 by the amalgamated Surrey Commercial Dock Company, and will be discussed in a post that will be published in the next few days.  A new cut was made between Canada Dock and the older part of the system, and the old cut was converted into a dry dock, now known as Albion Dry Dock (about which more can be found here).

Albion Channel

Today's Surrey Water is the complete Surrey Basin, which now supports local bird life.  It was filled in after the closure of the docks but re-excavated by the London Docklands Development Corporation.  The new lock and its gates still survive at the end of Surrey Basin, although it is now no longer operational, connecting Surrey Water to the Thames.  The area that used to be occupied by Albion Dock is marked by Albion Channel and the residential buildings that flank it.  Albion Channel was excavated by the London Dockland Development Corporation in the 1980s to serve as a decorative feature to link Surrey Water (the old Surrey Basin) with Canada Water (the remains of the old Canada Dock).   The spoil from the excavation of the channel went to make Stave Hill. The four timber ponds are covered by a mixture of residential developments and commercial buildings, including Decathlon, Surrey Quays shopping Centre, and Harmsworth Quays.



Thanks as usual to Stuart Rankin's booklets for being such a great resource for local history.  His book, A Short History of the Surrey Commercial Docks can be downloaded as PDF, free of charge, from: http://www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk/downloads/RankinSurreyDocks.pdf

The Grand Surrey Canal 1801-1940

Rotherhithe before the Grand Surrey Canal in 1799
The church of St Mary's Rotherhithe is marked in red.

Although there are various posts that mention the Grand Surrey Canal, and I have posted a walk that takes you from the Thames lock where ships entered to the point at which the canal leaves Rotherhithe, I have not assembled all the information about its history in one place.  This post, therefore, pulls all the threads together and provides a history of the Grand Surrey Canal and its builders.  Inevitably there's some overlap with earlier posts.

The above is the Richard Horwood map of 1799 and shows the natural water courses before the establishment of the Grand Surrey Canal.  St Mary's Rotherhithe church is marked in the red box to help readers get their bearings (it still stands today).  

Grand Surrey Canal in 1811
from Stuart Rankin's
A Short History of the Surrey Commercial Docks)

In the late 1700s a number of new canals were proposed in the south London area, and in 1801 the Grand Surrey Canal Act was passed, which would permit the construction of a canal, an accompanying dock basin and an entrance lock.  The vision was to build a canal system that would reach Greenwich, Croydon, Epsom and even Portsmouth, mainly for carrying timber. To this end the Grand Surrey Canal Company was formed to raise money by issuing shares and to run the project.  It was envisaged that the canal would provide an efficient link between the docks and the south London towns, and would stimulate commercial growth and expansion along its route.  The 1799 map at the top of the page shows how the existing waterways were of use, and how they would influence the path of the Grand Surrey Canal.

As excellent schematic
of the canal and its
two branches,
fromWikipedia

Inland Rotherhithe in 1801 was rural, a series of marshes, streams and fields.  However, the Thames banks were lined with shipyards where ships, barges and lighters were built and repaired.  Rotherhithe's most prominent ship builders were producing vast wooden vessels for the Royal Navy and the East India Company.  The only incursion inland was Greenland Dock which had been established on the east side of Rotherhithe in 1699. 

The Grand Surrey Canal Company appointed Ralph Dodd as its engineer.  and the canal's design and implementation was his inspiration.  Ralph Dodd, was something of an unpredictable character, involved in numerous engineering projects some of which either failed or which he abandoned. In his 1999 booklet Stuart Rankin describes him as "a plausible visionary, with a tenuous grasp on reality." In 1795 Dodd published an Account of the principal Canals in the known World, with reflections on the great utility of Canals. In 1794 he invented a canal cutting machine which was trialled on the Grand Junction Canal at Dawley but was not adopted long-term. In 1801 he was appointed engineer to the Rotherhithe South Dock but fell out of favour with the Eastern Dock Company who owned it, and he was paid off and dismissed. Dodd was also involved in the first attempt to build the world’s first under river tunnel from Rotherhithe. This attempt failed and it was Marc Brunel who eventually succeeded, working a short distance away from the remains of the failed first attempt.  However, in spite of this succession of dubious projects he oversaw the successful implementation of the canal, which opened in 1807 and reached to the Old Kent Road before being extended later to Camberwell and Peckham. 

The entrance lock in 1826. By George Yates.

The works for the canal started in 1802.  The canal, the first lock and the original entrance basin were supposed to have been built simultaneously but the company ran into financial difficulties so it was not until 1804 that the two-pronged basin was added.  The locks, basins and canal are shown on both the 1811 and 1843 maps (see images above and below) with the basins surrounding an artificial island, one intended to act as a a dock and the other to mainly handle through-traffic. Collectively they were named the Grand Surrey Basin, and in the 1850s were renamed Stave Dock (the upper basin) and Island Dock (the lower one).

The main role of the entrance lock and the basin were to provide access for barges that wished to get into the Grand Surrey Canal from the Thames or to offload cargo onto barges and narrowboats.  The lock was located just to the east of where the modern Old Salt Quay public house  is located today (the west entrance lock, which survives as an entrance to Surrey Water was built later).  An inlet just downriver of that location is all that remains both of the lock entrance and the complex set of dry docks and wharves that clustered around this site.  The canal could handle vessels of up to 18ft width. 

1843, showing the expansion of the
canal along its flanks

The first ship to enter the canal was ship builder Sir John Hall's brig Argo.  Sir John Hall was one of the major contributors to the design of the basin arrangement, and one of the project's investors.  Although the Grand Surrey Canal was originally supposed to reach Croydon, Epsom and Portsmouth, providing the Thames with links to south London towns and a direct connection to south coast, it never did. It only ever reached Camberwell (Addington Square) in 1811 and Peckham (Canal Head) in 1826.

It soon became clear that the canal was not going to generate the profits that the company had hoped for.  The canal was used mainly by local market gardens and handled much less timber than had been originally predicted, failing to act as the busy artery that had been envisaged.  It was therefore much less profitable than expected.  Nor did it stimulate the major development of the area that its investors had hoped would happen, and the Grand Surrey Canal Company began to look for alternative ways to generate revenue from their canal system.  At the same time, the Commercial Dock Company was successfully carving out docks on the other side of Rotherhithe and the Grand Surrey Canal Company followed suit.  In 1811 they received parliamentary permission to expand the the channel of the canal that led from the island to create docking areas and wharfage.  The result was that the section of the canal that passed out of the entrance basins and passed over Rotherhithe towards Greenland Dock became the Grand Surrey Inner Dock, through which the canal and its traffic now passed. 

The route of the canal by 1868, showing
Surrey Basin and both old and new locks.

The map of 1811 shows it as a conventional canal passing from Surrey Basin across a nearly empty Rotherhithe, but the 1843 map above shows the extent to which the canal had been widened at this time, being renamed the Inner Dock, whilst the basin was the Outer Dock.

In 1855, to reflect its increasing investment in the creation of docks, the company's name was changed to the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company.  The company immediately set about making substantial changes in order to accommodate the larger and deeper vessels that were being built and purchased land from the Lord of the Rotherhithe Manor, Sir William Maynard Gomm with a view to seriously extending their operations.  An extended lock was built upriver and the old one was eventually filled in, certainly by 1888.  The new lock, the Surrey Lock, opened into a new basin, the Surrey Basin (now known as Surrey Water).  The basin was filled in when the docks were closed but re-excavated by the London Docklands Development Corporation to provide a focal point for new housing projects.

By 1860 the new basin was connected not only to the Thames via its new lock, and to the newly modernized docks that flanked the canal channel but also to a new dock to its south, named the  Main Dock, later renamed Albion Dock.  All these improvements were completed by 1860. 

By 1862 the Grand Surrey Canal Dock and Canal Company had added four timber ponds to their system named  Timber Ponds 1, 2, 3 and 4 (later renamed Albion Pond, Centre Pond, Quebec Pond and Canada Pond respectively)., all accessible from the Grand Surrey Canal.  The network of docks and ponds was parallel to, but completely separate from the Commercial Dock Company's Russia Dock.  This was soon to change.

New hydraulic lock gates. 1870s

The Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company embarked on a pricing strategy designed to undermine the Commercial Dock Company, which promptly retaliating, creating a mutually harmuful price war.  Both companies suffered from this at a time when there was increasing competition from docks on the northern banks of the Thames and the decision was made to amalgamate the two.   In 1864 the two companies became the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, and links between the two systems were created and the docks and ponds renamed.  Lavender Pond was connected to Stave Dock (formerly the northern part of the old Outer Basin), and Russia Dock (formerly the Inner Basin) was connected to Centre Pond, thereby linking both systems to the canal and to each other. 

In the 1870s hydraulic lock gates were added to the Surrey Lock, one of a number of improvements that were being made throughout the system.

Hydraulic gear for the lock connecting the Grand
Surrey Canal, which ran through Russia Dock,
to the newly enlarged Greenland Dock.

The canal was impacted by the decision in the late 1800s to extend Greenland Dock.  This was accompanied by significant engineering work, which must have disrupted the operation of the canal for some time.  Eventually, however, instead of passing across the end of the dock it passed across the centre of it, which must have presented an interesting challenge both for ships navigating up and down the dock and for those crossing it.  It did have the advantage, for canal users, that large cargo ships that were too big for the Surrey Basin entrance could access the canal via the Greenland Dock lock entrance, which was bigger.  Locks were built both at the Russia Dock entrance to Greenland Dock and opposite, at the entrance to the Grand Surrey Canal.  The Russia Dock lock survives, minus its gates, as the underpass connecting Greenland Dock with the Russia Dock Woodland, passing under Redriff Road and some of the hydraulic machinery remains (albeit horrifically overgrown) in a recess at the side side of the road.  The lock that used to connect the dock to the canal on the other side has not survived but its location is marked by the beach next to the watersports centre and the hydraulic gearing that operated it has been preserved on the quayside. 

The Surrey Canal Office

Beyond the Surrey Canal lock were the Grand Surrey Canal Office, which was tragically knocked down in the mid 1980s to make way for the watersports centre, and a tiny building whose original function is unknown.  The Canal Office doubled as both offices and the lock-keeper's home.   Nearby, in 1902 a tiny little building was built and today survives, after a fashion, at what is now the corner of Plough Way and Sweden Gate.  It matches the design of the lock keeper's cottage and the tide gauge building next to Greenland Dock's lock, as well as the former Grand Surrey Canal Office.  Although the plaque affixed to the building states that its function was unknown it seems logical to assume that it was connected with the Grand Surrey Canal, which would have passed immediately in front of it, and was perhaps used for collecting tolls or similar administrative work.  Now an electricity sub-station (although it is unclear whether it is still in use) it is, at the time of writing, somewhat neglected and continues to remain in a state of disrepair in spite of complaints about its poor condition.

The canal was partly abandoned in 1940, drained in the 1960s and in-filled in 1971 two years after the Surrey Commercial Docks were closed to shipping.  The Surrey Basin had been closed in 1967, but was re-opened as an enclosed water feature by the London Docklands Development Corporation.  Russia Dock was filled in, but became Russia Dock Woodland, an attractive park that crosses Rotherhithe along the canal's route, and its eastern quayside has been preserved. 

1902 canal office

Traces of the canal have been identified by a number of writers on the web, including

On this blog: The remains of the canal's Rotherhithe leg 

On the London Canals website:

• Evelyn Street to Surrey Canal Road
• Surrey Canal Junctions
• Surrey Canal Wharves 
• Burgess Park - Canal Terminal
• The Peckham Branch

Apparently there were plans afoot some years ago to mark out the route officially, but this has never been done. 

Aeriel view from the 1930s showing the Surrey Basin
on the left and Island and Stave Docks.
From the PortCities website.

The Development of the Surrey Commercial Dock System 1699-1909

1868 map of Rotherhithe Docks.
Click to enlarge.

After posting about the history of South Dock a couple of days ago, and having posted several pieces about Greenland Dock, I thought I had better write something (admittedly after the fact!) about how these, and Rotherhithe's other docks, ponds and the Grand Surrey Canal all evolved and related to each other.  This is inevitably a simplification, because it focuses exclusively on the docks and the companies that built them, rather than on the wharves, warehouses, what was traded and stored and activities were associated with them.

Although this is a strictly prosaic account of how the docks evolved, they were not merely centres of commerial activity.  Whole lives were lived out at the docks, and visitors were impressed with the bustle, the wide open spaces and even the wildlife.  A.G. Linney's 1929 book Peepshow of the Port of London has a lovely description:  "It may seem strange, nigh incredible, to associate sentiment with Rotherhithe and that enormous tongue of land washed by the waters of the Pool and Limehouse Reach which contains the linked docks and timber ponds and timber yards covered by the embracing name, Surrey Commercial Docks.  yet the region has a spaciousness and an atmosphere such as no other London  dock are can equal.  West India and East India Docks have a historical association quite their own, but neither has the amplitude of 'Surrey.' "

It is probably easiest to follow the story using the 1868 and 1914 Ordnance Survey maps of Rotherhithe, one of which is shown at each end of the post, and you may want to open them (by right clicking) in a new tab or window so that you can refer back to them very easily.  If you are using Firefox, bringing the map open in a new tab will give you a much bigger image than simply left-clicking it, and will also allow you to magnify the sections in which you are interested.  Other browsers may offer the same sort of functionality.

The story of the Rotherhithe docks is mainly a story of maps because it is principally by looking at old maps of the area that the development of the docks can be seen, followed and understood.  It is also a story of research into the records of the companies that owned and created the docks.  Much of the research captured in this post has been assembled from Stuart Rankin's A Short History of The Surrey Commercial Docks (1999), which I have supplemented by other sources together with the use of a lot of online and offline maps!

There is a list at the end of this post of earlier posts that have looked into some of the docks in much greater detail.  Other docks and ponds will be covered in more detail in future posts.

The docks were not built to a single plan, which accounts for the maze-like arrangement of docks and internal locks and channels.  Five different companies were responsible for the way in which the Surrey Commercial Docks appeared before they were brought under the wing of the Port of London Authority in 1909.  Where they are mentioned for the first time, companies are highlighted in lilac, and docks and ponds are highlighted in black.  All images can be clicked to see a bigger version.

Howland Great Wet Dock

For over a century there was only one enclosed dock in Rotherhithe - the Howland Great Wet Dock, which was established in 1699, and in 1763 was renamed Greenland Dock. The Howland Great Dock was established in 1699 on land owned by the Earl (later Duke) of the Bedford on the occasion of the marriage of his grandson and heir Wrothesley Russell, with Elizabeth Howland who was the daughter of another wealthy and influential family.  Its purpose was to provide protection and repair facilities for ships that would normally have moored in the main channel of the Thames. In 1724 it was leased to the South Sea Company, and became a whaling dock.  In 1763 it was purchased by the Wells family, successful ship builders who had a yard up-river in Rotherhithe.  When the Wells family moved their interests to Blackwall the dock was put up for sale and in 1806 it was purchased by William Ritchie who sold it to the newly formed Commercial Dock Company in 1807.  The dock was closed for a year, during which it was refitted as a cargo handling dock specializing in timber.  Later on it handles large quantities of grain as well.

Rotherhithe in 1806, before
development began in 1807.
Click to enlarge.

The Grand Surrey Canal Company was incorporated in 1801 and a circular basin, with an artificial island at its centre, was opened in 1807, its role specifically to act as a cargo transit area for the Grand Surrey Canal.  It consisted of two wide channels with an island in the middle, which fed into the main channel of the canal, and opened out onto the Thames via a lock jut downriver from today's Old Salt Quay public house, on the west of Rotherhithe. When complete, the canal passed across Rotherhithe and beneath Greenland Dock towards Deptford before turning south towards Camberwell (which opened in 1811) and Peckham.  

1807 was an important year in the following evolution of Rotherhithe, and at the same time as the incorporation of the Commercial Dock Company and the opening of the Surrey Basin, the East Country Dock Company was incorporated.  In 1811 its East Country Dock opened, parallel to and immediately to the east of Greenland Dock, with its own lock out onto the Thames.

Norway Dock looking over the bridge at
Acorn Pond, both handling timber. (1870)

Jumping on the bandwagon, a consortium of Rotherhithe landowners created the Baltic Dock Company in 1809.   The land they were planning to develop was immediately adjacent to that owned by the Commercial Dock Company.  It was almost immediately bought out by the Commercial Dock Company.  In 1811 the Commercial Dock Company opened Norway Dock, a small dock that opened off the north (upriver) side of Greenland Dock, followed by a shallow timber pond to its north in the same year (Timber Pond No.3, later named Lady Dock) and another timber pond even further north in 1812 (Timber Pond No. 4, later known as Acorn Pond).  At the time all the Commercial Dock Company docks were known collectively as the Commercial Docks.

As the Commercial Dock Company developed a line of enclosed spaces along the eastern edge of Rotherhithe, the Grand Surrey Canal Company realized that the Rotherhithe section of its canal could be usefully developed to compensate for the financial failure of the canal enterprise, which never lived up to the promises of its original promoters. In 1811 they received parliamentary permission to expand the the channel of the canal that led from the island  Grand Surrey Outer Dock, which was expanded to either side, with the widened area becoming a dock in its own right, with the canal flowing down the middle.  It was named the Grand Surrey Inner Dock.  On the 1868, 1894 and 1914 Ordnance Survey maps, after they had all been further extended, they were shown as Stave Dock, (the northernmost of the island basins) Island Dock (the southern part of the basin gyratory) and Russia Dock (the expanded section of the canal) respectively. 

1820 map showing the East Country Dock,
bottom right, with Greenland Dock to its
north, feeding into Norway Dock and the
timber ponds beyond.  Parallel to it is the
Grand Surrey Canal Company's canal-
based network in its early stages,

This resulted in two companies operating and continuing to develop separate but parallel systems  side by side, one with a lock entrance on the western side of Rotherhithe, the other with a lock entrance via Greenland Dock on the eastern side of the peninsula. There were no links between the two systems, both of which were long and thin, like paper chains, both terminating as cul de sacs without a link to the Thames on the other side of the peninsula, a massively inefficient state of affairs that continued to be maintained through various improvements and developments within each of the discrete systems.

The East Country Dock was bought by the Commercial Dock Company in 1850, which connected it into the Greenland Dock system via a cut between the East Country and Greenland Dock.  The East Country Dock was considerably extended and became a much more useful asset.  The rebuild was completed in 1855. It was renamed South Dock.

In 1855 the Grand Surrey Canal Company changed its name to more accurately reflect its remit and became the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company and set about modernizing in order to accommodate the larger and deeper vessels that were being built.  One of the biggest Rotherhithe landowners was Lord of the Rotherhithe Manor, Sir William Maynard Gomm and he both sold land to the dock developers and gave land to the Church to extend their activities in matters both religious and educational.  He sold land to the Grand Surrey Docks and Canal Company that enabled them to seriously extend their operations.  An extended lock was built upriver and the old one was eventually filled in, certainly by 1888.  The new lock, the Surrey Lock, opened into a new basin, the Surrey Basin (renamed Surrey Water by developers of the 1980s).  The basin was filled in when the docks were closed but re-excavated by the London Docklands Development Corporation and is now one of Rotherhithe's attractive water features.

Map showing the brand  new
Surrey Basin

The new basin was connected not only to the new dock but at its east to the newly modernized Outer Dock, later renamed Island Dock, which in turn fed into Outer Dock (Stave Dock) and into the newly expanded Inner Dock (Russia Dock); and to its south the new Main Dock (later Albion Dock, and now preserved as the shallow ornamental canal Albion Channel, which connects Surrey Water to Canada Water).  All these improvements were completed by 1860.

By now the two companies and the two systems were each small empires on Rotherhithe.  Between the bodies of water were wharves, warehouses and cargo handling equipment. Along the foreshore were ship building and repair businesses, whilst every available nook and cranny between the foreshore and the docks was taken up with housing, small industries and businesses, and a growing number of public facilities like churches and schools.

Commercial Dock Company
Logo

By 1862 both companies had made further improvements to their systems.  The Surrey Commercial Dock Company had invested in a further two ponds (numbers 5 and 6, later Lavender Pond and Globe Pond respectively).  The Grand Surrey Canal Dock and Canal Company had added four timber ponds to their system for the first time:  Timber Ponds 1, 2, 3 and 4 (later named Albion Pond, Centre Pond, Quebec Pond and Canada Pond respectively), all of which can be seen on either the 1868 map at the top of the post or the 1914 map at the end.   The first of these, Timber Pond 1 (Albion Pond), extended directly out of Main Dock, which fed in turn into Canada Pond to its south and Quebec Pond to its east.  Canada Pond also linked into Quebec Pond.  Quebec Pond connected to Centre Pond to the north, which ran parallel to Main Dock, but was separated from it by a large area of quays and yards.  This arrangement is seen most easily on the 1868 map above, which also shows how the system was parallel to but separated from the Surrey Commercial Dock Company's Russia Dock.

Surrey Dock at Surrey Basin at the time of
the addition of hydraulic lock gates in the 1870s

In 1864 the two companies that had carved Rotherhithe up between them were amalgamated into a single company, the Surrey Commercial Dock Company, thanks to a price war between the two that damaged both companies and competition from dock companies north of the river. It as at this time that the docks were all renamed with rather more memorable names that also removed the duplication of titles like "Timber Yard 1."  Linkages between the two systems were made, the first between Lavender Pond and Stave Dock.

At some time between 1862 and 1868 the long thin Commercial Dock was established, a little way beyond the end of Greenland Dock, and was connected to Russia Dock.  I have been unable to find out exactly when when it was established, or why, but a map of 1862 shows nothing where the dock was located, but it is clearly marked on the Ordnance Survey map of 1868.

Canada Dock under construction 1875-6

A major new investment was Canada Dock in 1876, established specifically to handle the larger iron vessels and their cargo.  Engineer James McConnochie had to resolve problems caused by the proximity of the East London Railway.  The dock quickly became nearly as important as Greenland Dock. 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 as a much appreciated water feature.

If you compare the 1868 map at the beginning of the post and the 1914 one at the end, you can see how the ponds were re-arranged to enable the construction of Canada Dock.  The following will be much easier to follow if you can look at the relevant pieces of both the 1868 and 1914 maps.  Canada Dock replaced the western thirds of Albion and Canada Ponds.  The middle third became a wide set of yards.  Final third, to the east, became a single pond, amalgamating what remained of Canada and Albion Ponds to become Canada Pond.  The new Canada Dock and Canada Pond were connected to each other and to Quebec Pond, which remained in its original location without changes to its size or shape. This, in turn, was still connected to Centre Pond to its north.  Canada Dock covered part of them and the rest of the area formerly occupied by the ponds was converted to use as yards

Surrey Commercial Dock Company personnel on
the Company's steam tug Canada, shortly before
it was incorporated into the PLA.

Greenland Dock was expanded in the late 1890s, after an Act of Parliament had been obtained in 1894, doubling on length, and incorporating Commercial Dock.  It forced Commercial Dock Road, which used to pass along its end, to be rerouted, cut short the railway link to Norway Dock and had to incorporate the Grand Surrey Canal, which now passed across its centre.  It also involved the demolition of a considerable amount of property.  As an engineering project it presented considerable challenges and the extension eventually cost the company £940,000.

In 1908, concerned by price wars that undermined all of the dock companies, the government stepped in and, under the auspices of the new Port of London Authority, amalgamated all of the companies into one publicly owned and centrally managed entity.  This became operational in 1909.  Before the Surrey Commercial Dock Company was taken over, a farewell dinner was held and a photographic record of the company's holdings and personnel was made.

Between 1909 and 1969 the docks continued to operate, changing with the times until changes in the industry exceeded their ability to survive in an increasingly technological world.  The 50 year period between 1909 and 1969 will be covered on another post.  

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The legacy of the Surrey Commercial docks, much of which the London Docklands Development Corporation went to considerable trouble to preserve, is all around us in Rotherhithe.  Greenland Dock, South Dock and Surrey Basin all preserve the areas of the original dock, and are filled with water.  Surrey Basin and Greenland Dock are peaceful and open, whilst South Dock is now a busy marina.  Albion Channel preserves the line of Albion Dock and connects Surrey Basin with the truncated remains of Canada Dock.  Russia Dock Woodland preserves the old eastern quayside of the Russia Dock and contains a tiny remnant of Globe Pond.  Bridges, capstans, lock gates, bollards and many other dockside features survive too.  Our rich dockland heritage is all around us in Rotherhithe.

Some of the individual docks mentioned in this post have been covered in earlier posts in more detail, and many more will follow.  Here are those that have been published to date:

• The Howland Great Wet Dock (1699 to 1763)
• Greenland Dock (1763 to 1836)
• East Country Dock / South Dock (1811-2014)
• The route of the Grand Surrey Canal through Rotherhithe as it survives in today's landscape

Rotherhithe in 1914

News update about the 1902 Yard Office

On Saturday I emailed Nicky Costin (Southwark Council's Road Network, Parking, Street Markets and Marina Business Manager) regarding the deteriorating appearance of the 1902 Yard Office on the corner of Sweden Gate and Rope Street.  I expressed the concern that once a building begins to deteriorate in appearance due to damage and neglect it ceases to be valued by the neighbouring community and can quickly become the target of vandalism.  Mr Costin replied to me on Sunday to say that he would investigate, and this evening he has emailed with the following promising udpate, with my thanks.  I will keep readers posted.

The harbour master has looked at it. It is a brick build structure 5.1 by 3.6 metres and was probably a pump house originally.

Currently it is a substation according to the big yellow sign on the door (and the ones warning of danger of death on all sides). Ref no 93657. He has spoken to UK power networks who also agree it's a substation but they were not sure if it is disused or not. Regardless they were going to contact their estates department to send someone out to survey it and do any maintenance required. As soon as they come back to the harbour master he will contact you.

Stuart Rankin, who has researched the local history of the area, thinks that it was an office for collecting tolls from vessels passing through the Grand Surrey Canal,  but whatever its purpose it is a splendid little building and it needs to be preserved.

A walk through what remains of the Grand Surrey Canal

Introduction

Starting Point: The Old Salt Quay

This post describes a walk from the entrance lock on the west of Rotherhithe, by the Old Salt Quay pub (formerly Spice Island, the name by which it is still often know locally), to the Moby Dock at Greenland Dock on the opposite side of the peninsula, where the beach at the water-sports centre marks the course it once took out of Rotherhithe.

To check the start and end points online, the Old Salt Quay is at SE16 5QU (and can be viewed on Streetmap.co.uk) and the Moby Dick is at SE16 7PL (which can be found here, on Streetmap.co.uk).

Between these two landmarks the remains of the Grand Surrey Canal can be traced on a walk that takes approximately 30-40 minutes from end to end, depending on how quickly you walk and whether you take time to go up Stave Hill to see the 1896 dock sculpture and see the panoramic view.  It's a pretty route, taking you past Surrey Water and into the Russia Dock Woodland, and it has the possible benefit of leading you from one watering house to another.

The Moby Dick

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The Grand Surrey Canal

Work on the Grand Surrey Canal began in 1807, after the Grand Surrey Canal Act had been passed in 1801. It ran from the west side of Rotherhithe and reached Camberwell's Addington Square in 1811 and Peckham's Canal Head in 1826. It was so-named because in the early 1800s Rotherhithe was still a part of the county of Surrey. The canal crossed the entire span of Rotherhithe.  For more details about the history of the Grand Surrey Canal see one of my other posts about the development and demise of the canal.  It would have been impossible for me to match up the modern landscape with the reality of what was where in the 1800s without all of Stuart Rankin's work, captured so splendidly in his 2004 Maritime Rotherhithe - History Walks (details in Bibliography), although any mistakes are obviously mine.

Much of the route to the Grand Surrey Canal beyond Rotherhithe is completely built up, although small segments can be found in the form of parks and stretches of road and rail, so it is nice to be able to trace the first part of it so clearly through Rotherhithe.

The earliest lock entrance.

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The walk starts at the Old Salt Quay.  With the pub to your left, walk towards the big red bascule bridge but before walking onto it turn right down onto the Thames Path, which takes you in front of the pub along the side of the Thames.  Walk for a minute or so, skirting a modern building, and you will reach sizeable inlet. This is the first lock entrance to the Grand Surrey Canal.

The docks in 1843 showing the
Grand Surrey Canal. The lock opened
from the Thames on the west side of
Rotherhithe near the Old Salt Quay

 
In the years that followed the 1801 Act, a basin and a small entrance lock for barges were constructed, and although it was still connected to Stave Dock on the 1868 map, it was completely blocked off from its original basin by 1894 and the inlet was put to other use, but this is where the Grand Surrey Canal first connected to the Thames.

Today, immediately behind it, are new developments built in the 1980s and 90s. 

The late 1840s lock entrance

In the late 1840s it was decided to add another, bigger basin, for which a new and lock would be required to provide access for barges, and both the lock and the basin survive.  Many of the old docks and basins were filled in when the Surrey Commercial Docks closed in 1969, but some were restored when it was decided to develop Rotherhithe.  As the main building work was to be residential, it was decided to add water features and green areas, and the former docks were ideal for both.

So now retrace your steps.  As you approach the bascule bridge you will see the dolphin straight ahead and the inlet into the lock that passes under the bridge.  The dolphin, one of the few survivors of many that lined the Thames, helped barges to manoeuvre into the lock entrance that replaced the first one.

The Surrey Basin dolphin

The entrance into the new Surrey Basin lock,
next to and upriver from the Old Salt Quay,
seen from the red bascule bridge

Next, following the course of a barge that might have used the Grand Surrey Canal, cross the road, staying this side of the bascule bridge.  You will find yourself at the lock.  At the lock entrance the two solid gates are still in tact.  They were once hydraulically-operated, with a walkway passing over them.  

The Surrey Basin - Thames lock gates and walkway

The Surrey Basin - Thames lock

Bridge and dockhouse at Surrey Grand Canal
entrance to the Thames. George Yates.

The Surrey Basin, Island Dock and Stave Dock

Beyond the lock the new strangely shaped Surrey Basin (renamed Surrey Water by developers),  linked to Albion Dock on one side and Island Dock on the other.  You can see this on the map below. The Grand Surrey Canal passed from Surrey Basin into Island Dock.  Walk to the basin and pause to enjoy the view.  It now provides a home for water birds of both freshwater and marine types. As well as swans, coots, moorhens and a variety of ducks there are often seagulls and shags.

The Grand Surrey Canal passed out of the Surrey Basin at the left of your current position.  You can see a small inlet, and this is where the canal left the Basin and passed into Island Dock.

It's not a particularly clear photograph, but as you stand
with your back to the the lock to the Thames, looking
over Surrey Basin, look to your left and you will
see an inlet with an avenue of trees beyond it. This
is the route that the Grand Surrey Canal followed.

During the mid 1800s, whilst the canal was still operating, much of the canal was widened to form areas along either side of the main channel that could be used for mooring and offloading.  Crossing Rotherhithe, the Grand Surrey Canal was enlarged so that it passed through no less than four of these docks: Island Dock (marked by the inlet just mentioned), Stave Dock, Russia Dock and Greenland Dock.  We will now head in their direction.  This is probably easiest to visualize on 1868 map of Rotherhithe (click the picture to enlarge it):

So walk to your left, skirting Surrey Water, passing various dock-side features on the way, heading for the Grand Surrey Canal inlet and the road to its left.  Walk up the road and cross onto the pedestrian walkway Dock Avenue, through the ornamental wooden shelter, towards the artificial mound ahead, called Stave Hill.  You are now following the line of the Grand Surrey Canal.

Dock Avenue with the steps that rise
lead up Stave Hill in the distance,
following the line of the Grand Surrey Canal

Stave Hill and Michael Rizzello

Michael Rizzello's sculpture of the docks in 1896

Once you reach Stave Hill, it's worth pausing for a break by climbing the shallow steps to the top of the mound.  Here you will find not only great views, but a Michael Rizzello brass relief map of the docks in 1896.  It is a tremendous piece of sculpture and gives you a view like no other of how the docks interlinked with ponds and basins at that time.  You will be able to trace your path so far. Pay close attention to the east side of the sculpture, where you will be going next.  Greenland Dock was half its current size in 1896, and the lock passed across its end.  When the dock was later enlarged, the canal passed straight across its centre, which will will see shortly.

Russia Dock

 

Resuming our walk, go half way round Stave Hill, as though you had walked a straight line across it or through the middle of it, and head through the little entrance with the red and black portals on either side into Russia Dock Woodland.

Entrance into Russia Dock Woodland

Follow the path to a T-junction. Turn right and right again and then turn left onto a line of granite quay edgings that stretch in a straight line into the distance.  You are now following the line of the Canal into Russia Dock. The lovely granite edging was once the quay side, and the area of green parkland is where the dock was filled in and converted to parkland.  The walkway that follows the quayside is now called Watermans Walk and leads to Greenland Dock.

The quayside of Russia Dock

Head to the right down the full length of the walkway towards Greenland Dock, following the line of the Canal, until you are nearly at Salter Road.  Along the way you will see various features from the dock's past, including crane rails, bollards and chains.

Greenland Dock

When you have a choice of going up to the road or turning right to go under the road, go right.  This path takes you into the original lock that connected Russia Dock with Greenland Dock, which now forms a useful underpass.

The lock that opened from Russia Dock into Greenland Dock

When the Grand Surrey Canal was built the canal actually passed to the south of Greenland Dock, as shown in the 1868 map and on the 1896 Michael Rizzello Sculpture at the top of Stave Hill.  However, when Greenland Dock was expanded, it was necessary for barges on the canal to cross the middle of the dock.

Actually standing in the lock gives you the chance to see features that you miss when looking down into water-filled equivalents, including the measurements on the right hand side.   

The road used above used to be a swing bridge for which the hydraulic gear survives on the other side of the lock, up to the right.

The hydraulic mechanism for the bridge that once
opened over the lock

When you emerge from the lock, still following the path of the Canal, you will find yourself with the Moby Dick to your left, looking out over the width of Greenland Dock to the water-sports centre immediately opposite.  The small beach to the side of the centre (in the middle of the photograph below) marks the line that the canal took across the dock after it had been extended.  The canal proceeded from here without any further width expansions, on its way out of the network of docks and basins towards Peckham and Camberwell.

The walk ends here, at the opposite side of Rotherhithe from where we started, from lock to lock, but as you can see from the 1843 map above, it passed under Plough Way and just short of the Deptford Royal Docklands took a right angled shift to the west.  A fairly long stretch of the old canal is now Surrey Canal Road.