Commercial Dock railway station
railway station in London Borough of Southwark, the UK
Commercial Dock was a railway station in Rotherhithe, south-east London, on the London and Greenwich Railway. It was situated on approximately the same site as the later Southwark Park railway station. Numerous sources disagree over when Commercial Dock station was opened, with July 1856, 1859, or 1867 being possibilities; it closed in 1867. 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 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", 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.
“Commercial Dock railway station” enters the record as railway station in London Borough of Southwark, the UK. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Commercial, Dock and railway can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Commercial Dock railway station” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Commercial, Dock and railway provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5152489. Authority coordinates are 51.489, -0.053. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1856, 1859, 1867 and 1865.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Commercial Dock railway station”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Commercial Dock railway station primary sources, Commercial Dock railway station archive and Commercial research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Commercial Dock railway station”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Commercial Dock railway station” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.