As a result, Rotherhithe is now a gentrifying residential and commuter area, with urban regeneration progressing around Deal Porter Square[2] at Canada Water; a new town centre with restaurant and retail units, as well as new residential developments, is emerging here around the existing freshwater dock and transport hub.

The name "Rotherhithe" is thought to derive from the Anglo-Saxon Hrȳðer-hȳð and it is suggested it means "landing-place for cattle".

[7] On the Ordnance Survey five feet to the mile, London 1893–1896 maps, Redriff appears in two places, by Beatson Street and by Nelson Dockyard to Durand's Wharf.

[8] The docks were closed and largely filled in during the 1980s, and have now been replaced by modern housing and commercial facilities, but Rotherhithe retains much of its character and its maritime heritage.

St. Mary's Church is at the centre of the old Rotherhithe village, which contains various historic buildings including the Brunel Engine House at the south end of the Thames Tunnel.

[9] Southwark Council and the Greater London Authority have announced a significant regeneration project focused on Canada Water and Rotherhithe.

Known as the 'Canada Water Masterplan', the project has proposed the development of an additional 3,500 homes, as well as a new high street, town square, parks, leisure centre and footpath links.

The sustainable transport charity Sustrans has proposed the construction of a bicycle and pedestrian swing bridge from Rotherhithe to Canary Wharf, and cost-benefit and feasibility studies were undertaken.

In January 2009 the London Mayor Boris Johnson said he would not fund the bridge, citing budget cuts due to the credit crunch,[12] with the result that the project was effectively put on ice.

Due to local action by The Save King's Stairs Gardens Campaign, which collected over 5000 signatures, Thames Water decided to build the access shaft in Chambers Wharf instead.

Subsequently, becoming part of the Guy's Hospital Teaching Group in 1966, it closed in 1985 and the site has been redeveloped into the residential Ann Moss Way.

When the roundabout facing the Rotherhithe Tunnel was redeveloped in the early 1980s, several 19th century buildings were demolished including a school and a nunnery.

Originally established as seafarers' missions, Rotherhithe is home to a Norwegian,[24] a Finnish[25] and a Swedish[26] church.

Some of the redeveloped areas were built by Nordic architects, such as the Greenland Passage development[27] by Danish Company Kjær & Richter.

[30] In July 1620, the Mayflower sailed from Rotherhithe and picked up 65 passengers, probably from Blackwall, then proceeded to Southampton on the south coast of England to begin loading food and supplies for the voyage to America.

[31] The ship's master, Christopher Jones, died shortly after his return in 1621 and is buried in an unmarked grave at St Mary's Church.

[33] On Lower Road, about halfway between Surrey Quays and Canada Water stations, there was a public house called the China Hall; at one time it was the entrance to a riparian playhouse visited by Samuel Pepys and mentioned in his diary.

The site of the theatre became a well-known tea-gardens, with the "usual arbours and 'boxes'" during the Victorian period, but by the 1920s, most of the gardens had been absorbed into the Surrey Commercial Docks as part of a timber yard.

The raid ignited over a million tonnes of timber in Quebec Yard, causing the most intense single fire ever seen in Britain.

[40] Built by the Brunels, and originally intended to carry cross-river freight, it became a pedestrian tunnel due to the money running out to build the necessary ramps for vehicle traffic.

The Jubilee line extension (opened 1999) has a railway tunnel to Canary Wharf in the Isle of Dogs.