Athene V30
Well-Known Member
They do churn it up a bit don't they!!
Is that Limehouse or St Cats?
Should be a couple of RN Patrol Boats on HMS President jetty just east of Tower Bridge. Crew change tomorrow so they will be out on the town tonight.
A free night at Woolverston or Chatham until 31/05
- Thread starter MoodySabre
- Start date
They do churn it up a bit don't they!!
Is that Limehouse or St Cats?
Should be a couple of RN Patrol Boats on HMS President jetty just east of Tower Bridge. Crew change tomorrow so they will be out on the town tonight.
aquaholic
Well-Known Member
xyachtdave
Well-Known Member
Limehouse. Not been here before, was headed for the Blackwater but couldn't face the trip up.
There was about 15k of wind, with tide, should have been pancake flat!
Athene V30
Well-Known Member
Go over the bridge and head east - should find the Grapes - used to be a great pub but not been there for a few years.
The Grapes – originally The Bunch of Grapes – has stood on the pebbled Limehouse Reach, for nearly 500 years. Its official address in 76, Narrow Street, London E14 8BP.
Limehouse was first settled as one of the few healthy areas of dry land among the riverside marshes. By Queen Elizabeth I’s time, it was at the center of world trade and her explorer Sir Humphrey Gilbert lived there. From directly below The Grapes, Sir Walter Raleigh set sail on his third voyage to the New World.
In 1661, Samuel Pepys’ diary records his trip to lime kilns at the jetty just along from The Grapes.
In 1820 the young Charles Dickens visited his godfather in Limehouse and knew the district well for 40 years. The Grapes appears, scarcely disguised, in the opening chapter of his novel “Our Mutual Friend”:
“A tavern of dropsical appearance… long settled down into a state of hale infirmity. It had outlasted many a sprucer public house, indeed the whole house impended over the water but seemed to have got into the condition of a faint-hearted diver, who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all.”
In the back parlour is a complete set of Dickens for further reading.
Other popular writers have been fascinated by Limehouse: Oscar Wilde in “Dorian Gray”; Arthur Conan Doyle, who sent Sherlock Holmes in search of opium provided by the local Chinese immigrants; more recently Peter Ackroyd in “Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem”.
Narrow Street is also associated with many distinguished painters. Francis Bacon lived and worked at no 80, Edward Wolfe at no 96. Whistler painted a “nocturne” of Limehouse. On The Grapes’ walls are an oil painting seen from the Thames by the marine artist Napier Hemy, watercolours of Limehouse Reach by Louise Hardy and “Dickens at The Grapes” by the New Zealand artist Nick Cuthell.
The Grapes survived the Blitz bombing of the Second World War and retains the friendly atmosphere of a “local” for Limehouse residents, where visitors are always welcome in the bars and upstairs dining room.
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aquaholic
Well-Known Member
Just got the following visiting berthing rates:
Ramsgate £2.90 per metre per night
Chatham £2.80 per metre per night
Gillingham £2.80 per metre per night
Dover £2.60 per metre per night
Hamble Point £3.32 per metre per night
Ramsgate £2.90 per metre per night
Chatham £2.80 per metre per night
Gillingham £2.80 per metre per night
Dover £2.60 per metre per night
Hamble Point £3.32 per metre per night
xyachtdave
Well-Known Member
I was 'rushed' over £40 for a night a couple of years ago. I'm not sure how they managed to get £2.80 a metre x 11 to get to that figure! I'm assuming a drop in rates recently.
Off to find Karouise's pub 'The Grapes' tomorrow.
We've done tourist stuff today and how nice to be back on the sanctuary of the boat!
sailorman
Well-Known Member
The Grapes well worth a pint of Tom Taylors, the terrace is all teak structure out over the river & a superb view
Leighb
Well-Known Member
Try picking up one of the visitors buoys outside St Kat's. What with the traffic up and down the river and the boats coming/going from Tower Pier it was a nightmare. I broke one boathook and nearly lost another.
Last year we tried to time our arrival better so we would not have to wait too long, and were amazed to be called straight in when when we radioed to say that Tower Bridge was in sight. Then I had to gallop about getting warps and fenders on in time. You just can't win.
