History of Gravesend Lifeboat Station

Following the Marchioness tragedy in 1989, the Thames Safety Inquiry conducted by Lord Justice Clarke recommended, amongst other things, a dedicated search and rescue service on the tidal reaches of the River Thames.

The RNLI was invited to provide this facility and on 2nd January 2002 four new lifeboat stations were opened. Three, at Chiswick, Tower Pier and Gravesend, are manned 24 hours a day, using a mix of full-time and volunteer crew, whilst the fourth, at Teddington, has a volunteer crew summoned by pagers.

Initially, Gravesend was based in porta-cabins in the car park of the Port of London Authority, Gravesend at Royal Terrace Pier. On 5th June 2007 we moved into our new station at the end of Royal Terrace Pier. As the new station is only yards away from where the lifeboats are moored, this has greatly reduced the time it takes to launch to an incident.