Yesterday in the post came Journal No 25 of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society’s journal.
It’s a publication which carries serious articles about industries throughout London. This edition has in it articles on the Broadwood piano factory in Hackney Wick; the workshops at Tower Bridge and the Express Dairy at Cricklewood and - hello what’s this? .. an article by our Greenwich Industrial History Society’s Secretary, Alan Burkitt Gray, on ‘How Greenwich Connected the World at Enderby Wharf’. Happily Alan has also recently taken over the editorial of the GLIAS Journal – before retirement he was a professional for some very upmarket magazines. He has included his own article about his experience of Enderby Wharf and of campaigning for recognition of its high tech and world changing past and the small triumph we have had in getting this machinery scheduled.
This is a really great article which everyone in Greenwich should read. It explains about the recent scheduling of the equipment on the Jetty at Enderby Wharf. Included in the list of scheduled apparatus is a submarine telephone cable gantry used to guide the cables from the factory at roof level and onto a series of rollers leading to the cable ship. Note that this for telephones - the development of telephone cables comes much later in the history of Enderby Wharf but is equally if not more important than the earlier telegraph message based systems.
In the eighteenth century the Enderbys were Southwark oil merchants who acquired a whaling fleet by marriage and extended it, also undertaking exploratory work in the Antarctic – leading to a role in the Royal Geographic Society. In 1830 family members bought a ropewalk on the Greenwich riverside and manufactured rope and canvas here. In 1845 the factory burnt down; and following this Enderby House was built, initially as a residence. Many family members lived in Greenwich – one born in Woolwich was General Charles Gordon. Family members were also involved in setting up a colony in the Auckland Islands.
In the 1850's the site was bought
by Glass Elliot, a pioneering company in the new submarine cable industry. They
made most of the earliest international submarine cables linking countries
around the world. They received major attention for the Atlantic Cable which
was successful only on its 4th attempt to cross the Atlantic and
which essentially changed the world. This was followed by the India Cable and
much else over the next 50 years. Cables made in Greenwich were laid on many
new routes around the world – essentially setting up the network which we still
use today. Submarine cables were made at Enderby Wharf until 1975, and part of
the site is still in use today researching and making high tech communications
equipment.
AS we entered the 21st century a group of us got together following concerns that the history of cable making in Greenwich was beginning to be forgotten. The site on the Greenwich Peninsula was obviously of interest to developers. The tourists offer in Greenwich did not, and does not, include anything about the cable industry while most other sites with a relation to the Atlantic cable all have museums. There was also an increasing research interest in the cables. In his GLIAS Journal article Alan describes how we set up the Enderby Group to try and get somebody – anybody - in Greenwich to take a bit of notice of what had gone on here.
We were also particularly concerned at the state of Enderby House. Having been built as a residence for Enderby family members it had later been used as offices under successive cable companies. However in 2010 the factory owners sold off the Riverside strip - which has resulted in those huge blocks of flats. The next door site had been the Amylum glucose factory which had been sold to a French farming co-op. One day a French demolition firm turned up - having given no, legally required, notice to either the Port of London Authority or to Greenwich Council. They proceeded to demolish the entire factory. When they left they did so without installing any security so that any vandal who fancied it could get into Enderby House.
I remember one day a lot of us got together and walked down to the Riverside and we all had our photograph taken outside this horrible derelict building – most pthose who became the \e\nderby Group were there. I don’t know what happened to that photograph because I haven’t got it now but there was a sign put up about the developer, and suddenly they began to put out plans to renovate the house.
So we set up a campaigning organisation and called it the ‘Enderby Group’ to try and get whatever was planned for the site to acknowledge its past and also to see if we could get some input – an exhibition or just some community space or something - to tell the world about what happened at Enderby Wharf. We were helped and supported by some interesting people I would like to point out in particular Bill Burns who runs this amazing cable site from New York and its very much the best place to look at if you want to know the whole story of Enderby Wharf. https://atlantic-cable.com/ . It has on it a history of Enderby House and the texts of several books by Stewart Ash who has been involved in the research of history of the site for some years. Quite early on we ran a seminar at the Cutty Sark Pub for the developers, planners and top local politicians to inform them about what had been made and developed.
Although we were working very hard things began to get more and more difficult. There was a lot of distraction from what we were trying to do by a plan for an apparent cruise liner terminal on the Wharf and local anger about that was so great that our ideas - educational, community oriented, tourist friendly and ever so ever so Green - rather got ignored – while locals campained against increased pollution.
So despite our efforts we have ended up with blocks of flats and a pub which has nothing in it to describe its distinguished and very important past. Even the names of the various blocks of flats did not relate to its past all. So obviously we’re all very pleased to see the scheduling of the monuments on the jetty.
Tourist Greenwich has got a lot to say about old kings and queens long ago -and I’m not against that at all. It also has a lot to say about ships generally at the Maritime Museum and about clocks at the Royal Observatory. This is all very science based and links very well to the many industries in which research and other facilities as part of production process. We had some factories which specialised in various scientific instruments and in some ways much of our local production resulted from local research and innovation: the Royal Arsenal was all part of that too. The birth of the telecommunications and later cable industries in Greenwich is integral to it and I don’t know why we don’t promote it – showing our role in the modern world.
I would very much like people to have an opportunity to read what Alan has to say about the past of the site and about the importance of the scheduling of this equipment on the Riverside. If and when I get a link I will certainly get someone to post it here as GLIAS does put the contents of their journals on their web site. Meanwhile we will continue to go on about the past and to get people to take an interest and in the meantime please look at Bill Burns website which has everything on it you could possibly want to know
In ,]our zoom talks programme Greenwich Industrial History Society
will feature on
14th July Stuart Ash on ‘The birth of optical fibre
communication. A very British story’ – and hopefully this will include the
awarding of the Nobel Prize
