The Blackfriar's Millennium Pier lies along the north bank of the River Thames near Blackfriar's Station and Unilever House. It serves ferry boats operating as a River Bus Service, serving commuters and tourists alike.
From the London Reconnections website: (
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"Over two millenia ago, at the furthest downstream location that a bridge could be built across the River Thames, London was born. In many ways the river is the very reason for London’s existence. The city grew around that first London Bridge and in return the Thames served as London’s highway for centuries, critical to the city – and indeed Britain’s – prosperity.
In its heyday in the 19th century, the area now known as Canary Wharf was the busiest port in the world. Indeed, the Thames remains Britain’s second largest port and is the busiest inland waterway in the UK, keeping London and the South East supplied with food, fuel and finished goods. The Thames thus still plays a vital role in Londoners’ lives, albeit one that has become increasingly unseen. As a 1937 description of London stated: “London neglects its river and hides its port… [the Thames] might be London’s ‘Grand Canal’, but it is almost inaccessible”.
That use of the word ‘inaccessible’ is perhaps rather apt. In recent times the Thames has come to be seen increasingly as a barrier to transport in London, not as its highway. Its role as London’s main road overtaken by increasingly efficient land-based options such as trains, trams and buses throughout the twentieth century. To the point that by the 1970’s the Thames was no longer really a viable passenger transport route, merely an aquatic platform for tourist cruises and floating parties.
The role of the River in London life arguably reached a nadir in September 2009. In that year Transport for London (TfL) took the Thames off the Tube map. It was ordered back on by the Mayor after a public outcry, but at the time the message was clear, a marker of how irrelevant the River had seemingly become.
That disappearance and re-appearance, however, also marks the symbolic change of the flow in the fortunes of the Thames as a transport artery. For a number of entities were beginning to realise the passenger role that Mother Thames could still play.
In this, the first of a series of river transport articles, covering recent developments and plans for both passengers and freight, ?we look at the role played by river buses in the Thames’ renaissance. A form of water traffic that we first encountered in 2010 in Mwmbwls’ A Tale of two Cities – Could London learn from Brisbane?, river buses have launched a modest revolution in the five years since. In that time ?London’s river passenger numbers have nearly doubled, and we pick up the ropes now to explore their history in London and look at what failed (quite often) and what was learnt, laying the foundations for the ‘Thames Clippers’ to become the unheralded success as river buses that they are today.
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Millennium Celebrations
Initially the Thames Clippers service used existing piers, which were small and basic as few were designed for large crowds. In 2000, five new and upgraded River Bus piers were opened thanks to a grant of £7,177,000 from the Millennium Commission as a key component of its Thames 2000 project to improve previously neglected travel connections on the Thames, and to promote the river as an alternative means of public transport:
Tower Millennium Pier
Blackfriars Millennium Pier
London Eye Pier
Westminster Millennium Pier
Millbank Millennium Pier
This, along with TfL placing River Bus icons on the Tube map, greatly helping the service find its target market. This stabilised the service, and LRS and TfL soon realised it was not just another river commuter service waiting to sink financially.
The pier infrastructure upgrade leveraged Thames Clippers’ private investment in purchasing its own boats. The “Millennium” part of these pier names was later dropped.
The Millennium Dome was conceived to house a Festival of Britain type of showcase to celebrate the third millennium, on the isolated peninsula of North Greenwich as a regeneration impetus. In addition to the new Jubilee Line Extension tube station there, it was considered prudent to provide a second transport link to it from central London. Supported by Millennium Commission Lottery money, construction of North Greenwich Pier at the site and investment in new boats by operators allowed River Bus services to bring visitors to and from this new large venue in 2000."
More proof that this pier was made for the Millennium comes from Wikipedia: (
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"Tower Millennium Pier
Tower Millennium Pier is a pier on the River Thames, in London, UK. It is operated by London River Services and served by various river transport and cruise operators. The pier is close to Tower Bridge and is situated immediately adjacent to the Tower of London, next to the Traitors' Gate.
History
Tower Millennium Pier was opened on 14 July by London Mayor Ken Livingstone. Its creation was funded by the Millennium Commission as part of the Thames 2000 project, and was one of five new piers provided by the Commission on the Thames (the others being Blackfriars Millennium Pier, London Eye Pier, Westminster Millennium Pier and Millbank Millennium Pier)."