I last lingered at Waterloo Station, noticing that it is raised above road level. ‘..Indeed,’ says Mr Bradshaw, ‘it hardly needs the occasional incursions of the river to remind the water-side inhabitants that this now dense and widely-spreading region was once a marsh, and even within the recollection of many living, a flat swampy level, scarcely raised above the surface of the Thames…’. The Great Flood of 1928 and then the coastal floods of 1953 finally led to the construction of the Thames Barrier.
‘..The great timber yards about here are well worth a visit and seem in their colossal piles to threaten exhaustion to the forests of Norway and Sweden.’. Do look at the ordnance survey maps from 1895 – fascinating! Oddly I cannot find any photographs of these timber yards although they are also mentioned here.
‘..Stamford Street, or the Commercial Road, leading by the water-side, will bring us to the Blackfriars Road. Christ Church stands partly on the site of Paris Gardens..’
Stamford Street is now separated from the river by the embankment – Queen’s Walk, the Coin Street Development, and the Bernie Spain Gardens have replaced the docks. The outline of the docks, adjacent to the old Paris Gardens Manor, can be seen on the ground and a slipway is visible at low tide. Interestingly the London Botanic Garden used to be situated in this area, between Broadwall and Cornwall Road.
‘Continuing our way along the bankside..we come to Barclay & Perkins Brewery, so associated all over the world with the celebrity of London Porter.’ The brewery started in 1616 and was finally closed in 1981 and most of the buildings demolished, but reminders of the past can be found. (Brief history & photographs here, and here.)
‘On part of the ground occupied by the adjacent premises stood the Globe Theatre..’. The new Globe Theatre is closer to the Thames than the original building, whose footprint can be seen in Park Street.
‘In the bystreets between here and London Bridge some of the walls of Winchester House..are still visible; and the Clink .. still perpetuates its name in one of the adjacent thoroughfares..’.
‘Hence we cross by the Borough Market back to London Bridge, and so, having effected a complete circuit of the southern portion of the metropolis, return to the point from which we originally started.’
You may be interested in
Old Barge House Stairs & Paris Gardens Manor
Curiosities of London – the Ferryman’s seat at Bankside
Victorian London
I would love to hear from you!