MORE THOUGHTS ON THE PENN
SITE
by Richard Cheffins
The business was founded in 1799 by John Penn
Snr. John Penn Jnr made his first marine
engine in 1825 though it is probable that this did not become the principal
work of the firm until he took over from his father in 1843. Until 1861, the
Works had no entrance, indeed no frontage at all, on Blackheath Road. The Works originally occupied land at the
rear of properties in Blackheath Road accessed from Bath (or Cold Bath) Street
renamed John Penn Street in 1873/75.
This remained the main entrance even after the Works expanded and is
clearly shown on the sketch-plan reprinted on p.12. The Penns originally leased or rented the
site of their Works from the Holwell (or Rand) Charity and in 1861 they
purchased the whole of its estate in Greenwich for the sum of £21,500. This enabled them to expand considerably
their original Works east of Ditch Alley, to acquire an even larger site west
of it, and to acquire frontages on both Blackheath Road and Lewisham Road.
None of this invalidates the point made by the
Greenwich Conservation Group about any surviving relics of the Penn Works. However, I think George Arthur is unwise to
dismiss 10 Lewisham Road as not being part of the Penn Works. The matter is complicated. Before the expansion of the Engine Works, the
Penn family occupied the corner property in Blackheath Road the garden of which
ran the whole length of Lewisham Road as far as the present John Penn Street (see
my article in Vol.3, No.3). At that time
there were no houses at all fronting that stretch of Lewisham Road, at least
not on that side of the road. The Simms (Poor
Law Commissioners’) map of c. 1838 shows the corner site of Blackheath Road to
be vacant; the Tithe map of 1844 and the undated Holwell estate map that I
referred to in my previous article both show a building on the Blackheath Road
corner, the latter identifying the Penn family as occupiers. All three show a single property occupying
the whole length of that stretch of Lewisham Road and show a couple of
out-buildings at the rear (John Penn Street end) which the Holwell estate map
identifies as ‘sheds’ and which occupy the site of the future No.10.
There are no further large-scale maps of the area, so
far as I know, for over 20 years. By the
time of the Ordnance Survey maps (25’’ and 5”) of 1867, the situation had
changed. The corner house and its garden
now occupied only 40% of its former length and the sheds had gone; the rest was
taken up by five houses fronting Lewisham Road, four single-fronted houses and
a double-fronted one which correspond exactly with the present Nos. 2-8, evens,
and No. 10 (the present No. 2a and the so-called Studio 2a are very recent and
correspond to the garden plot of the corner house). The boundaries of the Holwell estate in this
area were Blackheath Road and Lewisham Road and so, whether the row of five
houses (Nos. 2-10, evens, Lewisham Road) were built before or after 1861
(certainly before 1867), the properties belonged to John Penn and Sons from
that date.
But belonging to the firm and being part of the Engine
Works are not the same thing and one is hampered in resolving which is the case
by the deficiencies of the reprinted sketch-plan. This is only that - a sketch plan,
more than adequate, no doubt, for its purpose but not exactly to scale,
especially along Lewisham Road. By a
mixture of pacing the street and using a ruler with the 5” O.S. map, I estimate
the total length of that stretch of Lewisham Road to be approximately 63 yds or
189 ft and the frontage of No.10 to be about 32 ft or a shade less (about 1/6th
of the whole). However, as Mr Arthur
states, No.10 is not quite on the corner.
I estimate the waste ground between it and John Penn Street to be rather
less than he does - perhaps 17 ft. If
this and No.10 are taken together, they occupy a little over a quarter
of the street front which corresponds well enough with the sketch plan.
Certainly the added dotted ‘site of No 10’
there has been displaced too far northward, it is shown near enough in the
middle of the block whereas the real No. 10 is near the corner with John Penn
Street, if not actually on it.
There are further complications. What I have called the waste ground at the
side of No.10 (part of the Wickes loading area) is screened from Lewisham Road
by a modern wall set back somewhat and with an angle in it. This alignment has remained unchanged for at
least 165 years. What is less clear is
whether there was ever a building on this constricted site (because John Penn
Street forms an obtuse angle with Lewisham Road, such a building would be
wedge-shaped with its narrow front facing the latter). Even the largest Ordnance Survey maps are not
entirely clear on this point and I had hoped to clarify the matter by reference
to Goad’s Insurance Plans (c.1893) for the area at a splendid 1:480 scale and
indicating the number of storeys of buildings and their roofing material. Sadly though several local industries are included (the Norfolk Brewery, Holland’s
Distillery, Robinson’s and Mumford’s Mills, Trenchard’s Saw mills, Corder &
Haycraft’s Maltings, the London Tramway Co’s Granary and Fodder Mill, and
Merryweather’s, in Deptford Bridge and Greenwich (High) Road), Penn’s Engine
Works and anything in Blackheath Road are conspicuously absent.
Whether or not there was a building to the south of
No.10 and, on the balance of probability, I think there was, it is reasonably clear that there was
a footpath, with an entrance where the angle of the present wall is, which went
down the side of No.10 (or between it and the adjacent building), behind it and
then under an arch in a range of buildings at right angle to John Penn Street
(fairly obviously the building marked ‘O O O O’ on the sketch plan). The description of Robert Smiles quoted by Mr
Arthur - ‘… from [this entrance] the natural contour of the ground dips by a rather
steep incline. Passing through the outer
door and down it a few steps a hall is reached, with on each side a range of
well lit offices …’ sounds more like a footpath than a corridor.
That leaves the question was No.10 Lewisham Road part
of the offices for the Engine Works?
Houses in both Blackheath Road and Lewisham Road owned by Penn but not
part of the Works are not outlined but simply indicated as ‘shops and houses’. The inference is that any building that is
outlined is part of the Works. I
interpret what is shown in the angle of John Penn Street and Lewisham Road, not
as a corridor in the middle of one building, but a footpath between two, both
outlined on the plan and therefore, by inference, both part of the Works and
the right-hand one of which is No.10.
The evidence is circumstantial and not completely conclusive (the two
buildings were in reality more asymmetrical than shown and the path more
crooked) but, unlike Mr Arthur, I think No.10 is a surviving part of the
Penn Engine Works, though not, perhaps, part of its industrial heritage.
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