On the north side of the Thames, at low tide, an extraordinary relic of Anglo Saxon London reveals itself.
Go back to the 9th century, and London was coming under increasing attack from Viking raids all along the Thames. King Alfred decided to move the Saxon settlements from Lundenwic (roughly the area of today’s Covent Garden) inside the old Roman walled city of Londinium for their own safety. He renamed the town Lundenburgh – burgh, being an Anglos Saxon word for fortified town.
After the Viking threat died down, it was decided to stay in Lundenburgh and several ‘hithes’ were established along the Thames – a Saxon word for small dock or harbour.
In those days there were virtually no landing jetties on the river and boats laden with goods sold their goods directly from the beach where they landed.
Needless to say, the city elders were keen to get their two-penneth, and moved to impose taxes on goods bought and sold from the hithes.
In the 12th century this particular hithe became known as Queenhithe (in the name of Queen Matilda, daughter of Henry I) who was granted the right to tax revenues of imports here.
Initially Queenhithe harbour was mainly used for importing corn into the city but continued to be used well into the first part of the 20th century by the fur and tanning trade trades.
Being upstream of London Bridge, the dock gradually fell out of use as larger sailing boats were unable to reach it.
IN 1973, Queenhithe was granted the status of Ancient Monument, thankfully protecting it as the only surviving inlet on the modern city waterfront.
Another reason to visit Queenhithe, is to see the beautiful mosaic put here in 2014. The mosaic tells the story of London’s 2000-year-old history and in a nice touch, historical objects retrieved from the Thames foreshaw have been used in the mosaic.
Just remember to visit at low tide! (www.tidetimes.org.uk)