South Dock (Rotherhithe)
 
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Location of the South Dock (Rotherhithe) in Greater London |
The South Dock is one of only two remaining docks of the Surrey Commercial Docks in Rotherhithe (London) . It was built 1807-1811 south of the Greenland Dock and is connected to this with a canal called the Greenland Cut . It also has a lock to the Thames . Originally called the East Country Dock , it was renamed in 1850 when the Surrey Commercial Dock Company bought and expanded it.
history
Blights shipyard
To the south of the Thames lock, there was a timber yard and a scrapping yard owned by the City of London and rented to Isaac Blight . Blight was murdered by William Patch in 1805 and his widow married a coal merchant from Deptford named Long . Together with their son, they opened a shipping company with shipbuilding and repair operations under the name Blight, Long & Blight . The shipyard prospered for some time, even if only a few small ships were built, but later financial problems arose.
Second World War
The entrance lock to the South Dock was badly damaged in World War II and covered with a concrete wall built by Mowlem , and the narrow canal between South Dock and Greenland Dock was temporarily closed. In late 1943, Mowlem was supposed to build twelve Mulberry harbors to be used after D-Day . The floor of the South Dock was covered with rubble to a height of 2 m and the harbor basin was converted into a temporary dry dock . Eight of the large Mulberry ports "Phoenix B" were built here; the remaining four were built in the Russia Dock . They were brought out to the Thames through the reopened connection channel to Greenland Dock, although there was only 229 mm of water under the keel.
post war period
The reopening of the Surrey Docks turned out to be short-lived, as more and more container ships were used from the 1960s that were much too big for the docks further up the Thames. Most of the merchant shipping was now downriver, at Tilbury Port and other modern ports in the country. The Surrey Docks closed their doors in December 1970 and were sold to the London Borough of Southwark in 1977 .
Urban development
Most of the Surrey Commercial Docks have been backfilled and built on, but the South Dock escaped that fate. The former warehouses were demolished and replaced by apartment blocks, but the harbor basin itself was renovated. The residential development was created with the help of the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC), which built such remarkable structures as the Baltic Quay . In 1994 the South Dock reopened as London's largest marina, offering 200 berths. Today these are mostly occupied by private yachts and houseboats.
Web links
- South Dock Marina Berth Holders' Association website
- Friends of Greenland Dock and South Dock , Yahoo! Email Group
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Stuart Rankin: Shipyards, Granaries and Wharves, Maritime Rotherhithe, Walk B . London Southwark Council (July 2004). ISBN 090584937X