The very wonderful Subterranea is out for September and is jam packed with articles of all sorts of interest (not just bunkers, that is!) including news of Dollis Hill and Fort Halstead - and articles describe visits and tunnels in many parts of Europe, and indeed China. Nearer home is a fascinating article on the Mayor of Ramsgate's work on wartime tunnels now being renovated.
Among the news items are two of Greenwich interest
- the air raid shelter at Waverley Road, Plumstead - they note that the journal British Archaeology has featured this as one of six important threatened sites. They note that the shelter is built in an unusual way with benches, ventilation, electrical fittings and a urinal. (they quote from Brit. Arch. May/June 2011)
- Woolwich Crossrail Station - there is a short article about the proposed station and its funding, and in a different article note the timescale and methods for the tunnel to it.
Subterranea is the journal of Subterranea Britannica and impressively edited by Nick Catford (editor@subbrit.org.uk) http://www.subbrit.org.uk/
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Sunday, 4 September 2011
A quick historical look at the Greenwich Peninsula
Docklands History Group Talk 3 August 2011
(the following is a set of notes taken by a member of the Docklands History Group during Mary's talk. It reflects their perception of what she said.)
Greenwich Peninsula by Mary Mills
The subject was so immense Mary said that she had decided to talk about the industrial area, the gas works, now the dome site, and recent changes.
In the 1690s the government had a site which it used as a facility for gun powder testing before the gun powder was exported, using a specially built jetty. Later Enderby’s Wharf, ‘the home of communications’, developed on that site although Enderbys, who had a rope making factory there, left in the 1840s. In the 1840/1860s underwater cables were developed there. The fourth underwater cable to be laid across the Atlantic, and which then worked, was made there. In fact about 97 per cent of underwater cables laid round the world before 1927 were made as well as special alloys and later optical fibres. The site was subsequently used by a series of telecommunications companies – and continues there under Alcatel. She regretted that the historic significance of the site was not better known.
Enderby House, built in the 1840s, was listed but had recently been badly vandalised. There was now to be a cruise liner terminal at the site. The river here was wide enough and deep enough for cruise liners to turn.
Mary then talked of Morden College, a charity, which ran almshouses and had been set up by John Morden of the East India Company and the City of London in 1680. For centuries the College had owned much of West Greenwich and the Peninsula and income from the land funded the charity. It owned the land on either side of Enderby’s Wharf. In the 1840/50s Morden College had parcelled up its riverside land on the Peninsula and encouraged developers to come in to found good quality industries on the sites.
In 1856 there was coal available plus tar and other chemicals from the gas industry and so manufacturing using these developed – a coal based manufacturing economy.
One works was Soames soap works later taken over by Unilever (coal tar soap!). The site later became a glucose factory. This was recently sold by Tate and Lyle to a French company who have demolished the works and the riverside silos leaving it currently empty.
Morden College is still the freehold land owner of much of the west bank area, still letting sites for development albeit now for housing.
At Bay Wharf slips were put in by Nathan Thompson and were later Maudsley Son & Field who had a ship building business there in the 1870s. They built the Halloween and Blackadder, fast sister ships to Cutty Sark, and in 1871 they built a Bospherous roll-on roll-off ferry among other vessels. It is known that this ferry was in use as a cargo ship until the 1990s. It is planned that the current operator of the dry dock on Piper's Wharf, which has to move from its present site, will move to Bay Wharf, which has planning permission for a boat building facility.
In the 1920s Lovells’ Wharf was let to a coal merchant Coles Child (it later became Lovells). Tarmac was on an adjacent site, Granite Wharf, originally Mowlems, where the Swanage Great Globe was made.
At Granite Wharf an early medieval tide mill has been discovered. There would have been mill ponds to impound the water needed by the tide mill. This was believed to be a site owned by the Abbey of Ghent and nearby at Ballast Quay was the Court House for old East Greenwich. The present centre of Greenwich grew up later round the Palace.
The Pelton Arms and roads around it, were named after Durham collieries.
On the east bank George Russell developed “New East Greenwich” in 1801. There were cottages and the Pilot Inn and a large tide mill where Richard Trevithick’s boiler exploded changing the history of the steam engine.
Angerstein had a railway from Charlton to the river, which is still use but much cut back. Also on the peninsula was a power station, Frank Hill’s chemical works and Redpath Brown's steel works. All that is left now from the past is a pub and listed cottages. The old East Greenwich power station coaling jetty remains, by a tower block. It is hoped that this jetty will be used by the Massey Shaw and maybe by other historic vessels.
One of the tower blocks has been named Bessemer Place to recall one of the former industries of the area.
There used to be a huge lino factory, which became Nairns of Kirkcaldy, which manufactured patterned lino to Victorian designs by an automatic process.
One interesting new development is the new Greenwich Yacht Club, which has been rebuilt on a wharf as a platform over the river.
The Millennium Village is still only half built. It has an ecology park, health centre, and shops. During the Olympics a Dutch man is proposing to use the open ground for a campsite.
The gas works was built by George Livesey, quite late but was extensive – and it aspired to the highest standards of quality. It had two gas holders one of which is still in use and one of the largest ever built. The works closed gradually after 1980.
The Peninsula has been re-developed by Greenwich Council rather than by a development corporation. Greenwich Council was party to the Joint Dockland Committee, but the land at Greenwich was left out of the development sites which passed to the London Docklands Development Corporation for urban regeneration. In the mid 1990s the site of the Millennium Dome, built on the gas works site and Ordnance Wharf, was a catalyst for development of the Peninsula. Now the only memory of the gas works, apart from gas holder No. 1, is the war memorial. On the jetty adjacent to where the gas works stood, there is a sculpture, “Quantum Cloud”, by Anthony Gormley. It is planned that there will be a walkway over the Dome by the time of the Olympics. The Architect who designed the Dome was Mike Davies from the Richard Rogers Partnership.
The Beckham Football Academy has become the Greenwich Football Academy and the new Ravensbourne College describes itself as an ‘arts factory’ teaching with an emphasis on digitisation. Their server is used by BT for its training.
There is still a safeguarded route for a new tunnel on the Peninsula to Newham. There is a plan for a cable car across to the Royal Docks and a new Siemens facility.
British Gas had bought up much of the land as other industries failed and this was taken over by the Govenment through their agency English Partnerships. Today the Home and Communities Agency own the remainder of the land and lease it out.
(with thanks to Sally Mashiter)
(the following is a set of notes taken by a member of the Docklands History Group during Mary's talk. It reflects their perception of what she said.)
Greenwich Peninsula by Mary Mills
The subject was so immense Mary said that she had decided to talk about the industrial area, the gas works, now the dome site, and recent changes.
In the 1690s the government had a site which it used as a facility for gun powder testing before the gun powder was exported, using a specially built jetty. Later Enderby’s Wharf, ‘the home of communications’, developed on that site although Enderbys, who had a rope making factory there, left in the 1840s. In the 1840/1860s underwater cables were developed there. The fourth underwater cable to be laid across the Atlantic, and which then worked, was made there. In fact about 97 per cent of underwater cables laid round the world before 1927 were made as well as special alloys and later optical fibres. The site was subsequently used by a series of telecommunications companies – and continues there under Alcatel. She regretted that the historic significance of the site was not better known.
Enderby House, built in the 1840s, was listed but had recently been badly vandalised. There was now to be a cruise liner terminal at the site. The river here was wide enough and deep enough for cruise liners to turn.
Mary then talked of Morden College, a charity, which ran almshouses and had been set up by John Morden of the East India Company and the City of London in 1680. For centuries the College had owned much of West Greenwich and the Peninsula and income from the land funded the charity. It owned the land on either side of Enderby’s Wharf. In the 1840/50s Morden College had parcelled up its riverside land on the Peninsula and encouraged developers to come in to found good quality industries on the sites.
In 1856 there was coal available plus tar and other chemicals from the gas industry and so manufacturing using these developed – a coal based manufacturing economy.
One works was Soames soap works later taken over by Unilever (coal tar soap!). The site later became a glucose factory. This was recently sold by Tate and Lyle to a French company who have demolished the works and the riverside silos leaving it currently empty.
Morden College is still the freehold land owner of much of the west bank area, still letting sites for development albeit now for housing.
At Bay Wharf slips were put in by Nathan Thompson and were later Maudsley Son & Field who had a ship building business there in the 1870s. They built the Halloween and Blackadder, fast sister ships to Cutty Sark, and in 1871 they built a Bospherous roll-on roll-off ferry among other vessels. It is known that this ferry was in use as a cargo ship until the 1990s. It is planned that the current operator of the dry dock on Piper's Wharf, which has to move from its present site, will move to Bay Wharf, which has planning permission for a boat building facility.
In the 1920s Lovells’ Wharf was let to a coal merchant Coles Child (it later became Lovells). Tarmac was on an adjacent site, Granite Wharf, originally Mowlems, where the Swanage Great Globe was made.
At Granite Wharf an early medieval tide mill has been discovered. There would have been mill ponds to impound the water needed by the tide mill. This was believed to be a site owned by the Abbey of Ghent and nearby at Ballast Quay was the Court House for old East Greenwich. The present centre of Greenwich grew up later round the Palace.
The Pelton Arms and roads around it, were named after Durham collieries.
On the east bank George Russell developed “New East Greenwich” in 1801. There were cottages and the Pilot Inn and a large tide mill where Richard Trevithick’s boiler exploded changing the history of the steam engine.
Angerstein had a railway from Charlton to the river, which is still use but much cut back. Also on the peninsula was a power station, Frank Hill’s chemical works and Redpath Brown's steel works. All that is left now from the past is a pub and listed cottages. The old East Greenwich power station coaling jetty remains, by a tower block. It is hoped that this jetty will be used by the Massey Shaw and maybe by other historic vessels.
One of the tower blocks has been named Bessemer Place to recall one of the former industries of the area.
There used to be a huge lino factory, which became Nairns of Kirkcaldy, which manufactured patterned lino to Victorian designs by an automatic process.
One interesting new development is the new Greenwich Yacht Club, which has been rebuilt on a wharf as a platform over the river.
The Millennium Village is still only half built. It has an ecology park, health centre, and shops. During the Olympics a Dutch man is proposing to use the open ground for a campsite.
The gas works was built by George Livesey, quite late but was extensive – and it aspired to the highest standards of quality. It had two gas holders one of which is still in use and one of the largest ever built. The works closed gradually after 1980.
The Peninsula has been re-developed by Greenwich Council rather than by a development corporation. Greenwich Council was party to the Joint Dockland Committee, but the land at Greenwich was left out of the development sites which passed to the London Docklands Development Corporation for urban regeneration. In the mid 1990s the site of the Millennium Dome, built on the gas works site and Ordnance Wharf, was a catalyst for development of the Peninsula. Now the only memory of the gas works, apart from gas holder No. 1, is the war memorial. On the jetty adjacent to where the gas works stood, there is a sculpture, “Quantum Cloud”, by Anthony Gormley. It is planned that there will be a walkway over the Dome by the time of the Olympics. The Architect who designed the Dome was Mike Davies from the Richard Rogers Partnership.
The Beckham Football Academy has become the Greenwich Football Academy and the new Ravensbourne College describes itself as an ‘arts factory’ teaching with an emphasis on digitisation. Their server is used by BT for its training.
There is still a safeguarded route for a new tunnel on the Peninsula to Newham. There is a plan for a cable car across to the Royal Docks and a new Siemens facility.
British Gas had bought up much of the land as other industries failed and this was taken over by the Govenment through their agency English Partnerships. Today the Home and Communities Agency own the remainder of the land and lease it out.
(with thanks to Sally Mashiter)
Friday, 2 September 2011
Fort Matilda - Woolwich workers sent to Scotland
The following pictures are of the Fort Matilda torpedo factory in Greenock- now used by community groups and commercial organisations as a trading estate.
From web sites we learn that a railway tunnel was constructed to Fort Matilda railway station - this was an old coastal gun emplacement. The excavated material from the tunnel was used as landfill on an area which became the playing fields known as Battery Park - and which are still there today.
In 1907 the Admiralty bought some of this land for the Clyde Torpedo Factory. This opened in 1910 and 700 workers were transferred from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. They worked on the design and testing of torpedoes. which tests were undertaken in Loch Long - which is across a stretch of water from the factory. During the Second World War torpedoes were made here.
This transfer of manufacturing capacity of technologies developed in Woolwich from the Arsenal to sites elsewhere in the country was not uncommon - green field sites gave space for expansion. Other London industries also moved. Shipbuilding is a prime example, moving out of London in the later 19th and early 20th century to sites in the north of England and Scotland.
From web sites we learn that a railway tunnel was constructed to Fort Matilda railway station - this was an old coastal gun emplacement. The excavated material from the tunnel was used as landfill on an area which became the playing fields known as Battery Park - and which are still there today.
In 1907 the Admiralty bought some of this land for the Clyde Torpedo Factory. This opened in 1910 and 700 workers were transferred from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. They worked on the design and testing of torpedoes. which tests were undertaken in Loch Long - which is across a stretch of water from the factory. During the Second World War torpedoes were made here.
This transfer of manufacturing capacity of technologies developed in Woolwich from the Arsenal to sites elsewhere in the country was not uncommon - green field sites gave space for expansion. Other London industries also moved. Shipbuilding is a prime example, moving out of London in the later 19th and early 20th century to sites in the north of England and Scotland.More info on any of this is welcome - including anything about any influences that this influx of Woolwich people may have had on this Scottish coastal town.
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Charlton Flexi-Disc Factory
One of the local Charlton based blogs has been speculating about a flexi-disc factory in Charlton. See:
http://charltonchampion.co.uk/2011/08/30/did-charlton-have-a-flexi-disc-factory/
what do any industrial historians out there know?????
- soon to come on this site - pictures of a Greenock, Scotland, torpedo factory - moved there from Woolwich together with its workforce.
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Industrial Railways
A good friend has just sent a copy of Industrial Railways and Locomotives of the County of London (Robin Waywell and Frank Jux Industrial Railway Society 2008)
Where to start?? The book is so crammed with information it is difficult to know.
So - just for starters - here are the industrial sites mentioned in the Borough of Greenwich - where locomotives are known to have been used. More detail about some of them at a later time.
Here we go ......................
British Ropes, Anchor and Hope Lane -
British Steel Corporation, Greenwich Works, Riverway - Redpath Dorman Long
W.R.Cunis Ltd.Plumstead Rubbish Shoot
Royal Dockyard Wharf, Woolwich
Flower and Everett Ltd. Angerstein Wharf - dredging and mud clearance
G.A.Harvey, Greenwich Metal Works, Woolwich Road
Charlton Trancar Repair Works
Greenwich Power Station
Ministry of Public Building and Works, Kidbrooke Depot
Royal Arsenal (a massive system and much the largest in the book)
Siemens Brothers, Woolwich Works
East Greenwich Gas Works
Ordnance Wharf Tar Works
Taylor Woodrow Anglian Ltd. Charlton Station
Thames Metal Co td. Angerstein Wharf
Tunnel Glucose Refineries Ltd.
United Glass Ltd. Charlton Works
Kidbrooke Depot
Plumstead Destructor Works, Borough of Woolwich
Balfour Beatty Co Ltd. Blackwall Tunnel Contract
John Brogden, Jnr. Blackheath Railway Contract
Holloway Brothers. Greenwich contract for South Met. Gas
Kirk and Randall Ltd. Warren Lane Works, Woolwich
London and Greenwich Railway - various contracts
John Mowlem & Co. Well Hall Housing Contract
Pearson, Blackwall Tunnel Contract
Charlton Storm Relief Sewer contract
William Webster Southern Outfall contract
Borough of Woolwich, Eltham Contract - Middle Park
- more to come - suppliers - contractors -and non-loco systems
Where to start?? The book is so crammed with information it is difficult to know.
So - just for starters - here are the industrial sites mentioned in the Borough of Greenwich - where locomotives are known to have been used. More detail about some of them at a later time.
Here we go ......................
British Ropes, Anchor and Hope Lane -
British Steel Corporation, Greenwich Works, Riverway - Redpath Dorman Long
W.R.Cunis Ltd.Plumstead Rubbish Shoot
Royal Dockyard Wharf, Woolwich
Flower and Everett Ltd. Angerstein Wharf - dredging and mud clearance
G.A.Harvey, Greenwich Metal Works, Woolwich Road
Charlton Trancar Repair Works
Greenwich Power Station
Ministry of Public Building and Works, Kidbrooke Depot
Royal Arsenal (a massive system and much the largest in the book)
Siemens Brothers, Woolwich Works
East Greenwich Gas Works
Ordnance Wharf Tar Works
Taylor Woodrow Anglian Ltd. Charlton Station
Thames Metal Co td. Angerstein Wharf
Tunnel Glucose Refineries Ltd.
United Glass Ltd. Charlton Works
Kidbrooke Depot
Plumstead Destructor Works, Borough of Woolwich
Balfour Beatty Co Ltd. Blackwall Tunnel Contract
John Brogden, Jnr. Blackheath Railway Contract
Holloway Brothers. Greenwich contract for South Met. Gas
Kirk and Randall Ltd. Warren Lane Works, Woolwich
London and Greenwich Railway - various contracts
John Mowlem & Co. Well Hall Housing Contract
Pearson, Blackwall Tunnel Contract
Charlton Storm Relief Sewer contract
William Webster Southern Outfall contract
Borough of Woolwich, Eltham Contract - Middle Park
- more to come - suppliers - contractors -and non-loco systems
Tuesday, 12 July 2011
Archaeology in Cutty Sark Gardens
Our special correspondent says:
When we excavated back from the river wall for a new deep surface water drain we got down to the old foreshore level some 5m below the existing surface. There was a lot of ancient timber, probably parts of revetments or jetties, found. Samples have been sent away for dendro analysis. It is largely Oak - probably some reused ships timbers, and probably from the 13th to the 17th centuries. There is also a lot of leather in a well preserved condition, including fine leather with tooling (book covers or similar) and the usual midden junk.
We have a big pile of the timbers, generally in thick and heavy but short pieces, of which the inside is in remarkably good condition and unless we can find anyone who wants them they'll go in the skip - the wood is suitable for bowl turners, carvers or souvenir makers who want wood with a bit of history, or even as a creative garden feature if anyone's interested.
(anyone interested email indhistgreenwich@aol.com
We've also found the Northern edge of the old Billingsgate Street down by the river - the road is intact beneath a granite cobble surface that may date from the widening / resurfacing in the 1850s, and there are many layers down to mediaeval (putting 13th & 14th century finds in context).
One thing that's clear about Billingsgate dock is that it was a draw dock, i.e. a ramp down onto the foreshore, and not truncated in a solid wall at the South end as at present. As such it may be very ancient indeed - the archaologists are hoping our hole needs to be deep enough for them to go back past the mediaeval.
When we excavated back from the river wall for a new deep surface water drain we got down to the old foreshore level some 5m below the existing surface. There was a lot of ancient timber, probably parts of revetments or jetties, found. Samples have been sent away for dendro analysis. It is largely Oak - probably some reused ships timbers, and probably from the 13th to the 17th centuries. There is also a lot of leather in a well preserved condition, including fine leather with tooling (book covers or similar) and the usual midden junk.
We have a big pile of the timbers, generally in thick and heavy but short pieces, of which the inside is in remarkably good condition and unless we can find anyone who wants them they'll go in the skip - the wood is suitable for bowl turners, carvers or souvenir makers who want wood with a bit of history, or even as a creative garden feature if anyone's interested.
(anyone interested email indhistgreenwich@aol.com
We've also found the Northern edge of the old Billingsgate Street down by the river - the road is intact beneath a granite cobble surface that may date from the widening / resurfacing in the 1850s, and there are many layers down to mediaeval (putting 13th & 14th century finds in context).
One thing that's clear about Billingsgate dock is that it was a draw dock, i.e. a ramp down onto the foreshore, and not truncated in a solid wall at the South end as at present. As such it may be very ancient indeed - the archaologists are hoping our hole needs to be deep enough for them to go back past the mediaeval.
Saturday, 9 July 2011
Woolwich born inventor of artificial hips
The Woolwich Antiquarian's June/July newsletter front pages the riveting story of Furlong's Artificial Hips. Furlong were, of course, a well known Woolwich company with a garage and a removal business. Ronald Furlong did not join the family firm but became a doctor. In 1985 he he developed the hydroxy-apatite coated ceramic hip implant - this is the one they gave to the Queen Mother . The newsletter gives a lot of detail about both Dr.Furlong and his hips - taken from a talk given to the Blackheath Scientific Society.
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