Leonard Bentley
Charing Cross Pier
This is a Peacock brand postcard printed in Hamburg and shows the view from Hungerford Bridge looking downstream. The postcard has an undivided back which indicates that it was published before 1903 and I think the photograph dates from the late 1890s. The sender of the card has utilised the spaces left by the printer around the image for a personal message which was strictly against GPO rules at the time, but those rules were routinely flouted. The paddle steamer moored at Charing Cross Pier is the “River Queen” in the livery of the Thames Steamboat Company, she is an old lady, having been built for the Iron Boat Company in the 1860s by Thames Ironworks at Blackwall. In June 1875 the “River Queen” was used to transport Sayyid Burghash Said, the Sultan of Zanzibar and his entourage from Gravesend, where he had arrived in the Indian Mail steamer “Canara”, to Speaker’s stairs at the Palace of Westminster for a private visit to the UK. The paddle steamer was also used on several occasions in the 1870s to carry the umpire for rowing races at Putney, the boat’s shallow draught was ideal for this task. These were professional races for a prize purse and very popular with the gambling fraternity. The “River Queen” remained on the Thames, serving various companies until 1909 when she was removed from the Mercantile Navy list.
Charing Cross Pier
This is a Peacock brand postcard printed in Hamburg and shows the view from Hungerford Bridge looking downstream. The postcard has an undivided back which indicates that it was published before 1903 and I think the photograph dates from the late 1890s. The sender of the card has utilised the spaces left by the printer around the image for a personal message which was strictly against GPO rules at the time, but those rules were routinely flouted. The paddle steamer moored at Charing Cross Pier is the “River Queen” in the livery of the Thames Steamboat Company, she is an old lady, having been built for the Iron Boat Company in the 1860s by Thames Ironworks at Blackwall. In June 1875 the “River Queen” was used to transport Sayyid Burghash Said, the Sultan of Zanzibar and his entourage from Gravesend, where he had arrived in the Indian Mail steamer “Canara”, to Speaker’s stairs at the Palace of Westminster for a private visit to the UK. The paddle steamer was also used on several occasions in the 1870s to carry the umpire for rowing races at Putney, the boat’s shallow draught was ideal for this task. These were professional races for a prize purse and very popular with the gambling fraternity. The “River Queen” remained on the Thames, serving various companies until 1909 when she was removed from the Mercantile Navy list.