Ballast Quay
  • Home
  • About
  • History
    • Ballast Quay & Anchor Iron Wharf
    • Ballast Quay 20th century
    • The Cutty Sark Tavern
  • Entrepreneurs
    • Sir John Morden
    • Sir Ambrose Crowley
    • William Coles Child
    • William George Bracegirdle
    • The Life & Times of William George Bracegirdle
    • Aukra Kyrkje & the Bracegirdle Bible
    • The Hoskins Family
  • Industry
    • Lovell's Wharf
    • C. A. Robinson & Co.
    • Enderby Wharf >
      • Relics of a Glorious History
      • The Eponymous Enderbys
      • Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  • Oral Histories
    • Hilary Peters
    • Fred Mason
    • Barbara Southard
    • Kenny Tabor
    • Mareka Carter
    • Joe Hambrook
    • Ray Thompson
    • Sean McCauley
    • Terry Scales
  • Open Garden
    • Garden History
    • Garden in Bloom
  • Gallery
    • Movies
    • Murder Mystery Novel
  • News
    • Morris Dancers on Anchor Iron Wharf
    • Greenwich Tall Ships Festival
  • Contact Us
ABOUT BALLAST QUAY
Picture
Panorama of Greenwich 1558 by Antonis Van Den Wyngaerde  
The earliest known representation of East Greenwich in the year Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne.  
The broad walkway of Highbridge where the courtiers lived is clearly drawn in the centre of this detail.  East of Highbridge is a large building with two little gatehouse buildings behind it. 
This could possibly be Old Court.  Further east there are buildings which may be on Ballast Quay.
Courtesy of Greenwich Heritage Centre

BALLAST QUAY, formerly Union Wharf, is a residential street in East Greenwich which borders directly on the Thames. The houses are late Georgian and early Victorian and the street has a fine bow fronted public house, the Cutty Sark Tavern, formerly the Union Tavern, which has been a feature for over 200 years.   The trade in ballasting ships, which flourished here for many centuries, is reflected in the name of the street.  Former residents also earned their living by fishing and boat building and working in maritime businesses, as well as on the wharves or lighters in the coal, steel and iron trades.

Most of the houses on Ballast Quay are Grade II listed and form a 
Picture
Picture
Picture
group which includes the Cutty Sark Tavern and the Harbour 
Master's Office.  The cobbled road surface is also listed, being a rare survival of mid-Victorian granite setts.

Today the street's residents all share the use of a communal riverside garden created in the 1960s from a derelict industrial wharf.   It is a tranquil place of natural beauty with views up and down the river, an oasis of greenery reclaimed from the concrete of post-industrial dockland with a lot of help from a few dedicated resident gardeners, who shared a common vision of bringing nature back to the urban environment. 

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
History
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.