I have been thinking to myself that
now that the Livesey book is out and published what should I do next? I’ve been thinking about Public Utilities. The
story of how gradually facilities are put in – roads – water – electricity - and
build up the sort of communities we live in today. I wondered what the oldest
thing is in our area which could be described as a ‘public utility’.
I’m sure there are those of you out
there who will have ideas of your own about this and perhaps, if you do, you
can let me know -but I think the oldest thing I can think of is the A2, the
Roman Road. After that, the next thing
might be the watermen’s stairs along the river side.
It is said that the stairs date to a Royal Charter in the 12th century
when the system began of licenced watermen using them to ply for hire, like
taxis. But I guess they are
much much older. The boatmen were later licenced
by the Company of Watermen and
Lightermen of the River Thames which was formed by an Act of Parliament in 1555. They were supposed to ‘maintain the standard
of navigation amongst Watermen plying for hire as passenger carriers in the
tidal Thames above Gravesend’. So you went to the nearest stairs and
waited for a boat which would take you where you wanted to go, for a fee. That the
boatmen were licenced and had had to pass some sort of qualification was a sort
of guarantee of safety
However- a newspaper report from 1771:
Yesterday
a boat in which were eight passengers, besides the waterman, was overset off
the Upper Water-gate at Deptford, and the waterman, together with seven of the
company, were drowned in the sight of many other persons. This accident
happened just as the Man of War went off the stocks (i.e. was launched) and was
occasioned by the prodigious number of boats which were over crowded with passengers.
Many sets of stairs remain although the
taxi service on the river run by the Waterman has long gone, sadly. They not only give access to the foreshore but
they remain open because legally they are rights of way. There are numerous sets of stairs all the way
down the River on both sides and there are some very interesting pieces of
research on various websites about them but they are mainly about the ones in
central London and the City, I would very much recommend blogger - A London Inheritance on them https://alondoninheritance.com/thames-stairs-steps-and-landing-places/
There seems to be very little written
about the various sets of stairs in Greenwich. Most of what I found on-line is
what I’ve written myself! I will try and
cover then all eventually but I won’t have space here to write an awful lot but
I can begin at the beginning and carry on from there.
The first set of stairs is right on
what is now the border with Lewisham and I have written quite a bit about them
before - but I have found more stuff since, so let’s start with them. They are at the end of Upper Watergate in
Deptford. As they go down into the River
they run along what was the wall of what was the Royal Dockyard. This is now
the Greenwich and Lewisham border, but it is not a historic border - it’s one
was invented in the 1970s. This means there’s nothing particularly important
about the fact the stairs are at this point. The path to the stairs runs
between high walls - on the up River side behind the high wall is now a private
house, the Shipwrights Palace, which was a part of the Royal Dockyard, sold off.
On the down river side are flats replacing
wharves. In most books they will tell you that the buildings there were previously
Payne’s Wharf and that before that had been used by Penn’s the engineering
company from Blackheath Road. Both these
things are true but the site actually has a much older and more interesting
history - which I’ve detailed in my Greenwich Riverside book,
The stairs themselves seem originally to have been
called King’s Stairs – which may be a reference to the nearby Royal Dockyard.
I am not aware of the history of this site before about 1600. In 1623 it was called ‘Stone Wharf’ which might mean that it had previously been used to land stone for use in local buildings. In 2008 archaeologists found medieval buildings, a dovecot and also a well house there. From 1604 it was leased to the East India Company which was then newly set up – and then was used for storage of timber, guns and ammunition by contractors. In the early 19th it was used for ship building,
In 1835 a group of individuals associated with the London and Greenwich Railway, then being built, promoted an Act of Parliament for a ‘Deptford Pier’ here. We can be sure this is the correct site since the site runs from ‘the boundary wall of His Majesty’s dockyard’. This had been preceded y a prospectus for an elaborate and extensive area of grand buildings and promise of economic regeneration.
Soon after the Deptford Pier Junction Railway, with the same group of promoters, took over the wharf by compulsory purchase. London and Greenwich Railway were looking to expand and a riverboat pier seemed a logical next step. An Act of Parliament was obtained in 1836 and the site was sold to them. The idea was for passengers to by rail to the new pier and there get a boat. This may also have included the, subsequently listed, arcading along the riverfront which is now thought to be either by George Landmann, engineer to the London and Greenwich Railway, or by Lewis Cubitt who also had Deptford interests. Plans were also made for a steam ferry service but the project had collapsed by the early 1840s, following court cases and with debts of £25,000. It was abandoned by 1846. A new Act of Parliament allowed the pier to be demolished and new watermen’s stairs installed.
The site of the stairs was used in the 19th century as marker in races and other events like the annual Deptford Regatta
In 1845 a new ferry service to Deptford began from Cocoa Nut Stairs on the Isle of Dogs operated by the City charity and landowner, b Bridge House Estates. In 1885 the Metropolitan Board of Works proposed a steam ferry from here to the Isle of Dogs, but this was defeated. The 1845 ferry is said to have continued until the Second World War. Penn’s, were on the site of Stone Wharf from the early 1860s but may well have been there much earlier and when they left it became known as Payne’s Wharf. In the 21st century the site has been converted into flats and its listing status removed.
A double line of wooden posts on the foreshore is said to have survived from the causeway of the Deptford Ferry. One other thing remains. This is a cast iron bollard that stands by the main door to the new buildings. It is inscribed 'J. Penn and Co.
A blogger with an interest in the use of stone has shown
that the surface of the road to the
stairs is made from enormous cobbles, or even boulders he says - ‘the like I have not seen anywhere else in
London, and the pavement to the side appears to me of Purbeck Stone’ . He
thinks they are like the 18th century paving setts at The Temple Inn
and asks ‘was Upper Watergate Street paved with these boulders in the mid to
late 18th Century when the
new eastern wall of the Royal Dockyards was built’. He was not then aware of the plans for the
pier which could lead to other conclusions. https://buildinglondon.blog/2021/12/12/21-upper-watergate-street-the-oldest-street-surface-in-london/
It has been suggested that the stone pavings of Greenwich result
from the ballast from ships that had taken cargos to Australia and the far East
and came back with ballast to stablilise them.
I also wondered if the old name
of ‘Stone Wharf’ has any relevance here.
Either way the Upper Watergate Stairs
are still in place and available to use.
However they have a relatively history over the past two hundred years –
they are old, but not ancient.
GW 2024
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