1974 MAP OF THE PUBLIC PASSAGEWAY AND WHITE HART DRAWDOCK

Change is inevitable, never the less cultural heritage is irreplaceable, and why the moral responsibility of preservation is passed on from generation to generation. This is the areas legacy of physical artefacts (cultural property) and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations.

White Hart Drawdock Greenhithe 1974 

Image Copyright PLA

The public passageway to the left side of the White Hart public house (looking north towards the river) (now known as the Sir John Franklin) ran down to the river foreshore between the public house and the side of the catholic church. 

This led to a public causeway and drawdock, which in river parlance terms meant that any vessel could be moored in the dock space. 

Similarly the public causeway was originally where the public ferry landed on the Kent side of the river, it crossed the river from Thurrock and was traditionally the point where pilgrims from Essex and East Anglia crossed on their way to Canterbury.  However, the advent of the new seawall in the late 70s, brought about the loss of the public causeway known then as the Everard Drawdock, which has meant that ever since access to and from the River by boat is now only possible for an hour or so either side of the high tide, which occurs twice daily.

Low tide at Greenhithe White Hart Drawdock

Image Copyright David Milbank Challis

The causeway and drawdock (shown right at low tide) most certainly was not private or exclusive as the current publicans of the Sir John Franklin would have you believe, but the travesty doesn't end there, as we understand it, they originally wanted to rename the pub 'Allison's Bar' before reluctantly settling on the Sir John Franklin. 

Such incongruous attitudes are not uncommon, and clearly where such behaviour is allowed, there is a real risk of eroding the very soul of an areas historical and cultural place in time, which at Greenhithe, is steeped in a rich and illustrious tapestry of Royal, Military, Naval and Maritime History.

 F T Everard & Sons Shipyard 

Image Copyright David Milbank Challis

There has been a licensed premise next to the passageway since 1661 when the King's Head was established. In 1742, the pub became known as the White Hart, and in 1840, the pub was redesigned and built to face onto the Thames to service visiting boat crews. 

Many locals still refer to the pub by the passageway at Greenhithe as the White Hart which tragically is probably the last dry land in England trod by Sir John Franklin; who on 18th May,1845 is reported as spending the night at Greenhithe before embarking on what was to later become known as Franklin's Lost Expedition. 

The expedition set sail from Greenhithe, England, on the morning of 19 May 1845, with a crew of 24 officers and 110 men. The ships stopped briefly in Stromness Harbour in the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland, and from there sailed to Greenland with HMS Rattler and a transport ship, Barretto Junior

Public Passageway by the Whit Hart Public House
Greenhithe White Hart Drawdock

Image Copyright David Milbank Challis

In 1861, The Royal Thames Yacht Club Fleet was moored on the Thames at Greenhithe. Established in 1775, The Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC) is the oldest sailing club in the United Kingdom. The Royal Thames Yacht Club held its sailing races off Greenhithe, with the White Hart pub serving as its clubhouse. 

Robert Falcon Scott, CVO (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13. During this second venture, Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen's Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all perished from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

On June 1, 1910, the TERRA NOVA was towed away from the South-West India Docks as cheering crowds stood by. Scott did not sail with the TERRA NOVA as he remained behind in an attempt to raise additional funding. Scott, with his wife, left the ship at Greenhithe, most likely coming ashore via the passageway by the then White Hart, where at some point he was presented two flags by the late Queen Alexandra, (the Queen's Mother) one flag to be planted at the farthest south attained while the second to be hoisted at the same spot and then brought back.


A recent review carried out at the PLA offices of the historical maps documentation and records of that time showed the passageway also provided public access to the river and foreshore. This is why the flood defence wall which runs across the public passageway was designed to include a set of concrete steps in order retain public access to and from the River Thames on foot only.  This is achieved by walking up, over and then down from the flood defence. This important aspect of the flood defence  allows for free pedestrian access along the entire length of the public right of way from the High Street to and from the River to continue.

Public steps adjacent to the Sir John Franklin Pub and Public Passageway at Greenhithe

Image Copyright 2009 Greenhithe Marina (Management) LLP

The flood defence works carried out at Greenhithe in the late 70s are subject of the retention of particular rights for riparian landowners including rights of access across the reclaimed seabed, which were granted by the Port of London Authority (PLA), those public rights remain in perpetuity.