Woolwich Ferry Gordon

 

I keep thinking it’s about time I did something about the Woolwich ferry. it’s a big institution which everybody knows about  - and that’s one of the problems which keeps me from doing it. There are hundreds and hundreds of sites on the net which tell you all about the ferry with varying degrees of accuracy and interest.

I have yet to find one which explains that it was one of the free crossings which the Government guaranteed to the people of east London to compensate for removing the tolls on the West London bridges thus giving free crossings to West Londoners whereas East Enders had to pay. The result was that the City of London built Tower Bridge, which of course is free, and Met. Board of Works built the Blackwall,  Rotherhithe and two foot tunnels - and of course the free ferry, of which they were very proud.

The ferry opened on the 23^rd of March 1889.  The London County Council had itself begun work only  only two days earlier. There were great rejoicings in Woolwich with flags and banners everywhere v and all sorts of jollifications all day.  Going through the press stories for its opening they’re all of them hugely congratulatory –  just one report in the local Kentish Independent does raise a few questions about allocation of tickets for the opening event and also the speaker. It says they expected it to be opened by Joseph Bazalgette but who they got was Lord Rosebery who declared the ferry open and ‘free for ever’. There were processions on both sides of the river followed by a banquet.

The ferry has continued ever since.  People from outside London always express amazement that  it still runs, but its still there, still free and - what’s more - we have just had a fourth generation of new boats.  There is an excellent, if very brief Greenwich Council web page about the various vessels which have been used on the crossing - all of them purpose built. I remember a TV show not so long ago which was looking at ferries around the world describing how amazingly high tech the Woolwich ferry was compared to most others - and here we were about to junk the boats because they were old. 

I thought it might be interesting to look at how the boats have changed over the years –in particular their names which might have something to say about how society was changing . In the 1880s they were  national heroes but ones who with local links, followed years later by important local politicians to today when one is understandably,  named for a young crew member killed in an accident - but the other is named for a sentimental singer.

For the first week or so that the ferry ran there was only one boat available. That was the ‘Gordon’ as the first of three which had been specially commissioned from R.H.Green and Co. just on the other side of the river at Blackwall.

It was named for General Charles Gordon – ‘Chinese Gordon’...’Gordon of Kartoum’ who had been killed in dramatic circumstances just four years earlier. He was very much a national hero with an incident filled and crowded career  but despite his reputation as the clean cut destroyer of colonial dissent he was  somewhat eccentric, to put it mildly . There have been many biographies but for quick look there is an excellent Wikipedia page which goes into enormous detail about his many doings -- leaving me to wonder what was really going on  with all this derring do - what supervision he had and if the government knew what he was getting up to.   I am also aware that there were other sides to him besides his military career but he had considerable local links with Woolwich and, as I will explain in a moment, with both Greenwich and Gravesend.

His main link with Woolwich is that he was born in 1833 in a house on a site up on what is now the Woolwich Common estate. The address won’t mean much now and I do myself remember a parade of impressive early 19^th century houses up there but they had been allowed to get in a very bad state and were demolished in 1971 . I can just about remember a big campaign to keep his house.  It had two plaques on it - one the usual blue plaque and another from 1902 put there by Woolwich Antiquarians. The main square in Woolwich is now called after him. 

There is also a memorial window to him in Saint Alphege’s church in Greenwich with a statement that he was actually baptised there. This must have been because of his links to Greenwich through if now the less so in Woolwich.  He was also an early cadet at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich where he trained as a Royal Engineer.

I hope I am not being disloyal to Greenwich - where I have lived for the last 50 years -but I was a `child in Gravesend and I am very aware that Gordon is seen as a hero there because of his founding of the ragged school.  As an Engineer he had been appointed as Commandant of the Thames Forts with a remit to upgrade river defences. He founded a school in Fort House where he lived and which stood in what is now Fort Gardens –  it was destroyed by a V2 in the Second World War.  Gordon’s involvement in work to help poor children. is more complex than only founding a school but that is what he is very much remembered for.

 A few years after Gordon’s death the then Mayor of Gravesend gave a patch of land next to Fort Ggardens which has ever since been the Gordon Gardens containing a very suitable statue of him on a pedestal - it’s like a very much lower Nelson’s column.

I am very aware that this is is just a few notes about monuments to General Charles Gordon and that there are many, many long books and articles about his very busy life and status as a national hero. To be fair he was clearly very clever and very competent He died eventually at the hands of insurgents led by one popularly known in England as the ‘Mad Mahdi’. I also note a quotation from a srecent history which says there seems to be a consensus among recent historians that ‘Gordon himself was probably considerably madder than the Mahdi’. Another more modern charismatic soldier who compares with him and his reputation was T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia.

Meanwhile let’s have a quick look at the ferry boat itself.  The Gordon was the first free ferry boat to operate across the Thames at Woolwich. Designed by Joseph Bazalgette, the boat took her maiden trip in service  on 23 March 1889 and did so for the next thirty four years. These  first Woolwich ferries were all paddle steamers which were licenced to carry 1000 passengers and up to 20 vehicles. They were eventually fitted with electric lights throughout. Their engines – 2 pairs each connected to a paddle - were made by Penns of Greenwich.

In 1923 the London County Council began replacing the first generation boats.  Gordon was replaced by another  Gordon built by Samuel White. And in 1912c’oldvgordon’ ws spold for  £1507 10s to a dutch company. A l1945 letter to the paper describes a visuit toa place in Holland Harry cold foliage ferry and seeing barges,

 By 1962 when they were scrapped it is said that these early ferries had covered around 4 million miles between them.  In 1936 Gordon was overhauled ad her vehicle deck and cycle area were enlarged.  These alterations proved very beneficial to the handling of both vehicular and cyclist traffic.

Over the years set both Gordons one  and two were in use = Toddlers fall into the water and rescued members of the crew who got a commendation for saving them., More typical were the suicides – pregnant single vwomen, ex soldiers and the never identified. I was found trapped in the paddle wheels =was found that before to havdrunk an entire bottle of Lysol. 

Morw dramatically in 1911 the ferry narrowly avoided a major accident when steamer Breslau hit the pontoon while Gordon was stationed there - with 200 passengers on board. Captain Young on the ferry cast off I went full speed off thus saving the ferry from an acciden- t for which she got a commendation and a £10 LB award from the Council. In 1923 a heavy steam lorry laden with barrels of oil fell between the ferry and the pontoon causing delays of many many hours.

You see- all human life is there