We must continue on along the riverside, past Trinity almshouses, and up to the bulk of Greenwich Power Station and its huge jetty. Clearly this is industrial. However we are on the edge of an complex and interesting area, and although there will be a lot more about this once we get to Anchor Iron Wharf, we need to look at some of it in relation to the power station site.
We are on the edge of things here – on the edge of the lands that the Saxon Princess left to St.Peter’s Abbey in Ghent, which means we are also on the edge of the Morden College Estate – the Blackheath based charity which owns so much of this area. . It is also the edge of an early18th century industrial empire –and, of course, the Greenwich Meridian runs through the Power station itself and the line of it is marked on the riverside path in special paving. More of all this next time.
Highbridge, as we have seen, was once the site of some rather nice riverside houses, - as Julian Watson, for years our local history librarian, says ‘rather smart’ - homes of courtiers and the like. The most easterly was owned, in the late middle ages, by John Gunthorpe. I mention him because he was typical of these meritocrats. He was a monk – although monks are supposed to be in monasteries not living in their own rather grand house on the riverside. Among other things Gunthorpe was appointed to a high office of state by Richard III and kept it under Henry VII, post Bosworth. He undertook the sort of roles we would now assign to very, very senior civil servants.
Eventually Gunthorpe’s house was demolished and in its place in 1647 was built another palatial residence. It went through various hands but, as royalty left the palace, so the courtiers too left Greenwich and in 1704 the house was bought and lived in by an industrialist. The story of the Crowley warehouses in Greenwich really belongs in the next section of riverside but Sir Ambrose himself lived was in what was by then called Crowley House. The Crowleys had begun in the Black Country with small scale iron working but Ambrose had risen and risen and by the time he moved to Greenwich he was a wealthy man with a position in the City of London Corporation. In 1707 he was knighted. His son also lived at Crowley house but his widow moved out and it became an office building with space in it to house the site manager. In 1782 the Crowleys handed most of the business over to Isaiah Millington and he too lived at Crowley House. In 1821 Elizabeth Pearson from the Deptford copperas owning family recorded in her diary that she visited the house because 'our good old friend Mrs, Millington died this morning in her 89th year.’ By 1850 the Millingtons too had gone and in 1856 Crowley House was demolished. More about this next time under Anchor Iron Wharf.
After this the site became a depot and stable for horse tram operators. It is said that this was initially the Pimlico, Peckham and Greenwich Street Tramway which had been set up in 1870 and taken over by the London Tramways Company on its second day. Soon after that a legal dispute arose, initiated by the Greenwich local authority, as to whether tramway companies should pay rates to the local authority for its street rails. The result was a ruling that as the sole occupier of the rails they were liable for rates, a decision which is said to have influenced subsequent legislation on rating.
The Greenwich depot is said to have been opened in 4th March 1871 by the Pimlico, Peckham and Greenwich Street Tramways although a newspaper report of 1882 describes it as ‘near completion’ and says that a line has just been laid from Trafalgar Road. It is said to have included a stable which was the largest of all London tramways and held 1,000 horses. It was taken over by the London Tramways Co. in 1873 and by the London County Council on January 1st 1899. The County Council was keen to electrify the tram system and do away with the horses. It is said that they converted the depot to Conduit Electric in 1904.
The County Council had plans to build a large generating station in Camberwell but then decided to close the Greenwich tram depot and use the site for a power station. It was a better site because of its handy river access for coal supplies. They also took over a number of other properties in the area including the Golden Anchor pub which was on the corner of Hoskins Street (only then it was called Bennett Street) which had belonged to the City of London Brewery. Like other riverside pubs it had bay windows facing the river, and it is possible it was in a much older house.
The new power generating station was large enough to supply the entire tram net work and became one of the largest power stations in the country. It was designed in house by the LCC's Architects Department and in 1906 was estimated to cost £900,000. Overall in charge was the chief officer of Tramway, A.L.C.Fell – Felltram Way in Charlton is named after him.
A dispute arose however over the height of the chimneys – and this has popularly been ascribed to the Astronomer Royal up the hill in the Royal Observatory complaining about problems caused to his instrumentation. It appeared that the observatory had not been consulted on the building of this large generating station directly on the Greenwich Meridian. This whole story and the ensuing storm in the press has been described in detail by Graham Dolan in a number of recent talks and presentations and is on the Royal Observatory web site http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1243. It is a fascinating story and rather different from the popular version. Graham has unearthed all sorts of interesting details – like, for instance, that postcards put out showing the power station chimneys were sometimes altered to show structures which had never ever been built. A Committee of Enquiry was appointed and as a result of their recommendations two of the chimneys were built at a reduced height – as can still be seen today.
There have been many modifications and changes to the Power Station over the past 110 years. In the 1920s the original engines were replaced and in 1930 there was more modernisation and the ownership was passed from the London County Council to the London Passenger Transport Board. It was modernised again in the early 1970s and converted from coal to oil and gas. It then became a back-up station to the then London Transport Power Station at Lots Road in Chelsea. In 1998 Lots Road was closed –and has since been more or less demolished. London Underground began to get its power from the National Grid and Greenwich became the emergency backup station. Since then there have been various plans put forward which would use some of the vacant space within the building and use its capacity to generate power – but perhaps in a different sort of way.
It is a good looking building and inside are vast and dramatic spaces – modern equipment takes up much less space than its early 20th century counterparts. It has decorative external features –like the rainwater heads – and a lodge. It is however a ‘security’ space which limits who is able to see it and what can be done there. Its internal spaces and the history of power generation in them have been described by Peter Guillery in great detail and anyone interested should read his article (details below).
In the 1920s a huge coal bunker was built on its western wall – unused and hideous. Recent enquiries about demolishing it have met with resistance from the Trinity Almshouses next door, as apparently it does wonders for the acoustics at their garden music events. There is also a vast and unused coaling jetty through which 1,000 tons of coal a day was one loaded. Various people have suggested uses for it, but it has no external access points, although that, of course, could be remedied.
I know a lot of people don’t like the power station and think it is inappropriate near 'Royal Greenwich'. Which leads to a question as to why they think all the activities in ‘Royal Greenwich’ and/or the Royal Hospital; were either beautiful or sanitary? The power station is a handsome building although it would be better if they removed the oil tanks! It is probably one of the oldest power stations in the world and is still usefully performing its original functions – although it has swapping trams for underground trains. Isn’t it something Greenwich should be proud of - one of the great buildings of Greenwich. (Anyway we understand that it would cost an absolute fortune to replace, much more than the value of the site it sits on). Stop knocking it!!
Peter Guillery. Greenwich Generating Station. London’s Industrial Archaeology No.7
Graham Dolan. Greenwich Power Station. http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1243
There are also various web sites from London Underground, transport enthusiasts,etc and books including The Directory of British Tram Depots
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