Apart from knowing Erith as a stop on the railway line to Dartford I have loved its mention in one of Joseph Conrad’s greatest works ‘Heart of Darkness’ where he writes:

“Nothing is easier … than to evoke the great spirit of the past upon the lower reaches of the Thames. The tidal current runs to and fro in its unceasing service, crowded with memories of men and ships it had borne to the rest of home or to the battles of the sea. It had known and served all the men of whom the nation is proud, from Sir Francis Drake to Sir John Franklin…the great knights-errant of the sea. It had borne all the ships whose names are like jewels flashing in the night of time, from the Golden Hind … to the Erebus. They had sailed from Deptford, from Greenwich, from Erith…they all had gone out on that stream. What greatness had not floated on the ebb of that river into the mystery of an unknown earth! The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealths, the germs of empires”.

Erith railway station is a pleasant nineteenth century Italianate building with characteristic dragon teeth eaves on its platform coverings. A path leads to the riverfront.

 

The Thames is a river with one of the most varied widths in its course through a capital city. At Teddington little more than a rural stream by the time the Thames has reached Westminster it inspired William Wordsworth to declare:

“Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty.”

Here is the Thames as it appears taken on my journey home on the South East railway line; the railway passes by Southwark cathedral before entering Cannon Street station.

I was stunned by the view of the Thames at Erith. Already doubled in width since crossing the City of London the iconic river fully displays its estuarial properties here, particularly at high tide. On a fine day with fresh gusts of wind blowing across a true blue sky and sea-birds flying overhead it is truly an exhilarating panorama.

The riverfront has been considerably enhanced by the gardens through which the Thames river walk passes:

A little wooden pier tempted me to walk down close to the water’s edge. Not too far, however, as it became a little slippery!

I walked into the town passing a row of old cottages hidden behind scaffolding and the Erith Playhouse where many years previously I had attended a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s ‘Princess Ida’, one of his lesser known operettas but full of his finest music, where one of my work colleagues was performing as member of the choir of ‘girl graduates’.

Entering the town I passed the Carnegie library. Designed by William Egerton, and funded by the philanthropist Andrew Carnegie it opened in 1906. We knew it for the fine museum it housed but this time I found the distinguished Edwardian building boarded up and fenced off. I was alarmed. Later I was relieved to find out that the library has been moved to a new centre but that fortunately the ‘old’ library has secured National Lottery funding this year to restore the former library building to provide new community facilities.

Sadly Erith town centre has been a victim of the worst sort of urban modernization of the 1960’s so there aren’t that many old buildings left in its disemboweled heart.

One of the few left, the White Hart pub, has a fine mural by Gary Drostle on its outside flank displaying a characteristic Thames sailing barge.

The Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the East Coast of Britain. With its shallow draught this type of vessel is well adapted to the Thames Estuary and, although no longer dedicated to commercial purposes, the remaining examples are used for races, regattas and wedding parties.

My walk finished at the C of E Christchurch, a fine late Victorian building by architect JP St Aubyn and dating from 1874. Together with the Carnegie library it is Grade II* listed.

The exterior displays a fine broached spire separated from the nave by a short passage and a sculpture of the good shepherd on its doorway:

Unfortunately the interior was locked because of the current health crisis. However, here is a photo of it taken from on-line public sources.

The interior has been well summed upon by that doyen of architectural historians Pevsner who states: “Nave arcade has round piers, with stiff-leaf capitals. Nave has three tier hammer beam roof with curved braces supported on stone corbels. Chancel has five fine lancet windows by Hardman of 1875 depicting scenes from the Gospels, reredos of painted triptych of the Adoration of the Magi in a C15 Italian style by A O Hemming of 1904,

stencilled decoration, triple sedilia and polychrome tiles. Nave has original carved wooden lectern, pews, stone and – granite font, wall tablet on west wall to Thomas Ruck, organist between 1881-1918 with mosaicwork cherubs and eight painted panels depicting scenes from the early history of the Church in England from the martyrdom of St Alban to the martyrdom of St Edmund by Ward and Hughes of 1906-9.”

Erith has the longest pier in London. It was once used for commercial purposes but is now the haunt of anglers:

Something about the town’s history: Erith has a past dating back to Neolithic times and traces of prehistoric settlements have been revealed by the London archaeological service. The Romans were there and the Anglo-Saxons built the original church of Saint John the Baptist which is another important Erithian church which I have to visit someday.

Henry’s famous warship, Henri Grâce à Dieu, was fitted out there in 1515 and is allulled to in the Conrad excerpt I have previously quoted.

Erith remained a small riverside port until the nineteenth century when it expanded with establishment of various industries. One of these was the British Insulated Callender’s Cables and Pirelli, for which my wife worked as interpreter.

There are a number of interesting modern works of art spread out in the town. Most lively is the ‘The De Luci’ ‘dancing fish’ mosaic statue, otherwise known as the ‘Erith Fish’, at the roundabout in the town centre designed and created by artist Gary Drostle in 2006. It was inspired by the former Erith Urban District Council’s coat of arms which featured three intertwined pikes. The pikes were, themselves, adapted from the family arms of Richard de Luci, a supporter of King Stephen, assistant in the murder of Thomas a Becket founder of Lesnes Abbey and owner of Erith during the reigns of King Stephen and King Henry II. (For more on this story read my post at https://longoio3.com/2019/08/09/un-perdono-londinese-per-lassassinio-di-thomas-a-becket/)

I was pleasantly surprised by Erith. Clearly the day was fine and the place was more than quiet due to the lockdown but it was certainly less grim than I remember it to be. The ghastly brutal town centre of the sixties has been largely replaced by a more acceptable shopping centre, thanks also to the regeneration provided by the Thames Gateway project. Most of all, Erith gorgeously reveals the quasi-sacred Thames in all its glory.

 

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