Creek Bridge Wharf - Dowells

 

Having left the Greenwich Riverside this series of articles is now turning south to travel down Deptford Creek to Lewisham, and, hopefully, travel back up.  Last week we stood at the point at which the Creek joins the Thames, where there was once a gas works.  We were also reminded that what we call ‘Deptford Creek’ is really the last mile or so of the River Ravensbourne.

 

Continuing our walk southwards down Dreadnought Walk we passed Admiral Tower and eventually turned left along an inlet and eventually into the paved area turns into a road - Dowells Street.   We need to keep on to the section which runs alongside the Creek and not turn into the estate.  ‘Dowells’, as a name, at least has some connection to the area here, unlike the Admiral, as we will see.  Pre-1800 this walk was just called ‘Sea Wall’. The ‘Road to Greenwich’ is shown on maps as on land to the east of the Creek starting from a gate at a point where the island nears the ‘Sea Wall’.   We are walking along the north side of a small dock.

 

The Creek itself is not straight as it stretches from the Thames to Lewisham. Here, just south of the Thames there is a bend in its length. Pre-1800 maps show an island in this bend, apparently used for growing osiers. Today where the island lay is roughly to the area of a dock which ran off the creek as far as Norway Street.  Presumably the island was removed and the space used for the inlet. Dowells Street is on the north side of it. Dowells Street was once called Dowells Wharf but originally it had a different name,  Creek Bridge Wharf. 

 

Creek Bridge Wharf is now fronted by a large supermarket – Waitrose –but it was once where coal was unloaded from ships and taken to where it would be used or sold. Conjecturally it was built and named for Creek Bridge which first opened around 1800 and was followed within twenty years by the stablisation of the marsh land on the Greenwich bank by Hugh Mackintosh.

 

Creek Bridge Wharf appears to have been used as a coal delivery wharf from the start. Collier ships from ports in north east England would call most days at the wharf with a cargo of coal. The coming and goings of these ships were sometimes listed in the daily papers together with details of how much their cargoes had sold for. 

 

The registration of these ships on the day of arrival at the London Coal Exchange was also given because taxes on all that coal had to be paid to the City of London.  Today, still, right around London – out in the country areas beyond the M25 – is a ring of white posts on every road into the metropolis.  If you passed these posts with a load of coal or wine you had to pay the City of London.  Later in the 19^th century the City used some of this money to buy out the tolls on London bridges so that people could cross the river for free.   This was part of an elaborate and sophisticated system to regulate the coal coming into London and the collier ships that brought it.  Readers might remember the article I did for Weekender on the Harbour Master’s House on Ballast Quay. 

 

Creek Bridge Wharf was occupied by a series of operators dealing mainly in coal.  In 1830 a William Allen gave an address on Creek Bridge Wharf when, I am afraid, he was in a deptor’s prison and he was then described as a ‘lighterman’ – someone who operated barges designed to take goods unloaded from incoming ships. This could be a chancy business as his imprisonment shows.  In 1840 he was back in business on the wharf and then advertised himself as a ‘building materials dealer & fire wood cutter’ as well as a ‘coal dealer’.  The businesses which used these wharves fulfilled many roles – they shifted cargos of coal, stone or whatever was needed and also ran a lighterage service and probably much else.  The coal ships though were a constant, coming and going on a daily basis.

 

Another later occupant of Creek Bridge Wharf was a John Gleaves described as a ‘stone and marble mason’. His other address was Church Hill, Woolwich - where there were no doubt many customers for monumental masonry having attended a burial in St.Mary’s churchyard..

 

In 1858 the wharf was occupied by another coal merchant, a John Walton. He is also listed as a ‘coke merchant’ which might imply a contract with a local gas company.  We know who some of his customers were because they were listed at the trial of his clerk, John Dodman, for embezzlement. They included: a Mr. Dowson, of Camberwell for two tons of coal ....... a Mr. Hunt, of Robert Street, Brixton Green, a grocer .........a  John Dawson, cheesemonger, Church-street, Camberwell ..............a John Moore, baker, Brixton ..............a George Garratt, baker, of Sydenham Common.

 

This is a most interesting list of shopkeepers - none of whom gave a Greenwich address. They are all some miles to the west, nearer to inner London and in the rapidly expanding suburban areas of Camberwell and Brixton. 

 

Dowells, after whom the surrounding roads are named today, were also coal merchants who were in occupantion on the wharf by the end of the 19^th century.  The firm had originally been a partnership between William Dowells and two William Milnes but from 1877 it was solely under the ownership of a William Milnes while retaining the company name of William Dowells & Co  The Milnes were weathy quarry owners in Devon and thus it is assumed that the wharf was run by professional staff.

 

It may have been them who installed a briquette making machine there in 1881 for the Universal Patent Fuel Machine Co. of Fenchurch Street.  This was used to compress coal tar together with coal dust and ‘slack’which would otherwise have gone to waste. It then produced brick shaped pieces which could be used as fuel in steam engine and other boilers.

 

Dowells handled coal from the Durham coal field which came to Deptford ‘by screw steamer’ where it was stored ‘by hydraulic machinery into hoppers’ on site for sale.  Their coal was advertised as ‘Lampton Wallsend’ and ‘Newbottle Wallsend’.  Lampton and Newbottle were Durham collieries.  ‘Wallsend’, although a place on the Tyne near Newcastle, was by then in use as a generic term implying coal of a certain quality – in 1844 it was said “the designation of "Wallsend coal" is .... a passport to the quickest sale and the highest prices ....and .. considered advantageous in the recommendation of coal. Indeed, this favourite and important cognomen has been assumed with respect to the coals shipped from the Wear, the Tees, and other districts”.

 

In the 1990s an advertisement for Dowells was uncovered on a wall alongside the Creek and became visible to traffic on the main road. Thus Dowells became known popularly as users of the wharf in the past, and the name stuck and was carried on as the site was ‘regenerated’.

 

In 1999 when ‘Deptford Creek. Surviving Regeneration’ was published there were still residential boats moored at Dowells Wharf. There were also suggestions that some sort of historic vessel could be moored in the small dock area, and these suggestions have been worked up by artist Peter Kent.

 

We need to get along Dowells Street and leave Creek Bridge Wharf.  At the end of the roadway there is a junction with Norway Street at a block of flats called Hargood House.  I have no idea why it is called that and would be grateful if someone could enlighten me. Turning right in Norway Street around the head of the inlet we can see ahead of us the main road, Creek Road. 

 

However before we go to Creek Road we need to look straight ahead to the other side of Norway Street, now occupied by Council flats.  In the 19^th century this was a most interesting site.