River Neckinger
The River Neckinger is a short river that rises in Southwark and flows down to St Saviour's Dock where it enters the River Thames. The river is now totally enclosed and runs underground.
Historical interest
In the 17th century convicted pirates were hanged at the mouth of the river (the corpses were placed on display as a deterrent further downstream at Blackwall Point). The name of the river is believed to derive from the term "devil's neckcloth" (which is to say a hangman's noose).
The natural mouth of the Neckinger formed a tidal creek, and the tides running up the Thames still creat a high tidal range here. In the Middle Ages the creek was developed into a dock, known as St Saviour’s Dock.
The area beside St Saviour's Dock was historically known as Jacob's Island. The area was once notoriously squalid and described as "The very capital of cholera" and "The Venice of drains" by the Morning Chronicle of 1849.
The environs are vividly described in Charles Dickens' novel, Oliver Twist in unrestrained terms: every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage: all these ornament the banks of Jacob's Island. One of Dickens's best-known grotesque characters, Bill Sikes, meets a violent death in the mud of St Saviour's Dock.
It is striking to contrast the decaying slum of Jacob’s Island to which only Dickens could do justice to the wealthy area which now stands beside the dock known as Shad Thames.
