Point Wharf -Hughan - Humpheries and Gray - Edmunds

 

Sometimes, talking to audiences about the Peninsula, or about Greenwich boat builders  – I will ask  the audience if someone can tell me the most recent date when a boat of any size was built  on the Peninsula riverside?  Someone in the audience will say - 1920?  ... or 1939?? .. Or, nervously, 1952? Or maybe 1960?  Well no!   All wrong. 

This piece is going to describe a few of the firms which were on Point Wharf – most of them boat builders.

Point Wharf is right up the top bit of the Peninsula - at Blackwall Point.  It is now home to Alex Chinnock's ‘Bullet from a Shooting Star’, you know,  the upside down Pylon.  I’ve always really liked that – it’s perhaps the thing I like best in all the newness of the Peninsula. Point Wharf is also home to new 'venue' called Magazine.  Personally I doubt Magazine knows that it is on Point Wharf.  That is a pity, because that knowledge could have informed Magazine in its construction and content - given it a bit of context and sense of place.  But never mind.  Let’s see what did go on there.

We’ve already looked at Shrubsalls barge builders who were there 1900 to 1943 and how in the Second World War they were forced onto the foreshore because Delta Metal wanted their buildings for war work.

Earlier, in 1876, the wharf had been leased to Edmunds by Morden College although I suspect he was there before that.  I also suspect he was wealthy and successful in his barge building although I don’t know what barges he built. In 1864 until his death in 1900 he lived in Carisbrooke Villa in Westcombe Hill, Blackheath.   In 1867 he had been charged with ‘furiously riding a horse to the danger of the public in Blackheath Village - although what that says about him I am really not sure.   In 1890 the wharf was badly damaged by fire when the ‘front and side front of wharf were damaged .... About twelve barges nearly destroyed, and one laden with reeds seriously damaged by fire and water’.   13 barges in for repair or being built all at the same time, that sounds like a prosperous works.

After Edmunds death the wharf was taken over by Humphery’s and Grey.  They were fundamentally a lighterage firm employing a fleet of tugs and lighters for work around the port.  Lighterage developed in the very early 19th century because of the need to move goods from ships standing in the river and carry them to their proper wharves. This was before the enclosed docks were built.  The construction of the docks was opposed by lightermen and their influence in the Watermen’s Company and the City of London won them major concession. This was the "free-water clause", first introduced into the West India Dock Act of 1799 and then into the Acts or all of the other docks. This said there was to be no charge for "lighters entering into the docks ... – thus lighters and barges had the same freedom in docks that they had on the open river.. It allowed ships to be loaded and unloaded over side, using lighters to transfer goods to riverside wharves rather than dock quays, so did no pay quay and dock warehouse fees. This reduced the docks' income and boosting the profits of their competitors.

A dumb barge in an almost standard design evolved and varied very little over the years except in size. In the early years lighters were propelled about the river by lightermen using sweeps, long oars, and using their knowledge of the tides and currents to make progress. Later small tugs could be used to tow them and strings of barges were a common sight with several under tow. In the 1950's there were 8,000 lighters in use on the Thames and over 250 lighterage tugs.

Humphry’s and Grey would have had a large fleet at East Greenwich – and they also built some vessels themselves. Two of these were:

Sir John.  A tug built in 1935 by Humphrey & Grey (Lighterage) Ltd at East Greenwich and fitted with a British Polar M34M diesel engine. She was eventually scrapped at Millwall in 1971.

John Wilson .  Built in 1932 by Humphrey & Grey Ltd., East Greenwich with a steam engine. She was sold to a Milford Haven firm and scrapped in 1965 by Haulbowline Industries Ltd., Passage West.

After the Second World War the wharf was taken over by Thomas Hughan. I know very little, if anything, about them, but they were on site for many years and built numerous vessels – some of which are very much still on the River today.  Here are some –picked at random from various web sites

Rhijaica. This was a twin engined motor boat built in 1965 and fitted out by Tough Brothers of Teddington. She was owned by the adventurer Roger Pilkington and called Thames Commodore. With him she cruised waterways and canals in the UK and Europe. By 2001 she was in the Isle of Wight and relaunched in 2011.

Chay Blyth. Built: 1972 and named after the Scottish yachtsman, the first person to sail single-handed, non-stop westwards around the world in 1971. She is described as "one of the more traditional passenger boats operating on the Thames” and is now owned by Westminster Party Boats

Valulla was built in 1973 and is a Greenwich Excursion vessel operated by Reeds River Cruise

The Mayflower Garden . This is owned by City Cruises. She was built in 1974 and refitted in 2007

The Pride of London was built in 1975 and is now owned by Cruise London Ltd.  She was built for private charter and sightseeing tours and originally called ‘Pride of Greenwich’ . She is described as a ‘stunning London venue’ and an ‘exclusive party boat’ for 245 passengers.

In a step away from party boats in 1977 they built three self propelling cement vessels for Ghana

But  you see the way things have gone. These are mainly boats designed for parties or short River cruises.  Finally in 1981– they built the one boat everyone will have seen on the River. This is the replica Mississippi paddle steamer, Elizabethan, for Greenwich Pleasure Craft – described as ‘a conference vessel’. 

Hughan closed in the late 1970s and in the 1980s Joe Jacubaits, a Lithuanian who lived in Charlton moved his boat building and repair business to Point Wharf,  having left his previous site in the Royals as the result of ‘regeneration’. In the late 1980s he employed 18 craftsmen and three apprentices with an order book full for the next two years.  Following more ‘regeneration’ artefacts from his business remained rusting on the riverside until removed during ‘tidying operations’ before the Millennium Exhibition.

I note however that a comment on Murky Depths says of Jacubaits “Some real shenanigans happened here!”    I did try to interview Joe once to know more about his yard.   I rang his number - he answered but said ‘can’t talk to you now. love, the bailiffs is ere’.

I feel however that boat building on the Greenwich riverside is only gone for a little while.  I remember the cheers locally and the happy smiles when a coaster was built in Woolwich at Cubows in the 1990s, before that site was regenerated too.  Sooner or later there will be a little patch of foreshore which the developers haven’t noticed ... and ...  and in any case, is anything being built down at Bay Wharf? 

So ,what was that latest boat of any size built on the Peninsula? She was built by Jacubaits for  Hobbs & Sons of Reading.. She is another Mississippi-styled  party boat – The New Orleans . Pictures of her at http://www.simplonpc.co.uk/Hobbs.html  She was built in 1991.