The Dickens Inn, St Katherine Docks 1976

A sunny view of The Dickens Inn at St Katharine Docks in 1976, not long after the area’s transformation from a derelict Victorian dock into one of London’s earliest urban regeneration projects. The building itself has an unusual story: originally an 18th-century timber-framed warehouse — later used as a tea store and reputedly even a brewery house — it once stood on a different part of the docks. During the redevelopment of the early 1970s it was dismantled, moved, and re-erected on this quayside, opened to the public in 1976 under its new name inspired by local Dickensian associations.

With its flower-decked balconies and riverside views, the pub quickly became one of the most photographed spots in the redeveloped docks. The preserved sailing barge beside it completes the scene, capturing the moment when the old industrial Thames was being reshaped into a leisure and residential waterfront.