Blackwall Point Power Station

 Over the last few weeks I’ve been writing about the East Greenwich tide mill. It’s been a long story and we are coming towards the end of it. On the riverside near The Pilot there is now a project called The Jetty. This is on a jetty going into the river and this was where coal was unloaded for use in Blackpool Point Power Station – and this is the next stage in the story of the tide mill

We’ve seen how the East Greenwich tide mill was built; how it nearly fell down and how it later it became a chemical works owned by Frank Hills. After he died the site was sold in 1897 and part of it was acquired by the Blackheath and Greenwich District Electric Light Co. Ltd. I have already written a bit about this company in Weekender. In September 2019 I wrote an article which told about a terrible accident which happened on the site in 1911, but now thought I should give a bit of general background too.

The power company had a Parliamentary order which allowed them to supply electricity as alternating current in Blackheath. Charlton, Kidbrooke, Lewisham, and Eltham. In Greenwich they could only supply direct current.  They also did a deal with a local tram company supply electricity to run the trams 

The company also built substations around the area - there was one in Westcombe Hill and one in Crooms Hill. The Crooms Hill one was larger so that it could supply current to the South East Metropolitan tram Company.  Probably the only remains of this power station are the third substation which still exists at the back of Blackheath Concert Halls in Blackheath Park. It is a very very substantial building

Of course this power station was built next to one of the biggest gas works in the world highlights and highlights the way that electricity was becoming a big competitor to gas for light and heat in people’s homes.  In order to get custom they offered ‘free lights’ if an electricity supply was connected to peoples’ homes.  However electricity from this power station was more expensive than gas –and the gas companies had had similar deals for many years.

The new power station was built next to the river wall on subsoil which apparently was full of soap works refuse and therefore it was built on piles made of pinewood. The buildings are described as substantial but the lack of money meant they were ‘not interesting from an architectural point of view’-except the engine room which was faced with glazed white bricks. The coal came from the north-east of England to a jetty. This was not the jetty which is there now but one built of timber which had rails on it so that trucks of coal could be moved easily. All of the electrical and control equipment was supplied by Johnson and Phillips.  They had a big factory in Victoria Way in Charlton, which many people will remember.

If anyone wants more detail about the power station there was a very detailed article in The Engineer when opened in 1900.  There is a copy of his article on the Greenwich Industrial History blog site  https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-first-power-station-on-peninsula.html

As I mentioned earlier there was a terrible accident here in 1911 however the station continued to providing electricity so Blackheath and Greenwich and the surrounding area until after the Second World War. It closed in 1947.  It was replaced by a new power station which a great many local people will remember. By the time it opened electricity had been nationalised and it was in public ownership. 

The new power station opened in 1952.   In those days The Pilot was connected to the river by a road called River Way – which was removed by the New Millennium Experience Company for some unknowable reason.   The new power station was on the riverside on the north side of this road but its’ switch house, laboratory, drawing office and office block were across the road on the south side. At the end of the road a new jetty was built - the one which is there now. 

It was the first London power station built to use pulverised coal.  Coal unloaded at the jetty was stored in overhead bunkers and then ground to the fineness of talcum powder.  There were two sets of generating equipment and two men worked each one and there were two men for each associative boiler.

The ’new’ power station eventually closed in 1980 having been at the peak of the amount of electricity generated between 1964 and 1975.

It’s very difficult to find out anything very much about this ‘new’ power station. very little seems to remain of its records and I am rather taken aback to find at the Wikipedia article on the Power station quoted many things that I have either written or published on various websites - and I know nothing about the subject at all really.  What happened as far as I’m aware is that all records of power stations were kept at an archive owned by the Central Electricity Generating Broad at Sumner Street in Southwark. When electricity was privatised this archive was completely junked and destroyed. Apparently there are other power stations like this about which very little is known except in the memories of people who worked there.

The site achieved a brief moment of fame with the video recording of Park Life with Blur and featuring the very wonderful Phil Daniels. There are some quite good shots in the background of the video of the railings which stood alongside the office block on the south side of the road.

Today the modern jetty is all that remains the two power stations and it is are now home to a gardening and community project,  a previous plan had hoped to use it was a depot to repair and moorings various historic ships,

Also- just to say – that any materiel about these power stations – would be gratefully received.