Lost London – King Edward III’s Thames-side manor house…

The remains of one of the lesser known former royal residences in London, King Edward III’s manor house, sit amid a grassy park on the south bank of the Thames at the corner of Bermondsey Wall East and Cathay Street in Rotherhithe.

Believed to have been built in about 1350 during the reign of the king (1312-1377), the 14th century property – which consisted of stone buildings arranged around two courtyards – was originally built on what was then an island surrounded by marshes.

The premises was surrounded on three sides by a moat – the fourth side opened directly to the river, allowing the king to travel to the property by boat.

Among the buildings in the complex were a hall with a fireplace as well as private chambers for the king and utility spaces like kitchens (pictured below is a reconstruction of the property as depicted on an information plaque located at the site).

The function of the building remains somewhat a mystery – with no nearby royal parks it is unlikely it was a conventional hunting lodge although documentary evidence does point to falcons being house there so perhaps it was a place where the king hunted with falcons.

As the Thames riverbank was pushed northward over the following centuries, the residence became completely surrounded by a moat. It was eventually sold into private hands.

The site was apparently used as a pottery in the 17th century and warehouses occupied it in the 18th and 19th centuries (in fact a 14th century wall was incorporated into one of these and was still standing in 1907).

The warehouses were demolished in the 1970s and the remains of the palace confirmed on the site during an excavation by English Heritage 1985 (they also found a lot of Delftware on the site apparently related to its days as a pottery).

London Pub Signs – The Mayflower

Located on the Thames waterfront in Rotherhithe, The Mayflower’s history is intertwined with that of the more famous ship of the same name.

For it was from a quay near the pub (then named The Shippe) that in July, 1620, Captain Christopher Jones embarked upon the vessel, The Mayflower, and set sail for Southampton to load supplies before boarding the Pilgrim Fathers and making the journey to what is now the United States of America, landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts, on 21st December of that year.

Captain Jones was to return to Rotherhithe the following year and died shortly after. He and the ship’s co-owners are buried in an unmarked grave in the nearby churchyard of St Mary’s where a modern monument to Jones has been erected.

The pub, meanwhile, was rebuilt the following century – in 1780 – and renamed the Spread Eagle and Crown. It took on the name of Mayflower following a restoration in 1957, thanks to its associations with the historic voyage of The Mayflower.

Now part of the Greene King family of pubs, inside the building features oak beams and wooden panelling and boasts fine views of the Thames from an outside deck.