Maritime London: An Historical Journey in Pictures and Words
By Anthony Burton
This book, as the title suggests, explores the maritime world of London from its humble origins as Roman settlement, through its rise to one of the great global entrepôts, and into its continued maritime tradition today. Burton defines maritime London as the waterways of the Thames River and all other waterways used by Greater London, a history involving mariners, shipbuilders, watermen, lifesaving organizations, and countless others who made London one of the premier ports in the world.
Beginning with bronze age maritime archaeological discoveries and Roman Londinium, Burton weaves a narrative of a town whose very identity was built on the water. Medieval and early modern naval warfare transformed London from a modest port town into a shipbuilding and naval center for the English crown. Burton uses written documents, pictorial and archaeological evidence to convey the rise of London shipbuilding and maritime traffic into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Local river traffic too represented an important part of life in the London area. Ferries and barges carried people and cargo in an era when the river formed a highway through London and the surrounding port towns. Royal processions and competitions used these vessels too, tying London’s culture to its riverfront.
“The story really begins with improvements to Britain’s rivers” writes Burton at the beginning of his chapter on canals, which he argues revolutionized Greater London’s waterways. Systems of locks and canals reached new towns and connected the Thames to the surrounding countryside, enabling canal barges to transport freight and passengers and make rough and mobile livelihoods for entire households. The rise of steam engine propulsion followed canal building to the Thames, a technological revolution that Burton shows through London’s great shipbuilding accomplishments of the nineteenth century namely HMS Warrior and Isambard Brunel’s Great Eastern. The latter portion of the book shifts away from the great ships built and sailed by maritime London to the city’s port. The city’s overcrowded docks were expanded in the nineteenth century, and Burton charts the struggle of dockworkers and the port, which ultimately declined with the rise of container ships that needed wider berths.
The narrative could include more about maritime London’s role in the vast British Empire, but Burton’s chapter on lifesaving and firefighting shows a side of a maritime city that is often overlooked, a testament to the breadth of this history on the Thames area. Additionally, the book features over 130 pictures and illustrations of the ships, canals, and people that made London a maritime metropolis. Burton ties many of these illustrations into the larger narrative so that their number does not distract the reader. Maritime London’s gripping story and valuable visual additions will be of interest to British, maritime, and urban history enthusiasts alike.
- Barnsley, Pen & Sword Transport, 2022
- 8-3/4” x 11-1/4”, hardcover, 144 pages
- Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $60.00
Reviewed by: Anthony Peebler, Texas Christian University
