Rotherhithe

Rotherhithe
Surrey
The tower of St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe
Location
Grid reference:	TQ358796
Location:	51°29’56"N, 0°2’33"W
Data
Post town:	London
Postcode:	SE16
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Southwark
Parliamentary constituency:	Bermondsey and Old Southwark

Rotherhithe is a residential town in Surrey, at the very north-east of the county, buried deep within the metropolitan conurbation. It stands on a peninsula on the south bank of the River Thames, facing Wapping and the Isle of Dogs on the north bank (Middlesex). It is considered part of the Docklands area. To the west is Bermondsey and to the south-east Deptford.

Rotherhithe was a port from its earliest days until the 20th century and from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I until the early 20th Century it had in its day it had shipyards. The Surrey Docks were built at Rotherhithe, now closed as working docks, gentrified and renamed Surrey Quays.

The area of the Surrey Docks was included in the Docklands development area in the 1980s and the Docklands Light Railway threw a line to what was to become Surrey Quays, at which time this side of Rotherhithe was rapidly developed for the homes of the new City class. The Jubilee Line was extended to Rotherhithe in 1999 giving quick connections to the West End and to Canary Wharf, and the London Overground in 2010, providing a quick route to the City of London. The area is now a rapidly gentrifying residential and commuter area, with redevelopment focused around a new urban centre at Canada Water.

Name of the town

The name "Rotherhithe" derives from the Old English Hryðer hyð: cattle wharf. The first recorded use of this name was in about 1105, as Rederheia. In the past Rotherhithe was also known as Redriff or Redriffe, though until the early 19th century, this name was applied to the whole river front from St Saviour's Dock to Bull Head Dock.

The town

Rotherhithe village

Rotherhithe village, the old town, contains various historic buildings including the Brunel Engine House at the south end of the Thames Tunnel. At its heart is the parish church, St Mary's.

The docks

Albion Channel linking Canada Water with Surrey Water

Although the docks were closed and largely filled in during the 1980s, and have now been replaced by modern housing and commercial facilities, Rotherhithe is still given a large part of its character by its former maritime heritage. The largest surviving dock on the south bank, Greenland Dock, is the focal point for the southern part of the district, while there are many preserved wharves along the riverside at the north end of Rotherhithe.

Canada Dock (now renamed Canada Water) was the dock basin furthest away from the River Thames in the Surrey Docks complex, and it was linked to Albion Dock and Greenland Dock at its northern and south-eastern extremities by way of the Albion Canal. The remodelling of this dock has resulted in the northwest half of the dock being retained as an ornamental lake, now renamed Canada Water. The canal has remained as a walkway and water feature within the re-developed area.

As much of Rotherhithe was covered by the now-defunct Surrey Commercial Docks, the district is sometimes referred to as Surrey Docks or (since the late 1980s) Surrey Quays, though the latter name tends to be used more for the southern half of the peninsula. An eastern part, which became in effect an island when the docks were in use and locks open, is called "Downtown", which since the 1980s been quiet and suburban in nature.

Tunnels

Rotherhithe Tunnel entrance

Rotherhithe is joined to Middlesex under the Thames by three tunnels. The Thames Tunnel to Wapping was the first underwater tunnel in the world. Built by the Brunels originally to carry cross river freight, it became a pedestrian tunnel, due to the money running out to build the necessary ramps. It is now occupied by the London Overground network, which on 27 April 2010 started running trains on the route of the former East London Line.

The later Rotherhithe Tunnel (opened 1908) carries a two-lane road to Limehouse.

The Jubilee Line extension (opened 1999) has a railway tunnel to Canary Wharf in the Isle of Dogs.

King's Stairs Gardens

King's Stairs Gardens is a small park on the river towards the Bermondsey boundary. It is well known and often frequented by local people. In September 2011 Thames Water announced that they wanted to build an access shaft for the super-sewer Thames Tunnel. Due to local action by The Save King's Stairs Gardens Campaign, which collected over five thousand signatures, as of March 2011 it seems that Thames water will build the access shaft at an alternative site; providing that the local community is in agreement.

Local landmarks and history

Severn Islands leisure centre 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 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 Word 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.

When the roundabout facing the Rotherhithe Tunnel was redeveloped in the early 1980s, several nineteenth century buildings were demolished including a school and a nunnery. A public house described in an early twentieth century history of the area as one its oldest, was also demolished.

Nordic connection

St Olav's, the Norwegian church

The Finnish Church, Albion Street

Because much of the trade in the Surrey Docks was with Scandinavia and the Baltic region the area is still home to a thriving Scandinavian community. During Second World War Rotherhithe housed the Norwegian Government-in-Exile.

Originally established as seafarers' missions, Rotherhithe is home to a Norwegian, a Finnish and a Swedish church. Each provides a centre for the expatriate communities of those nations in London.

The Norwegian Church, St Olav's, was built in 1927. The weathervane on its spire is in the shape of a Viking ship. The Finnish Church was built in 1958. Both located in Albion Street, either side of Rotherhithe Library. 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 Kjaer & Richter, which 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.

Mayflower

In July 1620 the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe for Southampton on the south coast, to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage to New England. At this time the English Separatists, who later became known as the "Pilgrim Fathers" were mostly still living in the city of Leiden in the Netherlands. Here they hired a ship called the Speedwell to take them from Delfthaven in the Netherlands to Southampton to meet up with the Mayflower.

The ship's captain, Christopher Jones, died shortly after his return in 1621 and he is buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary's Church. The Mayflower sailed from near a public house called the Shippe in Rotherhithe Street, which was substantially rebuilt in the 18th century and is now named the Mayflower.

China Hall

On Lower Road, about half way between Surrey Quays and Canada Water stations is a public house called the China Hall, at one time it was the entrance to a riparian playhouse visited by Samuel Pepys and mentioned in his Diary. It is not know how long the theatre remained on the site, but it was reinvigorated in 1777 and during 1778 George Frederick Cooke acted there, but in the winter of 1779 it was destroyed in fire. The site of the theatre became a well known tea-gardens, with the "usual arbours and 'boxes'" during the Victorian period, but by the 1920s most of the gardens had been absorbed into the Surrey Commercial Docks as part of a timber yard.

Second World War

Like the rest of the London Docks, the Surrey Commercial Docks were targeted by the Luftwaffe. On 7 September 1940 on the first day of the London Blitz the deal yards of Surrey Docks were set ablaze. The raid ignited the timber in Quebec Yard causing the most intense single fire ever seen in Britain.

The old Rotherhithe Town Hall was first damaged when bombs landed near by in April 1941, and again in February and mid-June 1944. Later the same month (June 1944) it was very severely damaged by a direct hit by a V1 "doodlebug". In November 1944 it was further damaged by near misses only to be destroyed by one of the last V1s to land on London during the Second World War.

Norway's King Haakon VII and the majority of his parliament established a government in exile in Rotherhithe from June 1940 until June 1945.

Cultural references

• In Upstairs, Downstairs, the television series, the character James Bellamy stands as a Conservative candidate for the constituency of Rotherhithe East.
• In Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, Redriff was the birthplace Lemuel Gulliver and where his family waited for him.
• In Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, there is a lively depiction of a Rotherhithe slum district of the mid 19th century.
• The famous Gujarati poem, 'Rajashahi Ghodi', talks about a bicycle, allegorically a royal steed as it passes by the narrow by-lanes of Rotherhithe every morning, describing landmarks and monuments like the Mayflower Pub, the Picture Library and Southwark Park, along its way.
• A song from the musical Cats, Growltiger's Last Stand, mentions the cottagers of Rotherhithe.
• "The man from Rotherhithe" is an unnamed, recurring character in the long poem In Parenthesis by David Jones.
• Long-running ITV series London's Burning was based at local fire station "Dockhead" for the first few series, with most scenes filmed in Bermondsey and Rotherhithe.
• 2004-5 ITV drama series "The Brief" often filmed in Rotherhithe, with internal scenes filmed at the Mayflower pub and lead character Henry Farmer, played by Alan Davies, lived a few doors away.
• 2007 film "The Riddle", starring Vinnie Jones and Derek Jacobi, was largely filmed on location in Rotherhithe. It features the interior and exterior of the genuine Blacksmiths Arms, Rotherhithe, although the rear of the pub in the film was a temporary set built adjacent to the Downtown nightclub, close to the Surrey Docks Farm.
• In "The Adventure of The Dying Detective", Sherlock Holmes pretends to Dr Watson that he has contracted a contagious disease in Rotherhithe, while working on a case.

Transport

Rail

Rotherhithe is served by three stations. Near the river, in the north, Rotherhithe, formerly a London Underground station, has been re-built as a London Overground station, and re-opened on 27 April 2010, together with Surrey Quays to the south. In between lies Canada Water in central Rotherhithe, which now connects the London Overground (formerly East London line) and the Jubilee Line of the London Underground, as well as having a bus station.

Other nearby stations are Bermondsey (also on the Jubilee line), South Bermondsey railway station to the south west, and London Bridge railway station to the west.

Walking and cycling

The riverbank is path of the Richmond to Thames Barrier 28-mile section of the Thames Path through London. Most of the riverbank is accessible, apart from sections where warehouses and estates have established rights to the riverside.

Boats

Riverboats sail from Greenland Dock Pier. The Canary Wharf – Rotherhithe Ferry crosses from Hilton Docklands Pier.

Outside links

• BBC London Coast – Rotherhithe Walk
• Canada Water Campaign
• Friends of Russia Dock Woodland
• LDDC Completion Booklets Surrey Docks
• London Voices Rotherhithe, Surrey Docks, Surrey Quays, London SE16
• Londonist Discovers Rotherhithe Picture Research Library
• Maritime Rotherhithe Walk A: Transport, Industry and the Docks by Stuart Rankin, Southwark, 2004, ISBN 090584936X
• Maritime Rotherhithe Walk B: Shipyards, Granaries and Wharves by Stuart Rankin, Southwark, 2004, ISBN ISBN 090584937X
• Save King's Stairs Gardens Campaign
• The Finnish Church in London
• The National Archives database record for St Olave's Hospital

References

History

• British History Online The Environs of London: volume 1, Rotherhithe, County of Surrey, pp. 470–477, Daniel Lysons, 1792
• British History Online Old and New London: Volume 6, Rotherhithe, pp. 134–142, Edward Walford, 1878
• British History Online A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 4, Parishes: Rotherhithe, pp. 83–92, H.E. Malden (editor), 1912,
• Henden, Stephen. "V1 & V2 logs SE16 Rotherhithe and Bermondsey". Flying Bombs and Rockets. http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com/V1_summary_se16.html. Retrieved 26 November 2010.