Undergraduate student contribution

Home > Encyclopedia > Placeography > Riverside Features

Puddle Wharf

roseAgas Map
roseList documents mentioning Puddle Wharf
roseList variant names and spellings
Puddle Wharf was a water gate along the north bank of the Thames (Stow). Also known as Puddle Dock, it was located in Castle Baynard Ward, down from St. Andrew’s Hill. The London Encyclopedia describes it as a small inlet […] just east of [what is now] Blackfriars Railway Bridge and formerly east of the mouth of Fleet River (Weinreb, Hibbert, Keay, and Keay 668).
The name of the site has been attributed both to its early function and the name of a nearby Londoner. This site served to water horses in medieval times. Stow describes it as a water gate into the Thames, where horses vse to be watered, & therefore being filed 1 with their trampeling, and made puddle. Stow also suggests that the name derives from a person named Puddle; it might be so called as also of one Puddle dwelling there: it is called Puddle Wharfe (Stow).
Puddle Wharf was built in 1294 to serve as the main quay for Blackfriars Monastery. (Weinreb and Hibbert 68, 229). In the early modern period, Puddle Wharf would have been the main landing place for playgoers on their way to the Blackfriars theatre via the river.
Francis Beaumont capitalized on Blackfriars’ playgoers’ familiarity with Puddle Wharf when he had Nell invoke it as an address marker in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. The Grocer’s wife, comically out of her element on the Blackfriars stage, mentions that (the eponymous knight) has rescued their lost child: I shall nere forget him, when we had lost our child you know, it [the child] was straid almost alone, to Puddle Wharf and the criers were abroad for it (Beaumont 1613). This reference may suggest that Nell and George live near the Blackfriars theatre, yet have such an insular life that Puddle Wharf seems far away, or that they do not belong in the Blackfriars neighbourhood and that Puddle Wharf is thus out of their usual ambit.
A reference by Thomas Adams suggests that Puddle Wharf was the site of a popular tavern. He suggested that listening to Jesuit lies made Men drink so greedily at the Popes Puddle Wharf (Adams sig. P2r).
See also Chalfant 145.

Notes

  1. i.e., defiled↑

References

Cite this page

MLA citation

Esling, Natalia. Puddle Wharf. The Map of Early Modern London, edited by Janelle Jenstad, U of Victoria, 20 Jun. 2018, mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm.

Chicago citation

Esling, Natalia. Puddle Wharf. The Map of Early Modern London. Ed. Janelle Jenstad. Victoria: University of Victoria. Accessed June 20, 2018. http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm.

APA citation

Esling, N. 2018. Puddle Wharf. In J. Jenstad (Ed), The Map of Early Modern London. Victoria: University of Victoria. Retrieved from http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm.

RIS file (for RefMan, EndNote etc.)

Provider: University of Victoria
Database: The Map of Early Modern London
Content: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

TY  - ELEC
A1  - Esling, Natalia
ED  - Jenstad, Janelle
T1  - Puddle Wharf
T2  - The Map of Early Modern London
PY  - 2018
DA  - 2018/06/20
CY  - Victoria
PB  - University of Victoria
LA  - English
UR  - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm
UR  - http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/xml/standalone/PUDD2.xml
ER  -

RefWorks

RT Web Page
SR Electronic(1)
A1 Esling, Natalia
A6 Jenstad, Janelle
T1 Puddle Wharf
T2 The Map of Early Modern London
WP 2018
FD 2018/06/20
RD 2018/06/20
PP Victoria
PB University of Victoria
LA English
OL English
LK http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm

TEI citation

<bibl type="mla"><author><name ref="#ESLI1"><surname>Esling</surname>, <forename>Natalia</forename></name></author>. <title level="a">Puddle Wharf</title>. <title level="m">The Map of Early Modern London</title>, edited by <editor><name ref="#JENS1"><forename>Janelle</forename> <surname>Jenstad</surname></name></editor>, <publisher>U of Victoria</publisher>, <date when="2018-06-20">20 Jun. 2018</date>, <ref target="http://mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm">mapoflondon.uvic.ca/PUDD2.htm</ref>.</bibl>

Personography

Locations

Variant spellings