SOUTH DOCK MARINA - ROTHERHITHE

And so to South Dock Marina by mid-morning on the top of the tide. The entrance is easily identified by Greenland Pier.




I called the Lockeeper on Channel 37 and she opened the gates straight away enabling me to glide straight in to the comforting quiet of the lock and then the marina.










A comfortable berth for a day or two after an arduous journey.

The marina has a busy boatyard. You can just see the lift out crane in this pic.








They lifted out a badly damaged rib for repair in the yard.

There are quite a few exciting rib ride businesses which were flourishing over the bank holiday weekend. Looks a bit dangerously dodgy to me. Must be getting old!

One branch of the family came up to see me. Lovely. We had a little birthday party on board and wandered around the marina complex. All kinds of boats from the fabulously glamourous 'Blue Trout' to the usual madhouses. Many birds nests - mallard, coot, moorhen, pochard and grebe. They seem very content in this arificial human world.



  Another branch of the family came the following day. Couldn't come Sunday as Allie was working. (You can see the marina is bang opposite the docklands development Canada Wharf.)

We wandered around and had a birthday lunch in The Mayflower, a riverside pub overlooking the Prospect of Whitby on the opposite bank. The Mayflower had provisioned and sailed from the very hard where this pub was sited.










The industrial archeology of Rotherhithe is fascinating so I decided to stay an extra day and have a look around. I followed the Thames Pathway which follows the riverside like a towpath.

The dock trade was mainly in timber from both East and West, predominantly from Canada and Greenland by the time this map was drawn.












There's a lot of old history left to see. There were more than one of these. What is it?

A left over crane.

This is the entrance to the city farm.

The footpath was plagued with joggers!

Where I had a cup of tea.

Further round I could see across the river to St Paul's Shadwell Church where Allie is Curate.












And then back to Lady Cate through lovely park and woodland created from the filled in Russia Dock, lying down the centre of the peninsula.