| The Decline, Fall & Eventual Fate of the London County Council Paddle Steamer Fleet of 1905 |
| Hills tried to negotiate with the new council over partnerships, the transfer of boats and the ownership of piers. The L.C.C. were unwilling to make any concessions, which resulted in a standoff to the extent that only a sporadic service operated between 1901 and 1904. In 1904, the Council finally succeeded in satisfying all interested parties in relation to the service on the Thames. The original plan was to provide a service every five minutes in each direction between London Bridge and Vauxhall or Chelsea, a service upstream from there to Hammersmith or beyond every fifteen minutes, and another fifteen minute service from London Bridge to Greenwich and Woolwich. The number of steamboats thought to be required to run this level of service was first put at 55, but later reduced to 40. In 1902 it was decided to only provide a fifteen-minute service all the way between Greenwich and Hammersmith, which reduced the requirement to 30 boats. This lowered costs, and the final estimates showed a capital expenditure of �210,000 for the construction of 30 boats (repayable over 20 years) and �70,000 for the acquisition and improvement of piers (payable over 30 years). The annual running expenditure was estimated as �98,960 In the event, tenders for the boats were received totalling only �184,000, a sum which would have been even less had there not been some deliberate bias in favour of Thames-side shipbuilding in order to support local employment. The tender received from the Thames Iron Works Shipbuilding and Engineering Company was accepted at a price higher than was quoted by its competitors. J.I. Thorneycroft & Co, Southampton; Napier & Miller & Co, Glasgow and Thames Ironworks, Blackwall were the original contractors being awarded 10 boats each. Some of the boats were subcontracted to G. Rennie & Co., Greenwich to ensure that the required delivery time was met. The boats were virtually identical in size being 130 feet long, 18 feet breadth and 120 gross tons with a carrying capacity of 530 passengers. A single boiler fed steam to the compound diagonal engine of 350 IHP, which turned the two 10ft 6-inch paddle wheels giving a speed of 12.5 knots. Scott�s Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Greenock, and Thames Ironworks supplied the engines. HRH the Prince of Wales opened the service on June 17th 1905 by steaming ceremoniously from one end of the route to the other on the KING ALFRED. Fare-paying traffic began the day after. Fares, when the service started, were 1d single and 2d return for up to three miles, then 2d and 3d respectively for up to five miles, then 3d and 5d for up to eight miles with reductions for journeys started before eight a.m. The Thames Steamboat Company, which also had the right to use the piers, ran a rival service and undercut the fare structure. By the end of the summer the L.C.C. had to acknowledge that passenger numbers had fallen far short of the number necessary to break even. To try and offset this shortfall the 1905/6 winter service ran a reduced service. Although agreement was reached with The Thames Steamboat Company over fares routes and piers in the spring of 1906, takings during the summer of 1906 was well below expenditure. In the summer of 1906 the decision was taken not to run a winter service and that in 1907 they would only run a service for 4� months in the summer. In early 1908, the Committee recommended selling or chartering all the boats, following an earlier decision to sell off just six boats. Attempts to sell the whole fleet were unsuccessful and the boats were sold over the period from April to July 1909, for a total of �18,204. The last fourteen fetched only the derisory amount of �393 each, being bought by the City Steamboat Company. They ran an intermittent summer service from 1909 but by August 1914 all had been sold on for further service. The following pages attempt to trace the fates and fortunes of the original thirty boats. |
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| A Brief History Of Ferry Services On The Thames 1840 - 1909 Continued |
| Web Sites of interest connected with the L.C.C Ferry. For further information on L.C.C Paddlers visit the Tramscape site For an in depth study of the history, particularly the economic aspects of the LCC ferry service, visit the Ralph Turvey site: (since removed from public domain) For a background history to The Thames Ironworks and its connection with famous warships and West Ham Football Club visit the Portcities website: For photos of the ferries visit the Simplon Post card site: Note: BOADICEA credited on this site to the LCC was a steamer owned by the Thames Steamboat Company. It was one of three boats (others, ALEXANDRIA & CLEOPATRA) ordered when they took over the Victoria Steamboats fleet. They were built in 1898 and were very similar in size and layout to the L.C.C boats and built by Thames Ironworks. They were with the Thames Steamboat fleet till 1912. Deltatango Site. A collection of Postcards from the early 1900s John Megoran's Kingswear Castle Site Victorian Web Architechture site. Photos of Thames with ferries Napier Miller at Yoker & photo of CHAUCER from the clydesite.co.uk website King Alfred From the PortCities Website Vanburgh From the PortCities Website |
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