London is full of stories, and the River Thames is at the heart of some of its most interesting tales. We’re a seafaring nation, so it’s perhaps no surprise how many adventures started and ended here. My novel Bonny & Read, based on the real life pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, is set in the Caribbean, but I was delighted to find as I researched it that a lot of the history was a little closer to home. In fact if you head down to Wapping in East London, on the north bank of the Thames, you will find yourself at the heart of London’s own pirate past.
The Mayflower pilgrims may have headed out from Rotherhithe and Southwark back in 1620, but the area boasts an altogether murkier past. And it will help if you’re thirsty, for a lot of the history is based in and around the pubs there.
Our first stop is the Prospect of Whitby public house. Known locally in the 1700s as ‘The Devil’s Tavern’, it was known as a hangout for smugglers, thieves and other assorted criminals. Larger ships would berth in the middle of the Thames, with their cargo brought to shore by smaller boats. It was the perfect opportunity for goods to go ‘missing’ in transit, with the old pub at the heart of this dubious trade.
Anne Bonny
The pub still boasts a 400-year-old flagstone floor, and a distinctive old pewter bar that I ‘borrowed’ for my bar in New Providence in Bonny & Read.
The Prospect of Whitby is near the spot formerly known as Execution Dock. The Dock was the site of a gallows where pirates and other criminals were publicly hanged. Once dead, their bodies were cut down and they were chained up to the riverbank nearby where 3 tides were allowed to wash over them before they were removed for gibbeting. This was known as receiving ‘The Grace of Wapping’. There is a commemorative noose that hangs from the pub over the river because – well, why not?
The pub was also a favourite hangout of ‘Hanging’ Judge Jeffreys who is said to have enjoyed lunch at the inn whilst watching the executions he had ordered.
King Henry’s Stairs is thought to be the site of Execution Dock itself. Sailors could be executed here for crimes including murder on the high seas, mutiny resulting in death, piracy and sodomy. It was being used for this purpose well into the 1800s and was intended to be a spectacle – onlookers were very much encouraged, and boatman did a roaring trade taking sightseers close to the site of this macabre entertainment. They also did return trips for paying customers to see the drowned men during low tide.
Prisoners condemned to meet their maker at Execution Dock would be held at Marshalsea Prison on the south bank of the Thames, or at Newgate (now the site of the Old Bailey) before the spectacle of execution was played out. Transported in an open cart, prisoners found themselves paraded across London Bridge and past the Tower of London to the jeers and catcalls of onlookers. Accompanied by a priest to encourage them to make their last confession, the cart with the condemned would stop at The Turk’s Head pub where the prisoner would be given a final drink – two pints of ale – before he died.
The notorious Captain Kidd was one of the pirates executed at Execution Dock in 1701. As if his execution wasn’t bad enough luck for one day, the rope snapped when they first tried to hang him. He had to watch while the gallows was rebuilt, and he was forced to face his executioner for a second time. It’s said his nerve failed him on the second ascent, and who can blame him?
As was the tradition with other executed pirates, Captain Kidd’s body was tarred and gibbeted and his remains left hanging in chains by Tilbury Point on the Thames for over 3 years. The idea of this was to remind sailors that piracy didn’t pay, and that an honest life was a more sensible choice. You’ll find the Captain Kidd pub in Wapping too, named after its famously reluctant visitor.
Execution Dock was the site chosen to display an Audible commissioned statue of Anne Bonny & Mary Read in late 2020 to celebrate the launch of the podcast of the same name. Contentious to the last, the intended forever home of the statue to the women became hotly contested due to their infamy.
I couldn’t finish this article without alluding to another story that you’re likely to be familiar with. The Town of Ramsgate pub – also in Wapping – was where a certain Captain Bligh came to inspect The Bounty before purchasing it for the ill-fated voyage to Tahiti in 1789. Mutiny, Mr Christian! It seems only fitting.
Julie Walker is the author of Bonny & Read, her debut novel.
