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The ferry crossed the River Thames between Greenwich and North Greenwich, on the Isle of Dogs. It was unusual in that it followed early American practice of using trolleys to run up and down to the landing stage, and the landing stage would position itself on the water's edge according to to the ebb and flow of the tide.
The mechanics of this proved costly to build and maintain and in a few years the owners were anxious to sell it. However it survived until the Woolwich Ferry, Blackwall Tunnel and Greenwich foot tunnel finally sealed its fate. The brief history was researched by the author and facts taken from periodicals and the press at the time.

It is documented that have been ferries from Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs from the earliest times, certainly from the 1330's. Exactly where the sites at which different ferry services ran and how these locations varied however is not well documented.

One of the Potters Ferry's crossed from Billingsgate St, Greenwich adjacent to the where the foot tunnel was built, to the northern shore at the approximate location of the termination of Ferry Street. This is shown on a 1695 survey map. Potters were a company that run many of the ferries in East London.

It is reported that there are legal records of transfers of ownership of these various ferries dating back to at least 1570.

At Greenwich the difference in high and low tides was 21 feet at this time, it is 24ft today.

Until 1800 very few people lived on the Isle of Dogs, as it was open windswept pastureland. On the west side of the Island stood windmills, which gave the place name Millwall.

With the cutting of the docks came prosperity and the Isle became populated with industry, including a rope works, iron works and a chain works.

Pepys’ diary tells of a ferry at Greenwich that was capable, in favourable conditions, of transferring horses and carriages across the Thames. In 1762, the right was granted to the watermen of Greenwich to provide “passage for men horses, beasts, and all other cattle and carriages whatsoever”.

In 1796 a plan was launched to straighten the Thames. This was rejected by Parliament as being too much of an engineering feat. It would have cut a straight line across the Isle of Dogs making that place "South of the River".

The ferry was important not only for Greenwich but also the southern part of the Isle of Dogs. In 1812-15, two major roads were built from the docks to the ferry. These became the East Ferry and West Ferry roads and they speeded up the development of the whole Isle of Dogs.

Horseferry

In 1812 an Act of Parliament was passed creating a statutory ferry for horses and vehicles and it is around this time that Horseferry Road (now Place) first appears on maps. The end of Horseferry Rd must have run directly onto the sandy foreshore so that regardless of the state of the tide a horse and carriage could be driven onto the ferry boat. The Horseferry continued to operate from this site until the Metropolitan Board of Works Act of 1883 closed it. Prior to the steam ferry it cost 2p to be rowed across the river.

The Horseferry Public House was named the Unicorn prior to the appearance of the ferry. It changed its name in 1888.

Isle of Dogs railway

On July 27^th 1872 a branch line opened from the Fenchurch St- Blackwall Railway to North Greenwich, the Millwall Extension Railway. This terminated just across the river from Greenwich in what is now known as Island Gardens. (There had been a railway south of the river, in Greenwich since 1838). The station was opened as “North Greenwich and Cubitt Town” this was later shortened to North Greenwich.

The Potters Ferry, originally ran from Ferry Rd to Billingsgate St, Greenwich. They leased their rights to the Great Eastern Railway. In 1874 the GE introduced a foot ferry using a small paddle steamer called the “Rifleman” which ran every 20 minutes. This ran from Johnson’s Public Draw Dock (Island Gardens) to a point near where Cutty Sark is now.

GREENWICH STEAM FERRY

Purpose of the ferry

Because of the high rise and fall of the tide, some 20ft, and the extreme slope of the shore, embarking and disembarking was an inevitable a “wet foot” experience. The principle was to enable a smooth transfer of passengers, horses, carriages and even railway trucks onto a ferry steamer whatever the state of the tide. The mechanics of the ferry loading would enable this.

There was a serious need for a vehicular ferry, more robust than the horse ferry, at a point up river from Woolwich. Sir Frederick Bramwell, President of the Institute of Civil Engineers told the Metropolitan Board of Works that this was an urgent necessity, he had studied ferry practice in the USA and it was possible.

The Arsenal at Woolwich lobbied, as they had to transport munitions from Woolwich via London Bridge to Albert Dock. However by the mid 1880’s approval had been given for a Woolwich Ferry, which started in 1889.

On 26^th February 1886 a proposal was approved by the MBOW.

The 13th of February 1888 saw the opening of by far the most ambitious and mechanically daring ferry operation system ever to be seen on the River Thames. This had been first employed in the USA. It is a truly remarkable testament to the ambitions of the late 19th century engineering skills.

However the completion of the works for the ferry was delayed by 3 serious setbacks.

The death of the first contractor, the failure of the second and the death of the engineer.

The Ferry

The Launch

On Monday 13th of February 1888, from the works of Steward and Latham at Britannia Yard, Millwall, was launched the first of the Steam Ferries that were to ply across the waters from Greenwich to the Isle of Dogs. The ceremony was performed by Countess de la Warr (a woman’s right campaigner and suffragette), with Admiral Sir Edward Inglefield, Chairman of the Steam Ferry Company, who died 1894, a freemason of Dury Lane Lodge.

The Boat the “Countess of Lathom” glided into the water amid cheers and the sound of Rule Britannia. A second boat was named the Countess of Zetland (this ferry apparently went to Germany at the end of its service). The ferries were named after socially aware, nobility.

The Boats.

They were shaped like a “spoon” at both ends and were able to work to and fro with out turning. The ferry was very large for the time, about same size as Woolwich ferry is today and carried 16 plus vehicles and 200 foot passengers or 1300 foot passengers. It had provision for railway wagons. The ferries themselves were technologically very advanced being double-ended with steam driven twin screws at each end, that is 4 propellers on 4 separate engines to give manoeuvrability. The ferries had a rudder at each end. Trimming tanks allowed the boats to be exactly aligned with the land stage. The sides or bulwarks of the ferry were hydraulically lowered to connect with the platforms.

Details from the “Engineer” is as follows.

The ferry has a 466 tons displacement, divided by bulkheads, 8 athwart the ship and 3 longitudinal, there is no keel and the size is 120ft by 40ft with a 6.5ft draught.

The deck is 60ft by 36ft and holds 1300 passengers. Each of the steamers has captain’s bridges, steering wheel and telegraphs at each end.

The motion is by two screw propellers at each end and the ships can be turned in their own length. Two sets of compound surface condensing engines of 300hp with high pressure 16.5” diameter and low pressure 33” with a 24” stroke. The cylinders are lined with cast steel liners.

The propellers are 6ft diameter of cast steel with iron guards. A balance rudder of 6ft by 6ft is at each end and controlled by steam steering gear. Ach ship carries 25 tones of coal.

Two more sets of engines are for air and circulating pumps and a set for the hydraulic mechanism and two pumping engines to supply the boilers with water.

The bulwarks or landing ramps are hydraulic and fed by the above machinery.

The Landing Mechanism

Brief description.

It consisted of, on both shores, a concrete slip 350ft long and 53ft wide, which ran from the end of Horseferry Rd, down into the river. A massive landing stage weighing 270 tons, and 70ft across, travelled up and down this slip on rails with the flood and ebb of the tide. The landing stage was actually wider than the slipway and rested at tide level. To connect with the landing stage two travelling platforms transported traffic up and down.

Principal of operation

This device is described in some detail in an article published in 2nd December 1892 edition of The Engineer.

The landing stage

The Landing stages were 70ft long and 60ft wide, 6’ 6” depth total weight 270tons. They rested on 4 bogies, 8 steel wheels on each bogie. On the deck were shelters and the “usual offices”? Bollards were installed for the ferry mooring. There is a rumour of a landing stage floating off its rails due to “ carelessness of one of the servants of the company” and that stays were later fitted to stop a repeat of this. The actual facts were, that one night in November 1892, after the end of the service, a worker drew the landing stage up the slipway too fast and it derailed and floated. Considerable damage was done to the wheels and underside of the stage. “Automatic arrangements” were put in place to prevent this happening again.

The platforms

Platforms rode on rails down to the landing stage.

The travelling platforms were 60ft long and 23ft wide, 2’7” depth made of all steel body and a total weight of 125 tons. Within the construction there are 15 watertight bulkheads. The decks were creosoted Memel timbers and covered with block paving. Tram rails are laid into this for the transportation of railway wagons. Each carriage runs on 24 steel wheels. It was designed that if it should come off the rails it would be able to float with 50 tons of traffic.

The slipway

This was 348ft long, sloping at an incline of 1 in 10. A bed on concrete 50ft wide and a minimum of 3ft thick with footing of 5ft where it is below waterline.

4 lines of rails run on the slipway 4’ 8 ½ with 11’ 3” centres on transverse sleepers bolted onto wrought iron longitudinals. This is embedded in concrete so all that show is the rails. The rails were profiled as per tram tracks.

The approaches. The roadway was 53ft wide and ended in an abutment wall. This roadway was built on top of the winding mechanism. The roof of the winding chamber, or roadway was of profiled steel girders onto which was laid creosoted wooden blocks, into this was laid rail for the transportation of wagons.

The approaches were 5’6” above Trinity High Water Mark.

A chamber housed steam engines which, through a system of gearing, turned drums so as to draw the landing stage and travelling platforms up and down the slip by means of steel cables.

The Engines

Just behind this abutment wall were sunk 3 cylinders to a depth of 145ft. These cylinders are 10ft in diameter on top increasing to 11ft 6ins at the bottom.

Counterweights were hung, wire roped and attached to the platforms, and driven through pulleys and a drum controlled by a steam engine. As there is a slope of 1:10 one tenth of the weight in the cylinder will balance the platform. 3 locomotive boilers, draught by a large chimney, were all linked to provide steam to one large engine and 2 smaller ones.

Two treble geared, double cylinder high pressure winding engines with 14 in diameter cylinders of 18inch stroke. The cylinders worked winding drums 5ft diameter with 1½” winding ropes. The ropes to the stages are 4inches with a breaking load of over 3 tones. A third engine presumably for the landing stage is a 2 cylinder 6 and a half-inch diameter engine with 8” stroke.

The boilers are 3 steel units of locomotive type, each 140lb/sqin.

So cramped was the boiler room that in order to clean out the fire tubes, holes were sunk into the walls and earth to enable the rods to be pushed back before then could go forward into the fire tubes.

The whole site and ferries were lit by electricity.

A duplicate of this awesome construction was of course operating on the opposite shore and between these landing stages steamed the two purpose-built ferries.

It was proposed that Railway wagons could be transported from the SE Railway to the Great Eastern Railway via the ferry. There is no record of this happening.

Rumour

Apart form the platform floating away there is a rumoured story of failure of one of the chains holding the counterweight and a diver was sent down into the cylinder to repair it. He became trapped and his body never recovered. Subsequent divers who ventured into the shafts have also found nothing. There was a rumour that a quantity of brass as stored in the shafts in the World War 2 but this has not been found either.

The site was converted into an air raid shelter in the Second World War.

Demise of the Ferry

Despite its mechanical ingenuity, the ferry was never a commercial success principally due to insufficient traffic. It closed between 1890 and 1892, reopened and by the end of October that year traffic was said to be up to 500 vehicles and 1000 passengers weekly. It should be noted that the ferry ran a daylight service only at half hourly intervals with only the Countess of Lathom in service, meaning that the Countess of Zetland had possibly been sold off to Germany by this time.

In 1892. Greenwich ferry owners were anxious for it to be taken over by the London County Council. It is stated as not being a remunerative service at this frequency, but it is still a worthy public utility. It would be for sale at a moderate price.

It finally closed for good in about 1899 after less than ten years active life.

One research source states that the Countess of Lathom was sold to Southsea and Hayling Island Steam Ferry Co in 1894 and renamed Hayling. It was then sold to Nordischer Bergungs Vreein of Hamburg who converted her to a salvage vessel renamed Unterelbe.

What killed the Ferry?

Woolwich Free Ferry in operation taking away eastern traffic (1889),

Greenwich free foot tunnel opening (1902).

But mainly the Blackwall free road tunnel opening (1897).

Reporting on the opening of the Greenwich foot tunnel, the Kentish Mail describes the demise of the ferry (possibly the railway ferry). 3000 people cross and recross the river each day at 1d. The ferry which runs ever 20 minutes does not run in fog, and indeed many of the ship builders on Millwall forbade their foremen and manages to live in South London because of the delays on the river due to fog.

Its costs a shilling a week to use the ferry, that is £2/12/- a year saving by using to the foot tunnel. The article finishes by saying, “what the ferry will lose in revenue I hope the public houses will not gain”.

The site today

The large chamber beneath the buildings which occupied the site of numbers 28 and 30 Wood Wharf housed the engines and counterweights for the moving landing stage and travelling platforms have been demolished and a block of flats built on the site. The concrete slipway is the only remaining material evidence of a great 19th century engineering edifice.

The slipway used by the ferry still survives on both sides of the river. It is still in use on the Isle of Dogs.

On the south slipway is a preserved diesel tug owned by the Swiftstone Trust.
They are a charity, which enhances education on the working life of the Thames.

The Railway closure

With the opening of the Docklands Light Railway on 31.8.87 the terminus station at

Island Gardens utilised the northern end of the North Greenwich station site. Island