BEFORE 1800-- you could see the world from Greenwich Marsh Before 1800 most of Greenwich Marsh was let to commercial in terests by corporate land owners. It had a management board their earliest preserved minute books are from the 1630s- who employed a bailiff and staff. Over on the west bank was a Government owned gunpowder depot, otherwise there were a few huts and barns. and that was it.
However lonely and isolated we might think the area was then-it was very directly in touch with the rest ofthe world in a way fewother places could be. It is surrounded on three sides by the Thames where a constant procession of ships, and barges made their way up to London, and down river, going about every possible sort of business.
Right opposite is Blackwall- where numerous great voyages began and ended- and where the Pilgrim Fathers left to kick start America. Across the river was the Blackwall depot of the East India Company- and anyone standing near the future site of the coaling jetty in 1800 would have seen great East Indiamen-ships at anchor and in the tideway. We need a leap of imagination to understand what they were like- these vast hi tech vessels had gone out to plunder the world, and founded an empire. To the people in the lands to which they had travelled they must have seemed like something from another world and they brought back the riches of the world back to the Thames.
All around were shipyards where great warships were built-along with commercial vessels of all sorts, large and small. To the observer from the site of the coaling jetty-Bugsby's Hole- all of it was an every day sight. there is a Monument to the Pilgrim Fathers at Black wall in the 1970s. The mermaid was later stolen=but it is understood has since been locted.
A QUICK WORD ABOUT MR. BUGSBY, WHOEVER HE WAS
The area around the coaling jetty has traditionally been as sociated with 'Bugsby'. the name Or rather it has been known as that since the early 18th century- before that it had been 'Cockpull Reach' or 'Podds Elms'. 'Bugsby' was originally a name used for part ofthe river- 'Bugsby's Hole' was an anchorage off the area where the coaling jetty now stands, and was famous world wide- somewhere travellers on London river could note as a stage on the way to the City.
There are other 'Bugsby's Holes' around the world- one as far away as Tris tan da Cunha, and one as near as Sheerness. There have been suggestions that 'Bugsby'· means 'bugs', or even scary 'bugaboos'- but if Bugsby was a person- then who was Bugsby?? There have been lots of stories that he was a pirate, or a robber who hid out in a den among the reeds. None of this can be verified in what is a very substantial body of contemporary records. There have been suggestions that the name is that ofone of the pirates who were sometimes gibbeted in the area. It is sometimes said that pirates were executed here, but in fact it was their dead bodies which were brought here from Wapping and hung here in chains as a nasty warning to anyone thinking about doing the same. There is no indication that any of them were called Bugsby. So- Mr. (or even Mrs)Bugsby remains a mystery- perhaps someone will turn up the truth one day.
NEW EAST GREENWICH
Development of the Peninsula began around 1800. The Pilot Inn today stands slightly inland, but until 2000 it was on a road- Marsh Lane, later Riverway- which led from Blackwall Lane to the river. On the pub is a plaque which makes this quite clear 'NewEast Greenwich 1801'. The developer in question was George Russell, a wealthy soap maker. His workforce had already been making bricks here for a fewyears in the late 1790s. We know all about their rows with the Marsh Bailiff "Damn your eyes Mr. Sharp, ifyou come here I willpolish your teeth and stop your eyes with mud, Sir!'
New East Greenwich was a speculative venture which consisted of a large tide mill, the Pilot, Cey--'"IonPlace cottages and tenements, and a big house, East Lodge. Ofthese the Pilot and the Cottages re main. The area was for a while owned by a group of elite politicians, including Prime Minister Pitt and his brother. The name of the 'Pilot' Inn might well , refer to Pitt himself- 'the Pilot who weathered the storm' of popular song and that 'CeylonPlace' refers to his treaty by which Ceylonpassed to Britain in 1802.
The most important thing built in New East Greenwich was the tide mill this was a big industrial installation. It was revolutionary in that it could work on both the incoming and outgoing tides- through the impounding of water in massive ponds in the area now immediately north ofthe Pilot. It had been designed by one, WilliamJohnson, who went on to have- well, an interesting career- which included salt works, and a business based on Devongranite. The mill stood very slightly up river of the coaling jetty- with the intake sluice near the current jetty end. , But- first- something even"moreimportant happened
HOW RICHARD TREVITHICK'S CAREER FALTERED IN EAST GREENWICH-AND THUS CHANGED THE HISTORY OF THE STEAM ENGINE
Richard Trevithick was the 'Cornish Giant' the man who first achieved steam locomotion, and the man who had come to London around 1800 with his revolutionary high pressure steam engine. Most books on the history of the steam engine will tell you what happened- but not where it hap pened. It wasn't really Trevithick's fault but he was up against hot commer cial competition. One of his new engines was working on the tide mill con struction site. The boy who was minding it decided to go offand look for eels and he wedged something under the safety catch ofthe boiler. An explosion was inevitable. Some of the workers were killed, one deaf ened and some in jured. VVhatI have always found fasci nating is that they 'hailed a wherry'- a fast sailing barge and the injured were rushed up to St.Thomas's Hospital which was then at London Bridge.
Trevithick's rival steam engine builders- Boulton and Watt from Birmingham- made very sure that the press ofthe day knew all about the accident, and some time later there was an enquiry. For years his reputation would suffer. It was a bad start for New East Greenwich and the tide mill and this was made even worse by the death of George Russell before construction was complete. To be honest, the tide mill seems to have never done very well and when Frank Hills acquired it in the 1840s he called it 'a heap of materials'.
HOW TO MAKE A LOT OF MONEY
Frank Hills bought the tide mill and the cottages in the early 1840s. Frank was so busy, busy, busy and so full of schemes that it is going to be difficult to get him down to one page! Frank was an industrial chemist in a family of brothers, and nephews and all sorts of others who had between them works all over the place- Anglesey, Birmingham, Spain.... etc, etc.
Thomas Hills, Frank's father, had had a chemical works at Bromley by Bow where he had allegedly invented a process to make sulphuric acid. Frank moved to a chemical works on Deptford Creek and flirted with the manufacture of steam driven road vehicles- and had patented some ele ments ofthese. Hentry Hills chemical works at Amluicb, Angelsey
Frank became closely involved with the gas industry over a cleansing system which would remove objectionable smells for indoor lighting. He did in fact patent a system for this- although who the inventor of it actually was is an entirely different story- and sued any gas company which failed to buy a li cence from him (they also needed to pay him for the materials used in the process and pay him to remove debris which he could of course use to re cover valuable chemicals). The records of numerous gas companies bear evidence of Franks energy and persistence-and his readiness to go to court.
COAL ·
1n east Greenwich by the many road names Pelton Road, for instance, is named for the two Pelton collieries north of Chester le Street in Dur ham. Coal came to London in hundreds of 'Thames collier' vessels- which crowded up the Thames and needed to be regulated and sorted. On Ballast Quay in Greenwich the Harbour Master's house stands as part of such a system.
Coal was probably the most important com modity handled on the Thames. It was coal which both fuelled London industry and provided many raw materials for it. Coal came to the Thames from the Tyne ports and the Durham coal field- testified to in taken from Durham pit villages.
All coal which came into the Port of London had to pay a tax to the City Corporation and a ring ofwhite posts still stands around the perimeter oft he metropolis to mark this. East coast ports, like Bridlington, also ex acted a tax from passing colliers.
The seamen on these vessels have been overlooked in the history of mining and manufacturing industry. They daily braved the dangerous east coast and its atrocious conditions. In early years they were subject to pirates from east coast towns and in the 20th century world wars took a terrible toll. Letus remember Ravensbourne- a brand new vessel of the South Metropolitan Gas Co.torpedoed and destroyed on her maiden voyage leading a convoy which naval commanders had ordered to travel slowly- despite her design to outrun torpedoes. Sailors, saved from the north sea, went back to be torpedoed again, and again.
Part of the system by which coal was handled in the Port of London layjust off Bugsby's Way. This was the hulk, Atlas, around which colliers could lie while their coal was transferred into lighters. This was operated by Cory whose tug depot still lies slightly down river from Bugsby's Hole and whose company housing in Anchor and HopeLane is 'Atlas and Derrick Gardens'.
Coal continued to come to London until the 1980s- but as mines were closed, so London's manufacturing industry died too, and the traffic on London river along with it.
A VERY QUICK WORD ABOUT THE GAS WORKS
Although the great South Metropolitan Gas Works was built considerably north of Bugsby's Hole, it was clearly a major user of coal and by the zo century it had spread to the edge ofMarsh Lane, by then called Riverway.So- a few brief words It might be a surprise to many to learn that East Greenwich Gas Works was arguably the most modern works ever built. In the late 19th century the big gas companies built large super works- this was the last, built for South Metropolitan's charismatic and inventive chair, George Livesey (whose biography I ought to finish!) Livesey's super works was designed to be the very pinnacle the gas industry • > could hope for in terms of production, service and workplace relations.
There is no space here to describe it all. It basically consisted of a huge gas works with a coaling station, a tar works to the west of the main works, and Phoenix Wharf, which they ran as a chemical works.
A later coke works was not really anything to do with the gas company but the Coal Research Station, which stood fairly close to the Pilot, had been originated by the gas company during the First WorldWar for poison gas research.
In Riverway until the 1990s stood one of the relics of the Phoenix Wharf chemical works. This was the amazing modernist sulphate store- which was much used by film and video makers in the 1980s. It was destroyed by British Gas as moves to list it went ahead. I would generally recommend British thrillers of the 1970s for a good viewof all this- particularly episodes of Dempsey and Makepeace.
Gas holder No.1 still stands and is still in use. It was built for Livesey to revolutionary engineering princi ples and meticulous pre-Modernist design. When built it was the larg est holder in the world but was overtaken by its neighbour No.2. which was dismantled in 1986.
NOW FOR SOMETHING A BIT MORE TRADITIONAL
In the 20th along the foreshore by the Millennium Village Norton's barge yard. Barges are the ubiquitous work horses of the river- like lorries today, rough, dirty and bit of a pain. The more glamorous Thames Barges some of which, now preserved, can still be seen on the river, are a late 19th design style worked up by Pipers on the other side of the Peninsula. Most barge builders did n't use fancy architects- they found a bit of foreshore and built something in the way they remembered. There were a number of Norton brothers and I have never been clear which one was doing exactly what on which bit of the foreshore. In 1907 they built Stud here, a 64-ton sailing barge, which traded on the river for nearly seventy years and in 1916 they built Serb, seventy-five tons and a Thames trader. In 1940 Serb was supposed to go to Dunkirk but only got to Ramsgate.
Most of what they did was repairs, and barges without work would lie up here, and undertake whatever was necessary. It became an at tractive jumble of boats and planks and this and that. Norton's did not have a wharf but were based on the foreshore with barge blocks running parallel to the bank. 'There was a wicket gate in the corrugated iron fence with two sheds on the other side. One was for storing tools, nuts, bolts, paint, etc.
The other was Fred's living quarters'. Fred was the watchman who lived on site and had to go under the steel works fence to fetch water. Norton's were still in business in the 1970s- although officially closed in 1966. In the 1990s ;.. I was often shown odd bits of plank and chain on the foreshore- 'they were Dick Norton's' I was told. All this was cleared and tidied up by English Partnerships in the late 1990s.
STEEL
It wasn't really a steel works and it had none of the operatically dramatic crucibles pouring molten metal- although when nationalised it became part of British Steel. Redpath Brown were a Scottish steel erection company who came to London in 1911 to take over a piece of marshland which had been stabilized through the dumping of spoil from the Blackwall Tunnel. In the next 80 years of its existence it was subject to a number of company takeovers and eventually nationalised- but continued to the end to be known as Redpaths. It was the sort of firm where generations ofwhole families worked. The works provided structural steel for many well known buildings through the 20th century- many of them, ofcourse, now gone.
One of their proudest achievements can be seen by any rail traveller leaving Lewisham Station. Here is the bridge which collapsed in 1956, with a train on it, and two trains below and with great loss of life. The new bridge had to be assembled in super fast time and I am told that it is possible to identify the parts brought in from many different makers.
The steel works closed in the 1980s and the site used as po lice riot training ground- some thing which the Metropolitan Police omitted to mention to Greenwich Council. The canteen- itself on the site of East Lodge- was taken over by Greenwich Yacht Club and used by them until their new premises opened in 2000. Two trees remained by it, which had survived from the East Lodge garden. They were destroyed for the new Bellway Homes block.
In December 1999 the last occupants of the last buildings on the Peninsula were removed to make for the Millennium Exhibition. They were part of the trading estate in Riverway and were to be demolished the next day. In the dark late December afternoon a lone industrial archaeologist attempted to photograph what had turned out to be the original 1911 Redpath buildings. I kept going and buying more filmfor him- but almost nothing came out.
ELECTRIC ELECTRICITY The old coalingm jetty was built for the power station which stood on a site at the end ofRiverway(Marsh Lane). It would perhaps be most honest to say that verylittle has been uncovered about the earlyyears ofwhat came to be known as Blackwall Point Generating Station. The supply was started in 1900 and the first station was built by what was then known as the Blackheath and Greenwich District Electric Light Company Limited.
Attempts to research this have not been fruitful and it is understood records held at the archive in Sumner Street were destroyed when the industry was privatised. Anyinfor mation would be welcome. Photographs of either of the power stations are very rare-st was crowded against gas works structures and could only he taken from the river or from the air-and such pictures are invariably someone's copyright and thus not available to be used. e
After the Second World War the original power station was out of date and in 1947 it was demolished and replaced. At closure it was generating only 15,00 KWand the new station was to be of 90,000 KWcapacity. It was com missioned in June, 1951 and covered both sides of Riverway. Co
The power station closed in the 1980s and the site was gradually cleared. Some parts of it remained into the late 1990s- particularly on the south side of Riverway- a good view of them can be seen in Blur's 'Park Life' video. A structure holding the PLAscan ner was almost the last building left before total demolition in 1999. I have in my garden a length of concrete in which is em bedded the word 'ELECTRICITY'. I had picked it up where it was lying in Riverway-but there must be more relics around than this. so-
WHAT IS LEFT
Well,not much! Marsh Lane is gone- and so is the causeway into the river built by GeorgeRussell in 1803. The narrow riverside path- has been moved back away from the foreshore and there is a fence and willow has been planted, for safety and to make it difficult to see what shipping remains. In fact the entire ancient pattern of field, and plot ownership boundaries to gether with the roadways has been entirely destroyed. A block flats stands over the line ofMarsh Lane.
The Pilot and most of the cottages re main at the insistence of Greenwich Council and subsequent listing- the landscape architects of 2000 intended to demolish them whatever anyone said. Nothing old must remain near the Dome!
There are however many good things the Millennium Village is immediately to the south ofthe street, and growing fast. Near are a brand new school and a super health centre. There is the ecology centre near where Norton's boatyard once stood. There is now parkland all around-and one relic is the old war memorial to gas workers killed in two world wars, and standing in an area now known as memorial park. The industries have come and gone- and have now become a byword for a polluted past. The community in Riverway- local workers eventually replaced by the best of Britartists- has been replaced by 1000s of newcomers in the Millennium Village.
Perhaps I should tell you about Kenny. The Greenwich Yacht Club flourished at the end of Rverway but in time a small breakaway group set up a different yacht club on what had been Redpath Brown's jetty. This was- well- 'Heath Robinson' might describe it. Extensions to the jetty consisted of old portacabins on lashed together oil drums- and the general design went on from there. Kenny used to advertise 'riverside drinks and music 'on the Blackwall Tunnel approach and, indeed, you could sit on an old oil drum, very pleasantly, listening to Kenny's radio and watching the ducks.
As 2000 approached it was quite clear that English Partnerships did not want Kenny and his jetty anywhere near the Dome. He did put up a fight and got a lot of publicity- but- where are you now Kenny?? Ifyou read this, let me know. We are in an era of change-but then the area I have been trying to describe has been in constant change for many many years. We can only look for ward to what comes next.
Mary Mills October 2010
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