HMS president was a flower-class anti submarine Q-Ship. She started out life as HMS Saxifrage but was renamed HMS President in 1922. She was moored permanently on the Thames as a Royal Navy Reserve drill ship. In 1982 the ship was sold and has changed hands twice more since then.
In her latter years she served as a venue for conferences and functions along with office space with her mooring being on the Victoria Embankment on the Thames, close to Blackfriers. In 2014 a"dazzle" camouflage paint scheme was applied to the ship in commemoration of the artists who created the original dazzle camouflage used on similar ships in WW1.
In 2016 after over 90 years in the same birth, the ship was move to the Medway towns because the space she occupied was needed by the construction of Thames Tideway. The plan is (was) to restore her and use her as part of the WW1 centenary remembrance. This didn't really get off the ground so it seems, which is sad really, so it's just sat there slowly rusting away. She was 100 years old this year.
So I had resurrected Frosty from his 3 year slumber and we were looking for something to do on a pissing cold wet evening. I suddenly remembered about this ship, I had read about her moving to Medway last year, but had then swiftly forgotten about her. We soon hit the first snag however, neither of us knew precisely where on the river the bloody thing was. A scour round google earth later for probable locations and we came up with one we were pretty certain about. Turns out we were right - it is in the middle of a private ship yard with 24hr security, a few very live industrial units and the main road in and out of the place running right past it. Great.
We really weren't expecting to have the luck we did with this, but after we walked round the area a few times and realised there was definitely at least a chance of getting to it we had to have a go. Be rude not to, right? 45 minutes later we reached the point of stupidity, which was a reasonable bit of no mans land in full sight of security right across the main road in the place and in front of a load of offices that were definitely occupied. See this is where a Frosty is really handy because at that point I was seriously thinking of turning back, it was a school night after all, but he just went "Go on 3" and we went. 5 minutes later we were standing next to her, now all we had to do was get inside.
Well we made it and what a disappointment she was. Totally completely and utterly stripped out. I had kinda hoped there might be some original or interesting items tucked away, possibly some stuff preserved but there really wasn't. The workshops at the bow of the ship were quite probably the most interesting bit as they were reasonably original, the rest was just a modern fit out. Shame.
I didn't take any pics of the upper levels, we were very wary of shining torches around as there are windows and the top decks are mainly a soggy horrible mess anyway - the place leaks like a sieve, Literally. Good luck to whoever takes on the restoration, you got a big job there.
Anyway, here's the bits I did photograph.
A couple of really poor exteriors taken on my phone. It was absolutely hoofing down when we left, so I couldn't get any proper outside shots like I wanted
Room and corridor on the lowest deck.
Typical room
Looking down the side of one of the rooms that's been built in there. At one time I think there might have been a wall where I was standing.
The workshop area at the bow of the ship - loads of interesting bits and pieces in here, but most of it fairly modern apart from the workbenches it seems.
Bulkhead door. The workshop was behind this.
One of the only original things left on board - a tannoy speaker (I think)
Looking down a hatch at the bottom of the boat. There's a good 2 ft of water in the bottom of her and none of the pumps work as there is no power. You can also appreciate the extent of the rot and rust here.
One of the rooms had been made into a recording studio
Complete with drum kit.
Old valve amplifier - one of the only other things we found which was most likely original equipment on the ship.
On the next deck up, pretty much all the rooms were like this, full of junk and rubbish. There was even a room dedicated to Christmas decorations!
The top two decks consisted of a ball room (which was a soggy mess) a couple of bars, kitchen area/restaurant and toilets etc. Not really worth a picture as the were mostly empty spaces.
Despite the disappointment of what is left inside, it was still a pretty cool explore.
Thanks for looking!
Maniac.
In her latter years she served as a venue for conferences and functions along with office space with her mooring being on the Victoria Embankment on the Thames, close to Blackfriers. In 2014 a"dazzle" camouflage paint scheme was applied to the ship in commemoration of the artists who created the original dazzle camouflage used on similar ships in WW1.
In 2016 after over 90 years in the same birth, the ship was move to the Medway towns because the space she occupied was needed by the construction of Thames Tideway. The plan is (was) to restore her and use her as part of the WW1 centenary remembrance. This didn't really get off the ground so it seems, which is sad really, so it's just sat there slowly rusting away. She was 100 years old this year.
So I had resurrected Frosty from his 3 year slumber and we were looking for something to do on a pissing cold wet evening. I suddenly remembered about this ship, I had read about her moving to Medway last year, but had then swiftly forgotten about her. We soon hit the first snag however, neither of us knew precisely where on the river the bloody thing was. A scour round google earth later for probable locations and we came up with one we were pretty certain about. Turns out we were right - it is in the middle of a private ship yard with 24hr security, a few very live industrial units and the main road in and out of the place running right past it. Great.
We really weren't expecting to have the luck we did with this, but after we walked round the area a few times and realised there was definitely at least a chance of getting to it we had to have a go. Be rude not to, right? 45 minutes later we reached the point of stupidity, which was a reasonable bit of no mans land in full sight of security right across the main road in the place and in front of a load of offices that were definitely occupied. See this is where a Frosty is really handy because at that point I was seriously thinking of turning back, it was a school night after all, but he just went "Go on 3" and we went. 5 minutes later we were standing next to her, now all we had to do was get inside.
Well we made it and what a disappointment she was. Totally completely and utterly stripped out. I had kinda hoped there might be some original or interesting items tucked away, possibly some stuff preserved but there really wasn't. The workshops at the bow of the ship were quite probably the most interesting bit as they were reasonably original, the rest was just a modern fit out. Shame.
I didn't take any pics of the upper levels, we were very wary of shining torches around as there are windows and the top decks are mainly a soggy horrible mess anyway - the place leaks like a sieve, Literally. Good luck to whoever takes on the restoration, you got a big job there.
Anyway, here's the bits I did photograph.
A couple of really poor exteriors taken on my phone. It was absolutely hoofing down when we left, so I couldn't get any proper outside shots like I wanted
Room and corridor on the lowest deck.
Typical room
Looking down the side of one of the rooms that's been built in there. At one time I think there might have been a wall where I was standing.
The workshop area at the bow of the ship - loads of interesting bits and pieces in here, but most of it fairly modern apart from the workbenches it seems.
Bulkhead door. The workshop was behind this.
One of the only original things left on board - a tannoy speaker (I think)
Looking down a hatch at the bottom of the boat. There's a good 2 ft of water in the bottom of her and none of the pumps work as there is no power. You can also appreciate the extent of the rot and rust here.
One of the rooms had been made into a recording studio
Complete with drum kit.
Old valve amplifier - one of the only other things we found which was most likely original equipment on the ship.
On the next deck up, pretty much all the rooms were like this, full of junk and rubbish. There was even a room dedicated to Christmas decorations!
The top two decks consisted of a ball room (which was a soggy mess) a couple of bars, kitchen area/restaurant and toilets etc. Not really worth a picture as the were mostly empty spaces.
Despite the disappointment of what is left inside, it was still a pretty cool explore.
Thanks for looking!
Maniac.
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