The Victorian craze for ferns is resurrected in Dock Office Gardens 

Dock Office Gardens was one of three names announced recently as the first new place names on the Canada Water development.  

It’s the new name for the area surrounding the Dock Office, the distinctive two-tone brick building with its white lettering and clock tower on Surrey Quays Road.  

Townshend Landscape Architects redesigned the space to recreate the spirit of a Victorian garden as a sympathetic setting for the 132-year-oldi, Grade II-listed building.  They took as their inspiration the pioneering Victorian botanists who were part of a surge of enthusiasm for natural history during the period. As science and technology developed rapidly, interest in new discoveries spread, with amateur hobbyists collecting vast quantities of specimens that went on to form the datasets for the emerging natural sciences. At the same time, the population shifted from rural communities to cities, leading to a widespread romanticisation of nature. This sentiment drove those with the curiosity and the means to travel on intrepid expeditions in search of new natural wonders. 

These Victorian plant-hunters transformed gardens across Britain, using them to show off the unusual species they’d found. “Pteridomania” – or fern collecting – was a particular craze, and the present-day Dock Office Gardens contain no less than 14 varieties of fern. These range from the elegant native Lady Fern, to the giant Woodwardia Fern from the Far East, to tall tree ferns originating from Australia.  

Other plants in the garden include the Umbrella Plant, the Rice Paper Plant, and Cast-Iron Plant, all of whose giant leaves help create a lush, tropical feel. Woodland species have been selected to thrive under the shade of existing mature trees, while unusual flowering plants will add colour throughout the year.  A pond with water lilies, edged with waterside plants such as the black iris, forms a focal point. In total, the gardens includes more than 90 species of plants.  

The Dock Office itself, which now serves as the Canada Water project hub, was built in 1892 to be the centre of the bustling working docks. From here, the Dock Manager oversaw Surrey Commercial Docks, a system of waterways that covered 85% of the Rotherhithe peninsula. From Scandinavia, the Baltic and Canada, the docks received burgeoning imports of timber to help power Britain’s industrial revolution, along with foodstuffs to feed London’s growing population. By the 1930s they were at the centre of a local economy that employed 100,000 people1 and supported many more.  

In recent years, British Land commissioned building contractor Wates and interior designers Conran & Partners to sensitively restore the building, showcase historical features such as as the large trusses, high archways and triple-height vaulted ceilings and celebrate the heritage of the Dock Office. 

“What I love about these new names is the sense of history and character that they bring,” says Michael Daniels, who was for many years the President of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey Local History Society. “‘Dock Office Gardens’, for instance, has that established feel about it. You can imagine it being used on a Victorian or Edwardian street.”  

To find out about the inspiration for another of the new place names, Rafter Walk, click here. 
 
Keep an eye on this website for the story behind the third new name, Marker Way, and for future editions of Behind the Name as the development takes shape.