Granaries, Shipyards and Wharves - Cycling from Guildford

“The fastest ship, I think, that ever left the ways was
the Lothair. I was second mate of a Newbury Port
ship, and we were running our easting down bound
out to Canton, and we were somewhere near Tristan
d’Acunha when we sighted a vessel astern. It was
blowing hard from the nor’ west and the next time I
looked a couple of hours later, there was the ship
close on our quarter, and we doing 12 knots. ‘Holly
Jiggers’ says I to the mate ‘there’s the Flying
Dutchman!’ [The legendary ghost ship]. ‘Naw’ says he
‘It’s the Thermopylae’. [A very fast Aberdeen built
clipper]. But when she was abeam a little later, she
hoisted her name, the Lothair, and it’s been my
opinion ever since that she was making mighty close
to 17 knots”.
She was launched on 2 July 1870. I wonder how
many of those who watched her lovely sleek hull
embraced by the Thames realised that this would be
the last vessel of any size to be built in Rotherhithe?
You are standing at the place where an
industry died…
LAVENDER DOCK SHIPYARD seems to have had no
connection even with ship repair after the mid- 1890s.
By 1906, the dry dock had been filled in and the
premises occupied by W. B. DICK, manufacturers of
lubricants. CASTROL, in the same business were the
last occupants here in the 1970s.
�WALK ON UPSTREAM ALONGSIDE THE RIVER
Redevelopment has completely obliterated all
landmarks and clues to the past on this stretch of the
walk, but keep an eye on the other bank of the
Thames, and when you can just see both words
LIMEHOUSE MARINA at the entrance to the old
Regents Canal Dock, pause.
This is the site of HORSEFERRY DOCK, named for a
ferry capable of carrying horses, carts and carriages
between Rotherhithe and Limehouse. The enterprise
42 SOUTHWARK HISTORY WALKS