Woolwich Dockyard - a brief history

 

Last week I wrote a few notes on some of the earliest booklets about interesting old industrial sites in the Borough of Greenwich.  I mentioned the glossy photographs in ‘London’s Industrial Heritage’ and the sites listed by the young enthusiasts in ‘The Industrial Monuments of Greater London'.  There is one other booklet which I think we need to look at of –and which can provide a guide to a number of my future articles here.

This is a booklet called‘SELIA’ forshort – ‘The Industrial Archaeology of South-east London’.  It was published in 1982 and a long introduction explains that it was brought together by a group of people who had attended anindustrial archaeology course at Goldsmiths College, tutored by Dr. Denis Smith. Many of them are people who will read this article. 

I thoughtI would pick up on some of the Greenwich Borough sites which it lists - and I didn’t know what order it would be best to do them in.  When in doubt, I thought, stick to alphabetical order!  That makes the first three – ‘Albion’, ‘Angerstein’, ‘Apprentices School’.   Now, I have written so much about Angerstein lately - and so I’m not doing it again.  ‘Albion’ and ‘Apprentices’ were both on the Woolwich Dockyard site.

Woolwich Dockyard was in – well – in Woolwich, and it was what was behind the long brick wall which runs along the north side of Woolwich Church Street between Warspite Road and the Ferry.  About half way along there is a big, big chimney jutting out into the road.

In the 1970s a lot of the people who put SELIA together and who were in the Goldsmith’s class did a huge project on Woolwich Dockyard … recording what was left there before new housing was built – and, sadly, I am pretty sure it never got written up.  But, first, I ought to tell you about the Dockyard - because I guess many people reading this will have no idea about it at all. 

So, Woolwich Dockyard.In previous articles I sometimes mention Deptford Royal Dockyard probably without any explanation, because I thought people would know about it and because for years now there has been a lot of news stories about what might/might not get built on the site. But all we hear about Woolwich Dockyard these days is about people who live on the housing estate which was built in the 1970s.

So, as well as the Royal Dockyard in Deptford, there was another Royal Dockyard in Woolwich. We have to start with the ambitions of various kings throughout the medieval period for ships available to them for fighting for with, or whatever. They needed a Navy.  Henry VIII energetic and ambitious wanted ships to defend England and show foreigners how powerful he was. His father had begun by setting up dockyards at Portsmouth and Deptford.

In 1512 Henry VIII commissioned his flagship, Henri Grace a Dieu, to be built in Woolwich – and it was built on what later became Gun Wharf, near, but not on, the site of the future Dockyard. This earliest site had rudimentary dry docks, a storehouse and other buildings. By 1540 a new Dockyard had been built further to the west at what was to become the permanent site and the Crown actually bought this site in 1546. Soon after sizeable ships were built there and heavy repair work was undertaken.  Woolwich Dockyard - is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards in Europe’ in the days of sailing ships.

Throughout the17th century the dockyard expanded and got busier and busier.  The dry docks were rebuilt, there were new slipways, sawpits, forges and a mast house. There were houses for the senior officers of the yard. A clock house was added in 1670 and in 1698 the Great Storehouse.

Inthe 18^th century the site and its workforce doubled in size, and between 1700 and 1710 more ships launched from Woolwich than from any other English yard. Three new slips were built and a new mast pond, mast houses, boatsheds, arigging house as well as a sail loft and a new terrace of officers' houses was built in the 1750s.

The yard was further expanded westwards in the 1780s, again almost doubling in size. Huge spaces of open ground were used for storage of timber, and there were rows of seasoningsheds. Two new mast ponds were built and the old pondwas used forbuildingships’ boats.A new clock house contained offices for the dockyard, and a new main gateway was built to the west.

In 1814 a large smithery was added and in the 1820s two new covered slips.  Part of the river wall was rebuilt in brick and the two dry docks were reconstructed in granite in the 1830s-40s. There was a steam-powered saw mill, a new workshop with steamhammers and a hydraulic chain and cable testing department.

From 1831, Woolwich was a specialist yard for marine steam engineering and more new buildings were added - a boiler shop, foundries for brass, copper and iron work, and an erecting shop.  Two mast ponds became steam basins.  This factory had its own gate. But gradually only older ships came for repairs and maintenance. The dockyard expanded through the 1850s with a new rolling mill, and armour plate departments as well as a new sail loft and rigging store.

However naval ships were fast outgrowing the yard, and there were problems of silt in the River and despite dredging many ships were having problems. It eventually closed in 1869 to great unemployment and distress in Woolwich.

After closure the site remained in military use being used by the stores department based in the Arsenal and over the years much else was added. There were numerous workshops and a rail system which came in from the south-eastern main line - I can remember big wooden doors in the wall alongside the rail line near Woolwich Dockyard station in the 1950s.  There was a tunnel under Woolwich Church Street for the railway to access the site – and that is now a pedestrian underpass.  In addition to these activities a number of offices were established on the site in connection with military and otherofficial’ uses.

The military were to retain use of the site and it eventually closed along with the closure of the Arsenal.  However in 1936 nine acres of the steam factory area were sold to the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society who established a factory for a very wide selection of their activities. Workshops of many sorts were set up to supply the retail shops of this enormous cooperative society. In 1927 RACS  held the largest national co-operative exhibition ever staged housed in four ‘bright and attractive exhibition halls’ which boosted RACS membership by 30,000. The site’s south-west corner and its sheds housed the laundry and works department. There were motor vehicles repair shops and manufactures, and tailors, and boot-repairers. The chimney in Church Street was used by them. It became an important regional distribution centre but by 1984 was no longer used. Some other parts of the site were sold to other industries, as we will see.

In the 1960s it became clear that the site would become vacant and the London Borough of Greenwich began to make plans housing on the site. This was done in the early 1970s after  considerable criticism about the treatment of the historic nature of the site.  Some features remain but it is very difficult to walk round and to try and imagine what was once there.  The ‘Clockhouse’ remains as a community centre, the gatehouse has intermittently been a pub and there are some cannon on the riverside walk.  Signage is  at about the same level as some other local sites. As with so many local sites it’s more than likely that many residents have no idea of the famous past of where they live

And so at last I can tell youi about sites which are listed in SELIA.  Taken at random and put in alphabetical order we start with one which I am calling ‘Albion Wharf’.  Now there’s no mention of Albion wharf in the entry in SELIA and I’m not going to tell you why it’s called ‘Albion’ until next week -  so you had just better wait, with anticipation.