Date(s) of visit: 13/09/2023 – 21/09/2023
Boat length: 28ft
Boat type: Sailing yacht
Boat name: Sudana
Crew: Two persons and one cat
St Katharine Docks Marina is a far cry from the hustle and bustle of the city and the stress of the Thames, yet offers all the benefits of a city centre location. Credit: @writingandsailing
Prices
For information on the current visitor mooring tariffs, as well as winter and annual berthing options, visit the St Katharine Docks website. The marina offers a range of payment options, including credit card and direct debit, to make your stay as convenient as possible.
It’s worth noting that St Katharine Docks mooring fees don’t include electricity. However, electricity can be requested from the marina and is charged at 40.5 pence per kWh, including standing charge and VAT. You can also request unmetered services at a fixed daily rate.
Access
Accessing St Katharine Docks is relatively straightforward, but it’s important to be prepared for the fast and bumpy conditions of the River Thames. The river can be busy at all hours, with a variety of vessels including fast Uber boats, shipping vessels, and river cruises. This can make navigation a little stressful, especially if you’re on a smaller yacht. However, with the right preparation and a little patience, the journey can be a rewarding one.
What makes the Thames particularly difficult to navigate is the sharp sides of the river, which don’t allow anywhere for the swell caused by commercial traffic to dispel. This means that every wake and wave is multiplied, hitting the sides of the river and bouncing back. So there’s no pointing into waves to make the passage more comfortable; simply strap on your lifejackets and hold your course!
It’s also important to highlight that the rules of the water, which are fairly relaxed in some places around the UK, are vital to follow when cruising along the River Thames. Stick to the starboard and make sure you know when to radio as you make your approach, otherwise the police will come and get you (we stopped for a few nights in Erith on our way in and had to cross to the port side of the river to reach our mooring. The police almost immediately approached to tell us we were on the wrong side, so we can personally vouch for their efficiency at keeping water traffic following the rules!)
Visitors must also be careful to follow the tides. The Thames has a strong current that even larger vessels can struggle to fight against, so you should only attempt an approach on a flood tide and a departure on an ebb. Thankfully, SKD has your back here as well, as they offer a useful and regularly updated tide table document, which also includes details of various ports along the river.
If you’re not convinced you’ll make it all the way up the river on one tide, you may wish to stop at Greys or Erith and hook a mooring bouy while you wait for the next tide. These are not necessarily the most comfortable moorings, but they will keep you safe and allow you to rest rather than attempting to beat against a strong current.
Before making your approach, it’s vital that crew members familiarise themselves with the route into London, as there are places where specific rules must be followed and/or radio contact must be made. Visitors may wish to use YouTube to find videos of other sailors making their way in and keep St Katharine Docks’ Thames Map handy for reference. The Port of London Authority also has lots of really useful information available on its website about cruising on the River Thames.
Sailing the River Thames can feel treacherous, but as long as you follow the rules, accessing St Katharine Docks from the water is straightforward, and the entrance is conveniently marked by London’s Tower Bridge – making it an excellent and Instagram-worthy entrance. Credit: @writingandsailing
Contact info
St Katharine Docks Marina can be contacted on VHF Channel 80 with the call sign “St Katharine’s”.
The marina reception only operates during locking periods. For the Summer Season (April – October), this is two hours before high water to 1.5 hours after high water, between 6am to 8:30pm. During the winter (November – March), the lock operates between 8am to 6pm, from two hours before to 1.5 hours after high water.
Subject to locking periods, the Marina Reception can be contacted seven days a week, between 9am – 5pm, on +44 (0)20 7264 5312 or via email to marina.reception.skdocks.co.uk
Planning to visit St Katharine Docks Marina? Be sure to contact the marina well in advance to secure your berth. The marina can get busy, especially during peak season, so it’s best to book early and maintain contact with the marina. The marina reception will also be able to provide further information on how to get into St Katharine Docks, including when and where you need to radio various stations as you make your approach.
Never been in a lock before? See our feature on how to operate a canal lock for a guide – although with city locks, you won’t need to operate the lock yourself!
Postal address
50 St. Katharine’s Way London E1W 1LA
Comfort
Getting into St Katharine Docks is far from the most comfortable passage you’ve experienced! But once you get into the marina, it’s surprisingly peaceful considering its proximity to the hustle and bustle of the city.
The pontoons are a little short, but wide and stable enough to be comfortable and feel secure as you get on/off your boat and walk around the marina.
Once you’re in the marina, you can relax and enjoy the peaceful surroundings. The marina is almost in a cove, providing full protection from the wind in all directions. Thanks to its positioning behind a lock, you won’t need to worry about the tides or the waves from passing commercial vessels on the Thames.
The marina also has several safety measures, including 24-hour security and CCTV, to ensure your stay is as safe and stress-free as possible.
Facilities
Showers
As expected, the facilities at St Katharine Docks are hotel-standard. The showers are arguably a little smaller than you might think, but they offer plenty of comfort and have a luxurious look and feel to them. The water pressure is excellent, and the temperature can be adjusted (which sailors will know isn’t always a given in marinas!).
Laundry
St Katharine Docks also offers laundry facilities, which are clean, tidy, and reasonably priced. A standard wash will cost just £3 while drying is £1 for 30 minutes. The laundry room also contains an iron and ironing board for your fancier items.
Fuel
Fuel Thames Marine Services (TMS) operates a fuel barge named Heiko, which is moored under 500m outside the marina lock. The fuel barge operates at similar times to the St Katharine Docks lock, but it is recommended to book ahead. If you require a large quantity of fuel, TMS may be willing to come to you in the marina on their smaller vessel, but you will need to contact TMS directly to arrange this.
If you’re happy to collect fuel by foot, there’s also a 24-hour fuel station on The Highway, just 15 minutes’ walk from the marina.
You can contact TMS on 0203 935 4814 07827 816004 or via email to thamesmarineservices.co.uk.
If you want to make your fuel last longer, why not check out our article on 10 ways to save fuel before setting off?
WiFi
St Katharine Docks WiFi serves the entire marina, and is easy to log into with a valid email address. Use the St Katharine Docks WiFi password – “VisitorSKD” – to gain access.
Other facilities
For a complete guide to the facilities and amenities available at St Katharine Docks, including a chandlery, the marina produces a useful visitor’s guide, which is downloadable from the website.
Shops
For groceries, visitors have the option of Tesco Express to the west, and Waitrose to the east. Both shops offer generous opening hours, although it’s worth noting that the Tesco Express is really more catered to lunch breaks than a full provisioning shop.
For more “fun” shopping, St Katharine Docks is conveniently located by Tower Bridge, with excellent walking and public transport options to access the whole of London, so you’re spoilt for choice whether you’re hunting for souvenirs, fashion, or something else entirely!
Located directly next to Tower Bridge, St Katharine Docks offers incredibly easy connections to the whole of London town. Credit: @writingandsailing
Things to do
Circling the marina is an abundance of restaurants, cafes, pubs, and attractions. You can find a full guide to local businesses in the SKD Marina Guide. There’s even a hairdresser on site! Visitors to St Katharine can also benefit from money off many of the establishments around the marina thanks to the SKD Porter card, which offers a plethora of discounts and deals.
The marina also hosts regular events, including the annual Classic Boat Festival, rowing challenges, and even dances.
Outside the marina, visitors will be excited to discover SKD’s proximity to some major London attractions, including Tower Bridge, The Tower of London, HMS Belfast, Jack the Ripper Museum and Tour, and much more.
If you want to go a bit further afield, it’s easy to walk to many key London landmarks. Walking along the Thames is always pleasant, and many landmarks provide opportunities to cross some of the most famous London bridges – the perfect photo op!
Walking not for you? The nearest underground station is Tower Hill, served by the District and Circle lines and is a 5-10 minute walk from the marina. You can also take a riverboat from Tower Bridge Quay (previously St Katharine’s Pier) or Tower Pier if you’d prefer to explore London from the water.
Review
Despite an incredibly bumpy and, frankly, scary entrance, SKD is by far one of my favourite marinas of all time. Not only does it offer an unparalleled benefit of being almost slap bang in the centre of London – so you can enjoy everything our capital city has to offer – but it’s also surprisingly tranquil and relaxing within the marina complex itself. The facilities are everything you would expect from a hotel in the area, for a fraction of the cost, and the surrounding scenery is beautiful, well-maintained, and perfectly suited to the marine lifestyle.
Yes, SKD is a pricy marina, particularly when you compare it to others around the UK, but the postcode simply speaks for itself. And you certainly won’t find any other accommodation at a comparative price anywhere local! Not to mention, the discounts and deals available with the SKD Porter Card make dining and drinking even more reasonable right on your doorstep.
But although you’re looking at a centre-of-London stay for a fraction of the cost of a hotel in a similar area, SKD has by no means skimped on its service or luxury. The facilities are 5-star (although I would have liked slightly bigger showers), and the customer support is second to none. In fact, at one point, I misplaced my SKD Porter Card, and one of the receptionists lent me hers for the weekend – no questions asked! Nothing is too much trouble here, and everyone is incredibly friendly – which may be surprising to anyone who’s spent any length of time in London.
St Katharine Docks offers a surprisingly beautiful and tranquil escape from the busy city, without being too far removed from the excitement that London has to offer. Credit: @writingandsailing
Would you stay again?
I would definitely stay in St Katharine Docks again. In fact, I very seriously considered trying to get an annual mooring, and, if it hadn’t been so early in the season, I probably would have picked SKD as my preferred port for winter (in honesty, it was something we discussed at length). I originally only intended to be in SKD for a few days, and ended up stretching the stay to over a week as we were enjoying the location and marina so much that we didn’t want to leave!
Opie’s Opinion
Before I finish my review, my rescue cat Opie (who inspired the ultimate guide to cats on boats) wants to have his say…
Although I didn’t much like the bumpy entrance to St Katharine Docks and wasn’t expecting to have much fun in the busy marina, I was surprised by how nice everything was! The pontoons were comfortable on my paws and stable when I jumped off the boat, so I felt very safe. I didn’t like going out in the day very much, as there were a lot of people enjoying the sunshine and bars around the marina, but at night, it was easy for me to slip out, and lots of places to explore and enjoy. There were even trees for me to climb! I had a great time and agree with my paw-rents that I would stay again and it was worth the stress of getting into St Katharine Docks (even if I did have to wear my lifejacket!).
Even Opie enjoyed his stay in London!
