For over 167 years, a four-mile canal snaked its way through Southwark, supplying south London with everything from timber to toys.
Although the Grand Surrey Canal’s builders are long buried, and its waters filled in, evidence of the waterway remains in the bridges, streets and signs dotted around the borough.
But, in many ways, the Grand Surrey Canal was so much more than a boating lane. For children, it meant mischief – long days spent floating on makeshift rafts fishing for stickleback fish. By the ‘70s, journalists wrote snootily about “the poor ugly Surrey Canal” which was “filled with rubbish” having had the “misfortune to run south of the river”.
While the canal may have divided opinion, particularly when canal transportation declined, its success and demise mark a pivotal chapter in Southwark’s history. No understanding of the borough, its landscape, and industrial past, is complete without taking a mental trip down the Grand Surrey Canal.
Inspiration and Construction
The period between the 1770s and 1830s is commonly referred to as the ‘Golden Age of British Canals’. This was largely down to the success of the Aire & Calder Navigation, linking Leeds to the sea.
Its owners had become exceedingly wealthy, proving the profitability of canals despite their substantial financial outlay. It prompted a wave of canal-building as engineers and investors cashed in on the craze.
Around 1799, engineer Ralph Dodd proposed that a canal should run from the Thames at Rotherhithe, south to Deptford, through Camberwell and south to Mitcham in Surrey. An Act of Parliament approved the plans in 1801, marking the birth of the Company of Proprietors of the Grand Surrey Canal. It gave the owners powers to raise £60,000 by issuing shares.
The canal never reached anywhere near as far as Mitcham. However, it did gradually extend across Southwark. It began at Surrey Commercial Docks and its branch to the Old Kent Road was open by 1807. By 1810, it had reached as far as the Camberwell Basin – now Burgess Park.
In 1826, a branch was opened from Glengall Wharf (now home to a community garden) to the Peckham Basin (now Peckham Square).
Smooth-sailing Trade
The Grand Surrey Canal quickly became a vital transport link. Sailing barges, with their spacious hulls, would carry all sorts of cargo, ranging from bibles to limestone. But the most common material was timber.
Imported from Scandinavia, the Baltics and Canada – hence the names Russia Dock, Greenland Dock and Canada Water – the timber would be left to float in Surrey Commercial Docks. It would then be loaded onto barges and dispersed throughout south London.
Sailing barges were often used. They were about 30 meters long and six meters wide, capable of navigating in shallow waters with a minimum depth of just one meter and reaching speeds of up to thirteen mph in favorable conditions. To access Camberwell and Peckham, horse-drawn barges were employed to pass under low bridges along the way.
During the latter half of the 19th century, the South Metropolitan Gas Company also used the canal to supply coal to gas works sites on the Old Kent Road. Over the years, the canal’s importance grew, and by the turn of the 20th century, around 20,000 barges were registered, signifying its heyday.
Memories of the Canal
The Grand Surrey Canal saw consistent use until after World War II, when the expansion of road networks led to its gradual decline.
While business magnates were losing interest in the canal, its neglect opened up a world of possibilities for the children of Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Peckham.
Even in the bombed-out ruins of south London, children were finding novel ways to have fun. As part of an oral history project by The Friends of Burgess Park, one elderly gentleman recalled: “We could get on the banks of the canal and we used to play in there.”
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Children would salvage debris from the blitzed ruins of houses and warehouses and make rafts to sail up and down the canal: “Where the bombed houses were, we used to take the doors off and put them on the canal and use a bit of wood for a paddle and away we went… we had quite a good time in there!”
Some of the raft designs became quite complex. One person said: “It must have been 1969, 1970, I remember going there with a couple of friends.
“Kids had palettes… somebody worked out if you put the polystyrene inside the wooden pallets you could put a little raft on there.”
Lots of people recall the joy of catching sticklebacks – tiny fish that seem to thrive in canals. “It wasn’t a working canal at the time the water was still there and we used to go down there and get sticklebacks out of the water,” one person told the Friends of Burgess Park.
However, the canal was also seen by many as a place of danger. One person told the Friends of Burgess Park: “Canals have steep sides – not like rivers with the gradual slope – and if you fall in it’s very hard to get out so there were tragedies.”
“If your mum and dad knew you were down there you’d be in trouble,” another said.
The Decline
The canal’s importance began to wane as railways and road networks expanded.
Railways offered faster and more efficient transportation options, eroding the canal’s monopoly on cargo movement. Neglect and pollution further marred the canal’s reputation, causing some to regard it as a mere stinking waterway.
By 1960, much of the canal had been drained, and in 1970, the dock was permanently closed to commercial traffic.
In 1974, the canal was entirely drained to prevent accidents. Around that time, one journalist wrote: “It had the misfortune to run south of the river. Starting at Rotherhithe, it winds sadly through Deptford and Bermondsey to Walworth, with an arm stretching down to Peckham.
“Its waters are polluted and filled with rubbish and hunks of wood. Its banks are closed to the public and lined with disused factories and unkept grass. To many local people it is just three miles of stinking water, which has to be dredged every time a child goes missing.
“So, without further ado, the Surrey Canal’s owners – the Port of London Authority (PLA) – and Southwark Borough Council have decided to drain it and fill it in. Their only concession is to promise to save the carp with which the canal is well-stocked.”
The Canal’s Legacy
The Grand Surrey Canal was filled in and is now traceable in Southwark’s roadways and paths – many of which have names that reference the canal.
The section between South Bermondsey and Deptford became Surrey Canal Road in the 1980s, connecting Ilderton Road with Trundleys Road.
The Peckham branch transformed into the Surrey Canal Path, with barges docking at the canal head, now known as Peckham Square where the infamous Peckham Arch stands.
The Surrey Canal Path is now a popular walking route with pedestrians, despite complaints that cyclists bomb down the path too fast. Few realise that, just over fifty years ago, they would have been swimming.
The Camberwell branch used to join up with the Camberwell basin which became part of Burgess Park. Arguably the canal’s single most iconic remnant is there in the form of the Bridge to Nowhere. Sitting at the park’s southern side, to the modern observer, it seems to pointlessly straddle the central path.
Those walking along these roads should keep an eye on the walls. Many are inscribed with barely-visible signs marking different junctures in the canal. Some even have circular indents marking where there were mooring rings.
As London continues to evolve, the legacy of the Grand Surrey Canal persists, leaving its mark on the city’s geography, transportation history, and the memories of those who once enjoyed its waters.
