WOOLWICH CONSUMERS GAS WORKS

 

I need to start with an apology. Well over a year ago I wrote an article about the second Woolwich gas works - the Equitable Company works. I had previously written about the first works, owned by Thomas Livesey, and I mentioned it again last week in an article about river pollution. But there was another  Woolwich gas works – the Consumers’ Company Gas Works - and it’s that which I promised to write up ‘in a couple of weeks time’ - well over eighteen months ago! Sorry.

Early last year I wrote an article about the Plumstead Pure Water Company and I introduced you to Lewis Davis there. Perhaps I` should remind you again who he was: in 1839  he had a jewellers shop in Green’s End and described himself as a pawnbroker in the1841 census. He is also described as a ‘silversmith’, a ‘clothes dealer’ and a ‘glass warehouse’ and of course ‘a pawnbroker.  So I guess he just did the best he could and it turns out he was very successful – and was the leading activist in bringing bothbgas and water to Woolwich.

In 1832 the Woolwich Equitable Gas Company had been set up and had taken over the older works which dated from 1817. They had built a modern gas works, which appears to have been very successful. However, within only ten years there was considerable agitation against it - in which Mr Davis played a leading part. His problem was that although he used considerable amounts of gas in his business he was not offered the same discount on purchases as was afforded the Royal Dockyard and other public bodies. There were other grievances among the shopkeepers of Woolwich and so only a short time after the Equitable works were opened there were plans to set up a rival gas company. This was the Woolwich Protective Consumers Gas Co. and they issued a prospectus on 18th August 1843 .

There were numerous consumer gas companies being set up in this period. Some had quite complicated arrangements to ensure that ownership remained in local hands. It was a whole movement which was part of a series of ideas about how public utilities should be managed because private ownership often worked against the public interest. How this Woolwich consumer company was intended to operate is not really clear - they said in their prospectus that priority on share ownership would be given to ‘consumers’ but it is unclear how ‘consumers’ were identified, particularly before the gas works was operational. Probably the customers were mostly small shopkeepers from Woolwich.

They had purchased a site on the Riverside from Sir T. Wilson and the works was soon being set up.  It was in the area now covered by the Ferry Approach and possibly the Ferry car park and the Leisure Centre -  in the High Street, behind the Carpenter's Arms, and adjoining the  eastern side of Woolwich Dockyard.  They redeveloped the wharf on the west side of Glass Yard with two 32ft diameter gasholders, later  replaced by a a retort house, and in the High Street built an Italianate office building was erected next to the Carpenters’ Arms. Various writers say that a wall from the works still exists. Built of old pieces of firebrick and hard clinker it runs parallel to the River side of the High Street.

Then they held a banquet. This was for the Directors and officers ‘as a mark of the confidence of the shareholders ...  and an acknowledgment of the disinterested efforts and zealous exertions they had made’.  It was held at the George the Fourth Assembly Rooms where the window was lit up with ‘a splendid star of the gas supplied by the Company’. The dinner consisted of ‘the first luxuries of the season’. They toasted ‘the Queen ... discanting upon her virtues as daughter, wife, and mother’.   Late that night they ‘felt great pleasure in drinking the health of the gentlemen present, and . thanked them cordially for their kindness in drinking and the meeting  being enlivened by various songs and toasts’.

The initial charge for gas from the new works was eight shillings per thousand cubic feet, which compared favourably with the eleven shillings required by its rival. The first works Superintendent was ‘Chemist’ Marsh who had previously developed a test for detecting small grains of arsenic.

In 1848 it was unanimously resolved to appropriate the sum of £251. from the surplus funds of the company to purchase a suitable piece of plate, to be presented to Lewis Davis, ‘through whose exertions the company was first started’.

So,  the new gas company, set about making and selling gas cheaper than the Equitable Company who. of course, brought their prices down. As with all of these ventures, in the end they sorted the issues out - two companies selling gas in the town and more or less working with each other although no one would ever say so. In 1854 the Consumers’ Company changed their name to the Woolwich and Charlton Consumers’ Gas Company. Lewis Davis continued promoting gas and water companies and made a lot of money.

The Consumers’ Gas Company continued in Woolwich until taken over by the South Metropolitan in the early 1880s. During the lifetime of the company most newspaper reports about it are about  their share sales but there are occasionally other stories - and possibly many more that we know nothing about. The company minutes refer to ‘defalcations’ in the 1860s and again in the 1880s.  It is very unclear what exactly this refers to - probably some sort of accounting fraud.

Throughout most of the organisation’s existence the works Engineer was Alexander Stark. This is a common name, even in gas works’ construction circles, particularly in Scotland and it is difficult to identify a particular individual – although this Woolwich based man seems to have been Scottish.  He was not a young man as shown by the one piece of definite evidence about his family which is an obituary to his, Perth educated, adult son – also a gas engineer named Alexander Stark – and who died in 1884 aged 33 while employed as Assistant Engineer at Easton and  Anderson at Erith.

The most notable press reports during Stark’s time at the Consumers’ Company concern his arrest and subsequent trial on the charge of stealing lead and other items from the Royal Arsenal.  This of course is much more complicated than it would first appear. It took up many, many column inches in both the local and professional gas press with word by word transcriptions of the various stages of the trial and the various people also accused of this offence. appeared to excite much public interest, the court being densely crowded

Another person who features prominently in the case is James ‘Jaws’ Stark Alexander’s brother who also lives in Woolwich and worked with him on various contracts. They are accused of stealing 20 ingots of lead, a large quantity of iron pipe, and more, the property of the Crown. Also if Alexander, the works manager, had been ‘receiving’ rather than ‘stealing’ the items.  

In 1856 Alexander Stark had contracted to construct a gas works in the Royal Arsenal – I’ve written about that works here last year. This contract had been completed when information was received by Police-inspector Thompson, that during tbe month of March last a large amount of Government stores had been conveyed from tbe Arsenal by men in the employ of the contractor, and that a portion of the property would be found on his premises. A search was made, and in the cellar of Alexander Stark’s house the property mentioned was discovered. He accounted for the possession of it by stating that he had supplied similar articles whilst carrying out this contract, and had received the property found in repayment. The evidence against James Stark was that he had ordered a portion of tbe property to be removed to the premises where it was found. It appeared that the bulk of the property, and many other articles not mentioned in the charge, had been removed from tbe Arsenal by direction of Joseph King, a foreman in tbe employ of the prisoners. He had directed the carman to cover over the property with coke.

The trial went on for some time and attracted a lot of press attention with huge reports in the local press and apparently huge numbers of people attending the trial. It became more and more confused with witnesses who said they knew nothing. Alexander Stark seems to have remained it is post as manager at the works for many subsequent years. 

Perhaps the most important thing to note is his contract for the construction of the Arsenal Gas Works – this is in addition to his career as a gas manager.

Every year on New Year’s Eve a dinner was arranged for all the workers at the Consumer’s gas works. Thus was always a big event and noted in the local press.  There are other more local concerns raised  most will have been issues which affected all gas managers at one time or another. One long dispute concerns the amount of notice to be given before digging the road up – and what constituits an emergency , Another dispute was about whether they should paint the lamp posts chocolate brown or leave them – er er - lamp post colour.

In 1884 the company and its works were taken over - amalgamated - with the South Metropolitan Gas Company and closed down