If you walk down the Riverside path on the Greenwich Peninsula between the Millennium Village and the Dome, you go past a jetty -in fact it is now called ’The Jetty’ and there’s a new restaurant on it and a gardening project.
If I can advertise myself a bit I ought to say that I’ve just written a little booklet about some of the things which happened on the surrounding site. The jetty was built in the 1940s for a power station - Blackwall Point power station - which once stood here.
However the nasty accident I wanted to talk about was at an earlier establishment on the site, also called Blackwall Point power station. At the start of the 19th century a mill had been built here and later the mill and the rest of the surrounding area were used for a very large chemical works. In 1897 the owner of the chemical works died and the site was put up for sale. Part of it was acquired by the Blackheath and Greenwich District Electric Light Company limited. They had a Parliamentary order which gave them powers to supply electricity in Greenwich and Blackheath.
In fact although they could supply alternating current in Blackheath, Charlton, Kidbrooke, Lewisham and Eltham, they could only supply direct current to Greenwich. They also did a deal with a local tram company to supply electricity to run the trams. To facilitate this they built a number of sub stations around the area – one of these substations still exists in Blackheath Park at the back of Blackheath Concert Halls.
The new power station was built on the Greenwich Riverside and was designed and erected under the supervision of Mr. Reginald P. Wilson, a consultant on electrical engineering construction. The subsoil on which it was built was not good and it appeared that soap works refuse had been dumped there, so the whole of the NEW power station was built on piles made of pinewood. The buildings are described as substantial but the lack of money meant they were not “interesting from an architectural point of view” except that the engine room said to be faced with white glazed bricks.
Coal was unloaded from barges and came from North East England. A jetty – a predecessor to the current jetty - was built of timber and concrete and had rails on which the trucks of coal could be moved about. The electrical and control equipment was supplied by local firm Johnson and Phillips whose factory was in Victoria Way, Charlton. There was also a large and prominent chimney the height of which was considered ‘excessive’ by a local commentator.
The company's electrical engineer was John Archibald Constable, described at his death in 1933 as a pioneer of the electrical engineering industry. In 1906 he was living at 8 The Circus in Greenwich.
The company also built a number of sub stations round the area in order to facilitate supply. One of these was at the rear of Blackheath concert halls – where it papers to still stand. It is at the Lea Road end of Blackheath Park on the south side of the road within the curtilage of the concert hall. It is marked on historic maps as ‘electricity substation’ and appears from the early 20th century. I have to thank Neil Rhind however for identifying the building and for passing this information on to me. I am not sure if Neil thinks that the whole building is original – and perhaps this article will encourage him to tell us more. I am not sure when it stopped being used, and what its current function is. I guess it is some sort of store. Again it would be nice if someone told us. It is however an impressive building, larger than most such sub stations and with a decorative grill over the door.
Now what about the others? I think I am going to encourage readers to write in and tell us if they know or remember anything about them. Electrical substations are a neglected part of industrial archaeology and indeed the built environment generally. They are ubiquitous, on many streets, yet we hardly notice them. Has someone somewhere studied, them noted their typology. Written learned articles? If not we can at least try to identify those built for the Blackwall Point power station around 1900.
There were two, the location of which I have been unable to trace. One in Westcombe Hill and one in Crooms Hill. If they were anything like the one in Blackheath Park they were much bigger than is normal in a substation of a more or less two storey height. The one in Crooms Hill is said to have been even larger because it was hoped that it could also supply South East Metropolitan Tramway with power. On old maps there are several substations necessary marked on earlier maps, it doesn't mean they weren’t there. They also not necessarily on the road itself- I am very aware of a current substation at the back of houses in Westcombe Hill more of less fronting onto Invicta Road – but it could have been described as 'Westcombe Hill' and replaced something earlier and larger. So – let's see who knows what, and can we trace
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