The ambulance ship Geneva Cross seen from South Wharf.

Repro ID: H4170

Description: The ambulance ship 'Geneva Cross' seen from South Wharf in Rotherhithe. Bullivant's Wharf and London Wharf on the Isle of Dogs are in the background. Patients diagnosed with smallpox in London would be taken to one of three wharves serving particular parts of the capital: the West Wharf in Fulham, South Wharf in Rotherhithe or the North Wharf in Poplar. South Wharf was the most important of these; it had an ambulance station with 24 beds and a 300 foot pier so that patients could be embarked whatever the state of the tide. The 'Geneva Cross' ambulance steamer was built according to a design submitted by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and entered service in 1894, the year in which this photograph was taken.

Creator: Unknown

Date: 1894

Credit line: National Maritime Museum, London