George Landmann -what he did between Canada and the Greenwich Railway

 

This week I’m coming back to George Landmann, Woolwich born Royal Engineer, who built the early and innovative London and Greenwich Railway.  I had intended to miss out the bits of his life which were not in Greenwich and Woolwich - so there is a big, big gap in my account of his life of over twenty years here. I’m sure that for some of that time he was living in his father’s house at 28 Crooms Hill but it’s very difficult to check up on that. His father died in 1826 and his mother a year later and the house was empty from 1828.

In my last article about George I wrote how as a teenage Lt. In the Royal Engineers he had been sent to Canada.  He came back to England in 1803 and was next posted to Gibraltar and to the war in Spain and Portugal against the French.  All this we can learn about in his four volume autobiography. However this ends halfway through his military service in Spain and so for his life after 1808 we’re left with very, very little information.

As far as his personal life is concerned I can’t resist pointing out that nowhere in his autobiography does he mention his marriage. He had left Canada in late 1802 together with Captain Pilkington – who was later responsible for construction of the Arsenal Canal. I don’t know how long the sea voyage from Canada would take but he says he reported to the Royal Engineers at Portsmouth in May 1803. However family history research shows that he was married in Exeter on 17^th February 1803. 

His bride was 18 year old Harriet Elizabeth Dickinson. She was the daughter of Richard Dickinson an artillery officer who was to die as a General and was, at the time, the longest serving Army officer. He had served in Canada and Woolwich but both he and his daughter have proved very elusive to any further research.   Landmann had two children with her, Louisa and George – and more about them in due course.

Landmann began promoting his ideas for the Greenwich Railway around 1830. So what had he done in the meantime?  He was eventually sent home sick from Spain, and travelled in Portugal, writing a book. He was later appointed to command posts in the Royal Engineers – Gravesend, Durham, Ireland.  He resigned his commission in the mid- 1820s.  Then he went off with William Congreve to promote gas works for the Imperial Continental Gas Association in European cities, returning in 1825. Congreve, of course, had strong Greenwich and Woolwich connections.

In the mid 1820s new companies were constantly being announced – new projects and new ideas. Landmann’s name appears in several as a subscriber, or a director even as ‘consulting engineer’.  One, the Imperial Plate Glass Co., was investigated for fraud – and Landmann seems to have had some sort of central role and chaired meetings where the policies and work being carried out by the company were explained.

I also note that an early notice of the company is signed ‘G Landmann, Jun, Secretary’. I guess this is his son George, by Harriet Dickinson who would have been about 20 and who had been apprenticed as an articled clerk. However in 1827 notices appear that has been appointed as an Ensign in an Artillery Regiment, the 19^th Foot.  In 1832 newspaper notices appear that he had died in Burnley Barracks. There is no indication as to why he should suddenly join the army or why he died at such a young age. There is no explanation.  But George Landmann’s work on the first stages of the Greenwich Railway was in the shadow of his eldest son’s death.

In the early 1820s there were many, many projects – a lot of them were about railways. Railways - in the sense of vehicles running on rails - were not a new concept. A good south London example is the railway which ran from Croydon to the river at Wandsworth and was later extended south to the stone workings of the North Downs. This was the Surrey Iron Railway and the ‘trains’ were horse drawn. The game changer was the Act of 1823 which allowed the use of steam powered locomotives. 1824 was the first year of what became known as ‘railway mania’ and in one month 49 separate companies were formed nationally and several of these were in London. One of them was the Kentish Railway which wanted to connect Woolwich with Ramsgate, but which seems to have been abandoned through its colossal cost.

In Kent only the Canterbury and Whitstable railway line was actually built to be opened in 1830.  Its major promoter was Charles Pearson who had copperas works in Whitstable and Greenwich, and elsewhere.  He actually lived in Greenwich – in Maze Hill.

In late October 1831 several newspapers carried a one line storey. It is in contemplation to apply to parliament for permission to lay down an iron railway from London to Greenwich.”-A month later a more detailed notice had appeared.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, THAT Application is to be made to Parliament ... for Roads or Railways, Tram Road .... Wharfs, landing, Places, Bridges & other works ... for of Coaches, Chaises, Wagons, Carts, properly constructed ... and also for Foot Bridges  .... in the parishes of St. Olave and Saint Saviour, in the borough of Southwark and county of Surrey   ... terminating in or near the town of Greenwich, in the parish of Saint Alphege .... in the county of Kent  ... and intended to pass into or through ... Saint Saviour, St. Olave, and St John, in the borough of Southwark .... St. Mary Magdalene Bermondsey ... St. Mary Rotherhithe ... Hatcham, and Camberwell, in the County of Surrey ...  St. Paul's, Deptford in the county of Kent and Surrey, and St. Nicholas. Deptford, in the county of Kent ... and St. Alphege Greenwich ....  It is further intended to charge Tolls Duties on all Carriages and Passengers using the said Railway. Dated this Seventh day of November, 1831. Hutchinson & Imeson, Solicitors, Crown Court, Threadneedle Street.

 So – there we had it, a declaration of intent if nothing else and I assume it was done on the initiative of George Landmann. 

 On 25^th November 1831 a meeting was held between Landmann and a small group of interested parties – in fact the men who were to guide the railway’s construction and future. They were George Walter – the first person Landmann is known to have contacted; Abel Rous Dottin, in whose offices they met; Robert Johnson; Digby Neave; John Twells and A.G.Hutchinson.  I think it might be useful to know a bit more about some of these individuals and I will do that in a future article.

 At this stage it was thought that anyone would be able to operate their vehicle on this railroad following suitable payment. Pedestrians would be able to walk alongside the track on specially constructed ‘boulevards’.  Both these ideas have left remains still visible today nearly 200 years later. One is the ‘inclined plane’ now renamed as ‘the carriage ramp’ and providing spaces for business in ‘Market Yard’ at Deptford Station. Scraps of wall remain from the ‘boulevard’ provided for pedestrians alongside the north side of the line.  In the 1980s I certainly walked alongside the line between Rotherhithe and Deptford although I very much doubt you can do that now.

 Previous plans for railways into Kent had not entered London itself but had begun at Bricklayers Arms, just off the start of the Old Kent Road in Southwark.  However Landmann’s timing for the Greenwich Railway was immaculate; it would start at London Bridge.

 The new London Bridge had been opened, by William IV and Queen Adelaide, with much firing of canons and ringing of church bells, on 1^st August 1831. There was a water procession with the royal barges and thousands of onlookers and – on the Surrey side - a hot air balloon ascended into the sky. The bridge had been designed by John Rennie – and I am sure Landmann must have known Rennie.  It had been built by the City Corporation aided by the Duke of Wellington – and of course Landmann knew the Duke and had worked closely with him in the Peninsula War.  He probably also knew the two younger Rennie brothers who supervised the construction work and  planning his railway just at that moment was a very very clever move.

A lot has been written about the setting up and early days of the Greenwich Railway.  At the moment there is almost a small industry by developers  and local groups in doing up station areas while providing information boards and commemorative plaques. It has also been the subject of essays and booklets by many many people over the past years particularly since the festival at Cannon Street station to mark its 150th anniversary. 

The first book which I’m aware of about the Greenwich railway is ‘ The First Railway in London: Story of the London and Greenwich Railway from 1832 to 1878’. by A.R. Bennet . This was originally written in 1911 and is a useful description of the railway and its history by someone who was old enough to remember the line when the stretch of arches across the marshlands between Rotherhithe and Deptford were deserted and a playground for local children.

The major work on the Greenwich Railway is, of course, Ron Thomas’s 1986 work ’London’s First Railway. The London and Greenwich  It’s an exceptional London railway history despite now being 40 years old. Ron’s immaculate research covers an  enormous amount of material from many major sources. Goodness knows how long it took him! I would also like the thank Ron - although probably 40 years too late -but before he died he sent me an enormous amount of information about Landmann and his work on the railway, some of which was not used in the book.