the making of town gas has been a constant subject as gas works after gas works has been wound up, anyone who lived in Greenwich in the early 2000s were remember all the problems caused by the huge East Greenwich Gas works and how ‘pollution’ was always the only word that could be used about its past - and the Dome and much else was built on the site. East Greenwich gas works was responsibly run and very modern, so just think what it was like with some of the very early gas works in London.  I have often said that the early London gas industry is a story of incompetence and fraud and obviously respect for the environment was not an issue that were concerned with.

I wanted to write this week about a court case in early 19th century Woolwich. This is about the first gas works in our area which was built in Woolwich in around 1817 and which I wrote about here in 2022. It involved a very early gas works –- in fact the first built in the area which is now the Royal Borough. It originated with a Mr. Livesey and a Mr. Hardy.  Readers might be aware that I have recently written a book about George Livesey, the late 19th century South London gas manager.  This earlier Mr Livesey, who was involved in Woolwich, was his great uncle, Thomas and Mr. Hardy was a coal merchant. Basically they seem to have built the works with a view to selling it for someone else to operate. They weren't actually able to sell it and had to continue to run it themselves for many years.  The works was sited near or on Roffs Wharf which was adjacent to Bell’s Watergate on the Woolwich riverside.

I need to put Thomas Livesey and the early gas industry into a bit of context to understand what was happening in Woolwich.  The first commercial gas works in the world was built in Westminster near what is now Horseferry Road and was operational by 1812.  Its first years were very difficult and it was not until Samuel Clegg from Manchester was appointed as Engineer that it was run with any sign of competence. At the same time a group of activists had managed to get Thomas Livesey elected to the Court of Governors and he became Deputy Governor - a role which he was to continue for many years.  He dealt with all the administrative problems which were necessary to make the gas works viable.

One of the problems encountered by the very first gas works was what to do with various wastes produced by the manufacturing process and this was something which would haunt the gas industry for many, many years. Worst was the waste from various methods of cleaning the gas up and make it smell less offensive.  There were negotiations with various water companies all of whom refused to allow this effluent to pass into their systems and so it was for a while stored in tanks on site and moved at the rate of 55 loads of week by contractors. There was also the opportunity to buy land on the site where the Tate gallery now stands and use it to store wastes in ditches and tanks.   Neither option was long term and clearly couldn't continue. Neighbouring companies and residents sued the company using the Common Law and so the gas company was paying out huge sums of compensation.

 Eventually the company applied to the Committee for the Navigation of the River Thames who said the effluent could be discharged into a special pipe which led to the River.

So what was going on in Woolwich? The new Woolwich works was very close to the River and it therefore seems obvious that all these nasty substances that they didn't know what to do with – just went into the River.  In 1818 a press report said ”Here is also another evil: the Gas Works, the days their drains empty themselves into the River,  and cover a great part of it in putrid scum, which may be seen swimming on the surface for miles.”  .... and in 1821 ‘An Important question, now that Gas works are becoming general throughout the kingdom, occupies the attention of the Magistrates of London-  namely, what extent does the flow of matter from such Works into any River, reduce the vital properties of its water?”

In 1821 Thames Fishermen asserted, that the London gas works, had already “destroyed much fish”. In that year there was also a pollution case involving the City of London Gas Company. They were effectively the second ever public gas works with a site at the City end of what would be Blackfriars Bridge.  The Lord Mayor’s office fined a Fisherman for using an illegal net - that is one which had a mesh which was not an allowed size. He was based on Dorset Wharf by the gas works and his defence was that he was removing dead fish from the River - not catching live ones to eat. The representative of the City of London Gas Company said that he had never seen a dead fish on Dorset Wharf and what he had to contend with was live eels which got in the works’ pumps also, he said, the mud around the area was full of live red worms. 

Cases like this and others continued in the City and in Westminster with the Gas Light and Coke Co. So there is reason to believe that these sorts of problems were common with all gas companies.

In 1822 an indictment was brought by the Corporation of the City of London against the defendants. The Proprietors of the Woolwich Gas Works, for ‘turning the refuse of the Gas into the Thames to the great annoyance of that neighbourhood, and to the destruction of the Fish in the River. Many Fishermen proved the nuisance of the injury sustained.’

This case of the King v. Livesey and Hardy was an indictment at the instance of the Lord Mayor of London, as Conservator of the River Thames ‘against the proprietors and assistants at the Woolwich Gas Works, for committing a nuisance, by causing tar, ammonia, &e. the residuum of the gas, to flow from their tanks into tile Thanes, by which a great number of fish were destroyed’.

The counsel for the Crown failed to prove that the defendant, Thomas Livesey, was the occupier or proprietor of the gas works, and it was therefore ruled by the Judge that he must be acquitted. He was then sworn as a witness, and said that he was the sole proprietor of the Woolwich Works, and that two of the defendants were his servants. He described the plan of the gas works, and that the nuisances complained of had only been committed in one or two instances, and that through unavoidable circumstances. This was corroborated by other witnesses.

A number of fishermen were called, who proved that they had ‘wells’ in the barge tier ‘in the river at Woolwich, not far from the bank of the river, where the gas works are. erected, in which they preserved fish, and that in consequence of the oily and noxious matter running from the gas works into the water, as many 100 fish had been destroyed in their vessels in o1ne-night’.

Mr. Nelson, the Deputy Water Bailiff of the River Thames, said, that in May 1823, the fishermen complained to him, and he saw the offensive matter swimming on the river, which flowed from the defendants’ pipe.

For the Defence, witnesses were called, who proved that in two instances the defendants' tar tank had overflowed by mere accident, and that there was now no communication between the gas works and the drain leading to the Thames.

 

In the years that followed Parliaments and various regulatory bodies tried to find ways of imposing some forms of pollution control on the gas industry. In this case the City of London with its role as Thames Conservators was involved and as ever the City was able to take action which other authorities were sometimes not able to afford or had the powers to do anything

To describe all the measures taken would take up too much space in this relatively brief article. I am aware of an article written by Canadian academic , Leslie Tormory,  ’The Environmental History of the Early British Gas Industry, 1812–1830’, which describes the problem and attempted solutions in detail. Can I add that from my own point of view I am very amazed to see that he has footnoted my PhD on the use of gas industry waste products. I'm totally amazed because nobody else has ever taken the smallest bit of interest in it. Anyway I would very much recommend his work on the problem of pollution by the early gas industry.

To return to Thomas Livesey and the 1820s.  It appears that by having interest in another gas company he had violated his elected position in the Gas Light and Coke Co. In order to sort this out in 1827 he published public notices:

LORDS, LADIES, AND GENTLEMEN, At The Half Yearly Meeting of the GAS LIGHT and COKE COMPANY, held on Friday, the 4th of May last, of Proprietors were of opinion, that, in consequence of an interest in the Gas Works at Woolwich, I was legally disqualified until re-elected, from acting as Deputy Governor of the Company, and, yielding to such opinion, I have, for the present, ceased to act as Deputy Governor.

I cannot however, but feel highly gratified and flattered on the Resolution passed by the Court of Proprietors on the same occasion, which has determined me to abandon the interest I held in the Woolwich Works, and to present myself again to your notice for re-election. I have therefore earnestly to request the favour of your Support and Interest on Wednesday, the 30th day of May Instant, (which is the day fixed for the Election to take place), at Twelve o’clock case of my very best exertions will be devoted, (as they always have been since I was elected Director in 1813, and Deputy Governor in 1815) , to promote the success and prosperity of the Gas Light and Coke Company.

I  have the honour to be Your very obedient, humble Servant, Hackney, May 8,1827- THOMAS LIVESEY.

You will have to read my earlier article to see if he was telling the truth or not

Woolwich Ferry Gordon

 

I keep thinking it’s about time I did something about the Woolwich ferry. it’s a big institution which everybody knows about  - and that’s one of the problems which keeps me from doing it. There are hundreds and hundreds of sites on the net which tell you all about the ferry with varying degrees of accuracy and interest.

I have yet to find one which explains that it was one of the free crossings which the Government guaranteed to the people of east London to compensate for removing the tolls on the West London bridges thus giving free crossings to West Londoners whereas East Enders had to pay. The result was that the City of London built Tower Bridge, which of course is free, and Met. Board of Works built the Blackwall,  Rotherhithe and two foot tunnels - and of course the free ferry, of which they were very proud.

The ferry opened on the 23^rd of March 1889.  The London County Council had itself begun work only  only two days earlier. There were great rejoicings in Woolwich with flags and banners everywhere v and all sorts of jollifications all day.  Going through the press stories for its opening they’re all of them hugely congratulatory –  just one report in the local Kentish Independent does raise a few questions about allocation of tickets for the opening event and also the speaker. It says they expected it to be opened by Joseph Bazalgette but who they got was Lord Rosebery who declared the ferry open and ‘free for ever’. There were processions on both sides of the river followed by a banquet.

The ferry has continued ever since.  People from outside London always express amazement that  it still runs, but its still there, still free and - what’s more - we have just had a fourth generation of new boats.  There is an excellent, if very brief Greenwich Council web page about the various vessels which have been used on the crossing - all of them purpose built. I remember a TV show not so long ago which was looking at ferries around the world describing how amazingly high tech the Woolwich ferry was compared to most others - and here we were about to junk the boats because they were old. 

I thought it might be interesting to look at how the boats have changed over the years –in particular their names which might have something to say about how society was changing . In the 1880s they were  national heroes but ones who with local links, followed years later by important local politicians to today when one is understandably,  named for a young crew member killed in an accident - but the other is named for a sentimental singer.

For the first week or so that the ferry ran there was only one boat available. That was the ‘Gordon’ as the first of three which had been specially commissioned from R.H.Green and Co. just on the other side of the river at Blackwall.

It was named for General Charles Gordon – ‘Chinese Gordon’...’Gordon of Kartoum’ who had been killed in dramatic circumstances just four years earlier. He was very much a national hero with an incident filled and crowded career  but despite his reputation as the clean cut destroyer of colonial dissent he was  somewhat eccentric, to put it mildly . There have been many biographies but for quick look there is an excellent Wikipedia page which goes into enormous detail about his many doings -- leaving me to wonder what was really going on  with all this derring do - what supervision he had and if the government knew what he was getting up to.   I am also aware that there were other sides to him besides his military career but he had considerable local links with Woolwich and, as I will explain in a moment, with both Greenwich and Gravesend.

His main link with Woolwich is that he was born in 1833 in a house on a site up on what is now the Woolwich Common estate. The address won’t mean much now and I do myself remember a parade of impressive early 19^th century houses up there but they had been allowed to get in a very bad state and were demolished in 1971 . I can just about remember a big campaign to keep his house.  It had two plaques on it - one the usual blue plaque and another from 1902 put there by Woolwich Antiquarians. The main square in Woolwich is now called after him. 

There is also a memorial window to him in Saint Alphege’s church in Greenwich with a statement that he was actually baptised there. This must have been because of his links to Greenwich through if now the less so in Woolwich.  He was also an early cadet at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich where he trained as a Royal Engineer.

I hope I am not being disloyal to Greenwich - where I have lived for the last 50 years -but I was a `child in Gravesend and I am very aware that Gordon is seen as a hero there because of his founding of the ragged school.  As an Engineer he had been appointed as Commandant of the Thames Forts with a remit to upgrade river defences. He founded a school in Fort House where he lived and which stood in what is now Fort Gardens –  it was destroyed by a V2 in the Second World War.  Gordon’s involvement in work to help poor children. is more complex than only founding a school but that is what he is very much remembered for.

 A few years after Gordon’s death the then Mayor of Gravesend gave a patch of land next to Fort Ggardens which has ever since been the Gordon Gardens containing a very suitable statue of him on a pedestal - it’s like a very much lower Nelson’s column.

I am very aware that this is is just a few notes about monuments to General Charles Gordon and that there are many, many long books and articles about his very busy life and status as a national hero. To be fair he was clearly very clever and very competent He died eventually at the hands of insurgents led by one popularly known in England as the ‘Mad Mahdi’. I also note a quotation from a srecent history which says there seems to be a consensus among recent historians that ‘Gordon himself was probably considerably madder than the Mahdi’. Another more modern charismatic soldier who compares with him and his reputation was T.E. Lawrence - Lawrence of Arabia.

Meanwhile let’s have a quick look at the ferry boat itself.  The Gordon was the first free ferry boat to operate across the Thames at Woolwich. Designed by Joseph Bazalgette, the boat took her maiden trip in service  on 23 March 1889 and did so for the next thirty four years. These  first Woolwich ferries were all paddle steamers which were licenced to carry 1000 passengers and up to 20 vehicles. They were eventually fitted with electric lights throughout. Their engines – 2 pairs each connected to a paddle - were made by Penns of Greenwich.

In 1923 the London County Council began replacing the first generation boats.  Gordon was replaced by another  Gordon built by Samuel White. And in 1912c’oldvgordon’ ws spold for  £1507 10s to a dutch company. A l1945 letter to the paper describes a visuit toa place in Holland Harry cold foliage ferry and seeing barges,

 By 1962 when they were scrapped it is said that these early ferries had covered around 4 million miles between them.  In 1936 Gordon was overhauled ad her vehicle deck and cycle area were enlarged.  These alterations proved very beneficial to the handling of both vehicular and cyclist traffic.

Over the years set both Gordons one  and two were in use = Toddlers fall into the water and rescued members of the crew who got a commendation for saving them., More typical were the suicides – pregnant single vwomen, ex soldiers and the never identified. I was found trapped in the paddle wheels =was found that before to havdrunk an entire bottle of Lysol. 

Morw dramatically in 1911 the ferry narrowly avoided a major accident when steamer Breslau hit the pontoon while Gordon was stationed there - with 200 passengers on board. Captain Young on the ferry cast off I went full speed off thus saving the ferry from an acciden- t for which she got a commendation and a £10 LB award from the Council. In 1923 a heavy steam lorry laden with barrels of oil fell between the ferry and the pontoon causing delays of many many hours.

You see- all human life is there

 

 

 

 

 

Ernie Bevin. MP for Woolwich

 

Over the past couple of months I have written two brief biographical articles of Members of Parliament for the Greenwich constituency. These days we have one Member who covers Greenwich and Woolwich - just one joint constituency but in the past they were separate. I thought that as I’d done two Greenwich MPs perhaps I’d better do one for Woolwich too and I was looking to see who that could be. There were many interesting people but one stood out - the great Ernie Bevin.

I rather suspect that nobody much these days, outside of political historians,  know anything about Ernie Bevin.  The better informed will sort of know that there was a politician called Bevan who started the National Health Service and I guess most of them would assume that is who I mean. The  two similar names were confusing enough at the time when they were both in the cabinet where Nye Bevan was a Welsh left winger and much less important figure then Bevin. 

Bevin had come from an impoverished childhood in rural Somerset to casual unskilled work in Bristol. Self educated and with a background in the Methodist church he had become involved in politics.  By 1922 he had set up, and was General Secretary of, the Transport and General Workers Union – at one time the biggest trade union in the world.  In 1940, and already recruited to a Churchill’s war cabinet, he was elected Member of Parliament for Central Wandsworth and continued to play a central role alongside Churchill and Clement Attlee.  In the post war Labour Government he was Foreign Secretary - a role which included both negotiating the future of the many constituent parts of the British Empire. but also the setting up of a reconfigured world  –-  NATO, Israel , the Marshall Plan, etc, etc. including working with and on Stalin, and the like. By 1950 he was also a very sick man.  He also had some prejudices which would not be acceptable to us today.

He had remained as MP for a seat Central Wandsworth and then suddenly in 1950 was proposed for Woolwich East – this is the main bit of central Woolwich.   It it’s not at all clear why, and I first thought to write this article with a view to finding out and I had been advised there was little in various biographies of him to explain this. It may have been because his health was so poor and his government role so massive that such a very safe seat  would allow for him not to be seen locally as a much as he should be -  and that turns out to be largely true. It is perhaps worth noting that Woolwich East Labour Party was the oldest Labour Party in the country having been founded considerably before the National Party which had copied its rules. In particular it was,and had been for many years, the largest Labour Party in terms of membership in the country.

The first newspaper reference I can find is from March 1949 where he addressed a wider Woolwich Party meeting on the foreign policy issues in which he was currently involved. This appears to have been an opportunity to introduce him to the wider membership of the local Labour Party having been chosen as parliamentary candidate by, I assume, their General Council. He told the meeting that he would have liked to have stood as MP for Woolwich many years ago but that he could not get released from his trade union duties to fight the seat - and so had eventually to take up the Wandsworth vacancy because of his role in the Cabinet. Of his age he said “ I am getting on, but I am only 21 in the arteries. The calendar does not always determine your age."

At around the same time the Conservative and Empire party had held a local meeting to introduce their election candidate – the  six foot tall Mr Campbell. He challenged Bevin to come and look at some substandard housing  with him - although I’m sure this never took place. He also managed to categorise some Labour women as ’grim faced harridans’.  Rather livelier opposition came from Woolwich Communist Party who also declared a candidate in the shape of their national chairman Palme Dutt.  We have perhaps forgotten the strong influence of the Communist Party in Woolwich  - they were still standing in local elections in the early 1980s - and in the 1950s the redoubtable Charlie Wellard was holding mass meetings in Woolwich Odeon with reference to working conditions at Siemens.

The local elections for the Council were in May 1949 and throughout the country results were not good for the Labour Party. In Woolwich Labour lost seven seats to the Conservatives – in the new Council  had 36 Labour councillors and nine Conservatives . This result sent party organisation staff off to see what could be done and in Woolwich this meant a review of work by Mabel Crout.  She had been running elections in the Woowich Party as secretary since 1906 when the party didn’t legally exist. She would act as Bevin’s  election agent and in the same year she herself would also be elected to the London County Council.

The general election was eventually called for the 23^rd of February 1951. Bevin was out of England on Foreign Office business and needed to get back.  He had been at the Colombo Conference held with a number of newly independent Commonwealth countries to discuss issues including economic development. Bevin had chaired it but was now so frail he was carried into the conference chamber ‘in a palanquin’.  Coming back he had stopped off for lunch in Alexandria with King Farouk and Prince Philip and then was picked up from there by a cruiser’, HMS Birmingham, and taken to Naples. He then undertook discussions with various Italians. He returned from Italy by train, with his doctor.   He had sent the text of his election address on in advance.

He was pictured submitting his nomination papers and deposit at Woolwich Town Hall accompanied by Mabel Crout and his wife, Flo.  It was recorded that the Town Hall cat was also present and it was noted that Bevin had made it up the sixteen steps into the Town Hall with only one pause. He was one of five candidates standing in Woolwich East - in addition to Palme Dutt for the communists and John Campbell for the Tories there was also to be a pacifist, Frank Hancock and a Liberal, Arthur Sage.

National election results saw a massive swing against the Labour Party and the Labour Government, leaving them with majority of only 5.  Of course Bevin won in Woolwich East with a massive majority - and publicly talked about the effort he had put in with local people and had made       speeches in many other places. In fact he had spent some time during the campaign in hospital and Flo and their daughter, Queenie, had put in a major effort to compensate.

in the new administration He continued as Foreign Secretary working with Attlee. The tiny majority meant that all Members would need to be present in Parliament to vote to get Government business through – but for the Foreign Secretary the gruelling round of meetings around the world would also have to continue. 

By April he was again in hospital.  He was usually a patient in the trade union financed Manor House Hospital in Hampstead - which closed only in 1999.  I remember it well; visiting my Paperworkers Union officer, Dad, when he was a patient there in the 1970s.

For the rest of 1950 he remained as foreign secretary although there was at least one other hospital admission which seems to have involved surgery of some sort.  Throughout this time there were constant rumours that he had told Woolwich Labour Party that he would not stand again at a General Election. These stories were always denied and then again stressed.

On 5^th January 1951 he dined at the Royal Naval College with the King and Queen and the French ambassador. Soon after there was a big party and dance at Woolwich Town Hall for Labour Party members – he left to the strains of ‘For he’s a jolly good fellow’. The next day it was Abbey Wood ward New Year’s party at Federation Hall. In between  he was involved in discussions about the future of the Commonwealth, discussions with Eisenhower and Montgomery, discussions on the Argentine and  about Soviet Russia and the US.

In the next few months there were constant calls for him to resign as Foreign Secretary -   increasingly coming from ‘responsible’ sources. On 24^th February he held and paid personally for a  supper for 300 Woolwich Labour Party workers. He eventually resigned on 17^th March after what appears to have been pressure from Attlee. 

He died on 14^th April - in bed while working on some papers. Of course there were tributes from all over and huge crowds lined the roads as his coffin was taken for cremation to Golders Green.

This has been a very quick a very inadequate look at the life and work of this remarkable man and I’m sorry that Woolwich - and I suspect a lot of the rest of the country - have completely forgotten him.

PS  Perhaps we should also note a younger and fitter Labour Foreign Ssecretary who died very suddenly of a stroke in 1977 -  Anthony Crosland. There were revelations then about his diary and the workload he was expected to carry. 

 

 

 

Progress Estate

 

The First World War - the ‘Great War ‘- was declared in August 1914. It must have been quite clear to politicians in Woolwich that things had got to change and quickly. The Royal Arsenal - the principle manufacturer of arms and ammunition for the Government , was in Woolwich – it would need to expand rapidly and effectively. It was going to become a very, very big factory and a lot of people would work there.  Where were they all going to live?? 

In the first months of the war as the Arsenal began to expand and new groups of workers were recruited it was soon very, very clear that housing was going to be a real problem. In December 1914, Will Crooks, the local Member of Parliament went, along with a deputation from Woolwich Council, to the Government’s Local Government Board to say that something had to be done.  Within a month, at the end of January 1915 the Woolwich Labour Party’s paper, The Pioneer, announced that land had been bought and plans made for a Garden City at Well Hall in Eltham. It would provide family accommodation and would help to house the many specialist and skilled workers who were moving into the area. A team of architects had been set up by the Government, they were already at work and the Pioneer’s reporter had seen the actual plans

This would be a remarkable speed for getting together a small building plan – and this was for a whole estate. It was the framework for building what most of us know as the Progress Estate – it was originally called ’ the Well Hall Estate’.   It shows what can be done if normal protocols are ignored add official doors are opened everywhere. It shows that current bleats about the slowness of local government and planning depends on circumstances -  but even so the speed which this scheme was put together must be remarkable

Of course the estate itself is remarkable and there has been a very great deal written about it.  A quick look on the net will show endless major pieces of writing by Greenwich Council,  English Heritage and The Twentieth Century Society and many, many others about the estate and how it was set up. I think in all their minds is a question about how this estate, which was built under such pressure and in wartime conditions manages to still look so good and how when it was built met the highest standards of housing  design of the day.

I am very nervous about writing about it  because so much has been written and I’m almost bound to get it wrong.  However I have been aware for some time that for its centenary in 2014 a book about the estate was commissioned by the Residents Association, written by Keith Billinghurst  and self published with help from various local grants.  I’d never seen the book and had tried to get a copy and failed. However the Residents Association have now republished it  and so I thought a review might be in order now.

Basically I am very, very impressed.  As a local history it is based firmly on the estate and demonstrates it’s connections and influences from far and wide.

From the start it gives a major role to Woolwich Council and understands some of the personalities and local  politics.   As I noted above he makes it clear that the initial ideas for the estate came from Woolwich Borough Council and through the reports of the local Medical Officer of Health.

A major section of the book is ‘How garden suburbs came to be’.  The author looks at ideas about society and housing in the late 19^th century - beginning with John Ruskin - a South Londoner - and traces many links between the schemes and personalities.  I thought this was most interesting - it is a subject I am probably desperately ignorant about  but I thought the way influences on and links between individuals are traced and put together in the book was very important.  The final project he describes is Hampstead Garden Suburb and I had been aware of the various personalities involved there. So, despite an initial reaction to ‘Hampstead’ as fashionable and up market, I also knew about their work in the East End and in particular at Toynbee Hall, which is somewhere I used a lot in a previous existence.  He also makes the point that garden suburbs were never housing for the poor. He then goes on to explore housing and planning legislation in the early years of the 20^th century. Crucually at the beginning of recruitment for the First World War it was discovered that  many potential recruits had severe health issues which could be put down to poor quality housing.

Like every goods locally written and researched local history it describe the previous ownership of the site and some of its geographical features.   The detail is astonishing - down to individual trees, some of which are there is still there now.  It then moves on to the actual story of the construction of the estate in a great deal of extremely interesting detail about  issues like site layout, roads, gardens and parlours and much else – what building materials were used and how they were sourced. Of particular interest is that clinker used on the site all came from the Woolwich Council recycling generating station at White Hart.

In February 1915 nothing had begun on site but the first tenants moved in to the first finished houses in May and all 1,298 houses were finished by the end of the year. At the height of activities one house was being completed every two hours.  It was a major achievement.

The book goes on to describe every road on the estate, and to give the history of the person it was named after – William Cobbett... Admiral Seymour – and so on.   This might seem a bit nerdish and certainly would be so in a similar book aimed at an academic audience but this book was commissioned for people and by people who lived on the estate and it is just the sort of detail which people like to know and would be able to talk about in future years.  

During  the Great War the estate was managed by the London County Council but returned to the Goverment  Office of Works in 1920 .  It was then sold to the Royal Arsenal  Cooperative Society and it is because of them that it is known now as the Progress Estate – ‘progress’ is very much a Co-op word. I’m far from sure why RACS bought the estate and why it was not left with London County Council which seems a more appropriate body. The Co-op had built its own estate down in Abbey Wood, which, although providing quality housing for a similar aspirational community, but which really had no major garden city aspirations. I’ve also extremely unclear if they had a permanent housing management team at Abbey Wood since the vast majority of the properties were sold. 

I am reminded however of some of the work of space Blackheath based E.O. Greening some years earlier -- I’ve mentioned him in several previous articles about the Co-op and about Deptford. He introduced ideas of aspirational communities and mutual organisations helping working people to a better life. It’s close to the Garden City movement but not identical to it.  RACS provided  a community centre - Progress Hall  - which has had a  reach far beyond just the estate. I remember going to a film club there in the 1970s which had very, very good films which were not shown by the local commercial cinema..

This estate suffered considerably from bombing in the Second World War and every known instance is meticulously recorded in the book along with the damage done.  Again, this is just the sort of detail which local residents would be very keen to have – and which will come up in the memories people have of their lives and places which have been meaningful to them.

The last chapters deal with the end of the Co-op management of the estate and its transfer to Hyde Housing.

I have only been able to give a very brief outline of some of the elements of the Progress  Estate covered in the book, which, after all came out 10 years ago and everybody else has probably read it and knows it very well. It seems to me that the book manages very well to deal with details of interest to estate residents about their properties while also deftly handling  the ideas about what housing should be like.  It tells us most impressively about the speed with which the estate was built, the authorities involved in this and in particular the work, and career, of Frank Baines.

For other people who have not read the book – copies may still be available.  It is self published so I suspect it won’t be in any bookshops and has to rely entirely on kind helpers and the post to get it out to people .They say:

“Progress Estate Mutual Aid is proud to announce the re-publication of this fantastic book, all about the history of the Progress Estate in Eltham by Keith Billinghurst.  Please email progressestatemutualaid@gmail.com to order a copy. Limited signed copies available while stocks last!

 

The book was first published to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Progress Estate, and is re-printed for the benefit of the local community. 100% of the proceeds will go towards funding community projects and events.

 

Standard price £13 +P&P. Discounts available for residents of the Progress Estate (£10) and SE9 (£12).”