The area of Surrey Quays and Rotherhithe are steeped in history as you would expect of an area that was once used as commercial dock.
Rainbow Quay itself was built on the site of a whaling factory and its name came from the fact that the Greenpeace ship the ‘Rainbow Warrior’ was moored in Greenland dock prior to the development of the flats.
Being just a stones throw from the River Thames the area was covered in the BBC series ‘Coast’ and much of the local history can be experienced online. The following link details a walk with online pictures and video footage of the area.
Southwark Council produce a range of illustrated walking tours of the area. These include many pictures of the docks before and after development, and points of historical interest. These can be found from the following links.
We are very fortunate to have a lot of parkland to be able to enjoy and no better view of the area can be found than from the top of Stave Hill in Russia Dock Woodland. Again Southwark council produce a leaflet for a scenic walk through the wood and another for Southwark Park. These can be found following the links to the right.