London - all things Maritime
 

For our London visit in March, we opted to stay in the Docklands area. This was influenced by our choice of timeshare accommodation, and a wish to trace family history.
We stayed in an apartment at Odessa Wharf - an old warehouse conversion that worked really well for us. The Thames lapped the front wall of the building, and we had bus and train transport within 5 - 15 minutes walk away. It was interesting to see the contrast between the docks that are still fulfilling their original purpose, and those that had become part of the housing developments.

My family history goes back to the 1700s when London was THE spot to be for all things maritime, so we spent a great deal of our week walking the docks and getting to know the area.

I had come across a blog for Deptford, and using the walking trail from here enabled us to explore the history of the area very well.

Greenwich Observatory is a fascinating place to visit, and the audio guide made our time there much more meaningful. The Maritime Museum contains so much history displayed, and has a couple of options for casual dining. We spent 1 1/2 days in this little pocket, and still didn't cover all there was to see.

Further afield, Blackheath UK is such a contrast from Blackheath Australia and a pretty area to see, with plenty of options for coffee stops.

The Docklands Museum was a real treasure to come across - the history of shipping construction and sailings really brought our family history alive for me! There were displays of the sail-making tools that my ancestor would have been using in his day, and the scope of shipping on the Thames was absolutely astounding.

We were still close enough to the city to be able to explore there, but the Docklands area gave us a different perspective this time around.

Happy travels, Di

I agree about Greenwich!! We enjoyed the maritime museum - especially DH. It is a nice boat ride from London!

Glad you had a nice time!

Further afield, Blackheath UK is such a contrast from Blackheath Australia and a pretty area to see, with plenty of options for coffee stops.>>>>

And we've got a plague pit. Beat that!

I know!
That was the fascinating part - finding out the meaning of a town name that I have recognised since I was a young child. 'Our' Blackheath is a lovely town in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney; a place that our family has been connected with for several generations, yet I'd never known the origins its name. Geographically, the two couldn't be more different, yet both share a welcoming atmosphere outside the city bustle.
Di

Actually it was called Blackeheath long before the plague. It comes from "Bleak Heath" as the soil is so poor that you can't use it for anything. That's why it was available for mass burials.

I live there, and like it most of the time. Howver there isn't a single "useful" shop in the hwole place. Try and buy a pint of milk, and you're stuffed.

. . . so now my image of an idyllic village is shattered!
I guess nowhere is perfect? Di

To be honest it's all a bit chocolate box. It is lovely. But it isn't exactly the 'hood. But it's a nice place to live if you can afford it.

In fact all the usefull stuff (supermarkets etc) is just down the road in Lewisham - a very different place indeed.

But if you ever want to buy a dressed pheasant, pashmina, spendy bint's shoes or balsamic vinegar, Blackheef's the place to be. There's a bloody good Oxfam bookshop too.

We look down on Greenwich - in every sense.

The Docklands museum is a favorite of ours too. Dh's family were lightermen and his grandfather the youngest person ever certified as a Thames River pilot. We've given some memorabilia to the museum and it has been displayed.

The Docklands museum is a favorite of ours too>>>>

It is good isn't it? I only went for the first time about six months ago. I was well impressed.

I would make every yank sit and watch the Blitz film. Then, and only then, I'd listen to them about stuff regarding war, but not until they'd seen what it means in reality.

I was quite suprised to see stuff that I remembered in a museum (the Murdoch press moving to Wapping etc). I am now old enough for stuff that happened in my twenties to be in a museum.

If I was a dog they'd put me down.

Thanks for your report. Do you have a link to the apartment you stayed at?

CW - please never stop contributing, you crack me up.

Kay

Hi yk
Their website is www.odessawharf.com
We were there on a timeshare exchange, but I'm pretty sure you can also rent apartments on the open market. Di

Hi Avalon
I am interested in reading more about the history of the London docks - have you come across any literature about life in that area from 1700s to 1800s? Di

The London Docks in the 1700s weren't what they became. Really they got going in the mid 1800s.

I'm particularly interested in 1700s - 1800s because that's when my ancestor was working there as a sailmaker. Di

In all seriousness write to the Museum of London in Docklands. They love getting letters like that. It beats taking jammy faced herberts from the local school around.

wE BOUGHT 2 BOOKS IN THE SHOP THERE









We bought 2 books in the shop there, Thames, Sacred River, Peter Ackroyd and Thames, Jonathan Schneer. Don't know if that is what you'd be looking for. The woman in the acessions dept. also suggested we visit The Guildhall which has a lot of material on the Thames River life. I can't recall where she said it was.Maybe CW could help out here. We didn't have time on this trip to look into it.

Guildhall Library and the Metropolitan Archives may well hold useful information, depending on exactly where Di's ancestor was and what sort of company he worked for.

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corpo...ldhall_lib.htm

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corpo..._and_archives/

That's the place , Patrick!

"literature about life in that area from 1700s to 1800s?"

The first proper London dock wasn't built till 1802: till then docks were those new-fangled gew gaws funny people in the North bothered with. Never catch on down here, they all said.

So if your ancestor lived in London in the 18th century, no-one would be talking about Docklands. They talked about watermen, but they were the blokes who rowed the ferries and such. When I was researching Mrs F's 18th c ferryman ancestor, I couldn't find words used at the time equivalent to today's Docklands or dockers. They seem to have just talked about London, or "near the river" - and a HUGE proportion of 18th c inhabitants of Southwark and the City of London were connected with seaborne trade and lived within a 30 min walk of the river.

Beware of books calling themselves "The Thames: a history" or the like. They're mostly (including the two quoted above) about the whole of England's longest river, from the time it was an offshoot of the Rhine to today: human life along the waterside for a brief, early modern, century rarely takes up more than a page or two.

You'll find loads of books about 18th century London - but most concentrate on posh people with plunging necklines, tight trousers and huge gambling debts, or Hogarth's gin-sodden destitutes

The library at the Guildhall (in the middle of the City) might be able to advise on suitable books. But what it specialises in is a huge archive of the City's history, including things like apprenticeship indentures, and exceptionally helpful staff. Playing round in the archives, though time-consuming, probably throws up more insights than trying to find someone else's book. Photocopies and indexes of most 18th c London church registers (the only likely source of basic data about ordinary people's births, marriages and deaths, since there was no census till 1841) are up the road at the London Metropolitan Archive in Northampton Rd.