Bermondsey

Providence Square, Bermondsey

Quartz House (left) and St Saviour's Mills.

Tug with barge

The tug Sea Challenge II is moored at Chambers Wharf. It appears that its barges are being loaded with spoil from the Thames Tideway Tunnel project. A 25km combined sewer is being bored from Acton to Abbey Mills Pumping Station. The main tunnel is 7.2m diameter. It will increase the capacity of the sewage system, collecting existing local combined sewer overflows before they discharge into the Thames. At Chambers Wharf, a vertical shaft was dug to lower a tunnel boring machine and drive the main tunnel eastwards. A connection from Greenwich will enter the main tunnel here.

Hope (Sufference) Wharf

See TQ3579 : Hope (Sufferance) Wharf, St. Marychurch Street, SE16 for a wider view and more information.

Brunel pump house, Rotherhithe

A museum of Marc Brunel's Thames tunnel alongside one of the original shafts. It then housed a J & G Rennie pumping engine from Chatham that was later removed. Since then a steel chimney has been fixed to the top of the brick base to recapitulate the station's original appearance. Pity the engine was removed.

Chris Allen

Brunel pump house, Rotherhithe

This building and the adjoining shaft were used in the construction and drainage of Marc Brunel's Thames Tunnel - the world's first underwater tunnel. In the 1980s the museum housed here included this steam engine from Chatham Docks. It was a compound Vee engine that drove a vertical axis pump. It was built by the famous firm of J & G Rennie of London in 1885. Its slide valve cylinders were 20" & 32" x 20". It was later removed to Preston Services near Canterbury. In my experience in the UK, this is a unique survivor.

Chris Allen

Brunel pump house, Rotherhithe - steam engine

Chris Allen

Canada Water

Canada Water is a freshwater lake extending to about 4 acres (1.6ha) in the district of Rotherhithe (in the borough of Southwark) in southeast London. It is the only freshwater lake in the Docklands area and is a wildlife refuge. It is a remnant of the former Canada Dock, but is now supplied with water from a borehole rather than being connected to the river. See Wikipedia article here Link

for more information.

Titanic Exhibition - Corridor

A mock-up of one of the corridors on the Titanic at the exhibition currently being held at Canada Water. [2022 link] Link

Titanic Exhibition - Trompe l'oeil staircase

This (actually flat) trompe l'oeil staircase is a representation of the grand staircase on the ill-fated Titanic. Part of the current Titanic Exhibition at Canada Water.

Titanic Exhibition - Recreation of an onboard drawing room

This is one of several 'tableau' at the Titanic Exhibition. This one representing a First Class drawing room on the ship.

Titanic Exhibition - Recreation of Wireless Room

This is a recreation of the Wireless Room onboard the ill-fated Titanic, from where senior wireless officer John "Jack" Phillips tapped out the CQD and SOS distress signals, while junior wireless operator Harold Bride communicated with the bridge. Phillips went down with the Titanic on 15th April 1912, but Bride survived having been picked up by the Carpathia; he died in 1956.

View from The Shard

At 1016' (309.6m) The Shard is the tallest habitable building in Western Europe. The building has a total of 95 storeys, but the top 23 are considered to be its spire. There are public viewing galleries on two of the floors, the 68th and 72nd, the latter being the highest "habitable" floor, at an altitude of 800' (244m), giving views - on the clearest days - as far as 35 miles (55km) in every direction. The Shard took three years to build, involving nearly 1500 construction workers during its peak construction phase. It has a massive concrete central core, with almost as much concrete again in its foundations. Attached to this is a complex steel structure which is clad in triple-glazed glass panels. This exterior consists of 11,000 individual glazed panels with a total area of over 600,000ft² (56,000m²) - the equivalent of about eight football pitches. The trip from the Ground floor to the viewing galleries is in two separate lifts, the first one from floors 0 to 33, the second from 33 to 67. They both travel at about 6m/s - or about a floor per second. On a clear day the panorama from the viewing galleries is excellent as you are at the highest fixed point in the city; the buildings, trains and traffic looking almost like models from this vantage point. The Shard is a multi-purpose building containing an hotel, restaurants, residential and office space - with a total floor area of 1.2 million ft² (110,000 m²). The architect of this building is the Italian Renzo Piano who created the building for the developer Irvine Sellar. Visiting the "View from the Shard" viewing galleries costs £25 for adults and £19 for children if booked in advance. (2013)

Lauren

View towards the northeastern gate of Southwark Park

The Angel public house

Bandstand in Southwark Park

Reconstructed in 1999, based on a Victorian design with a surprisingly complex history. For more detail, see Link

Approaching the northwestern corner of Southwark Park

Fountain in the pond at Southwark Park