I am aware that
as I work round the Peninsula riverside I am missing many firms that I know a
bit about but not enough to do a whole article on. I thought this week I could catch up with
some of them – short but interesting. And all of them on Point Wharf.
First off - The North Pole Ice Co. ‘North Pole’ is a common name for ice companies
for obvious reasons – a glance at the net will reveal several still in
business. Ice was stored in specially
dug 'ice houses' at big posh homes to keep for cold summer drinks and so on –
and there are several in our area. There is a really good one at High Elms
outside Farnborough. There were also companies
who stored ice, often importing it from the Arctic, and then sold it to hotels
and caterers. I would recommend anyone
interested in this to visit the London Canal Museum at Kings Cross which is in
what were the premises of Gatti, ice merchants. They have good displays on the
subject and lots of information. https://www.canalmuseum.org.uk/
North Pole came
to Greenwich in the late 19th century as a rival to Gatti with whom
they were soon in litigation. They seem to have been a Danish company and opened a head quarters
building in London at Broad Street and depot at Waterloo. The London Canal
Museum web site has a very good description of work at the Waterloo Junction
depot.
They had a new
product – artificial ice - which didn’t come from the Arctic but was made daily
in special machinery. They made 200 tons a day and it was then delivered to the
depot at Waterloo. So what did the posh
chefs think of 'artificial ice'? M.
Elroy, chef, said that ‘when he was employed by the De Keyser’s Hotel .... with the ice supplied by the North Pole Ice
Company he required a great deal more of it and he only used it for cutting
into figures .. so he complained to the manager.’ So much for artificial ice
then
.
Then - Greig
& Co. Seed Crushing mill. I must
admit to a lot of ignorance and some confusion over this site, despite
considerable help from a family member and researcher, who I would like to
thank. Greigs were on site a long time yet little seems to be known about them or
what they did in their factory on Point Wharf.
They were on
site from at least 1867 where they were said to have a ‘four box - press mill’ and that this was ‘leased by Stewart
Brothers and Spencer in 1885. Stewart Brothers had a seed crushing works
and were one of the founding companies in the London & Rochester Barge
Company. It is also said that from 1880 the company running the Greenwich works
was the London Seed
Crushing Co. My guess is that they were
really all the same people. Greigs themselves seem to have been estate owners
in Trinidad. Around 1900 one of the family is described as 'West
India Merchant (Oil Miller)
So
what were the seeds and why did they crush them? Whatever they were they were crushed to get oil
and I had therefore assumed that what was crushed was linseed or rapeseed. But then, why the Trinidad connection? The West Indies is not normally known as a
source of flax or rape. The connection
might be with sugar – but sugar comes as cane or beet, neither of which can be
described as ‘seeds’. The solution might
be that what was crushed were coconuts. Although I would hardly describe them
as ‘seeds’ either but that is what I supposed they are technically! In 1895 there was a fire in the ‘coconut store’
at Greenwich which rather confirms that suspicion.
The Greig name
seems to have used for the until the 1930s when it was associated with the Poyle
Mill Co. But in fact the Greenwich site had been taken over in 1900 - by asbestos.
So - Bell’s
Asbestos. The final one of these three factories at Point Wharf is the one I
have been trying to avoid mentioning for years.
Dishonestly, I deliberately didn’t mention it in either 'Greenwich
Marsh' in 1998 or 'Innovations' some years later. I thought given the hoo haa on pollution in
2000 that mentioning it might be a step too far and just add to all the bad
thing being said in the press about Greenwich and the Dome. Perhaps it could be raised later.
Bells Asbestos dated from 1859 as John Bell and Son
who made asbestos products for use in steam engines and electric machines. They appear to have begun in Southwark Street
in the Borough where their imposing 1890s headquarters building still stands,
incredibly not listed. It was designed
by T. M. Lockwood. Over the main door is a cement plaque with a bell-buoy motif
along with cherubs and shells and much else.
The company relied on sources of crysotile asbestos from Canada which was processed into a range of
artefacts in Southwark.
The Greenwich factory was set up in the old Greig oil mill
and I have no record or any real ides what went on there except that presumably
they continued to make the same items.
They
became a limited company in 1888 and 1905 there were additions to buildings and plant at the Greenwich factory –
after which the company anticipated a larger manufacturing capacity ‘adding to the
prosperity of the business’. Meanwhile the company cricket team was winning matches
against other locals - West
rent Wanderers, Woolwich Polytechnic, Deptford Brotherhood and Deptford Liberal
Club
In 1910 amalgamated with the
United Asbestos based and in 1927 the company was sold to Turner & Newell
who moved to Erith. The Greenwich factory seems to have closed in 1925 and it moved
to United’s Harefield works. This area is well worth a visit and some remains
of the works are there if you know where to look. What you will see is a leafy canal side
village rather than ‘The Way to Dusty Death’ – which is the title of a book about
the company.
All three of these factories were
important long lasting works but we know very little about them. There were of course others in this area
which was equally obscure – for instance I might mention Flower and Everett who
had a mud shoot on the Isle of Dogs and a depot here in Greenwich.
As we walk along the Peninsula
riverside we come to the Ordnance Draw Dock which is in effect the dividing
line between the area of old industrial Greenwich and the Dome estate – and
Knight Dragon. The draw dock was built
by the gas works by order of the House of Lords as compensation to watermen who
had lost access to much of the peninsula riverside – late 19th century planning
gain. It is now difficult to access from
the road with forbidding notices
everywhere and an air of being private –it is , of course, a public right of
way provided for watermen who need to bring stuff ashore. I now can’t find a Kent based river interest
website where enthusiasts were looking at river access points. They had found this
draw dock and were clearly shocked. They asked how potential users could get access
and use it for the purpose it was intended for. They couldn’t understand why there
wasn’t a major campaign in Greenwich to open it up and make clear its use for
the public.
Alongside the draw dock it is one
of the foot entrances to the Blackwall Tunnel.
Once there were steps where you could
walk down to the tunnel and keep on walking over to Poplar. Now it is a special ventilation shaft for the
tunnel below– and I’ll leave you with a fascinating website – did you think the
Blackwall tunnel could be compared to a flower?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Tjn9sTSUovY
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