Stinking foreshore to tree lined avenue: Investigating the riverine lives impacted by the construction of the Thames Embankments in Victorian London.

Summary

Victorian London saw dramatic changes along the Thames, with the construction of the East End Docks and Thames Embankments, as the city struggled to cope with its ballooning population and prospering shipping industry.

The Embankments reclaimed a stinking, effluent covered foreshore previously occupied by wharves, jetties, barge beds and slips, and contained a new sewer system and covered railways, finished with tree lined avenues and road access to central London.

The Embankment has been hailed as an engineering triumph; however the fate of the wharf workers, barge, ferry and lighter men and others whose livelihood relied on access to the river in central London is unknown. This research aims to combine archaeological surveys and historical research to characterise the working environment of riverine London in the mid to late 19th century and to investigate the stories of those whose lives were most impacted by this dramatic riverfront transformation.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• In the City: archaeology and the personal experience of urban transition   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 164