London's Pleasure Steamers

For generations of Londoners, a trip to the seaside aboard a pleasure steamer such as the Royal Eagle, Golden Eagle or Royal Daffodil was the highlight of the year and these ‘Poor Man’s Liners’ were part of childhood and family life for huge numbers of people. The tradition went back to the 1820s when the first commercial paddle steamers entered service and the advent of paid holidays for the mass...