Grand Surrey Canal

In 1812, the canal was closed for two months while the company finished work on a new dock and connecting lock, which opened in November. Although no extensions to the canal other than the Peckham Branch were made, there was intermittent interest in such schemes. Some land was bought along the route of an extension from Camberwell to Kennington, which was considered in 1817, but was rejected because construction would require a deep cutting, restricting the amount of land available for wharves. The Peckham Branch, when it opened in May 1826, ended at a basin which was 450 by 80 feet (137 by 24 m), because of the demand for wharf space. When the London and Croydon Railway bill was passing through Parliament in 1835, which would result in the closure of the Croydon Canal, the Grand Surrey company managed to insert clauses into the bill to protect their canal against a low-level railway crossing, but failed to include a compensation clause for loss of trade from the Croydon Canal when it closed in 1838.[5]

The engineer Henry Price approached the company in 1835 with a grand scheme for branches from the canal to the Thames at Vauxhall and Deptford, which would provide a route which was some 2+1⁄2 miles (4 km) shorter than the river route between Vauxhall and Rotherhithe. The scheme also included a railway along the bank of the canal from Vauxhall to Deptford, with a branch to Elephant and Castle. A prospectus was issued for the Grand Surrey Dock, Canal and Junction Railway Company, but there was little interest in subscribing the £600,000 capital needed, and the scheme foundered. Another scheme in 1850 was for a canal to the Kennet and Avon Canal at Reading, with branches to the Thames at Maidenhead, Datchet, Staines, Richmond, Mortlake, Wandsworth and Vauxhall. The route would have reduced the distance between Reading and Deptford from 42 miles (68 km) to 22 miles (35 km), but it seems unlikely that the estimated cost of only £500,000 was realistic.[6]

The Rotherhithe end of the canal saw many changes, as the docks developed. As first built, the canal ended at the Stave Dock, which was connected to the Thames by a lock. This was replaced by a new lock in 1860, built to the west of the original, which linked the Thames to a triangular basin, known as the Surrey Basin, which was itself linked to Island Dock and Albion Dock. Island Dock led into Russia dock, where the canal had an entrance lock. The Commercial Dock Company built a number of docks to the east, and the rivalry between the two companies ended in 1864, when they amalgamated and the complex became part of the Surrey Commercial Docks.[7] The canal entrance lock was swept away in 1904, when the Greenland Dock was extended, and a new entrance lock was built on its south side. By this time, nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) of the original canal had been destroyed by dock construction.[8]

Grand Surrey Canal on Davies Pocket Map of London, 1852

During the second half of the 19th century, the canal was used by the South Metropolitan Gas Company to supply coal using its own fleet of tugs and barges to its gas works site on the Old Kent Road. The canal was also heavily used to move timber.[8] Tolls for use of the canal were collected at four toll-houses, which were situated near Wells Street bridge in Camberwell, by the junction with the Peckham Branch, by the junction with the Croydon Canal, and at the junction with Greenland Dock. At each there was a gate across the towpath, which prevented progress until a toll had been paid. The gate was known as a "hatch", from the word for a gate or sluice, and the toll-houses were also called hatches by association.[9] The canal was never very profitable, as stiff competition between the London dock companies kept toll rates low. A first dividend of 2 per cent was paid in 1819, which increased to 3 per cent the following year, but remained at or below this figure for the life of the canal.[10]

Below the junction with the Croydon Canal, a railway bridge was built for the Deptford Wharf branch, which was authorised by the London and Croydon Railway Act of 1846. In 1854, the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway gained an Act, and the Deptford Wharf Branch was re-routed over the canal at a lower level. The canal company campaigned for a swing bridge to be built, but the Railway Commissioners overruled their objections, and a vertical lifting bridge was installed. This was 13 feet (4.0 m) wide and 31+1⁄2 feet (9.6 m) long, and provided 9+1⁄2 feet (2.9 m) of headroom when it was raised. Operation was initially manual, but electric motors were later installed, and it continued to operate until the branch was lifted in 1964.[9]

The Grand Surrey Canal was the first to have canal police (forerunners of the British Transport Police). "Bank rangers" were appointed in 1811 to keep law and order along the length of the canal.[11]

London's docks were rationalised in 1908, with the formation of the Port of London Authority. The canal was managed as part of Surrey Docks, and although there were few changes to its operation, it became known as the Surrey Canal.[12] Despite the large number of railway bridges which crossed it, the railways were not in direct competition with the canal. There was a railway interchange on the remains of the Croydon Canal, and South Dock was served by the Deptford Branch railway, but neither offered a real threat, and the canal continued to thrive until the expansion of road transport after the end of the Second World War in 1945.[7] The Camberwell basin and the final 500 yards (460 m) of the canal were abandoned in the 1940s, and had been filled in by 1960. The timber trade to the docks ceased in the early 1970s, resulting in the docks closing, and the canal being filled in.[12]

The section of canal between South Bermondsey and Deptford was opened as a vehicular road and renamed Surrey Canal Road in the 1980s, linking Ilderton Road with Trundleys Road. Where the canal crossed Trundleys Road and proceeded towards the Evelyn Street and the docks was utilised as a private access road called Canal Approach to serve the warehouses and industrial sites that still existed along the top end of the canal's route. The former canal side offices and buildings opposite Deptford Park on Grinstead Road were largely demolished and replaced by a modern Barratt development of flats called Inwen Court. Part of the route within the London Borough of Lewisham is now the Surrey Canal Linear Park, construction of which was funded by money from nearby housing developments at Cannon and Marine Wharf and Deptford Wharves.[13]

The former Camberwell Basin and the final 0.9 miles (1.4 km) now form part of the site of Burgess Park.[14] The bridge over the canal which was built in 1906, remains as a feature in Burgess Park, and is now known as the Bridge to Nowhere.[15] Most of the Peckham branch, including its bridges and walls, is now a walking and cycling route, known both as the Surrey Canal Walk[16] and Surrey Canal Linear Path (not to be confused with Lewisham's Surrey Canal Linear Park).[17] Peckham Library has been built over the terminal basin.[18] The Greenland Dock remains in water, and is connected to the South Dock, now a marina, which gives access to the River Thames through a lock.