Grand Day Out in London: a tale of two Victorian cargo ships

Having set sail from ports all over the east coast, 32 Gaffers mustered at Trinity Buoy Wharf on Sunday, 23 February, 2025. 

Trinity Buoy Wharf was the base where lighthouse keepers were trained by the Trinity House brethren before being sent to keep watch on distant shores around the UK. Our guide to the historic buildings was Eric Reynolds, founder of Urban Space Management, who in 1988 won a bid to keep this historic waterfront for the benefit of the community when the Docklands were decommissioned by the London Docklands Development Corporation. He is still very active on the site and you may have also seen him in white overalls driving the revival of the old Eversons boatyard in Woodbridge.

We climbed the lighthouse from which test beams were shone to the hills of south London and apprentices tested their signal flag technique. The big store houses are now used by art groups, schools and hired out to support charity projects. Artist studios in brightly painted shipping containers are piled into two Container Cities. The Victorian Long Shed, where heavy anchor chains were tested for lightships, navigation buoys and the Royal Navy, still survives. Eric commissioned a new pier, with two floors of space below the waterline, where Uber ferries now refuel. The huge steel pontoon weighs in at 640 tons and had to be lifted into the river by a giant crane hired for the day for £0.25m.

A second new steel pontoon, with extensive stores and classrooms below, floats in the creek on top of which sits ‘SS Robin’. This is the only Victorian steam ship to survive intact and was originally built on the site. Her triple expansion steam engine and boiler remain in her engine room.

The visiting Gaffers then set out under their own steam to various galleys in the area for lunch, under strict instructions to muster at the Cutty Sark by 2:15. We were ushered aboard by Maddie Phillips, EC OGA born and bred, who is now a Shipkeeping Technician on this beautiful clipper. Giving up her day off to give the gaffers a private tour, a highlight was seeing her fully stocked workshop in one of the deck houses on board.

Following the tour of the Cutty Sark, the group adjourned at a local hostelry for the usual Gaffer hijinks before making their way home after a Grand Day Out in London. Thanks go to all the organisers for making this event such a resounding success.