Hawes in the Old Kent Road and the oil gas works

 

If you go down the Old Kent Road and look behind the shops on the

corner of Trafalgar Avenue you will find a big old house. There,

in 1860, an old man died tended by his daughter, a Mrs. Donkin.

Despite his 90 years the old man had been until the previous week

the active Managing Director of the oldest gas company in the

world, the Gas Light & Coke.

 

Although this old man is not in the Dictionary of National

Biography you will find his father and son there. His father was

a doctor, who founded the Royal Humane Society, and his son was

a politician. His name was Benjamin Hawes and he had founded what

became the largest soap works in London. It was at Old Barge

House, on the river bank slightly to the west of Blackfriars

Bridge.

 

That he was Governor of the Gas Light & Coke Company demonstrates

a remarkable change of allegiances becuase in the 1820s Hawes'

soap works had been the site of a gas works fuelled by oil.   Oil

gas is a whole subject, and one which I intend to describe in

more detail in a future article. It is enough here to say that

there had been considerable commercial rivalry between coal and

oil gas manufacturers.

 

For a soap manufacturer to make gas from oil made a lot of sense

because oils which were not used to make soap, for a number of

reasons, could be used for gas. Sadly, most of the oil came from

whales, but palm and cocoanut oil was also used.  About 100 cubic

foot of gas was made from one gallon of oil.

 

The gas making apparatus had been supplied to Hawes by Taylor and

Martineau (of whom more in a future article).  The plant, about

ten feet from the main works, was run by one man 'chosen for his

regularity and sobriety'. There was a 'gasometer' in the yard.

The gas was not purified in any way, or even washed. Smell did

not matter; soap making was after all 'not the most savoury

operation'. 

 

The gas was made for lighting the soap works, in particular the

cellar which was lit day and night. Gas was  also supplied, at

45s. per 1,000 cubit feet, to neighbourhood shops and pubs via

a two inch main. In Old Barge House itself gas was burnt in the

bed rooms, dressing rooms, nursery, hall and stairs.

 

The soap works was run by another brother, William. It is

described in Dodds' Days at the Factories.  The Hawes were an influential family. The names of Benjamin and William permeate

industrial enterprises of the last century: breweries, dock

companies, railways. Many of projects which they supported were

those of I.K. Brunel who was a frequent visitor to Old Barge

House both before and after his sister's marriage to Benjamin

Jnr.

 

It is not clear when the oil gas works closed and Benjamin Snr.

became a leading light in the coal gas world. The family

influence in gas was to continue through the engineering company

into which Caroline Hawes had married: the Bryan Donkin Company

Ltd. were to be leaders in the supply of gas distribution

equipment.