“Rights of passage”: examining access to the River Thames

Nathalie CohenThames Discovery Programme

Paper presented at the Process and Practice Workshop 6th June 2011Society for Post Medieval Archaeology / Institute for Archaeologists

Watermans Stairs: how many?

• 1707: 120 public stairs in use • 1856: 70 public stairs in use• (

http://www.londononline.co.uk/history/c18/12/)

• 1883: 70 landing stairs – majority for Watermen

• http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications3/toilers-6.htm

• 181 features recorded as ‘access’ related by the TAS

The Steel Yard, Dowgate, Three Cranes, Queenhithe, Trig, Paul's Wharf, Common Stairs, or Puddle Dock, White Friars, Temple, Arundel, Surrey, Strand, Somerset, Savoy, Worcester, Salisbury, Ivybridge, Exchange, York, Black Lion, Whitehall, Privy Garden, Manchester, Horse Ferry, Old Church, Beaufort. Billingsgate, Custom House, Tower, Irongate, St. Catherine's, Ship, Brew House, Hermitage, Wapping Old, Wapping New, Execution Dock, King Edward's, New Crane, King James's, Shadwell, Bell Wharf, Ratcliff Cross, LimehousePepper Alley, St. Saviour's, Bank End, Horseshoe Alley, New Thames Street, Mold Strand, Falcon, Paris Garden, Marygold, Bull, Old Barge House, Morris's Causeway, Cupid's or Cuper's, King's Arms, Stangate, Lambeth Palace, Horse Ferry, Vauxhall.

Image by Carl Mydans

What can we learn?•Construction / Maintenance•Control of access routes•Low / high tide information •Associated with drainage•Property boundaries•Erosion studies

1996

Chiswick

2003

2006

2008

2009

Community involvement

Bermondsey Isleworth

Custom House

Trig Lane

Alderman Stairs

Stakeholders

Gabriel’s Wharf

1990s

2010A disappearing resource?