Commercial Dock was a railway station in

Rotherhithe Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of D ...

, south-east London, on the

London and Greenwich Railway The London and Greenwich Railway (L&GR) was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be built specifically for passengers, and the first entirely elevated railway. Origins The idea for t ...

. It was situated on approximately the same site as the later

Southwark Park railway station Southwark Park was a railway station in Bermondsey, south-east London, on the Greenwich Line between and . It was opened by the South Eastern and Chatham Railway on 1 October 1902, on approximately the same site as the then long-closed Commer ...

. Numerous sources disagree over when Commercial Dock station was opened, with July 1856, 1859, or 1867 being possibilities; it closed in 1867.Butt, R.V.J. (1995). The Directory of Railway Stations: details every public and private passenger station, halt, platform and stopping place, past and present (1st ed.). Sparkford: Patrick Stephens Ltd. No visible trace of the station remains.

Name

There has been some doubt about the correct name of the station, which was not located particularly close to the dock of the Commercial Dock Company, which merged with the Surrey Docks to form the

Surrey Commercial Docks The Surrey Commercial Docks were a large group of docks in Rotherhithe, South East London, located on the south bank (the Surrey side) of the River Thames. The docks operated in one form or another from 1696 to 1969. Most were subsequently fi ...

in 1865, with different sources giving the station name as either "Commercial Dock" or "Commercial Docks". Course states the name as "Commercial Dock"; Marshall states "Commercial Dock" on page 364 of his book but "Commercial Docks" on page 523; Whitbread's ''Map Of London 1865'', two years before the station closed, has the name abbreviated to "Commercial Dk Stn", suggesting that "Commercial Dock" is correct. Stanford's ''School-Board Map of London'' of circa 1872 has "Commercial Docks Station", though this would have been produced after the station had closed. Butt also states "Docks". A report by the Board of Trade referring to an accident near the station on 15 December 1860 uses "Commercial Dock Station",http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/documents/BoT_CommercialDock1860.pdf and includes the text of a letter dated 25 January 1861 from the Secretary of the South Eastern Railway, which uses the phrase "...Commercial Dock Station of the Greenwich Railway..." and from this it is reasonable to conclude that the correct name was Commercial Dock.

References

{{coord, 51.4894, N, 0.0526, W, type:railwaystation_region:GB, display=title Disused railway stations in the London Borough of Southwark Railway stations in Great Britain opened in 1856 Railway stations in Great Britain closed in 1867