Wharfare
Downstream of Dukes Ferry the riverside changes sharply from the well made quay side opening onto the market place of the Strand to a more ramshackle waterside. To be sure most of this is stone clad but boats that dock here are smaller and either loaded or unloaded directly to the buildings on the quayside or hauled up inclines into the boat yards that deal in repairs, refurbishment and, more rarely, the construction of boats and barges for the river trade. Behind these a dense network of crowded streets and small houses accommodates many of the towns watermen - whether the day labourers working the quaysides loading and unloading, the lightermen loading and unloading the larger boat that have come up river but draw too much to dock at the Strand or in other small and useful ways serve the waterborne economy of Morton.
This is the region of Wharfside, bounded on the north by the Durran Road and the east by the Taw Rill it is one of the poorer areas of the town and known for a "flexible" approach to porperty rights and due process.
Government
Government is a stong term to use to describe the processes at work in Wharfside. Although it follows the forms of Morton with an Alderman and households organised into pledges, Wharfare sees the pledges acting as minor gangs and dealing a bloody, vindictive form of local justice with the perceived injustices of the past driving the views and actions of the present.
Though unstable it rarely errupts into violence and even when it does, the small size of the pledges means that the violence doesn't last or spread as the neighbouring pledges act to protect their peace. Somehow it works, though you will seldom find the City Militia setting foot on its streets.
Infrastructure
The river bank is lined with small quays and boatyards, the latter running perpendiculr to the riverbank. A number of storm sewers flow through the ward into the river and, because of the extensive redevelopment of the area ajust over a century ago (after the Durran busrt its banks and flooded the bankside areas) it is well connected with the foul sewer and this is rumoured to form part of its underwrld (if the pun wil be excused) economy.
Guilds and Factions
The boatmen are the dominant guild in this ward, as might be suspected given the nature of its trade. Less obvious to many it that it is also the home to many of the Gongsters , who maintain their guildhouse in the eastern part of the ward.
History
Wharfare is one of the newer wards of the town, created (along with The Tanneries after the Great Flood of 903. Wharfare was formed from the wards of Ferryplace (which ran from the Strand to the line of Newall Street) and the part of Eastreach to the west of the Taw Rill. Although well planned the area rapidly acquired its current reputation.
Architecture
Almost all of Wharfare is made up of brick built terraced dwellings typically of three stories height. All made in the drab brown brick characteristic of more recent building in the town and with the plain style common of the late nineth and early tenth centuries.
Type
Ward
Inhabitant Demonym
Rats (from the vermin associated with shipping)
Included Locations
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