Royal Arsenal Canal

 This week’s entry in the Industrial Archaeology of South-East London, taken in alphabetical order, takes us back to sites in the Arsenal - ‘canal’.  And what does SELIA have to say about the Arsenal Canal, “built between 1812 and 1816 to the design of Lt Col Pilkington, the Arsenal chief engineer? “This half mile long canal was originally intended for transporting timber to the carriage department. The canal-had an average depth of 11 ft and a width of 45 ft with one lock (still in situ) from the Thames. After 1851 considerable quantities of gunpowder were moved via the canal.  The upper reaches of canal were filled in between 1926 and 1936 but the remaining section is still ‘in water’ and is to be incorporated into the new development”

Well we will have to see about that – and remembering that SELIA was written in 1982 and that many changes have happened since. The ‘new development” they mention is, of course, Thamesmead.  There has been considerable amount of research since then and I before I get any further I would like to thank Ian Bull whose knowledge of all things Arsenal has been a vast amount of help to me. . So much about the Arsenal is not easy to research since it is not shown on many maps and most records have been destroyed.

However, as relics go, this one isn’t that difficult to see.  At its southern end is a large open area at the back of the shops in Whinchat Way, SE28.  At the northern end it is under the Riverside Path but a vast concrete wall blocks any sign of it as the path crosses over the entrance. There are however gaps in the houses and some amenity spaces on either side of the ex-canal from which it can be spotted.  It is not a pretty sight. As far as I’m aware there is now no water in it, beyond a few puddles, and all you can see is a vast expanse of flattish concrete. 

The canal was designed by Royal Engineer Lt Col Robert Pilkington who had had experience in canal building Cascades in Canada.  It was originally intended as a defensive barrier along the eastern edge of the central Arsenal area. It was built with wooden walls by local by contractors Hugh Mackintosh and William Bough using convict labour from the hulks moored off the site.  It was also to deliver materials into the heart of the Arsenal; for example to bring timber to the Royal Carriage Department and to a sawmill. It was also, as SELIA, says used for the safe transport of gunpowder from the Royal Gunpowder Mills at Waltham Abbey.   

It opened in 1816 and on its banks all sorts of departments came and went and it was eventually lined with warehouses. On the east side was a rocket establishment developing missiles and using hydraulic presses to manufacture Hale’s rockets – which were painted red when they left the factory.  On the west side was the New Army Ordnance stores. In 1856 the Arsenal gasworks was built near the entrance lock although it seems likely their coal was delivered directly from the Thames. Shot and shell was unloaded from the canal at a specialist wharf. At its southern end the canal split into two branches which partly encircled an area known as Frog Island’ where there was a shell filling works, a timber yard and a percussion cap store. Nearby was the cartridge establishment.  It is possible that military vessels were brought to the canal for repair.

There was an entrance lock | to allow boats to lock out into the Thame and was also a flood defence for the whole Arsenal complex. There was a lock keeper’s house but no trace of that remains. Across the top of the lock was a swing bridge which carried a standard gauge rail line belonging to the South Eastern Railway. This bridge was hydraulically operated as early as 1866. Later a narrow gauge railway from one of the Arsenal’s internal systems also used this bridge and it was designed for mixed gauge operation. The lock has survived but is cut off from the Thames by the concrete wall I mentioned above. In 1983 the Greater London Council carried out substantial repairs to the lock gates and the swing bridge.  At that time it was thought that a light railway system coming from Thamesmead and going to Greenwich would use the bridge but this, of course, has never happened.  The lock and the swing bridge are now Grade 2 listed.   

After the Great War two more railway bridges were built across the canal although they only lasted a few years. 

Between 1926 and 1936 the area around Frog Island was closed and infilled and in 1937 New Chemical Laboratories were built here. It is now the site of the Plumstead bus garage and other industrial and retail sites

This section of the Arsenal site – known as Broadwater – was one of the earliest developed by the Greater London Council. They had considerable plans for amenities in the area which would include use of the canal. At the same time as they worked on the lock the GLC concreted the bed of the canal and reinforced the banks with sheet steel piling.  I can remember going down to see it when the Council built slipways so boats could be pulled up at the back of the Whinchat shops.  Then the water was clean and bright and I guess the GLC had great plans for it.  

 But when the Council was abolished most of their ideas were never implemented. The area is now controlled by the Peabody housing group who have taken over the management of Thamesmead generally.

Several years ago on holiday in Scotland we stayed in Greenock alongside the Clyde. We had noticed a group of industrial buildings a bit up the road and thought we would investigate what they were - and found, to our amazement, that they were a part of the Royal Arsenal.  .  It emerges that torpedo manufacture in the Arsenal led to the canal was being used, as a long thin stretch of water, to test torpedoes. 

One of these torpedoes found in the bed of the canal when it was being renovated and it is understood that this is in the Museum of Naval Firepower in Gosport - but I’ve been unable to identify it from entries in their catalogue although they do have two torpedoes made in Woolwich Arsenal.

Surprisingly there is considerable coverage of this testing in the canal in the local press - normally whatever went on in the Arsenal was completely closed off and never mentioned in the local papers. But it seems the torpedo range in the 1870s was very very much covered by them. 

“FATAL TORPEDO EXPLOSION AT WOOLWICH … one of the newly-invented fish torpedoes …. exploded while undergoing a trial in the Arsenal Canal. ……..it was placed in a tube ready to be despatched along the canal for trial, when the air chamber exploded with fearful violence …… part of the torpedo was thrown into the timber held , sixty yards away.  ….. Edward Baker.. died in a few minutes …. William Fishenden is mortally injured. …... Another man who ' was in a boat on a 197 ssing.”1874

So what has this to do with Greenock in Scotland.  Well, in 1907 torpedo testing began to take place in Loch Long - in fact there is still a military establishment there. In 1910 700 workers transferred to Scotland from Woolwich. The Greenock factory carried out design and manufacture of torpedoes which were tested in Loch Long then during the Second World War work switched entirely too manufacturing torpedoes. I have learned since about the major upset both in Greenock and in Woolwich around the number of workers who moved to Scotland as part of this transfer of work. Local Histories of Greenock often include memories of these, often discontented, south Londoners.

Use of the canal probably stopped when the Arsenal ended work with ammunition in the early 1960s.  It was then used to dump chemical effluent, leading to frequent changes in water colour.  Manufacturing at the Arsenal finished completely in 1967 and this part of the site was sold to the Greater London Council.

Following the demise of the GLC it seems nobody very much seemed to know what to do with the old canal.  Its ownership and management defaulted to Peabody, whose plans for it are very unclear. It seems there’s been talk of filling in the whole thing in and reports on this were submitted to Greenwich Council. At the moment the ‘canal’ remains without water and looking very grim.  Peabody say they will do nothing without consulting local residents although I guess local residents would like something done with it. But, as ever, there is no funding 

Thanksean Bull, Peter Brooks, and Murky Depths, Steve Peterson and the Royal Arsenal Hiory Website