GREENWICH PIER

 

 

In the last article on our walk along the Greenwich riverside we were at the Greenwich Foot Tunnel, and before that at Billingsgate Dock.  Our riverside walk now takes us through what is now Cutty Sark Gardens through the heart of Tourist Greenwich – on our way to Royal Greenwich riverside. However we are not tourists but serious people looking at the past of this riverside. Until the Second World War this was still a working area, although, clearly the pier and the pubs were attracting an increased tripper trade – as it had for many yrs.  So, what are we looking at – we start at a set of waterman’s stairs by the foot tunnel and – in or imaginations walk eastwards past the pier.  This now an open area but in the past we would have been walking down lanes with buildings which serviced river activities, and a number of pubs – including one which was particularly big and important. We would have passed another set of stairs and small dock, a fish market and then the ‘royal’ area.  In the days when this was a working palace, under the Tudors and Stuarts, this would have been an area with service and other buildings associated with maintenance and government activities.

So, we begin at the set of watermen’s stairs near the Foot tunnel.  These stairs give access to the foreshore and were also were licensed watermen could pick up and leave passenger s – plying for hire in exactly the same way as today’s black cabs.  These are called ‘Garden Stairs; and are very ancient, dating back to at least the fifteenth century.  It is said that they were originally called ‘Skarne’ or ‘Skerne ‘ Stairs after an Elizabethan resident and that ‘Garden’ is a corruption of this – although I must say I can’t turn Skerne; into anything like ‘Garden’. 

These stairs were also used by ferry services. The history of Greenwich ferries is one of prolonged aggravation of various sorts and, as we have seen the ferry terminal moved to the end of the Horseferry Road in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  There are various prints by Thomas Rowlandson from the early 19^th century showing people apparently arriing in Greenwich from boats.  Also shown is Salutation Tavern – whose sign is shown in the drawings and this, stood at the top of Garden Stairs.   In one of these drawings people arriving are shown as climbing the stairs and together with spectators and others most are behaving in a respectable and decent manner. The other prints show a range of different activities.

Note all these passengers were heading for the pub.  Before the pier was built a lane ran along here, parallel to the river and in front of where the pier is now.  In a fictionalised account by Captain Marryat, Fisher Lane is described as “a narrow strait rejoicing in a common gutter running through its centre and .... the entrance to a shipwright's yard chiefly for the repair and building fishing smacks ,,, general receptacle for the boat's gear and fishing tackle and used by the fishing vessels” . Captain Marryat called the pub as ‘The White Nag’ and there was a White Horse pub in Fisher Lane. There were several other pubs, one being The Salutation as shown by Rowlandson at No.1. Garden Stairs. – and from his drawings appears to be, well, lively.  Lair The Buffalo's Head was also at Garden Stairs. Also in Fisher Lane was Lord Ligonier’s Head. In 1839 at Ship Dock at the eastern end of Fisher Lane were the Crown and Anchor, The Red Lion, and The Chest. 

Also at Ship Dock, but far too grand to be listed with the taverns, was The Ship Hotel. This was eventually a large and imposing building and one of the places where the famous ministerial whitebait suppers were held after they had moved to Greenwich from their original hotel in Dagenham.  The  Ship-was eventually destroyed in a  Second World War bombing raid – and thus created an empty space to be filled  the Cutty Sark ship in 1952.

Today the major reiveride structure is the Pier whic dates from 1836 –althogh clearl it as een rebult nd cang dover th ears.

 

the property of Sir Richard Dobson, surgeon to the Royal Hospital and John Sutton, Esq., two of ttie largest shareholders

The document pieces together a history of the Pier.  The original Act of Parliament for the Greenwich Pier Company was passed in 1836. This was for a pier 175 feet long sited upon the present upstream portion of the pier. Later that year the Act was amended to allow the company to extend down stream over land owned by Greenwich Hospital and the Ship Tavern.

 

In 1843 dredging in front of the pier was reported to lead to a sudden collapse on 16th May - the foundations were distorted and the toe of the riverside face of the pier had moved outwards. This was illustrated in the Pictorial Times.   The pier appears to have been reconstructed but no documentation on this has been found.