Surrey Canal Wharf

In the later 18th and early 19th centuries Surrey Canal Wharf, in Rotherhithe on the River Thames, London, was part of Bull Head Dockyard, while that was run by the Woolcombe family. During the first quarter of the 19th century it became a separate concern. It was named as it was, because it was adjacent to the Thameside entrance to the Grand Surrey Canal opened in 1807.

From 1820 to 1858 it was a ship breaking and general timber business, run by members of the Beatson family. Noteworthy ships broken up here include in 1838 the HMS Temeraire of Turner's famous painting The Fighting Temeraire, and HMS Bellerophon. After bringing Napoleon Bonaparte into exile, this last became a convict hulk called Captivity, eventually being broken up here in 1836. After the death of John Beatson, William Philip Beech continued the business. He broke up the three-deck wooden steam powered ship of the line HMS Queen here in 1871. In settling on the foreshore the ship broke her back, destroying much of the value in her bigger timbers. She was the last large wooden warship broken up this far up the Thames, and Beech gave up the business a couple of years later. The wharf then was used for general cargo.

See also

• Shipbuilding in Rotherhithe

Further reading

• Shipbuilding in Rotherhithe - An historical introduction by Stuart Rankin, Bib Id 488375
• Shipbuilding in Rotherhithe - Bull Head Dock to the Pageants Part 1 by Stuart Rankin, Bib Id 594173