Angerstein rail network

 

Industrial railways in Greenwich

 

As a heavily industrialised area Greenwich had its share - perhaps more than a share - of private  railway systems specific to particular factories and other industrial sites.  Some of them were also connected to the main line railway – like the colossal network in the Royal Arsenal.  There was also  a small independent tramway and many factories which had their own internal systems unconnected to the outside world.  There were also railways installed on a temporary basis for contractors on large sites. And of course there is a still extant industrial railway which once had many extensions to factories. 

 

The Angerstein Railway lies between Greenwich and Charlton and was originally a private goods line running to the river from the tunnel under Blackheath.  I wrote an article about it for Weekender which was published in May 2019.  That article talked about the possible closure of the foot crossing which runs from Fairthorn Road to Westcombe Park Station – a subject on which there now appears to be complete silence.  However the railway once had several branch lines running into the Greenwich Peninsula and into Charlton Riverside and I thought it might be an idea to look at some of them.

 

‘Angerstein’ – the name of the railway - originates with the romantic figure of John Julius Angerstein – a Russian financier with mysterious origins – maybe the son of a Russian Empress and a British banker. Immensely rich he built the Mycenae Road house, now used by the Steiner School, in 1774 and used it as his picture gallery. A century later his family owned most of the land between the river and the Dover Road and had enormous local influence. In 1850 his grandson John Angerstein must have seen the potential of this area – with across the river the new Victoria Dock and a railway connecting Blackheath and Charlton. In 1851 he planned a railway to run on his own land from a junction with the North Kent Railway to the riverside. Built on private land there was no need for an Act of Parliament except for a bridge which would be needed to cross the Turnpike Road. It opened in 1852 and was immediately leased to the South Eastern Railway whose successors managed it, bought it and have run it ever since. It runs on an embankment parallel with Tudor Lombard Wall and has remained entirely a goods line. It is currently either being resignalled or work on that is pending.

 

On old maps the line appears with up to fourteen branches fanning out to various works including Angerstein Wharf itself. In the 1980s two massive bridges were built to take the line across newly built Bugsby’s Way. In the 21^st century it handles mainly aggregate arriving at what is now said to be the only railhead left on the river.

 

Angerstein Wharf is just round the corner from the Yacht Club. Maps from the 1870s  show a network of six lines reaching the Riverside along with some buildings. The development of Angerstein Wharf has been described as “a catalyst for the area’s development .... playing an important role in the transportation of many different types of goods including sand, ballast, coal and oil, 150 years of continuous operation”.

 

Originally Angerstein Wharf was used by the railway for general wharfage and transhipment but was later leased to Thames Metal. They operated a scrap yard from which scrap metal was exported to Bilbao having arrived here from Hither Green Sidings via the Dartford Loop. The wharf is still in use by the aggregates industry and 2.5m tonnes of marine aggregates are imported here annually. Specially-designed ships dredge licensed areas of the sea beds for sand and gravel and once at the dock, a series of scoops and conveyor belts extract onshore, where it is graded.  The site was taken over by Day Aggregates in 1993 - originally Day & Sons Ltd they were a coal delivery company set up during the Second World War and now,  based in Brentford, they have depots all over the UK. Also here recently were Aggregates Industries, based at Bardon Hill in Leicestershire and at Bardon quarry. Their products come to Angerstein wharf by rail. Nearby were Murphy Aggregates who have sourced sea-dredged aggregates since the 1950s. Also on site are Cemex who operate an aggregate and cement facility. They originated in Mexico in 1906 and have operated in the UK since the 1940s on many different locations here.  And finally there is Tarmac, said to be of the largest ‘marine aggregate terminals’ in Europe.

 

In addition to the Wharf, at the point at which the railway leaves the public system is the Angerstein Triangle which was the site of  The South Eastern Railway’s signal works . This is the area of an old chalk pit between the mouth of the tunnel from Blackheath and the junction with the line to Charlton.  It closed in the 1980s and the site is now the police car pound.

 

There was once a network of branch lines fanning out to the east –now all gone – but they served some important works. People will remember ‘The Airfix Building’ dominating the skyline with ‘AIRFIX’ in giant letters. This was built as the London County Council, Central Tram Repair Depot in 1911.   It fronted onto Woolwich Road but was accessed from Felltram Way - A.L.Coventry Fell was the Chief Officer of the London County Council Tramways. It was connected to the Angerstein line from 1911. The buildings were later used by Airfix and   then demolished – reportedly for the value of the bricks. The site is now largely car parking as part of a trading estate.  Some rails remained on site together with  a turntable – are they still there?

 

William Christie & Co. Ltd (later Christie & Vesey Ltd). This Scottish firm were timber importers who bought a 16 acre site from the South Eastern Railway in 1912 and remained for the next fifty years. They had four riverside berths and a junction with the Angerstein line slightly north of the tram depot. Their 1920s built wharf could take vessels of 5000 tons and is described as “one of the finest ferro-concrete piers of its type on the Thames”....“equipped on the most up-to-date lines” It handled “over 30,000 tons of sleepers and 30,000 tons of timber, deals and telegraph poles” as well as “coke, sand, slates, tiles, fullers earth” . The site is now in other use but the concrete jetty is still in place with a new jetty now stretching into the river. 

 

G.A.Harvey Greenwich Metal Works,. 1913.  This large works fronted onto the Woolwich Road – the current site of Charlton Fire Station and a large surrounding area. Holmwood Villas led to their entrance. They moved here from Lewisham and made a large range of metal objects including huge fractionating towers and perforated metals of all sorts. They too were connected to the Angerstein Line.

 

United Glass. This was said to be the largest glass works in Europe and was sited in Anchor and Hope Lane from 1919. It had an internal rail system and a connection from the Angerstein line.  Sainsbury’s warehouse is now on site.

 

To the west were two big works.  I wrote the other week about Redpath Brown – Riverside Steel Works. who moved to a site south of what was then Riverway in 1903.  The site is listed as having a link to the Angerstein line and having its own internal sidings. There is however no sign of this rail link on Ordnance maps and the line is shown as going past the steel works into the gas works.

 

And so - East Greenwich Gas Works. Like all large gas works this had a vast complex internal rail system. The works was alo connected to the Angerstein Line but this is not shown on 1890s maps and it seems likely the connection was not made until 1903. The line ran across the marsh on an embankment on the later boundary of the Redpath Brown works. It crossed what was then Marsh Lane, later Riverway, a few yards west of the Pilot Inn, on a bridge on which was a signal cabin.  Today West Parkside runs slightly to the west of this embankment.  The embankment and bridge remained in place long after the gas works had closed and in the 1990s was used by lorries accessing the Millennium Dome building site. It was then demolished.  Anecdotally it seems likely that the gas works made little use of this rail link since all coal was delivered by collier vessels and by products often left by road.  It seems only to have been used for occasional oil and tar carrying rolling stock.

 

To see the Angerstein line close up – from Westcombe Park Station take the  footpath which runs across the 102M tunnel approach motorway on a bridge. . At the far side on an embankment is a tiny isolated level crossing which can have hardly changed since the line opened in the 1850s.  At least eight locomotives use this stretch of line every day – and very occasionally a party of train spotters will arrive on the only passenger trains which have ever used the line.   I understand this path is now very busy – but go up there to experience  a past world.