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19th century London > River traffic declines

Watermen gradually lost out to steamboats, bridges and the Thames Embankment, which discouraged access to the river. Steamboats in turn declined with the growth of London’s suburban railways in the 1860s. In 1876 the five firms operating paddlesteamers on the Thames merged. The London Steamboat Company tried to keep a half-hourly service running all year round from Chelsea to Greenwich, but by 1884 the company was bankrupt. There were no bidders for the 57 steamboats put up for sale two years later.

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