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Rotherhithe in Surrey County England History and GeographyROTHERHITHE, a parish in the eastern division of the hundred of BRIXTON, county of SURREY, I mile (S.E.) from London, containing 12,523 inhabitants. This place, corruptly called Redriff, was anciently a village and marsh south-eastward of London, to which it now forms an extensive suburb, on the opposite side of the river. The trench cut by Canute, in order to besiege the metropolis, commenced in this parish, and reached to Vauxhall; and the channel through which the river was turned, in 1173, for the rebuilding of London bridge, is supposed to have taken a similar course. In the reign of Edward III., a large naval armament was fitted out here, preparatory to an invasion of France, by Edward the Black Prince and the Duke of Lancaster; and during the commotions in the reign of Richard II., respecting the poll-tax, that monarch came hither in his barge, in order to pacify the malcontents; but his refusal to land so enraged the rioters, that, with their leaders, John Tyler, alias Jack Straw, and Wat, his brother, they broke open the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons, liberated the inmates, and having proceeded to the house of the Duke of Lancaster, in the Savoy, destroyed it and all the valuable furniture and jewels by fire. In 1785, a dreadful fire broke out here, which in a few hours consumed two hundred and six houses, and did other extensive damage; but since the period of rebuilding them the population of the parish has nearly doubled its former amount, and is still on the increase. The situation of Rotherhithe, on the southern bank of the Thames, has induced numbers of seafaring men, watermen, and others, to reside here, and its inhabitants are now almost exclusively engaged in pursuits of this nature: in that part of the parish which forms the bank of the Thames are eleven dock-yards, for the building of East India ships and small merchant vessels; boat and lighter builders' wharfs; seven timber wharfs; three dealyards, and a mast-yard; besides anchor-wharfs, ship-breakers' wharfs, and numerous warehouses for rigging and victualling the navy: the rest is occupied by the residences of masters of ships, seafaring people, and the tradesmen whose interests are dependent on navigation. The principal of the docks on this side of the river are, the Commercial dock, the several basins of which are capable of containing upwards of two hundred ships of burden; and the East Country dock, adjoining, appropriated to vessels for those parts and for America: the business connected with this place in general has been much circumscribed since the opening of the London, the East and West India, and St. Katherine's docks, on the opposite side of the river. The manufactures comprise the works carried on in the ordnance department at the three government wharfs, employed in making guncarriages, &c.; extensive iron-works, chiefly for the construction of iron bolts out of old iron hoops and other materials; and the king's mills for grinding corn, some years ago occupied by the London Flour Company. A canal, leading from the Thames by the Gun wharf through Deptford to Miteham, and begun in 1801, pursuant to act of parliament, now communicates with the Croydon canal at Deptford; and by the same act authority was given to make a collateral cut thence to Greenland dock. The Thames Tunnel, a passage attempted to be formed beneath the bed of the river, intended to facilitate the communication with the opposite shore, having been projected and begun on a small scale in 1809, was again commenced here, from a design and under the direction of Mr. Brunel, in 1825, and carried on so far, that the archwork reaches within two hundred and thirty feet of the opposite shore, but this ingenjous project is for the present discontinued: for a more detailed account of it, see article on London. The inhabitants possess a charter for two weekly markets and two annual fairs, but both have been long disused. A court of requests, for the recovery of debts not exceeding £5, the jurisdiction of which comprises the town and borough of Southwark, and the eastern division of the hundred of Brixton, is held here. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry of Surrey, and diocese of Winchester, rated in the king's books at £18, and in the patronage of the Master and Fellows of Clare Hall, Cambridge. The church is dedicated to St. Mary: in the churchyard is the tombstone of Prince Lee Boo, son of Abba Thule, King of one of the Pelew islands, who died of the small pox, in 1784, and whose memoirs have been transmitted to posterity, in the interesting narrative of Mr. Keate. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, and Wesleyan Methodists. A free school, originally founded by Peter Hills, and Robert Bell, Esqrs., for the education and clothing of eight sons of seamen, and afterwards united with another, which was refounded in 1745, affords instruction to one hundred and fifty boys and fifty girls: it has a permanent income of £32 per annum, and is further supported by subscription. The Amicable school, founded in 1739, educates forty-five boys; and in the United Society school, established in 1755, are thirty-one; both these institutions are supported by voluntary contributions: there is likewise a school of industry for twenty girls. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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