The longest street in London
Unless you know the area, it's perhaps not the street you thought
While it’s not a very interesting trivia question, you might not automatically know the winner of the “longest street in London” competition, even after a few guesses.
To win this elusive prize, we must omit the 1920s and 1930s-built arterial roads such as the North Circular Road and Eastern Avenue. While the definition of ‘street’ is quite flexible, wide, fast-flowing dual carriageways are generally not really such an animal.
It might be assumed that I’m going to be picky and ensure that only throughfares ending with the word ‘Street’ qualify. But that’s not true. There are roads like Finchley Road which go on for miles, but along their length they change names.
The winner of this select competition, at a length of around one and a half miles, Rotherhithe Street is the longest continually-named street - the same name along its whole length - in London.
Rotherhithe Street is quite so long due to the River Thames's bend in the area and the persistence of the street in following that riverbank. The street features several notable buildings, including the Grade II* listed Nelson House, the Mayflower pub, Surrey Docks Farm, Trinity Halls and Church, the former Rotherhithe fire station, and the Rotherhithe Heritage Museum. The street is also home to St Mary's Church, where Prince Lee Boo - one of the first people from the Pacific Islands to visit Great Britain - is buried.
But, Rotherhithe Street was once even longer…
Until the post-war period, the western section of Rotherhithe Street started at Cherry Garden Pier in Bermondsey, running past the gloriously-named Apollinarus Wharf and then alongside the Angel public house.
JMW Turner seems to have painted his famous painting The Fighting Temeraire from the balcony at the Angel Inn, now addressed 101 Bermondsey Wall East.
It seems that Turner’s painting of the ship’s final journey takes some artistic liberties and does not accurately depict the actual events. According to historical records, the ship was taken for scrap at Beatson’s ship-breaking yard in Rotherhithe by two tugboats, not one, on 6 September 1836.
Contemporary observers mentioned that there was no sunset during the ship’s final journey. However, in Turner’s painting, the sun appears to set in the east, which does not match reality.
Furthermore, the ship’s appearance in the painting differs from its actual state at the time. By the time the ship was auctioned off to ship-breaker John Beatson, many of its features, such as the tall masts and rigging, had been removed. However, Turner’s painting depicts the ship with the rigging and masts still intact.
These artistic choices by Turner may have been made to create a more dramatic and visually appealing representation of the ship’s final moments rather than accurately reflecting the historical details.
The former section of Rotherhithe Street continued until Elephant Lane, after which the modern version of the street picks up the name.
Nowadays Rotherhithe Street starts just north of the Rotherhithe tunnel. The first significant landmark is St Mary's, an 18th-century church. The four pillars supporting the roof appear to be made of stone but are actually constructed from old ships' wooden masts covered in plaster. The church serves as the final resting place of Christopher Jones, the captain of the Mayflower, which departed from Rotherhithe in the autumn of 1620, carrying the Pilgrims to the New World.
Seven places spanning between Leiden in the Netherlands in the east to Plymouth in Devon in the west, claim the departure point of the Mayflower as their own. Indeed all of them have a genuine claim and it’s a story for another article.
Situated across from St Mary's church is the Mayflower pub, which is located at the site where this departure point of the ship occurred. Established in 1550, the pub claims to be the oldest one built along the banks of the Thames. According to legend, the pub was constructed on top of the decaying timbers of the Mayflower, which were left to rot in the bank's mud.
The interior features dark timber beams and low ceilings. In 1780, the pub was rebuilt and named the Spread Eagle and Crown, later being renamed The Mayflower in 1957. Visitors to the pub who can claim direct descent from one of the Pilgrim Fathers (or Mothers) are invited to sign the 'Descendants Book'. The Mayflower's strong connection to the United States is further highlighted by the fact that it is the only pub in the United Kingdom licensed to sell US postage stamps.
St Mary’s is the church seen at the bottom left of the above map.
Just a short distance down the road from the church, on the right side, stands the Brunel Museum, which is housed in the Brunel Engine House. The museum is dedicated to the renowned French-British engineer Marc Isambard Brunel and his family, who are considered one of Britain's most influential engineering families.
Marc Isambard Brunel and his son, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, constructed the Thames Tunnel, which was completed in 1843. Initially, the tunnel served as a convenient pedestrian thoroughfare for working people, but it also gained a reputation for criminality and vice.
In 1865, the East London Railway Company purchased the tunnel to connect passengers and goods between Liverpool Street and the South London Line. Today, passengers taking the Overground train (but here under-river rather than over-ground) from Wapping to Rotherhithe pass through this historic tunnel.
Continuing eastwards along Rotherhithe Street, we reach the Bascule Bridge that spans Surrey Water. Constructed around 1930, the bridge was designed to raise like a drawbridge, allowing ships to pass through. The design of this bridge closely resembles that of Tower Bridge, although it is considerably smaller and features only one raising 'leave' instead of two. The term 'bascule' is derived from the French word for seesaw, which refers to the bridge's unique raising mechanism.
As we walk past the Blacksmith's Arms, we come across Nelson House, a Georgian building dating back to the 1740s. This Grade-II listed building has been occupied by several shipbuilders over the years, most notably John Randall, who constructed numerous ships for the East India Company and 50 naval vessels. It is believed that Randall took his own life by jumping from one of the building's windows.
The house received its current name in the 19th century, following the Battle of Trafalgar.
Rotherhithe Street is home to several other notable buildings, including Trinity Halls and Church, which were constructed in 1836. The former Rotherhithe fire station, which operated from 1906 to 1965, has been transformed into riverside apartments. The street also features the Rotherhithe Heritage Museum, which offers free entry to visitors. Approximately two acres of former dockland near the street has been converted into a nature park.
In 1868, a fire severely damaged several timber buildings, including the White Lion pub. The street has hosted a number of inns and records note that in 1893, two pubs on the street, The Three Compasses and Noah's Ark, were both put up for sale.
In the nineteenth century, Rotherhithe Street stopped at Nelson Dock but today it continues, having absorbed some former street names.
Rotherhithe Street, having turned south now, continues heroically but peters out in the middle of nowhere, having come so far.
Situated at the far end of Rotherhithe Street is Surrey Docks Farm, a functioning city farm and charity that was founded in 1986. It is home to a variety of animals, including pigs, goats, sheep, donkeys and poultry. During the coronavirus pandemic, the farm faced the threat of closure but managed to narrowly escape this fate.
And so ends the longest street in London. From here we can continue to Greenland Docks and across to the other side and Deptford.
But we won’t, this time