Excavations at Rainbow Quay,an 18th-century whale rendering plant,Rotherhithe, London

Abstract

An excavation was jointly undertaken by Thames Valley Archaeological Services and Pre-Construct Archaeology at Rainbow Quay, Rope Street, Southwark, London, (TQ 3650 7912), during July and August 1996. The proposed development of the site by Fairclough Homes (Southern) Ltd of some 0.82 ha., sandwiched between Greenland Dock and South Dock (see Fig. 1), provided an excellent opportunity to unearth and investigate a sequence of dock related structures dating from c. 1700, when the Howland Great Wet Dock (later known as Greenland Dock) was constructed¹ through to the 1970s when the docks were closed. The scope of this article is to describe the results of the excavation and in particular to discuss the usage of the site during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Of special interest were structures pertaining to the whaling industry, their demolition and subsequent replacement with warehousing facilities.