Granaries, Shipyards and Wharves - Cycling from Guildford

the building of yachts, and high quality small boats.
Mention has already been made of Banshee but
Thompson is known to have built other “short sea
route” steamers as well. In 1847 he constructed
Brighton, Dieppe, and Newhaven, all of mahogany, for
the Brighton & Continental Steam Packet Co.
In the following decade, when the war with Russia was
going badly, with a British army bogged down in the
Crimea, the Royal Navy was active not only in the Black
Sea, but also in the Baltic. There was a dire shortage of
shallow draught steamers, armed with a couple of
heavy guns, for action against coastal defences.
Un-powered vessels were also needed, each to carry a
single large calibre mortar. The resources of the Thames
and other shipbuilding centres were mobilised and 90
steam gunboats were built in 90 days. It is significant of
the decline of the Rotherhithe shipbuilding industry that
only THOMPSON and LUNGLEY participated in this
programme. LUNGLEY built Mortar Floats, but
THOMPSON was given a contract for two Dapper class
gunboats, Hind and Jackdaw. After 200 years of
building vessels for the Royal Navy, the latter was to be
the last to come from Rotherhithe.
Around 1862 the landowners built a dry dock and the
site was subsequently leased to a succession of ship
repairers. JOHN MCDOWALL & CO were here during
the 1914-1918 war. They are known to have built
special barges, capable of being towed across the
Channel, for traffic from Richborough Military Port up
the inland waterways of France and Belgium. I believe
that ship repair ceased here in the 1930s, and the
dock was filled in. The HORSEFERRY WHARF CO
operated here until 1971.
�WALK ON ALONGSIDE THE RIVER TO GLOBE STAIRS, NAMED AFTER A
LONG-VANISHED PUB, DATING BACK AT LEAST TO 1754, BUT CLOSED IN
1892, AND PAUSE
The area immediately downstream from the stairs was
LOW GLOBE DOCK. For several years in the 17th and
early 18th centuries, this small yard was run by
various members of the SHISH family, all of whom
also held official positions in the Royal Dockyards at
Deptford, Woolwich, or Sheerness. Various small ships
were built here for the navy, including in 1666 the
44 SOUTHWARK HISTORY WALKS