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The Ship |
The Ship stands on the corner of Ship Lane and Thames Bank. The public house faces the river on a raised pavement to protect it from high tides. Opposite is the Mortlake draw dock which has been used by watermen, bargees and travellers over many centuries. An inn here would therefore have been a welcome place for them to quench their thirsts. In fact, there were several inns near to the Ship Lane draw dock; the Royal Garter/the Star and Garter or the Garter is one example. One of the surveyors from the 1618 Survey of Mortlake was Henry Bourne, a local waterman, who lived in "Church howse with a barne and an outhowse". This building stood next door to what is now the Ship and was described as a tavern in 1636 by John Taylor in his book Taverns in the Ten Shires Round London and it was called the Maidenhead.
Before the 1618 Survey there had been an inn called the Hart's Horn or Hartshornes "with barne, orchard and yarde". This inn later became the Blew Anckor which in turn became the Ship in the 18th century. The first recorded landlord of the Ship was Thomas Hill in 1781. In 1812 The Ship was owned by the brewers Halford and Weatherstone. It became a Watney's public house in 1891 and is now owned by the Greene King brewery.
In the 1901 Census 60 year old William Cleave was the publican who lived on the premises with his wife Maria, their son Thomas and daughter-in-law Winifred.
The 1914 Valuation describes the public house as being brick-built with a slate roof and two double bay windows. On the first floor were five bedrooms, a bathroom, wc and a billiard room. The ground floor had three bars, a serving bar, parlour, another small room, a kitchen and scullery. There were also three storerooms and a large club room separate from the main building. A boat house stood at the end of the garden.
There have been several inns or taverns situated around the Mortlake draw dock at the end of Ship Lane, for many centuries; some buildings may have been very small, and their uses and names changing over time, others would have been rebuilt, but the Ship remains a popular public house, well-positioned on the towpath and attracting huge crowds on Boat Race day.