Andrew Gladwell: 10 books

If you mention the subject of pleasure steamers on the rivers Thames and Medway, you can be certain that most people will remember with fond nostalgia the well-loved steamers Royal Daffodil, Royal Sovereign and Queen of the Channel. Even now well over forty years since their untimely demise, their...

From the 1840s, with the development of steamships, there was a demand for day trips to the coast. Towns along the Thames and on the Essex and Kent coasts benefitted from the influx of trippers. Numerous companies, such as the Eagle and Belle steamers and the New Medway Steam Packet Co., catered for...

For over 150 years, pleasure steamers and paddle steamers operated on day trips from the Yorkshire coastal resorts, sailing from Scarborough, Whitby and Bridlington up and down the coast, giving the day tripper a taste of life aboard in exchange for a few shillings. From the Bilsdale, Frenchman, Yorkshireman,...

The first Lake District steamers were designed to serve the numerous villages and settlements along the side of the lakes. From the 1860s, larger railway-owned steamers such as the Swan, Tern, Swift and Teal were built to cater for the rapidly expanding tourist market of Windermere. Elsewhere, Ullswater...

Many people remember with great fondness the pleasure steamers that plied the River Thames in the years after the end of the Second World War. The mighty General Steam Navigation Company, more commonly known as 'Eagle Steamers', dominated the business. But fewer people now appreciate the significant...

Cruises by pleasure steamer along the Essex coast have been a popular day out since the Victorian age, and are still going strong today despite a plunge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s and several tragic fires. For most Londoners, the tradition of going to the seaside was always by pleasure steamer....

For generations of Londoners, a trip to the seaside aboard a pleasure steamer such as the Royal Eagle, Golden Eagle or Royal Daffodil was the highlight of the year and these ‘Poor Man’s Liners’ were part of childhood and family life for huge numbers of people. The tradition went back to the...

Since the dawn of steam navigation, people have taken pleasure cruises in Britain’s rivers and estuaries and along the coast. Andrew Gladwell takes us on a tour of the south coast of England, illustrating the story of the paddle and pleasure steamers from south Devon to Sussex. Southampton and Bournemouth...

Pleasure steamer cruises along the scenic North Wales coast from Liverpool disappeared some fifty years ago. The outstanding beauty of North Wales and in particular the Menai Straits and Anglesey, was in its day, one of the most outstanding and scenic areas of the UK for enjoying the simple pleasure...

Embassy, Consul, Monarch and Emperor of India were just some of the well-loved paddle steamers operated by Cosens of Weymouth along the scenic Dorset coast before services ceased when Embassy was withdrawn in 1966. The distinctive Cosens fleet with their buff funnels became a part of the Dorset coast...