Sunday, June 8, 2025

Crossing the River -stairs and ferries

 


Everyone in South East London knows that the other side of the river is a foreign land where dragons exist, at the very least.  However there are usually good reasons for having to go there- and sometimes them come over here! So ways of crossing the River had been found over thousands of years.  Initially it would have been by small boats but in the 20th century we have tunnels and talk of bridges.

An important – and now almost forgotten – piece of riverside infrastructure also appears to have been formalised in the sixteenth century.  These are the riverside stairs. Greenwich has many remaining sets of these stairs, most are still public rights of way, and legally they must not be closed or locked up.  In central London these were regularised in 1514 and levels for fares were set. The Watermen’s Company was set up in 1555 partly as a regularity body to monitor and license the boatman and manage apprenticeships. The stairs are legal ‘plying places’ where boatmen could pick up and drop passengers – a sort of river based taxi service. This system lasted well into the 19th – and I am not aware that it has ever formally ended. Workers on modern riverboats – including, for instance the Woolwich Ferry are required to be watermen.  As for the stairs down onto the foreshore which lie all along the Greenwich and Woolwich riverside, some may be dateable, many not. In the 21st century they are still seen as a vital way of accessing the foreshore and the river and local authorities are required to keep them in good order.[1]

There were also many ferries[2] and rights to run such ferries owned by waterman and others.  Increasingly in the 18th and 19th centuries these became more formally structured and later also a mechanized and in the ownership of corporate bodies

Bridges were built up river of the Tower from a 17th century onwards most were privately constructed toll bridges – the exception being those owned by the Corporation of the City of London in the guise of Bridge House, and this of course includes the ancient London Bridge.  It became clear that free crossings were needed and tolls were bought out in the 19th century by various means. So upriver bridges became free.  It was then seen that there was a necessity for crossings of the river downriver of the Tower and it was said in Parliament that it was desirable that these should be free – the Greenwich MP David Salomans an important influence in this.  Following this, Bridge House was able to fund the construction of Tower Bridge but it was down to the Metropolitan Board of Works to look at crossings further down river. The first meeting of the London County Council gave consent for the construction of Blackwall Tunnel and this was followed soon after by the two foot tunnels in Greenwich and Woolwich as well as the Free Ferry.[3]  These crossings all persist and re heavily used – the Blackwall Tunnel, which was doubled in the 1960s, in particular. New crossings are very much under review and new bridges and tunnels under consideration for repair

They end the following is a brief gazetteer of some of the public crossing points along the Greenwich riverside – going downriver from the Greenwich and Lewisham Boundary. This is about going across the river not down it – clearly there were also ‘long ferry’ services going up and down the river – continued by today’s Clipper Service. There was also a ferry service across Deptford Creek – these will be dealt with elsewhere.

Upper Watergate Stairs. These Waterman’s Stairs are at the end of Watergate Street which runs alongside what was the Dockyard Wall to the river – this is currently the Greenwich/Lewisham boundary – the ‘Shipwrights Palace’ is the other side of the wall.  The stairs  are shown on hown on Sir John Evelyn's map of 1623 and the Roque Map of 1746 but were once called the Kings Stairs or Kings Street Stairs.[4] 

Deptford Ferry.  This is said to have run from here

The stairs are thought to have been the site of a pier for the Deptford Pier Junction Railway which was a scheme for expansion of London and Greenwich Railway. passengers would change from the railway to a boat to continue their journey. It is thought that the Gun Tavern here was demolished. Work may also have included the arcading on the river frontage of what is now Payne’s Wharf. The scheme was abandoned by 1846. A new Act of Parliament allowed the pier to be demolished and new stairs erected.[5]

The site to the left was later the site of Penn, marine engine builders lower  shop – there main works was in Blackheath Hill. A cast iron bollard inscribed 'J. Penn & Son Deptford' rests against the wall of  the stairs at the junction with Watergate Street.[6]

The stairs are in good condition and recently renovated by a developer. There is now a safety rail installed.[7]

 

Deptford Ferry. In 1845 a new ferry service began from Cocoa Nut Stairs on the Isle of Dogs. The Company of Watermen published a list of prices from there to other sets of stairs, including these. In 1885 the Metropolitan Board of Works proposed a steam ferry from here to the Isle of Dogs, but this was defeated. The ferry closed with the opening of the Greenwich Foot Tunnel. A double line of wooden posts is said to have survived from the causeway of the Deptford Ferry. [8]

 

Middle Watergate Stairs.  These are shown on the  Roque map but have since disappeared.[9] They were once called Great Thames Street. It appears to have disappeared in the late 1830s as the Deptford Pier scheme bought up riverside land.[10] It is being reinsated by a developer as “Wharf Street. [11]A pub there was called The Unicorn.[12]

 

Lower Watergate Stairs. These are shown on the Roque map but have now disappeared. There is a draw dock on the site built in 1842 now in use by the Ahoy Centre.

 

Greenwich Ferry. This is a long and difficult story. THere had been a ferry to Greenwich for many centuries whch ran from  the Ferry House on the Isle of Dogs but which appears to have run to a variety of places on the south bank,[13] The name Potter’s Ferry is first mentioned in a lease of 1626 to Nowell Warner of Greenwich. The Warners who were the Royal Bargemasters were connected with this ferry over 150 years and in 1676 purchased it outright,but in 1762, sold it to a group of Greenwich watermen, ‘The Greenwich Watermen and Watermens’s Company’. There were a series of disputes and in 1776 the ferry was run by The Isle of Dogs Ferry Society with exclusive rights to run the ferry which they defended vigorously. They seem to have used Garden Stairs, but also Wood Wharf – hence ‘Horseferry Road’ which now accesses the riverside.[14] It is also described as the Potter’s Ferry Society[15]. It has been suggested that they originated in a group of riverside pottery workers.[16] The ferrying of horses and cattle appears to have been discontinued in the 18th but the opening of the West India Docks meant a regular horse-ferry was needed. An act of 1812 set up the Poplar and Greenwich Ferry Company going from the Ferry House on the Isle of Dogs to Greenwich, near or at Wood Wharf.[17] It shared their landing place with the Potter’s Ferry Society who twice destroyed the company’s toll-gates-claiming that prospective passengers were using the Deptford Ferry in preference to Potter’s Ferry, to avoid having to pay the road toll . In 1878 the society sold out to private operators and was itself subsequently dissolved. The ferry was leased to the Thames Steamboat Company and from them to the London and Blackwall Railway Company which became part of the Great Eastern Railway Company.  It is said to have transported 1,300,000 passengers annually in the late nineteenth century. [18]  A small steamer ran a foot ferry service for them from the area which is now Greenwich Pier.[19]

Wood Wharf Ferry.[20] On 13th February an ambitious ferry operation system opened here. It consisted of a concrete slip 350ft long and 53ft wide from the end of Horseferry Road going down to the foreshore. A landing stage weighing 270 tons travelled up and down this slip on rails with the flood and ebb of the tide Two travelling platforms each weighing 125 tons shuttled back and forth between the end of Horseferry Road and the landing stage transferring passengers, horses and carriages in either direction. A duplicate of this operated on the opposite shore and between two these landing stages steamed two purpose built ferries. The ferries were double ended with steam driven twin screws at each end. Underneath the end of Horseferry Road a large chamber housed steam engines which through a system of gearing turned drums so as to draw the landing stage and travelling platforms up and down the slip by means of steel cables. the landing stage and platforms were counterbalanced by 20 ton weights which travelled down three iron lined shafts which are sunk over 145ft into ground beneath the chamber.[21] the ferry was never a commercial success principally amd closed around 1890 and 1892. The site later became Pope and Bond’s boat repair yard but has now been redeveloped with flats and a pub.

Billingsgate Stairs.  These are shown on the Roque Map but are considerably older and were extant in the middle ages.  It is not known why they have the same name as the dock  in the City of London but both have a concentration on the fishing trade.  The dock lies today on the up river side of Greenwich pier.  After the construction of the Tudor Royal palace this area became extremely congested the only route to the dock was a small lane off Greenwich Church Street. In time the whole area around this lane became known as Billingsgate.  The fishing boats that used the dock came from families who live nearby and  increasing the Greenwich fishermen went further afield  going up the east coast to Shetland and the Icelandic coast to catch cod.  In the 19th century as Greenwich was redeveloped their the Greenwich fishing industry began to decline and when the Great Grimsby Dock Company was formed in 1845 a move there began. James Meadows became an agent in Grimsby for the Greenwich fishermen who dropped off their catch for sale at Grimsby other moved there taking their boars with them.  It had been estimated that there had been 30 to 40 Greenwich fishermen working in Arctic waters. By 1871 only one remained. the dock and rebuilt towards the end of the 19th century and was used by Noakes hay and straw business. Moe changes were made to the area by the constructin of the Greenwich foot tunnel in 1902[22] and later by Second World War bombing.                              

 

Greenwich Foot Tunnel. It was intended that this should replace ferry services as a means of crossing the river without charge. The London County Council, acquired an enabling Act of Parliament for a foot tunnel in 1897.  The Greenwich tunnel was designed by Sir Alexander Binnie and the contractors were J. Cochrane and Sons and work began in 1899. It opened in 1902. The tunnelling shield used was 14ft 6in in length with 13 segments at the cutting edge, each segment with two 6inch teeth. Care was also taken with the health of the men employed and new apparatus was designed to remove ‘carbonic acid’ from the air and also to ventilate generally. As the tunnel progressed it is said that the ‘rate of progress has been exceptionally rapid’ – 10ft per working day. The tunnel is accessed via a shaft at each end in which there is a now lift and a spiral staircases– 88 steps at Poplar and 100 at Greenwich.  Access to the shafts is gained via a brick entrance rotunda below a glass dome.  The walls of these rotundae are built over the outer edge of caissons which hold the shafts; the lift and stair structures hang from the caisson, and do not bear structurally on the horizontal surface at the base of the shafts.   The caissons themselves are constructedof two steel skins 43ft in external diameter with four foot of concrete between outside and inside skins. The lift motor rooms are housed on a floor above the lift shafts in the rotundas. During the Second World War the Greenwich tunnel was bombed and a narrowed section near the north end remains lined directly with metal plates bereft of lining and tiles – the result of an emergency wartime repair. Over the doorway f t the Greenwich emtrance is a bronze plaque which commemorates the completion of the work. These are now listed Grade II. The London County Council originally managed these tunnels and this responsibility passed in due course to the Greater London Council. Following the demise of that authority in the 1980s Greenwich Council took over the management of both foot tunnels on behalf of the three constituent boroughs – Greenwich, Tower Hamlets and Newham.[23]

Garden Stairs. These are alongside the foot tunnel entrance. Potter’s Ferry, originated at Billingsgate but was transferred to Garden Stairs in 1672.[24] 'The Salutation Tavern and 'The Peter Boat', both on the waterfront at the bottom of Greenwich Church Street were on either side of Garden Stairs. By 1863 th4e sitais were a large flight in stone on the built-up river wall at the west end of Greenwich Pier, where they still exist today.[25]

 Greenwich Pier. The original Act of Parliament for the Greenwich Pier Company was passed in 1836. 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. In 1954 part of the up stream end of the pier was dismantled to allow the Cutty Sark into its dock.Generally it seems that currently the foreshore level is higher than it was in the past - important information because the level of the foreshore affects the stability of the pier wall. - the upstream corner and en
d wall of the pier date from 1955 - the main pier frontage dates from after 1843 - the downstream corner and side wall  probably date from 1836 - the level of the river bed in front of the pier has not changed significantly in 75 years

Ship Stairs. These are shown on the Roque Map.  In 1807 iron gates were installed to and in 1837 a petition from the United Greenwich Watermen was against a bill for building a Greenwich give a steam boat traffic pier. They were destroyed by enemy action in 1941 along with the Sship Tavern. The site is now part of the dry dock in which Cutty Sark is based

 

Queens Stairs or Royal Stairs. This is the central Watergate to the Royal Hospital and is decorated with their badge. The gates date from 1849 and are designed to frame the Grand Vista from the river to the Observatory.[26]  The foreshore here has been subject to close archaeological examination and Tudor and medieval structures found. Howeverr the embankment on which the gates and walk rest was built by Wren for the Royal Hospital.

 

Lower Royal Naval College Stairs. Also called Queens Stairs. These are at the end of the King William Walk and outside the Trafalgar Tavern with a statue of Nelson looking down at them. They were once called Crane Stairs and are on the Roque Map. They were the sitre of a crane belonging to the Royal Hospital shown on the Canaletto view of the Hospital c,1750

 

High Bridge Drawdock. This is now used by the two adjacent rowing clubs – there is a plaque to the Curlew Club on an adjacent building.   It is assumed there was a wharf here, with a ‘bridge’, hence ‘Bridge Street’ as the name of this part of East Street.

 

Trinity College Stairs. These are said to date from 1616. They are now bricked up and a plaque says “that the wall was “erected and the piles fixed” in the year 1817”. [27] In the 1870s this was Tnitity Hospital Wharf.

Golden Anchor Stairs.  Named for the Golden Anchor Pub which was here and shown on maps until the 1890s.[28]

East Greenwich Steamboat Pier.  The pier was built in 1845/6 by Coles Child and was apposite the Harbour Master’s House. A path leads to what was once the entrance to the office for the pier, which now, forms part of the Ballast Quay garden. The usage of this pier is not known but the mid-1840s were an era of intense competition among passenger steam boats companies and several short-lived piers were built. There were also standoffs with licensed watermen.  Any records of this pier are likely to have been confused with the better known and earlier Greenwich Pier in west Greenwich – since this one was so short-lived and obscure.[29]

Enderby’s Wharf Stairs aka Ferry Steps . These were used by the ferry to the cable ships. Design on them of cable manufacture undertaken in 2000s. [30]

Agamemnon Stairs . These are mentioned in some 19th century documents about ferries from the Isle of Dogs.[31]  Otherwise they are a complete mystery. HMS Agamemnon was loaded with cable from Enderby Wharf in 1857  and this may be the site mentioned.[32]

Cruise Liner Terminal. Planned for Enderby Wharf. The proposed site is now for sale.

Cubitt’s Ferry.  William Cubitt was a developer in the 19th on the Isle of Dogs. In 1857 he built a pier near his developments to take the new residents in his developments to go to Greenwich. But instead it was used by dock workers so the Society of Greenwich Watermen objected. Not sure where it went to in Greenwich – may have been by Morden Wharf which is opposite Cubitt Town. There was a lot of litigation. By 1891 it had stopped running and the pier was demolished.[33]

 

Ordinance Draw Dock. This was constructed by South Metropolitan Gas Company as compensation for the loss of riverside access when the East Greenwich Gas Works was built.[34]  It remains a public right of way, despite ‘security’ restrictions imposed by the authorities at the Millennium Dome,.

Ordinance Jetty. Built by the South Metroplitan Gas Company for their Ordinance Wharf Tar Works. Was the site of a Temperly Transporter.  It has recently passed into the ownership of Aurora Hotels who intend to refurbish it for boat services for their residents.

Blackwall Tunnel. The, currently northbound, ‘old’ tunnel  was initially designed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette but with the inauguration of the London County Council in 1889, a new plan was drawn up by Alexander Binnie, the Council’s Engineer. This was for a single tunnel for two lines of vehicles and foot-passengers. It was, of course, to be free for all to use. The tunnel was driven through water-bearing strata by a Greathead shield and compressed air - the first time these techniques had been combined. It was ceremonially opened by HRH the Prince of Wales in 1897.[35]

Blackwall Tunnel. The southbound ‘new’ tunnel. in the late 1930s the London County Council planned a second tunnel but work did not begin until 1958. It eventually opened in 1969.[36]

North Greenwich Pier. This was originally called Queen Elizabeth pier. It is on the site of the main jetty for the South Metropolitan Gas Works constructed in the 1880s. [37]  Some piers of the original jetty remain with the Gorman “Quantum Cloud” art work on them. The new pier was designed by architect Richard Rogers Partnership with Beckett Rankine as the engineer and Costain as main contractor. The most striking feature of the pier is its 87 metre long, 160 tonne, bowstring canting brow which, unusually, is supported on three bearings.[38]  It handles the clipper services and the ferry to Trinity Buoy Wharf.

Ferry to Trinity Buoy Wharf. A ferry service operated by Thames Clippers runs between Trinity Buoy Wharf and North Greenwich pier.[39] Its run by an old police boat called Predator II. Its main job is as a crew shuttle for Thames Clippers, which is based at Trinity Buoy Wharf. [40][41]

The Cable Car. This calls itself the Emirates Air Line and was installed by B.Johnson. It was built by Dopplemayr with sponsorship from the airline Emirates. It opened on 28 June 2012 and is operated by Transport for London. It comprises a 1-kilometre gondola line that crosses the Thames.[42]

Pilot’s Causeway. This was licenced to George Russell in 1801 as part of the infrastructure for the East Greenwich Tide Mill.  The original wooden causeway and stairs was replaced by concrete in the 1950s.[43] It was removed by the New Millennium Experience Company as part of their effort to remove all trace of the past.

Anchor and Hope Stairs. Site of Castle Ship breakers. One of this comapny’s works was sited here on the foreshore 1860s as an Admiralty approved ship breaking yard.. Small sheds were built here in 1875 to be replaced with Hennebique-system reinforced-concrete structures in 1912–14. the wharf was kept open for the laying out of old timbers, including figureheads .. The site was said to have one of the largest stocks of timber on the river and teak was supplied to the Arsenal. It was also used to make garden furniture including for the grounds of Buckingham Palace. It is said the timber for the Liberty Store in Regent Street came from here.  Recent archaeological investigation on the site has identified many timbers here – piles of which still lie around the area.[44]

Barrier Gardens Pier. This is is owned and managed by the Port of London Authority  who useit  a base for their Driftwood craft and upper river harbour patrol vessels. The pier is also used by external companies to moor at and embark/disembark passengers to the Thames Barrier Visitor Centre. It was formerly used by Sargeant Brothers

Trinity stairs and Warspite Road. The name of Trinity Road was changed to name it after the training ship Warspite which was moored here.  Ferry Wharf was here and also Ferry Road. However this is sometimes referred to as Charlton Pier.

The Western Ferry. This was set up in  1811 and quickly failed. ‘Old Ballast Wharf’ or old ‘Sand Wharf’  are stated in the preamble.  It may have been started by a whafinger called Long and Sarah Blight going from here to Plaistow marshes. The Maryon Wilson family from Charlton House were involved.[45]  They acquired a licence for it in 1818. There was a ferry house which later became the Marquis of Wellington pub.  Eventually wound up in 1844 but had been a disaster for a long time with the Company Clerk/attorney in a deptors prison.[46]

Woolwich dockyard stairs. A Gun battery  was built in 1847 at the central landing place. It is brick and granite and fitted with gun carriages and platforms made in the Royal Arsenal. . Replacement wrought-iron gun carriages, for resited guns, were made by John Slough in 2005.

Woolwich Free Ferry.  This was planned by the Metropolitan Board of Works who has been petitioned by the Woolwich Board who were keen for it to happen. The Act was passed in 1885.  It opened in 1889 to great celebrations. The first ferries were the side-loading paddle steamers Gordon, Duncan and Hutton, named after General Gordon, who had local connections, Colonel Francis Duncan MP and mathematician Charles Hutton who had worked at the Royal Military Academy. Each was powered by a condensing engine manufactured by John Penn & Son of Greenwich. This fleet was replaced, in 1923 with The Squire, named after a former Woolwich mayor, and in 1930 with the Will Crooks, after Woolwich's first Labour MP and the John Benn, Liberal MP for Wapping and a member of the London County Council. The current three vessels were built in Dundee in 1963, and were named John Burns, the first Labour Cabinet Member, Ernest Bevin, local trade union organiser and government minister and James Newman, another Woolwich mayor. These ferries feature Voith Schneider propulsion systems for maneuverability. A cycloidal propeller is fitted centrally at either end, and each is driven by a 500bhp 7-cylinder Mirrlees National diesel engine. The original southern ferry approach at the end of Nile Street was flanked by blind-arcaded walls. There was also a new river wall from which two lattice-girder steel fall-bridges ran which could be hydraulically operated. These gave onto the floating pontoon or landing stage, of wrought iron and timber. In 1900 this was widened and equipped with public lavatories. In the late 1950s problems generated by demand for the ferry from larger and more numerous vehicles led to new roads and the ferry approach being moved from here to a new road at the end of the south circular. [47]

Ferry Approach The ferry approach is the ramp from the bottom of John Wilson Street on to the ferry boats. It was designed to handle the new rapid end loading diesel ferries which came in 1964. It was built by the Greater London Council. The concrete structure curves so that ferries are loaded in the same place as their side loading predecessors.  There are two tall concrete loading ramps. It opened in 1966. [48]

Hog lane stairs. These are shown on the  Roque Map and the Lower Road turnpike ends here.. Also known as Green Dragon Stairs and Nile Street Stairs. The stairs remain parallel to the river, near the Foot Tunnel but sealed off from the footpath. They were rebuilt in 1970 to replace stairs that extended onto the foreshore and remains remnants of the paved causeway can still be seen at low tide

Foot tunnel. This was built by the London County Council in 1911 as part of a programme of free river crossings in east London. It was built without the Greathead shield and designed by Council engineer Maurice Fitzmaurice who had taken over from Binnie as Chief Engineer to the County council in 1901. It was and built by Walter Scott and Middleton. It is said that the provision of the tunnel owned much to the efforts of Will Crooks, who had been Chair of the LCC Bridges Committee in 1898 when, it is said, the Greenwich Tunnel was planned.   It is lined with cast iron segments and is 500 metres long. It is similar to the Greenwich tunnel but on a less than lavish scale. There is a circular entrance building and access is by lift - installed after the opening - or by a flight of stairs.  These buildings ae of red brick on a plinth of blue engineering brick, and above the parapet is a conical roof with circular copper clad lantern. The lifts were replaced in 1954 and again in 2014.[49]

The Woolwich tunnel was the second to be planned here although information on this first attempt is hard to find. It appears to have been begun in 1877 under Mr. Gilbert, engineer, with Messrs. Sharp as contractors.[50]  It is said that it resulted from an accident on the Thames were eight people were drowned trying to cross the river.[51] It was to run from near the Great Eastern Railway station in North Woolwich and terminate in Woolwich High Street accessed by ‘an enclosed road which would take four people walking abreast.   The press comment that it would be very useful to take troops and artillery guns across the river but by 1879 work was ‘in abeyance’. [52]   

Bell Water Gate. The Watergate and stairs were the main landing place for the town and is now the last survivor of a number of river stairs. It was repaired by the parish in 1824 and now leads to a paved causeway. It takes its name from Bell Tavern, now gone. The old slipway was also used as a coal wharf in the 19th. In the 19th it is said there were ‘five houses three are public houses, one a beer house and one a coffee house, "a noted brothel". It is shown on the  Roque Map. It was the site of the now demolished Crown and Cushion Pub.[53] Foot tunnel attempt. This was the site of an attempt to build a foot tunnel river crossing in 1873. This would have involved a ramped entrance and Henry Greathead was involved, but the scheme ultimately failed.[54]

Penny Ferry. This was the Great Eastern Railway Company’s ferry service which used a jetty in Globe Lane. A pier had been built at Roffs Whard in 1840 for the Woolwich Steam Packet Service and from 1847 by a paddleboat ferry service from North Woolwich.  This service ended in 1908.[55]

Blue Anchor stairs. These were at the end of Globe Lane, previously called Tolentree stairs in 1745, or Toddy Tree or possibly Golden Anchor in 1707, or Parish Water Gate in 1807. They have now gone and the site was encroached on by the Woolwich Steam Packet Co.

Ship and Half Moon Stairs. On the Roque Map.  Also called Sheep or Ship Stairs. They were on the edge of the Arsenal at the end of what was originally the bit of Warren Lane which ran to the river. Later called Ship and Half Moon Lane.  This was included a public draw dock and a ferry from 1839. The ferry was a long established one running from Barge House on the north bank. This may have been the site of the ancient ferry owned by Lesnes Abbey.[56]  It was a horse ferry and  had a horse raft and closed when the free ferry opened.[57]

Arsenal or military ferry. This was set up in 1801.[58] It ran from the military landing stage on the Arsenal site to Old Barge House.

 



[1] Cotterell Licensed River Thames Watermen & Lightermen. Web site

[2] A friend, sadly no longer with us, told me he had identified over 30 ferries between Rotherhithe and Woolwich. Many of these would have been short lived, but many others more informal arrangements.

[3] My paper on this is pending publication in the Transactions of a 2016 River Crossings Syumposium in the Museum of London.

[4] Brown. The Thirty Nine Steps.Bygone Kent 17/3

[5] http://shipwrightspalace.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/john-penn-marine-engineers-deptford-and.html

[6] British Listed Buildings. Web site

[7] https://davidneat.wordpress.com/thames-foreshore/deptford-upper-watergate-stairs-st-georges-stairs/

[8] Tucker. Ferries of the Lower Thames

[9] Brown

[10] http://www.olddeptfordhistory.com/2012/05/lost-village-center-of-deptford.html

[11] Evening Standard report

[12][12] http://www.pubology.co.uk/indexes/se8.html

[13] Tucker

[14] Tucker

[15] The Isle of Dogs. Island History Project

[16] Brown

[17] Tucker

[18] National Maritime Museum. Web site up F

[19] Tucker

[20][20] Wood Wharf. Deptford Discovery. This report cites as a source The Engineer 2nd December 1892 also report at http://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/wood-wharf-report-1998.html

[21] The late Clive Chambers dived into these chambers to attempt to photograph the machinery.

[22] Ludlow. Billingsgate Dock. Bygone Kent 4/2

[23] Mills The Greenwich Foot Tunnel. Subterranea No.37 December 2014

[24] Greenwich Phantom. Web site

[25] NMM

[26] Spurgeon. Discover Greenwich

[27] https://alondoninheritance.com/the-thames/3252/

[28] Pub History. Web site

[29] Edith Streets. Web site.   www.ballastquay.com

[30] http://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-steps-at-enderbys-and-whole-issue.html

[31] Law Journal Reports. Second Series Vol 35

[32] Wikipedia. Agamemnon

[33] Tucker

[34] Report on House of Lords Committee on the South Metropolitan Gas Co. Bill, 1881.

[35] Survey of London.

[36] Survey of London.

[37]South Met. Gas. A Century of Gas in South London

[38] Wikipedia. North Greenwich Pier

[39] On the Thames. Web site

[40] 853 Blog.

[42] Wikipedia.

[43] Bridgland. Bygone Kent 18/2

[44][44] http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/

[45] Tucker

[46] Survey of London

[47] Survey of Woolwich (and numerous other books)

[48]Survey of Woolwich

[49] Mills. Subterranea

[50] Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 25th August 1876

[51] Sheffield Dally Telegraph 1st September 1876

[52][52] Northampton Mercury 9th June 1977

[53] Survey of Woolwich

[54] Mills. Subterranea

[55] Survey of Woolwich

[56] Tucker

[57] Survey of Woolwich

[58] Survey of London

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