George Landmann

 A couple of months ago we were explaining to a group of disbelieving council officers from the Culture Section about the importance of the Greenwich Railway and how it was the first powered railway in London and the first commuter railway in the world.  It’s one of Greenwich’s biggest assets in transport terms – but as heritage its an asset too.  It’s a shame so few people seem to know about it.

 Almost the first historical booklet I wrote was about George Landmann, the man who actually built the Greenwich Railway. This was in 1986 when there was a great big festival at Cannon Street station for the 150th anniversary of the Railway’s opening.  A booklet forgotten by everyone but me. I had been interested in Landmann for sometime, had done some research and intend to carry on and write a proper book.  I had no idea then how difficult this would be and that 32 years later it would still remain unfinished.

 Landmann is someone Greenwich should be proud of – he was a local lad as well as the builder of our railway.  I am also very aware that despite his achievements railway historians take no interest in him.  Try looking at a list of railway engineers –he’s not there.

 He was actually born in Woolwich, in 1779, in the old Royal Military Academy building which still stands next to our defunct Heritage Centre. His father was a Professor in the Academy, and, I’m afraid, one of those European immigrants – he had been headhunted by the British government from the EcoleMilitairefor his expertise.  George was educated at the Academy and was then commissioned in the Royal Engineers. Still in his teens he built fortifications in Canada. Back in England his parents had moved to Crooms Hill and he both visited and lived there while they were still alive. 

 

As a Royal Engineer he was sent to Gibraltar and was then involved in the Peninsular War against Napoleon.  To be honest it is research on that which has frightened me off– there are lots of military historians out there who will always know more than me, and I will always get it wrong.

 

His autobiography ends afer the Battle of Vimeroand I am not really sure about his military career in Portugal after that. He was certainly used as a linguist but I think he was really a spy. He was eventually retired and returned to England as Royal Engineer in charge at Gravesend, Durham and then Ireland.  He sold his commission in 1821 when he was to be posted to Ceylon.  His official obituaries and his entry in the Dictiomary of National Biography stops right there –clearly he had become a non-person.

 

I have more than a suspicion that the real problem was that he had left his wife and was living with a lady from Brandon in Suffolk (where her family produced flint for the Royal Ordnance).  He married her when his wife died and, interestingly, his three eldest children seem to have stuck with him rather than their mother.

 

Having left the RE he set up as a civil engineer and became involved in the early gas industry travelling Europe with William Congreve.  I guess most people won’t be aware that the European gas industry was founded and funded by British interests. The Imperial Continental Gas Association was only wound up in the 1980s as part of Calor Gas.  Well, Landmann and Congreve negotiated and built many of the earliest gasworks forContinental cities,

 

The story of the Greenwich Railway is well known.  There is an excellent book ‘London’s First Railway’ published in 1986 by the late Ron Thomas.  Read it!!  There are a lot of things which could be said but in the short amount of space here can I draw attention to the viaduct which stretches between London Bridge and Greenwich – unprecedented in scale. It was built in the early 1830s and for 180 years it has carried trains of a weight, size and frequency which would have been unbelievable when it was built. I have been told by current railway staff that it just never gives any trouble.  Remember it was built by a Royal Engineer, trained in Woolwich.  I also found, in theRoyal Artillery archive, drawings by George Landmann’sfather about arch construction in fortifications. ‘Interesting’, I thought.  The contribution of the Royal Engineers to the early railways has sometimes been noted but mainly in signaling technology, rather than viaduct building.

 

Landmann wanted to extend the railway on to the coast – and as is well known was not allowed to extend it through Greenwich Park.  I am grateful to the Shipwright’s Palace blog for telling me that Payne’s Wharf in Deptford was probably built as part of a railway pier by Landmann.  The railway to the riverside though was was never built.

 

He did build another railway – to the port of Fleetwood in Lancashire as it was being developed by Peter Fleetwood and Decimus Burton. I don’t think Landmann got on very well there– although I would love to find out more about it. I think is that he probably wasn’t a very easy person to work with.

 

He died in Hackney in 1854.  I tried and failed to trace any descendants though there must be many. Did one of his daughters really marry a follybuilder?

 

Landmann is definitely someone Greenwich should know more about and be proud of.  I’ve missed out a lot of important details of his life here.  I don’t suppose |I will ever write that biography now – put off by scary military historians, his family background in the military elite of 18^th century Europe, lack of a publisher and much else. Perhaps someone else could take an interest………….??