Place    From 1696  To 1969

Surrey Docks

Categories: Commerce, Transport

The south bank of the Thames used to be in Surrey, now in Southwark. The first dock created here in 1696 was initially named Howland Great Wet Dock and then Greenland Dock due to the whaling ships that used it. By the mid 1800s the Commercial Dock Company had built many other docks on the east side of the Rotherhithe peninsula and the Surrey Dock Company had done the same on the west side. In 1865 the two companies merged to form the Surrey Commercial Docks Company. The bodies of water that we can see named on the 1889 insurance map are: Globe Pond, Lavender Pond, Acorn Pond, Lady Dock, Norway Dock, Greenland Dock, South Dock, Stave Dock, Russia Dock, Island Dock, Basin, Albion Dock, Canada Dock, Canada Pond, Quebec Pond, Centre Pond, Commercial Basin, Grand Surrey Canal.

1895-1904 Greenland Dock was greatly enlarged by John Wolfe-Barry, approximately doubling in length and depth.

The docks were badly damaged by bombing in WW2, but it was the containerisation of international freight transport that brought the end of these docks - they were too small for the size of those ships.

Largely drained and filled in, the area was redeveloped during the 1980s and 90s and renamed Surrey Quays.

2025: A Short History of the Surrey Commercial Docks, 1999, by Stuart Rankin looks to be a good source.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Surrey Docks

Commemorated ati

Hydraulic lock gate engine

Hydraulic Lock Gate Engine This machinery was installed in 1902, at the time ...

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Hydraulic sluice

Hydraulic Sluice The sluice gate inside this pit was raised and lowered using...

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Lock Keepers Office

Lock Keepers Office The crews of men who worked ships in and out of Greenland...

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Norway cut swing bridge

Norway cut swing bridge This footbridge, with its granite paving, formerly st...

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Surrey Commercial Docks - relief model

{Around the rim:} London Docklands 1989 Surrey Commercial Docks 1896 Designe...

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Manze's pie and mash shops

Manze's pie and mash shops

The Manze family came to Bermondsey from Ravello in Italy. Initially they were ice-merchants, and then ice-cream makers. Michele Manze branched out and opened their first eel, pie and mash shop in ...

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Charles Cheers, Baron Wakefield of Hythe CGE, LLD

Charles Cheers, Baron Wakefield of Hythe CGE, LLD

Charles Cheers Wakefield was born and raised in Liverpool. (Cheers was his mother's maiden name). Became an oil-broker, founding his own firm in 1899, C.C. Wakefield & Co. later Wakefield Oil C...

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1 memorial
London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

1698 At Jonathan’s Coffee House  John Castaing published a list of currency, stock and commodity prices  It included prices for gold, ducats, silver staters and pieces of eight. 1773 A more formal...

Group, Commerce

1 memorial
LEP Transport Ltd

LEP Transport Ltd

From COSGB: "LEP Transport was a freight company established in 1910 in London. The company name was derived from the initials of the three founding partners; Longstaff, Ehrenberg and Pollack."  Mo...

Group, Commerce, Transport

1 memorial
Anglo-Texan Society

Anglo-Texan Society

Founded in London by author Graham Greene, its founding president.  The Handbook of Texas gives a good history of the Society.  Our thanks to Lori Grossman for providing information.

Group, Commerce, Community / Clubs, USA

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

The fourth theatre on the site since restoration times, this is the oldest theatre in use in London. In 1745 the National Anthem had its first public performance here, in an earlier building.

Building, Theatre

2 memorials
St Margaret, Fish Street Hill

St Margaret, Fish Street Hill

EC3, Monument Street

2021: We noticed that the site has been rebuilt and the plaque (now slightly damaged, but our photo does not show that) positioned on the...

2 subjects commemorated, 1 creator