39-590: The Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company, Limited was a shipyard and iron works straddling the mouth of Bow Creek at its confluence with the River Thames , at Leamouth Wharf (often referred to as Blackwall ) on the west side and at Canning Town on the east side. Its main activity was shipbuilding , but it also diversified into civil engineering, marine engines, cranes, electrical engineering and motor cars. The company notably produced iron work for Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's Royal Albert Bridge over
78-663: A dockyard or boatyard , is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts , military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes more involved with original construction, dockyards are sometimes more linked with maintenance and basing activities. The terms are routinely used interchangeably, in part because the evolution of dockyards and shipyards has often caused them to change or merge roles. Countries with large shipbuilding industries include Australia , Brazil , China , Croatia , Denmark , Finland , France , Germany , India , Ireland , Italy , Japan ,
117-524: A capital of £100,000 in 20 shares of £5000 each, five of which were held by Rolt who was the main shareholder and also chairman of the board . The new company was the largest shipbuilder on the Thames, its premises described by the Mechanics' Magazine in 1861 as "Leviathan Workshops". Large scale Ordnance Survey maps of the 1860s show the yard occupying a large triangular site in a right-angled bend on
156-491: A class of three small 45-ton gunboats, a class of three medium 116-ton gunboats and a class of eight 50-ton torpedo boats . In the 1890s philanthropist Arnold Hills became the managing director. He had originally joined the board of directors in 1880 at the age of 23. Hills was one of the first business directors voluntarily to introduce an eight-hour day for his workers at a time when 10- and 12-hour shifts were more common in industrial work. In 1895 Hills helped to set up
195-822: A football club for the Works' employees, Thames Ironworks F.C. and within their first two years they had entered the FA Cup and the London League. As a result of the committee's desire to employ professional players, the Thames Ironworks F.C. was wound up in June 1900 and West Ham United F.C. was formed a month later. Merged with the engine builder John Penn and Sons in 1899 as the Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Co. During its lifetime
234-460: A ship's useful life is over, it makes its final voyage to a ship-breaking yard, often on a beach in South Asia . Historically ship-breaking was carried out in drydock in developed countries, but high wages and environmental regulations have resulted in movement of the industry to third-world regions. The oldest structure sometimes identified as a dockyard was built c. 2400 BC by
273-519: Is heard on every match day at West Ham. The shape of the 16th evolution of the club badge, launched after club moved to the Olympic Stadium in 2016, is a representation of the cross-section of the bow of HMS Warrior , the first iron clad battleship, built by the Thames Ironworks in 1860. 51°30′34″N 0°0′32.8″E / 51.50944°N 0.009111°E / 51.50944; 0.009111 Shipyard A shipyard , also called
312-517: The Drassanes shipyards were active from at least the mid-13th century until the 18th century, although at times they served as a barracks for troops as well as an arsenal. During their time of operation the Drassanes were continuously changed, rebuilt and modified, but two original towers and part of the original eight construction-naves remain today. The site is currently a maritime museum. From
351-767: The East India Dock Basin and Bow Creek in Blackwall . There they took over the premises of the defunct shipbuilders William and Benjamin Wallis. The firm did well and within a few years occupied three sites covering an area of over 14 acres (5.7 ha). Ditchburn and Mare were among the first builders of iron ships in the area; their partnership commenced with the construction of small paddle steamers of between 50 and 100 tons, before progressing to cross- Channel vessels and by 1840 were building ships of more than 300 tons. The company's early customers included
390-648: The Great Armada of 1588 at ports such as Algeciras or Málaga . Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London , linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the House of Commons which is on the side of the Palace of Westminster nearest to
429-575: The Greek words ναύς naus : "ship, boat"; and πήγνυμι pêgnumi , pegnymi : "builder, fixer"). Naupactus' reputation in this field extended back into legendary times – the site is traditionally identified by Greek authors such as Ephorus and Strabo as the place where a fleet was said to have been built by the legendary Heraclidae to invade the Peloponnesus . In the Spanish city of Barcelona ,
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#1732786674403468-683: The Indus Valley civilisation in the Harappan port city of Lothal (in present-day Gujarat, India ). Lothal's dockyards connected to an ancient course of the Sabarmati river on the trade route between Harappan cities in Sindh and the peninsula of Saurashtra when the present-day surrounding Kutch desert formed a part of the Arabian Sea . Lothal engineers accorded high priority to
507-713: The Iron Steamboat Company and the Blackwall Railway Company , several paddle steamers being constructed for the latter, including the Meteor and the Prince of Wales , which operated between Gravesend and the company's station on Brunswick Wharf . In this period the company was also awarded several contracts by the Admiralty , including HMS Recruit (a 12-gun brig ) which was one of
546-851: The Netherlands , Norway , the Philippines , Poland , Romania , Russia , Singapore , South Korea , Sweden , Taiwan , Turkey , the United Arab Emirates , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , the United States and Vietnam . The shipbuilding industry is more fragmented in Europe than in Asia where countries tend to have fewer, larger companies. Many naval vessels are built or maintained in shipyards owned or operated by
585-731: The Ottoman Empire . The yard also built the Prussian Navy's first iron-hulled warship, the SMS König Wilhelm in 1868 and the cruiser Afonso de Albuquerque for Portugal in 1884. A multitude of mostly small warships were also built for the Romanian Navy , most notably the brig Mircea . Also notable was the tiny minelayer Alexandru cel Bun . The Iron Works also produced for the Romanian Navy
624-517: The Tamar in the 1850s, and the world's first all-iron warship, HMS Warrior , launched in 1860. The company originated in 1837 as the Ditchburn and Mare Shipbuilding Company, founded by shipwright Thomas J. Ditchburn and the engineer and naval architect Charles John Mare . Originally located at Deptford , after a fire destroyed their yard the company moved to Orchard Place in 1838, between
663-639: The 14th century, several hundred years before the Industrial Revolution , ships were the first items to be manufactured in a factory – in the Venice Arsenal of the Venetian Republic in present-day Italy . The Arsenal apparently mass-produced nearly one ship every day using pre-manufactured parts and assembly lines . At its height in the 16th century the enterprise employed 16,000 people. Spain built component ships of
702-650: The East Sussex and Kentish ports. Without the bridge, traffic to and from the greater West End would have to negotiate streets often as congested as London Bridge , principally the Strand/Fleet Street and New Oxford Street/Holborn. Roads on both sides of the river were also built and improved, including Charing Cross Road and around the Elephant & Castle in Southwark . By the mid-19th century
741-462: The Thames came under great pressure due to the cost advantages of northern yards with closer supplies of coal and iron, and many yards closed following the 1866 financial crisis . Of the survivors, those like the Thames Ironworks were specialised in warships and liners. Following the success of HMS Warrior and HMS Minotaur , orders were placed by navies all over the world, and vessels were built for Denmark , Greece , Portugal , Russia , Spain and
780-479: The bridge paved the way for four others within three decades: Blackfriars Bridge (1769, built by the City), Kew Bridge (1759), Battersea Bridge (1773), and Richmond Bridge (1777) by which date roads and vehicles were improved and fewer regular goods transported by water. The bridge assisted the expanding West End to the developing South London as well as goods and carriages from the more estuarine counties and
819-402: The bridge was subsiding badly and expensive to maintain. The current bridge was designed by Thomas Page and opened on 24 May 1862. With a length of 820 feet (250 m) and a width of 85 feet (26 m), it is a seven-arch, cast-iron bridge with Gothic detailing by Charles Barry (the architect of the Palace of Westminster ). The bridge carried a tram line for much of the first half of
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#1732786674403858-508: The bridge, but a natural shade similar to verdigris . This is in contrast to Lambeth Bridge , which is red, the same colour as the seats in the House of Lords and is on the opposite side of the Houses of Parliament . In 2005–2007, it underwent a complete refurbishment, including replacing the iron fascias and repainting the whole bridge. It links the Palace of Westminster on the west side of
897-731: The company grew considerably and Mare purchased land in Canning Town on the Essex side of the River Lea , a ferry service being established between the two sites. Mare constructed a yard with furnaces and rolling mills that could construct vessels of 4,000 tons; because of the narrowness of the spit at the mouth of the River Lea, the Orchard Place site was limited to the construction of vessels of less than 1,000 tons. In 1853
936-467: The company had miscalculated the cost of building vessels for the Royal Navy. The business did not lack orders, having in hand six contracts for gunboats and the contract for Westminster Bridge (which was built in 1862). The company's chief creditors moved to keep the company in operation, and two employees, Joseph Westwood and Robert Baillie were appointed works managers. The main figure in saving
975-408: The company had the capacity to build 25,000 tons of warships and 10,000 tons of mail steamers simultaneously. One of its first Admiralty contracts was for HMS Warrior , launched in 1860, at the time the world's largest warship and the first iron-hulled armoured frigate . HMS Minotaur followed in 1863, 400 feet (120 m) long and 10,690 tons displacement. Work on vessels such as Minotaur
1014-549: The company launched the SS Himalaya for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company , briefly the world's largest passenger ship before becoming a naval troopship . In 1855, the company which by now had more than 3000 employees, was threatened with closure following Mare's bankruptcy . It is thought by some that his financial difficulties arose from delays in payment for completed work or, alternatively, that
1053-567: The company was Peter Rolt , Mare's father-in-law and Conservative MP for Greenwich . Rolt was also a timber merchant and a descendant of the Pett shipbuilding family. He was supported in the venture by another company director, Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill . Rolt took control of the company's assets and in 1857 transferred them to a new limited company , named the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd. . It had
1092-500: The creation of a dockyard and a warehouse to serve the purposes of maritime trade. The dock was built on the eastern flank of the town, and is regarded by archaeologists as an engineering feat of the highest order. It was located away from the main current of the river to avoid silting, but provided access to ships at high tide as well. The name of the ancient Greek city on the Gulf of Corinth, Naupactus , means "shipyard" (combination of
1131-596: The east bank of Bow Creek with the railway to Thames Wharf on the third side, and with a smaller site on the west bank. The main yard had a quay 1,050 feet (320m) long. To the south-east the yard occupied the north bank of the Thames east of Bow Creek, with two slips giving direct access to the main river. Today the site is crossed by the A1020 Lower Lea Crossing and the Docklands Light Railway south of Canning Town station . By 1863
1170-407: The first iron warships built. They also constructed the P & O Company 's steamers Ariel and Erin , along with the paddle steamer Preussischer Adler for Prussia . Thomas Ditchburn retired in 1847 and the business was carried on by Charles Mare, under the name of C.J. Mare and Company. He was joined by naval architect James Ash, who later began his own shipyard at Cubitt Town . From 1847
1209-399: The national government or navy. Shipyards are constructed near the sea or tidal rivers to allow easy access for their ships. The United Kingdom , for example, has shipyards on many of its rivers. The site of a large shipyard will contain many specialised cranes , dry docks , slipways , dust-free warehouses, painting facilities and extremely large areas for fabrication of the ships. After
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1248-608: The river with County Hall and the London Eye on the east and was the finishing point during the early years of the London Marathon . The next bridge downstream is the Hungerford Bridge & Golden Jubilee Bridges and upstream is Lambeth Bridge . Westminster Bridge was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1981. For over 600 years (at least 1129–1729), the nearest Thames bridge to London Bridge
1287-434: The twentieth century, from 1906 until 1952. On 5 July that year the last tram made a ceremonial journey across the bridge. Since the removal of Rennie's New London Bridge in 1967 it is the oldest road structure which crosses the Thames in central London. On 22 March 2017, a terrorist attack started on the bridge and continued into Bridge Street and Old Palace Yard . Five people – three pedestrians, one police officer, and
1326-720: The yard produced 144 warships and numerous other vessels. In 1911 Hills petitioned Winston Churchill , then First Lord of the Admiralty , regarding the lack of new orders. He was unsuccessful, and the yard was forced to shut in 1912. Within two years the United Kingdom was at war with the German Empire , with the yard's last major ship taking part in the Battle of Jutland . Kotri Bridge in Pakistan Sindh province
1365-532: Was also constructed in between 1897 and 1912. The premises of the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, Greenwich, were subsequently acquired in 1915, by the Royal Flying Corps (created in 1912) for the storage of aeroplanes. Part of the company's Limmo Peninsula site was excavated during the construction of Crossrail in 2012. Employees at the Thames Ironworks formed a works football team , called Thames Ironworks Football Club . This club
1404-472: Was at Kingston . From late Tudor times congestion in trading hours at London Bridge (for road goods and carriages from Kent , Essex , much of Surrey , Middlesex and beyond) often amounted to more than an hour. A bridge at Westminster was proposed in 1664, but opposed by the Corporation of London and the watermen . Further opposition held sway in 1722. However an intervening bridge (albeit in timber)
1443-512: Was built at Putney in 1729 and the scheme received parliamentary approval in 1736. Financed by private capital, lotteries and grants, Westminster Bridge was built between 1739–1750, under the supervision of the Swiss engineer Charles Labelye . The bridge opened on 18 November 1750. The City of London responded to Westminster Bridge and the population growth by removing the buildings on London Bridge and widening it in 1760–63. With Putney Bridge,
1482-455: Was later renamed West Ham United , whose emblem of the crossed hammers represents the large riveting hammers used in the shipbuilding trade. West Ham are also known as "The Hammers" for this reason. While the media and the general football world commonly refer to the club as The Hammers, the club's own supporters have always referred to their team as 'The Irons', which again comes from the link with Thames Ironworks. The chant 'Come on you Irons'
1521-513: Was performed on the Canning Town side of the Lea, and this is where the Thames Ironworks expanded from less than 10 acres (4.0 ha) in 1856 to 30 acres (12 ha) by 1891. While the old site at Orchard Place was still the company's official address until 1909, its presence there was minimal, by the late 1860s the company having only a 5 acres (2.0 ha) site there. General shipbuilding on
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