Barges at Alchin’s wharf

📍 Putney, London, England 🗓 Circa 1880

A snapshot of industrial London life along the Thames. Moored at Alchin’s Wharf, the barges — one of them named Alfred — are loaded with coal and gravel, essential fuels for the city’s growing machine of progress. Around them, a crew of barge workers pose casually, their tools and strength laid bare on the decks.

In the background rises the silhouette of Putney’s riverside mansions and the unmistakable railway bridge, a symbol of the Victorian era’s engineering might. These men were part of the invisible engine of the empire, navigating the tide and toil of daily labor in the shadow of London’s expansion.

🖼 Do you have photographs of ancestors who worked along the river or in London’s docks? Share them on Oldpik.com and help build a memory map of working-class Britain.