Shad Thames - Name

Name

The street Shad Thames is named as such in John Rocque's 1747 map of London. The name may be a corruption of 'St John-at-Thames', a reference to a St John's Church which once stood in the area (and thus is not related to nearby Shadwell).

The surrounding area is also today called Shad Thames, or Butler's Wharf (after the largest of the riverside warehouses). Both names refer to a 350m × 250m rectangle of streets, converted warehouses and newer buildings, bounded by the River Thames, Tower Bridge Road, Tooley Street and St Saviour's Dock (or arguably Mill Street); it forms the most north-easterly corner of the SE1 postcode district.

A 1633 version of Ralph Agas' 1560s map of London calls the general area 'Horssey Down'. An 1889 map calls it 'Horsely Down', though this extended somewhat further south and west than the modern-day Shad Thames. There is still a street near Tower Bridge called Horselydown Lane, at one end of which stood Horseleydown Brewery (now an apartment block called Anchor Brewhouse). As it was originally a large field for grazing horses and cattle, it is likely to be a corruption of 'Horse Down'.