Ferry Road 27, "The Boathouse"
Ferry Road 27 “The Boathouse” http://boathousedesignstudio.blogspot.com/ The boatyard in Ferry Road Teddington first appears on a map dating from 1850. The first known tenant was James Arthur Messenger who had served his apprenticeship on the river and set up for himself in business in 1848. By 1861 his yard employed four men and three boys. The business flourished, probably due to Messenger's reputation as a cham¬pion sculler and his appointment as the Queen's Bargemaster in 1862. By 1871 thirty men were em¬ployed there. Apart from standard rowing boats and small leisure craft, Messenger gained a reputation for building unusual one-off craft, such as the Lady Alice, a five-sectioned boat commissioned by Sir Henry Morton Stanley for his second African expedition, the Nautilus canoe for Baden-Powell, and the twin-screw steam launch Daisy for the Church Missionary Society for exploration in central Africa.
Robert Porter opened a yard in 1891 and in 1895, as Porter & Brice, took over Messenger's yard. They continued until 1910 when the yard was taken over by Tom Bunn, who was kept busy supply¬ing vessels for Thornycrofts in Hampton for the whole of the First World War.
Douglas Tough was apprenticed to Tom Bunn and once this was completed, he and his brother Gordon, built a passenger launch Tigris II & began carrying passengers between Kingston & Richmond. By 1928 the firm of Tough Brothers was established enough to acquire Bunn's old yard & went fully into repair work, passenger boat serv¬ice, chandlery and winter storage. In the late 1930s, Douglas bought another larger yard in Manor Road Teddington. The firm expanded greatly in the Second World War, having sixteen men in 1939 and 220 in 1945 at the two yards. Ferry Road was used as the collection point for over a hundred of the commandeered Little Ships that were sent to Dunkirk in May 1940 to help with the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force. After the war the yard was used for boat repairs & building, along with manufacturing interior furniture for some of the large vessels that were built in the Manor Road yard. “The Boat House” was recently Grade II listed by English Heritage