Ebb & Flow

As the tides ebb away in their predetermined rhythm, each day brings fresh revelations. Some elements on the foreshore are, even if gradually eroded more or less fixed. Others change with every tide.
Liable to slip on the foreshore, instead I lean over embankment walls, taking zoom pictures to examine later. I leave the real work to experienced, licensed mudlarks*, who have the eyes and knowledge to spot items of archaeological interest together with the knees to retrieve them.

Patterns left by the tides are ever-changing, depending on the strength of currents, the weather and time of year. The height of the river can rise and fall by up to 7 metres twice a day and the speed of the tides can reach from 4 up to 8 knots. So smaller objects are easily moved, swept away, or rearranged, sometimes neatly, sometimes not, …

…while larger objects, or remains of structures, stay fixed, so there is something new to observe each day.

The foreshore below Victoria Tower Gardens was carefully explored by Gustav Milne and a group from the Thames Discovery Programme in 2013, who recorded the visible structures and layout of the shore that day.

The chains in the photograph above could perhaps be grab chains that have become detached from part of the Embankment wall. Such chains were first installed along the central London Embankment of the Thames after the Marchioness disaster, when fifty-one young party-goers on the boat were drowned after a collision with the dredger Bowbelle on the night of August 20, 1989. Rob Jeffries, Honorary Curator, of the Thames River Police Museum at Wapping, tells me that “The chains on the river walls are a legacy of the Marchioness disaster. […] They were one of the many recommendations, from the Inquest and enquiries into the incident, which included the setting up of the four RNLI Stations on the tidal Thames.” These safety recommendations were eventually carried out, as during the Inquest it was revealed that some of the victims drowned as there was nothing on the steeply embanked river they could hold onto.

Granite blocks blown out of the embankment wall – so swiftly and expertly repaired by one of the teams set up by Sir Thomas Peirson Frank during the Blitz – are still clearly discernible even though shifted a little by tidal movements. However, many noticeable objects arrive and depart quickly, so that what is left by each low tide is something of a lottery. A lottery which, if you have the time to spare, can appeal to the imagination…

And so the searches go on…

Sources and further Information
With thanks to Rob Jeffries for sharing his knowledge of the River Thames and to Claire Trévien, artist and poet for the title of this article.
Milne, Gustav: The Thames at War, Saving London from the Blitz, 2020
*Port of London Authority: Thames foreshore permits
Thames Safety Inquiry, January, 2000
Victoria Tower Gardens, Key Site Information
An earlier article of mine on the same subject: Fragments of History

An escape from the City in the heart of London, St. Katharine Docks transport you to another world, a world of glamorous boats, calm waters and a hint of the exotic…

Here follows a personal photo album of St. Katharine Docks from 2019 to 2024, and at the end, a timeline with a few important dates. I have added links to further information on some of the boats featured here, together with links at the foot of this article, to good sites for exploring the history of the docks.

Some special occasions and special boats

Andrew Murray, who came from South Africa to live in London, was best known in the 1980s for his cheerful naive paintings, widely reproduced on calendars, cards and posters. This painting of St. Katharine Docks shows the historic ships that were moored there at the time. The Royal Research Ship RRS DISCOVERY, now moored at Discovery Point in Dundee; the sailing barge SB CAMBRIA; the Light Vessel LV86 NORE; and the SS ROBIN.

Brief Historical Background of St. Katharine Docks
1148: Matilda of Boulogne, wife of the “usurper” King Stephen, founded a hospital “for the repose of the souls” of her son and daughter and for the “maintenance of a master and several poor brothers and sisters.” It was linked to the Priory of Holy Trinity at Aldgate.

Mid 13th Century: Peter Stone writes in The History of the Port of London that “from the time of Queen Eleanor wife of Edward I, the Foundation of St Katharine’s came under the patronage of each queen consort, queen dowager or reigning queen” and the Precinct was thereby protected from development. However, Stone explains that with the death of Queen Charlotte in 1818, wife of George III, who died in 1820, followed by the death of Caroline, the estranged wife of George IV in 1821, “St. Katharine’s lacked the royal protection of a queen consort”. Shortly afterwards, after much manoeuvring between conflicting parties, St. Katharine’s long and dramatic history as a religious and charitable institution was brought to a close when commercial pressures took precedence.
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Timeline from the creation of St. Katharine Docks
1825: The St. Katharine Dock Bill was passed by Parliament, transferring 13 acres of land to the St. Katharine Dock Company.

1828: The St. Katharine Docks, designed by chief engineer Thomas Telford were opened on October 25. The warehouses were designed by Sir Phillp Hardwick and allowed cargoes to be unloaded directly into the storage areas rather than onto the quayside, which greatly speeded up the process.

1940-1941: The docks and surrounding warehouses were badly damaged during the Blitz, and all those around the eastern basin were destroyed.

1957: The dock entrance lock was rebuilt.

1968: The docks were officially closed.

1973: The Tower Hotel, designed by the Renton Howard Wood Partnership in the Brutalist style, was opened.

1970s: Saw the demolition of most of the original warehouses

1976: The Dickens Inn was created from an old docks’ warehouse by Cedric Dickens, grandson of the great author.

1990s: Completion of development around the eastern basin.

Sources and further Information
British History Online: St. Kathrine Docks
A comprehensive history of the Docks by the author of A London Inheritance: St. Katharine Docks
Links to useful documents: St. Katharine Docks
Northern University of London: History of St. Katharine Docks
Story Maps of St. Katharine Docks’ History.
Peter Stone’s excellent: The History of the Port of London, 2017

You can follow three different Twitter-X accounts on St. Katharine Docks: @StKats and @StKatsMarina; Friends of St. Katharine Docks @OfficialFOSKD