A lithograph showing the Pool of London from London Bridge in 1841. PICTURE: W Parrott/Public Domain
A stretch of the River Thames which spans the area from London Bridge to below Limehouse, the Pool of London was the highest part of the river navigable by tall-masted ships (thanks to the them not being able to pass under London Bridge).
The term originally referred to the stretch of the river at Billingsgate in the City of London which was where all imports had to be delivered for inspection by customs officers (hence these wharves were given the name ‘legal quays’).
But as trade expanded and reached its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries, so too did the stretch referred to as the “Pool of London”. It came to be divided into two sections – the Upper Pool, which stretches from London Bridge to Cherry Garden Pier in Bermondsey (and is bisected by Tower Bridge), and the Lower Pool, which stretched from the latter pier to Limekiln Creek.
The Upper Pool’s north bank includes the Tower of London, the old Billingsgate Market and the entrance to St Katharine’s Dock while the south bank features Hay’s Wharf and the HMS Belfast. The Lower Pool’s north bank includes the entrance to Limehouse Cut as well as Regent’s Canal and Execution Docks while below it runs the Thames and Rotherhithe Tunnels.
The paddle steamer Waverley on the Thames near the Tower of London. PICTURE: Robert Pittman (licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0)
A visitor rather than a permanent resident in London’s Thames, the Waverley is described as the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer.
The Waverley, which returns to London on 22nd September for a short season lasting into early October, was the last paddle steamer to be built for use on the River Clyde in Scotland and launched on 2nd October, 1946.
Named after Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel, her maiden voyage – on 16th June the following year – saw the Waverley cruise along what was to be her primary route for the next few years up Loch Long and Loch Goil to the villages of Lochgoilhead and Arrochar.
In 1952, the Waverley joined the British Railways Caledonian Steam Packet Co Clyde coast fleet, a role she remained until the company’s end in 1972. Briefly subsequently part of Caledonian MacBrayne’s fleet offering Clyde cruises and ferry duties, she was withdrawn from service in September, 1973, and in November the following year was “sold” for £1 to the Waverley Steam Navigation Co Ltd, which had been formed by the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society.
Following restoration work, the Waverley made her first visit south of the Scottish border to Liverpool and North Wales to celebrate the centenary of Llandudno Pier. Further visits south followed and in April, 1978, she sailed along the Thames for the first time.
From 1981 to 1983, the Waverley completed an annual circumnavigation of Great Britain and in 1985 visited the Isle of Man and Ireland for the first time.
A substantial refit and rebuild took place in the early 2000s returning the ship to her original 1947 livery, and in 2019 she was withdrawn from service so new boilers could be installed before being returned to service in 2020, offering excursions around the coast.
During its London season, the Waverley departs from Tower Pier and travels under Tower Bridge.
The MV Havengore. PICTURE: Robin Webster (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
Still plying the waters of the Thames, the MV Havengore is perhaps most famous for having carried the coffin of Sir Winston Churchill on the River Thames as part of his state funeral in 1965.
The MV Havengore – named for a low-lying island off the coast of Essex – was originally constructed as a hydrographic survey launch for the Port of London Authority in 1956. As the PLA’s principal survey vessel and flagship, she was moored at Gravesend and tasked with recording changes to Thames bed and estuary. She became the first survey vessel in the UK to have a computer to record survey data.
The highpoint of her during her almost 40 years of service with the PLA came on 30th January, 1965, when she transported the body of Churchill from Tower Pier to Festival Pier. On the journey, she was saluted by flight of 16 fighter jets while dock cranes were made to bow as she passed (there’s a plaque on board commemorating her role in the funeral).
But the almost 26 metre long vessel also participated in other historic events including the river pageant to celebrate the Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee in 1977 and, more recently, the flotilla formed to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 as well as the Thames tribute to the Queen’s long reign in 2015 and the Queen’s 90th birthday parade in 2016.
The MV Havengore was withdrawn from service in 1995 and sold after which she underwent restoration and refitting at the Chatham Historic Dockyard. The vessel was then used to provide excursions for underprivileged children on the Medway.
This red-painted vessel once served as a beacon at South Goodwin Sands off the Kentish coast but, now permanently moored at Trinity Buoy Wharf, has been converted into a recording studio.
The 550 tonne ship was built in 1939 by Philip and Sons of Dartmouth for Trinity House, a company established during the reign of King Henry VIII initially to regulate pilotage on the River Thames. It later established lighthouses and floating lightships and took over responsibility for all buoys in England. It currently maintains 65 automated lighthouses.
The steel-hulled vessel, one of three built to the same design (one, converted into a home, is now at Victoria Dock in Silvertown – and currently for sale with an asking price of £595,000 – and another in Rotterdam, The Netherlands), features a central light tower and originally had crew quarters.
It was mostly used to mark South Goodwin Sands but was also deployed to other locations including Inner Dowsing off the coast of Norfolk.
In the 1990s, it became the first light vessel in the UK to be converted to solar power to enable unmanned operation and underwent a complete refit in 1999.
It was taken out of service in 2003 and subsequently sold at auction by Trinity House. Initially bought by the Port Werburgh Marina on the Medway, it was later onsold to Ben Phillips who converted it to a floating music recording studio. Since 2008, it has been based at Trinity Buoy Wharf.
Ordered by the Portland & Weymouth Coaling Co Ltd, Portwey (the name comes from the company’s) was built by Harland & Wolff at Govan yard in Glasgow and launched on 10th August, 1927.
The 80 foot long vessel was based in Weymouth, Dorset, performed a range of tasks including carrying coal to steamers and being on call for any ship in distress requiring assistance or salvage. This included extinguishing a fire aboard the Danish timber-carrier Bodil in 1928, assisting ships like the cargo steamer Winslow (which had developed a list in heavy seas in 1932), and the Winchester Castle which had run aground in 1936, and even being involved in the search for a sunken submarine in 1932.
The Portwey was seconded by the Admiralty and moved to Dartmouth in Devon during World War II. Narrowly avoiding German bombs while in the harbour, during this time the tug was went to the assistance of ships attacked by the enemy. In 1944, she was assigned to US forces as they prepared for D-Day and her duties including clearing obstructions from the channel and supplying fresh water to naval vessels as well as, when a rehearsal for the landings went wrong at Slapton Sands, rescuing personnel and landing craft.
After the war, the Portwey resumed duties as a harbour tug including ferrying pilots and customs officers out into the Channel. In 1947, she helped put out a fire at the Queen’s Hotel in Dartmouth.
The Portwey was sold to the Falmouth Dock and Engineering Company in Cornwall in 1952. As well as rescuing the captain and first officer of the cargo ship Flying Enterprise, during this period she was involved in the construction of the Lizard Lifeboat Station in Cornwall, and a car ferry slipway at Holyhead in north Wales.
In 1967, with coal-fired steam tugs being replaced by diesel-engined ships, she was laid up to be scrapped. But it wasn’t the end for the Portwey, which was bought by Richard Dobson, the assistant harbour master at Dartmouth. Along with a group of friends, he returned her to working condition and during the 1960s and 1970s, she took part in many events on the River Dart and around Torbay.
In 1982, the Portwey joined the Maritime Trust’s Historic Ship Collection at St Katharine’s Dock where the newly formed Friends of Portwey continued with restoration and operation of the tug.
The Friends of Portwey became the Steam Tug Portwey Trust in 2000 and purchased the tug from the Maritime Trust, moving the vessel to West India Dock.
WHERE: Steam Tug Portwey, West India Dock (South Quay) (nearest DLR station is South Quay); WHEN: 2pm to 9pm Wednesdays; WEBSITE: www.stportwey.co.uk.
Almost destroyed in a May, 2007, fire, the Cutty Sark, the world’s last surviving 19th century tea clipper, is now a major international tourist attraction (although no longer in the Thames but on a dry dock beside the river).
The Cutty Sark was built in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1869, for shipping company Willis & Sons.
Designed by Hercules Linton specifically for the China tea trade (meaning with speed in mind), she cost some £16,150 and featured some 32,000 square feet of sails, a staggering 11 miles of rigging with a main mast standing 153 feet high and a hull sheathed in a copper and zinc alloy to prevent damage.
Her name was taken from a Robert Burns poem, Tam o’ Shanter, in which a witch is given the nick-name Cutty-sark because of the short undergarment – in 18th century Scots, a “cutty-sark” or “little shirt” – that she wore (the vessel’s figurehead is a representation of the witch).
On her maiden voyage, the Cutty Sark departed from London on 15th February, 1870, bound for Shanghai and carrying a general cargo including wine, spirits and beer and manufactured goods. Reaching its destination on 31st May, it then returned to London, arriving on 13th October laden with 1,305,812 lbs of tea.
It subsequently made another seven trips to China, collecting its last tea cargo in 1877. Unable to source further tea cargoes, the ship was then used to transport different cargoes to various destinations around the world including everything from coal and gunpowder, to jute, whiskey and buffalo horns.
There was a tragic episode aboard the ship in 1880 when the First Mate Sidney Smith killed seaman John Francis. Smith was confined by Captain James Wallace then helped him escape at Anger in Indonesia. The crew refused to work as a result and Wallace decided to continue the voyage with just six apprentices and four tradesmen but when the ship was becalmed in the Java Sea for three days, he committed suicide by jumping overboard. Wallaces was replaced by William Bruce but a later inquiry suspended him from service because of his incompetence.
While it was never the fastest ship on the tea trade (although it came close on return journey from Shanghai before a rudder mishap in 1872), it did establish itself between the mid-1880s and early 1890s as the fastest ship in the wool trade.
But with steamships starting to dominate the wool trade, in 1895, the Cutty Sark was sold to Portuguese firm J Ferreira & Co and, renamed the Ferreira, spent the next 20 years transporting cargoes between ports including Oporto, Rio, New Orleans and Lisbon.
Damaged during a storm in 1916, the clipper was subsequently converted into a barquentine in Cape Town, South Africa, and then sold in 1920 to Wilfred Dowman, a retired windjammer skipper and owner of the training ship Lady of Avenel.
The Cutty Sark’s figurehead. PICTURE: Sanba38 (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Her former name now restored, Dowman set about restoring the ship – now docked at Falmouth in Cornwell – back to being a tea clipper and using her as a cadet training ship.
Following Dowman’s death in 1936, the Cutty Sark was given to the Incorporated Thames Nautical Training College, Greenhithe, Kent, where she was used as an auxiliary vessel for the cadet training ship HMS Worcester.
The Cutty Sark was sent to London and moored in the Thames for the 1951 Festival of Britain before returning to Greenhithe.
The deteriorating state of the ship led to the formation of The Cutty Sark Society and in a ceremony held just before the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, patron of the society, took possession of the ship on its behalf.
In December, 1954, the ship was towed to a specially constructed dry dock at Greenwich and after three years of restoration work was opened to the public by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957.
The ship has remained there ever since. In November 2006, the ship’s rig was dismantled in preparation for a restoration project but a fire broke out aboard the ship on 21st May, 2007, and almost destroyed it.
Following a major restoration and development project which saw the lower part of the ship, from the waterline down, encased in glass, it was officially reopened by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip on 25th April, 2012. It is now under the operational management of Royal Museums Greenwich.
WHERE: The Cutty Sark, King William Walk, Greenwich (nearest DLR is Cutty Sark; nearest overground stations are Greenwich and Maze Hill); WHEN: Daily 10am to 5pm; COST: £18 adults; £9 children; WEBSITE: www.rmg.co.uk/cuttysark.
The world’s only complete surviving Victorian steamship, the SS Robin is moored in east London, close to where it was built.
One of a pair of steam coasters (the other being Rook) built initially by Mackenzie, MacAlpine & Co at Orchard House Yard on Bow Creek (and then completed by London shipowner Robert Thomson) in 1890, the SS Robin was fitted out at East India Dock before being towed to Dundee to be fitted with her engine, boiler and auxiliary machinery at Gourlay Brothers & Co.
The SS Robin in 2021 at the Royal Victoria Dock with the Millennium Mills building in the background. PICTURE: Marc Barrot (licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The SS Robin commenced her sailing career at Liverpool on 20th December, 1890, and spent the next decade carrying cargos – including grain, coal, and iron ore – between British ports as well as some in northern France. Early on – in 1892 – she was sold to Alexander Forrester Blackater of Glasgow and re-registered there.
In 1900, the Robin was sold to what would be the first of three Spanish owners and renamed the Maria. The ship would then spend the next 74 years working along the Spanish coast, carrying a range of cargos including iron and coal.
In 1974, only days after discharging her final cargo and about to be sold to Spanish ship breakers, the Maritime Trust purchased the ship.
Following a two restoration project at the Doust & Co shipyard in Rochester, Kent, and, once again named the Robin, she was subsequently moored in St Katharine Docks. The ship was moved to a new mooring at West India Quay in 1991 but fell into disrepair.
In 2000, David and Nishani Kampfner bought Robin for £1 with the idea of creating an educational centre and gallery. Two years later, in 2002, SS Robin Trust was created and volunteers subsequently began the work of restoring the coastal steamer.
From 2004 until 2007, the vessel was home to a gallery and workshops run by Kampfner to encourage creative thinking in children.
But the need for further refurbishment saw this come to an end and, financed by a £1.9 million loan from Crossrail and a £1 million grant from The Heritage Lottery Fund, in June, 2008, the Robin undertook her first sea journey in 35 years, travelling to Lowestoft for the much needed restoration works.
Once at Lowestoft, however, it was discovered the ship was too fragile to go to sea again and so a pontoon was created onto which the ship was lifted in 2010. Towed to Tilbury, the Robin underwent further refurbishment there until, in July, 2011, she returned to London.
Moored initially at the Royal Albert Dock, she is now located at Royal Victoria Dock (and can be seen from nearby viewing points). There are now plans to relocate her to Trinity Buoy Wharf and for further development as a museum ship.
A former World War II convoy escort ship, the HQS Wellington, which is moored alongside Victoria Embankment in the River Thomas, is unusual in that for the past 75 years it has served as the headquarters of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners.
The HQS Wellington seen in 2007. PICTURE: JPLon (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)
Constructed in the Devonport Dockyard, Plymouth, in 1934 for the Royal Navy as a two-masted Grimsby-class sloop, the HMS Wellington served in the Pacific in the lead-up to World War II, based mainly in New Zealand (she was named for the capital of New Zealand) and patrolling the South Pacific.
Following the outbreak of war, the HMS Wellington – which featured two 4.7-inch guns and one 3-inch gun as well as carrying other anti-aircraft guns and depth charges – served mainly as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic.
During this time, the vessel was involved in the sinking of an enemy U-boat, the evacuation of Allied forces from St Valery-en-Caux, north of Le Havre, and the Allied landings in North Africa in late 1942. In 1943, the HMS Wellington was one of the first escort ships to be fitted with Hedgehog, an anti-submarine weapon, which replaced the three inch gun.
The ship ended the war having travelled almost 250,000 miles and escorting 103 convoys.
Following the war, the 265 foot long ship was initially transferred to the Reserve Fleet in Milford Haven before, in 1947, the Admiralty made the ship available to the Honourable Company of Master Mariners to serve as a floating livery hall. She was converted for that purpose – and renamed the HQS Wellington – at Chatham Dockyard using funds raised through a public appeal.
The interior features a grand wooden staircase taken from the 1906 Isle of Man ferry SS Viper which was being broken up at the time.
The HQS Wellington arrived at Victoria Embankment in 1948 for service as the livery company HQ.
The ship had a major refit in 1991, during which it was fitted out with carpet and new displays showing off the Company’s collections, and in 2005, ownership of the ship was transferred to The Wellington Trust.
In April this year it was announced that due to safety concerns the Honourable Company of Master Mariners would have to leave the vessel. The company, which has relocated to a temporary on-shore headquarters in Greenwich, are now developing plans for a new floating headquarters.
HMS Belfast is one of London’s star tourist sites. But what are some of the other vessels moored in the Thames? In this series, we’re taking a look at the history behind 10 other vessels, starting with PSTattershall Castle.
Now a floating restaurant moored off Victoria Embankment, the steam-driven, steel-hulled PS Tattershall Castle was constructed by the West Hartlepool-based company William Gray & Company as a ferry. Its name comes from a castle in Lincolnshire built in the first half of the 15th century/
Launched on 25th September, 1934, with a license to carry 1,000 people, the 209 foot-long ferry was one of three sister ships – the others being the PSWingfield Castle (now a museum ship in Hartlepool) and the PSLincoln Castle – which were built to transport passengers along the Humber between Kingston upon Hull, in Yorkshire, and New Holland, in Lincolnshire. It could make eight trips a day and could carry vehicles and livestock.
World War II broke out not long after her launch and the ferry was used to transport troops and supplies along the Humber. Due to the heavy fogs on the river, the Tattershall Castle became one of the first civilian vessels to be equipped with radar.
Following the war and the 1948 nationalisation of the railways, the PS Tattershall Castle became part of part of British Rail’s Sealink service. In 1973, the vessel, with repairs deemed too costly, was retired from service.
Subsequently towed to London, the PS Tattershall Castle was converted into a floating art gallery which was formally opened by the Lord Mayor of London on 27th February, 1975.
In 1981, the former ferry was acquired by the Chef & Brewer Group. After some repairs on the River Medway, she was opened in 1982 as a bar restaurant.
There have been several refits since, the most recent being in 2015, when the former ferry was returned to Hull for some £1.5 million work to be carried out. The former ferry is typically moored off Victoria Embankment opposite the London Eye.
Waterloo Bridge between 1865-1875. PICTURE: Valentine, J, Universitaire Bibliotheken Leiden/licensed under CC BY 4.0)
Built between 1813 and 1817, the first Waterloo Bridge was designed by Scottish civil engineer John Rennie and featured nine elliptical arches, pairs of Doric columns at the piers and a flat roadway.
Originally known as The Strand Bridge, the name was changed by an Act of Parliament in 1816 and commemorated the victory over Napoleon Boneparte at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
It was opened by the Prince Regent, accompanied by the Duke of Wellington, on 18th June, 1817 – the second anniversary of the battle.
The bridge originally featured toll booths – the toll was removed in 1877.
In the early 20th century, piers from the bridge settled into the riverbed and created a dip, possibly due to the increasing traffic using it. A temporary steel bridge was placed alongside it and, despite opposition, it was eventually demolished in 1936.
The current bridge, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was built over the years 1937 to 1942 (although it wasn’t fully completed until 1945).
Old Waterloo Bridge was famously depicted in a series of works by Claude Monet painted between 1900 and 1904 while he stayed at the Savoy Hotel and by John Constable who created a famous painting of its opening (it’s actually his largest work). The bridge also lends its name to the 1940 American film, Waterloo Bridge, which was adapted from a 1930 play.
Interestingly, granite blocks from the original bridge were sent to Australia and New Zealand while timbers from the bridge were used for shelves and wall panels in the library at Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire (where the famous Constable painting hangs). Some of the original blocks were also incorporated into the foundations and approaches of the new bridge.
The keystone from the original bridge, recovered when it was demolished, is located at the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great George Street.
Located close to the River Thames in south-west London, Sandycombe Lodge was designed and built by the artist JMW Turner as a country retreat.
The Twickenham property, which was constructed in 1812-13 on land the famed “painter of light” had bought six years earlier, also provided a home for Turner’s father, ‘Old William’, who was a retired Covent Garden barber and wigmaker. Old William would tend the garden and keep the house when Joseph Mallord William Turner, who is best known for his expressive landscapes and marine paintings, wasn’t present.
The finished property featured a large sitting room overlooking the expansive garden. It was initially known as Solus Lodge and the name later changed to Sandycombe.
Turner would use the home as a base for sketching and fishing trips. He painted many scenes of local landscapes including, notably, England: Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent’s Birthday in 1819.
Among those who visited Turner at the property was his friend and fishing companion, Sir John Soane (his influence can be seen on the home’s design in features such as the use of arches inside and the skylight above the stairs).
Turner, who also had a property in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, where he died in 1851, only had the house for 13 years – with his father’s health declining and his own touring schedule which meant he wasn’t able to spend as much time at the property as he would have liked, Turner sold Sandycombe in 1826 to his neighbour Joseph Todd. Todd, the owner of Twickenham Park, enlarged the villa and rented it out.
It subsequently passed through numerous hands (the large grounds around gradually diminishing).
Used as a factory for making goggles in World War II, it was in a poor state when purchased by Professor Harold Livermore and his wife Ann in 1947. In the 1950s, they secured a Grade II*-listing for the property and later set up the The Sandycombe Lodge Trust, now Turner’s House Trust, in 2005.
On Livermore’s death in 2010 at the age of 95, the trust became the owner of Sandycombe. Following a significant restoration which aimed to take the house back to Turner’s original designs and which was completed in 2017, it opened to the public as a museum.
Displayed in the house are some of Turner’s sketches as well as model ships he used in creating his art. A ‘speaking clock’ captures recollections of friends and Old William is brought to life digitally in the basement. What remains of the gardens have also been restored.
The house features an English Heritage Blue Plaque.
WHERE: Sandycombe Lodge, 40 Sandycoombe Road, St Margarets, Twickenham (nearest rail is St Margarets; nearest Tube station is Richmond); WHEN: 12pm to 4pm Wednesday to Sunday (until 2nd July); COST: £8 adults/£3 child (3 to 15 years)/£17 family; WEBSITE: https://turnershouse.org.
Simply put, this is the name London was given during Roman times (and perhaps derives from an earlier Celtic word – although this remains the matter of much speculation).
There’s no substantial evidence of a settlement where London now stands until after the arrival of the Romans in 43 AD. The location was selected for the ease with which the Thames could be bridged and two hills which stand in what is now the city of London – Ludgate Hill on which St Paul’s cathedral stands and Cornhill – which could be fortified as a military stronghold.
A reconstruction of Londinium in 120 AD by Peter Froste which has was on show in the Museum of London. PICTURE: Carole Raddato (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)
The fledging settlement was destroyed during the revolt of Queen Boudicca of the Iceni in 60 AD but rebuilt centred on Cornhill and the Walbrook stream. By the 70s AD, the main public buildings of the forum and basilica were placed on high ground east of the Walbrook and by the end of of the first century AD further grand buildings – the governor’s palace, amphitheatre and baths – had been added. Waterfront infrastructure for shipping – including quays and warehouses – stretched along the northern side of the river.
A fort was added and public buildings renovated before the visit of the Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD. Another fire destroyed much of the city but it was again rebuilt and late in the 2nd century walls were built around it, partially encircling a site of some 330 acres. Buildings subsequently constructed in the 3rd century included the Temple of Mithras and a monumental arch.
There were known to have been “suburbs” including at both Southwark and to the west around Trafalgar Square and cemeteries were built outside the walls.
The city’s population had already contracted somewhat by the time the legions were recalled to Rome in 410 AD. While the walls still offered the inhabitants some protection 50 years after the withdrawal of the legions, there’s scant evidence for how much longer it remained inhabited with the Anglo-Saxons known to have viewed the ruins of the Roman buildings with some trepidation.
• Totally Thames – London’s month-long celebration of its river – kicks off Friday with a programme featuring more than 100 events across a range of locations. Highlights this year include Reflections, an illuminated flotilla of more than 150 boats that will process down the Thames to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee on 24th September; River of Hope, an installation of 200 silk flags created by young people across the UK and Commonwealth at the National Maritime Museum; and, of course, the Great River Race, London’s great river marathon on 10th September involving some 330 boats and crews from across the world. There’s also talks, walks, exhibitions and art and, of course, the chance to meet some mudlarks. For more, including the full programme of events, see https://thamesfestivaltrust.org.
Roman beaker, 1st century AD, The Archaeological Museum at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• Eight ancient glass vessels, newly conserved after being damaged in the 2020 Beirut port explosion, have gone on show at the British Museum. Painstakingly pieced back together and conserved at the conservation laboratories at the British Museum, the vessels were among 72 from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods which were damaged when a case fell over in Beirut’s AUB Museum. Six of the vessels at the British Museum date from the 1st century BC, a period which saw glass production revolutionised in Lebanon, while two others date to the late Byzantine – early Islamic periods, and may have been imported to Lebanon from neighbouring glass manufacturing centres in Syria or Egypt. The vessels can be seen in Room 3 as part of the Asahi Shimbun Display Shattered glass of Beirut until 23rd October before their return to Lebanon in late Autumn. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.
• Chiswick House LEGO model. A brick model of Chiswick House is on show at the property in London’s west. The model, which uses 50,000 bricks and took two years to build, illustrates the dramatic architectural changes that Chiswick House has undergone in its 300-year history including the addition of two wings which were demolished in the late 18th century. On show until 31st October. Admission charge applies. For more, see https://chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk/event/chiswick-house-lego-brick-model/.
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Think of fire in relation to London and the events of 1666 no doubt spring to mind. But London has had several other large fires in its history (with a much higher loss of life), including during the reign of King John in July, 1212.
The fire started in Southwark around 10th July and the blaze destroyed most of the buildings lining Borough High Street along with the church of St Mary Overie (also known as Our Lady of the Canons and now the site of Southwark Cathedral) before reaching London Bridge.
The wind carried embers across the river and ignited buildings on the northern end before the fire spread into the City of London itself (building on the bridge had been authorised by King John so the rents could be used to help pay for the bridge’s maintenance).
Many people died on the bridge after they – and those making their way south across the bridge to aid people in Southwark (or perhaps just to gawk) – were caught between the fires at either end, with some having apparently drowned after jumping off the bridge into the Thames (indeed, it’s said that some of the crews of boats sent to rescue them ended up drowning themselves after the vessels were overwhelmed).
Antiquarian John Stow, writing in the early 17th century, stated that more than 3,000 people died in the fire – leading some later writers to describe the disaster as “arguably the greatest tragedy London has ever seen”.
But many believe this figure is far too high for a population then estimated at some 50,000. The oldest surviving account of the fire – Liber de Antiquis Legibus (“Book of Ancient Laws”) which was written in 1274 and mentions the burning of St Mary Overie and the bridge, as well as the Chapel of St Thomas á Becket built upon it – doesn’t mention a death toll.
London Bridge itself survived the fire thanks to its recent stone construction but for some years afterward it was only partly usable. King John then raised additional taxes to help rebuild destroyed structures while the City’s first mayor, Henry Fitz Ailwyn, subsequently apparently joined with other officials in creating some regulations surrounding construction with fire safety in mind.
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