Comments on: Watermen’s Stairs In Wapping

By: Peter Coxell

Peter Coxell — Sat, 23 Jan 2021 12:30:58 +0000

Lovely to read this article and share in those photos which bring back such happy memories. We lived in Wapping during the war years, 1942 on, and went to St Peters London Docks church and school. There was very much a community spirit,sadly lacking these days, and people looked after each other in difficult times. The photo of Wapping Police stairs was a flash back to when my school friend, Phillip Butt and I went out in the police launches with his dad, Sergeant Butt, probably be frowned upon these days! We married in St Peter’s in 1964 and moved away to Bishops Stortford but still kept in contact with our church friends most of whom mow have sadly passed away. However, for the last 4/5 years we have travelled up to London from Bristol where we now live, and on every occasion walk along Wapping High Street from the Tower of London, call in for a drink at the Town if Ramsgate, and walk around Wapping,recalling very vivid memories if our upbringing. In our opinion, in spite of a lot if modernisation particularly the docks which are now yuppie retreats, we don’t think Wapping has changed a lot and get the feeling of a community spirit still existing. It is lovely also to meet up with a couple of old school friends and have lunch, reminiscing over the “good old days”. Sadly, with this horrible pandemic we have been unable to visit for a year or so but look forward to the day when we can return. Wapping, and the Thames will always live on in our memories!

By: Kerry Williams

Kerry Williams — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 05:36:23 +0000

This was such an interesting read……………..Kerry, Rockhampton, Qld, Australia

By: Pamela Traves

Pamela Traves — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 01:54:29 +0000

I have enjoyed these pictures very much!! Thank You So Very Much!!???????

By: Christy Scofield

Christy Scofield — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:29:54 +0000

Your first sentence got my attention. Yes, yes, it is important to keep reminding ourselves of so many things, and I am negligent, even when spare time abounds.

Thank you for the reminder.

By: Saba

Saba — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 13:14:10 +0000

These past three essays — the stairs, Shakespeare’s London, and Roman London — are some of the best ever. Today’s entry admits me to Dickens’ London. I never miss a day of reading these wonderful insights.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 11:30:31 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, I never tire of the wonderful glimpses you provide into the history of London …

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:57:52 +0000

Wonderful stage analogy! And the photographs of dark/light at night very much support that vision.

GA, I know you’ve written about mud-larking along the Thames but these ‘tide in’ photos make me wonder if, when the tide is out, you’ve been a mud-lark–and if so, what fascinating bits of history did you find?!

thanks!

By: susan kerslake

susan kerslake — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:48:06 +0000

Though I think it is out of print, seek Helen Humphrey’s The Frozen Thames, published in 2007, published by McClellan and Stewart in Canada. From the book: “In its long history. the river Thames has frozen solid forth time. These are the stories of that frozen river.” My favourite is 1809…the field of frozen birds…

By: Michael Hebbert

Michael Hebbert — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:42:28 +0000

About ten years ago the River Thames Society surveyed the surviving stairs along the tidal Thames and found many leading up to a locked gate. Not nice if you get into difficulties on the river. A recent example was the boarding-up (apparently unauthorised) of Duke Shore Stairs, a historic right of way used by Samuel Pepys on a visit to the porcelain works on Narrow Street, Limehouse,

By: Pauline Taylor

Pauline Taylor — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 10:02:14 +0000

How I love these images of the Thames. With two centuries of watermen on my family tree I find the history of the river and all the references to the stairs and how people used the river as a means of transport fascinating. My ancestors operated the Horse Ferry at Lambeth for the Archbishop, to whom it then belonged, and also rowed the Archbishop’s barge which would have been a very grand affair. How I wish I could find a picture of it but the closest that I have come is the state barges belonging to the city livery companies. Thank you GA you have inspired me to do some more research into this subject, I do have copies, bought from the Museum of London, of paintings of the Horse Ferry and one includes boys and men in the nip frolicking on a flat barge, could these be my ancestors I wonder ??