London Docklands Walk

Huge thanks to those who attended our walk on Saturday 1 September! You were great participants and I truly hope you enjoyed every minute of our tour - because I did :) There is more to discover around Rotherhithe and Bermondsey, so please do come back one day to have another walk around independently or drop me a line to ask for any tips about the area! Looking forward to meeting again in the future xx Julia
Photos courtesy of Maryna Sulym

Have a historic walk along the river Thames with Julia and Valerie. We'll have an imaginary journey to the times of prosperity and decline of the Port of London – former world’s largest port! We'll learn what this area of London looked like a century ago and what the life of dockworkers was like in 19th century. At the end of the walk, we will have a drink at one of the oldest and most famous pubs in London. Drink is included into the price. In the last 50 years London Docklands has seen dramatic changes and harmoniously blended the past and present together - join us in discovering!

Exciting news! On Saturday, 1 September we will be joined by a local licensed mudlark, Alan Murphy, at our London Docklands historic walk! If you have not heard about mudlarking yet - a mudlark is someone who scavenges in river mud for items of value, a term used especially to describe those who scavenged in London. The foreshore of the River Thames contains an incredible amount of historic artifacts. It is time for us to learn more about mudlarking and to see some of those a...rtifacts!
Alan Murphy is one of the very few London fully licensed mudlarks - he will tell us everything about mudlarking in London. Alan has an incredible collection of artifacts he found in the Thames – objects that even pre-date London’s existence.
Don’t miss this opportunity to have a drink with us at the Mayflower pub and to hear Alan’s talk as well as to ask Alan any questions you might have about mudlarking!
I am so looking forward to seeing you there! xx Julia
Timings: Saturday, 1 September, 1pm to 3pm. Meeting point: Rotherhithe Rail Station. Historic walk and informal talk about mudlarking at the Mayflower pub. Drink and talk are included into the price of the ticket. Everyone is invited. Please secure your places here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/london-doc klands-historic-wa…
photo: https://sites.google.com/site/thamesandfi eld6/home
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Life at Sea in the 18th Century - Sailortowns.
When we have our guided walks, I always tell my favourite Captain Cook story. I just like all those stories and legends about professional sailors of the 18th Century. Did you know that sailors generally went to sea as boys and normally served at sea few decades before settling down and taking a shore or local sailing job? The idea of being single, free of responsibilities and well paid would have made a career at sea obviously ...alluring. If you think about it, ‘tourism’ did not exist in the 18th Century in a form it exists today. This means only sailors and solders got to travel around the world and to see different countries. What an adventurous employment!
Off-duty sailors lived and were entertained in, so called, Sailortowns. London sailortown was a ramshackle London district, close to the docks, centred around Wapping, Shadwell & Ratcliffe (Ratcliffe is known today as Rotherhithe area in East London), which is today - London Docklands.
Sailortown does not exist anymore, but London Docklands Museum, one of my favourite museums in London, has an immersive display that recreates the atmosphere of Sailortown.
If you want to hear more about 18th Century sailors – their manner of living, speaking and acting – join our Saturday walk in August around London Docklands and you will hear legends about Captain Cook, river piracy and day-to-day life of a sailortown residents.
Photo: Docklands Museum Museum of London Docklands References: 'Life at Sea in the Royal Navy of the 18th Century' by Andrew Lambert.
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I live in South East London, right next to Greenland Dock. Everything here is a reminder of former London docks. The docks where the fine ships of England's merchant fleet unloaded their goods - sugar, rum, tea, furs and whale oil. The docks as an industry have now gone, the region was converted into a vibrant residential area and you can find people sailing and wind-surfing here today.
London Docklands were built in 1802 and onwards. During 18th century the population of Lo...ndon doubled from 400,000 to 800,000 and the city experienced huge success. The rise in international trade resulted into shipbuilding boom. The Port of London - one of the largest ports in the world at a time - struggled to cope with challenges that Industrial Revolution brought. The Thames was crowed. The docks and wharves were built in 1802 to cope with the increase in the size of ships and introduced new mechanical ways of unloading ships...
Between 1802 (docks built) and 1980 (docks closed) army of workers worked and lived around the docks, tons of goods were unloaded and delivered to the docks, and, of course, thousands of ships with the flags of all nations sailed into the docks.
A visit to London Docklands is an imaginary journey into maritime and river history of London and to the times of prosperity and decline of the Port of London. The journey might be partly imaginary, but the walk around Rotherhithe and the drink we have at the Mayflower Pub at the end of the walk is 100% real :-)
Have you ever had a walk around any of the London docks? Can you spot wharves and quay cranes around the area?
Come to visit Rotherhithe & Bermondsey.
See you there xx
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Rotherhithe and Bermondsey are residential districts in East London. People from these areas are very passionate about their neighborhood. Rotherhithe was dominated by the docks before they were closed in the 1970s. Numerous wharves, pubs and buildings associated with the docks have survived - majority of them was converted into flats and residential buildings. 'Bermondsey and Rotherhithe are survivors. Both are now very different from even ten years ago but atmosphere remains the same'. https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/251779

Brunel Museum - entrance. The Engine House was designed by Sir Marc Isambard Brunel to be part of the infrastructure of the Thames Tunnel. Come and visit with us to learn more 😊

In The Mayflower pub you will find 2 flags - UK and US - do you know why? Join our walk to find out!

Hello everybody! Our names are Valerie and Julia! We are friends who met studying at Oxford University. We've been living in Rotherhithe area for few years now. Many our guests are coming from all over the world to visit us in London Docklands. We organize small guided tours for our friends and relatives, but we are keen to share our findings about this non-mainstream yet wonderful London area with you! In the last 50 years London Docklands has seen dramatic changes and harmoniously blended the past and present together - join us in discovering!

Ever wondered who mudlarks are? We tell stories about Victorian and contemporary mudlarks at our walks.