Dockland

 

 

Just recently I’ve done a couple of book reviews as one of these articles and I was thinking about doing another one - except that is about a book published 40 years ago.  I was reminded of it by an obituary for George Nicholson – he was a member of the Greater London Council for Bermondsey in its 1980s final days. He died back in February this year, and I’ll come back to him in a moment. More to the point is a review of the book by Chris Ellmers which is on the website of the Thames and Docklands History Group. (https://www.tdhg.org.uk/stories/the-story-of-dockland-%E2%80%93-the-book-that-is!)

Chris has given a number of talks to Greenwich industrial History Society in some of our series of evening talks. He was the first curator of what is now the London Museum Docklands – and goes back many many years with that tangled project - a new generation will see a smart interesting museum and know nothing of what really went on. Chris has produced this article about a book which was published in 1986 – and which was intended as part of a project on the industrial history of Docklands.

It’s very difficult for me to say I’ll start at the beginning because I really wasn’t there at the beginning. In 1980 I was working in a dreadful job in Greenwich but I was being paid by something called ‘Docklands Urban Aid’ but without the first clue why. As a bit of background: the Docklands Joint Committee had been set up in 1974 to ‘regenerate’ the area as older smaller docks closed and it included the Greenwich Peninsula.  When Thatcher set up the London Docklands Development Corporation in 1981 Greenwich was strangely left out. It was said at the time that Michael Heseltine made the decision to omit Greenwich after flying over the area in a helicopter.  I’m very tempted now to write to Heseltine – ‘give us the real reason, one that makes sense – you’re 95 now and you can do it.’

By 1982 I was working in central London for a housing association run by an eccentric lady whose husband had once been considered as a Tory Prime Minister. We were dependent on grant money, some of it from the Greater London Council. These were the heady years of Ken Livingstone – new energy and new ideas all bouncing around.  I don’t know how I first heard about the Docklands History Survey and the book it published in 1984. I was very excited and on the day of publication sent our office boy over to County Hall to get me a copy.  Yes!! Greenwich sites were listed in there.

I don’t want necessarily to list down the Greenwich sites in the Survey – the only copy I now have is a bit – er – compromised. Some confusion over Deptford is explained by the then recent change in Borough boundaries but Greenwich High Road is, and was, in actual Greenwich. It has five separate entries for Enderby Wharf, and ten for East Greenwich Gasworks. Otherwise away from the Peninsula there is only the Charlton Tram depot and the Barrier. It covers a wide smattering of Woolwich sites, totally inadequate - but in 1984 we would have thought it marvellously detailed.

I learnt eventually about the steering group for the Survey - but I am still very unclear about formal links with the Greater London Council and Councillor George Nicholson.  Chris Ellmers from the Museum of London was a member.  He was joined by John Earl and Paul Calvocoressi from GLC Historic Buildings Division, Alan Pearsall from the National Maritime Museum and  Denis Smith from North East London Poly – all now, sadly, gone. In addition Peter Dean represented the Docklands Joint Committee.

I don’t remember how I found out about the Docklands History Group and why went along to a meeting at the Barbican - very nervous and conscious of my ignorance.  I remember a talk by the LDDC Conservation Officer who was under a lot of pressure from the audience  – at one point someone from the back yelling ‘you’re a liar’.  The audience was nearly all men; many standing at the back and I dare not quote here some of the things being said.

Perhaps I should note that it was not until 1987 that LDDC produced Docklands Heritage: Conservation and Regeneration. I have never got hold of a copy although I did consider stealing one from a pub in Ide Hill.  It can never have been widely circulated.

 But, back to the Docklands History Group meeting - the other thing that happened there was the announcement that the GLC was going to fund a group which would oversee the production of a number of books and projects about industrial remains in Docklands.  They had appointed a research officer Dr.Robert Carr, and secured a base at the then North East London Polytechnic. Barking Campus.   

To fast forward to 1986 - The only publication of the Survey was ‘Dockland’ – the subject of Chris Ellmers’ article.  I note too that even in 1986 the Survey and its steering group is not mentioned on the title page – only GLC and NELP appear.  There is a however a three page forward by George Nicholson outlining much of the background to the project and also discussing  what was going on and says ‘historians of the future will study and judge the events of this extraordinary time’.  

I said that I am writing this in response to obituaries to George Nicholson. The ones I have seen note the great success of Borough Market, and Coin Street community builders and much, much more. He worked to set up bodies which would effect change – and did so successfully.  There was also the London Rivers Association – I went to many of their meetings and was very aware of input from Greenwich locals – we were very interested on reports of how riversides were managed elsewhere, particularly that in Kolkata. I was also impressed by their report on shipbuilding – still very active on the Greenwich Peninsula in the 1980s and early 1990s.

I have not seen however any mention of the Dockland History Survey in Nicholson’s many obituaries or of the attempt by the Greater London Council to leave a legacy of a truthful history of Docklands.  The Council was of course abolished by the Thatcher government in 1986 and its assets sold off. I am afraid remaining copies of the Dockland History Survey ended up in the Edmonton Destructor. 

So, to return to ‘Dockland’.  It was launched at County Hall in the very last weeks of the GLC by a platform made up of the Mayors of the appropriate London Boroughs – an event I have never seen a report of.  I cannot recall anything that was said or, pretender as I am, what I said to get myself there. I managed to wangle a lift there with the Mayor in the Greenwich limo.

What Greenwich sites did Dockland look at? It’s a list of sites demolished or in other use. A few  survive and still in use -  Deptford Pumping Station (still also used for Tideway) - Greenwich Power Station (still in use by London Underground) - 19^th century houses (Ceylon Place cottages longside the Pilot Pub now listed) - Angerstein Wharf (still there and working) - Thames Barrier (well, yes)  - Woolwich ferry (running with new boats) – Woolwich foot tunnel (think its closed) - Thames Barrier (well, yes) – McDonalds Hamburger Restaurant (first ever in England) – Woolwich railway tunnels (well, yes)

Several other buildings listed survive in other uses- Covered shipbuilding slipway, (‘Olympia’ still there awaiting ‘development) - Mumford’s granary (now housing) – Enderby Wharf as Submarine Cables Ltd (the factory is still there and at work!) -  Enderby House (now a pub) - - Fire station (now housing)  = – Woolwich Coffee Tavern (now shops) –  So-called Tramshed (now the Youth Theatre) the Odeon cinema (now a church) -  Granada cinema (now a cathedral)

Under the heading of ‘Deptford’ there was Deptford Royal Dockyard, (not now in Greenwich anymore)  -   John Penn’s boiler shop (now rebuilt as Paynes Wharf  and shown to be a railway building) -  Deptford Electric Power Generating Station (then still in use)  

In Greenwich itself  they listed –- Power Station jetty (still there unused)  –-Enderby  Wharf office building (demolished it had decoration of gutta percha leaves) cable loading equipment (now- very recently – scheduled) - cable ship George W MacKay (long since broken up) - Victoria Deepwater Container Terminal (now I think Hansons) – East Greenwich Gas Works (still partly at work) - Gas holder No.1  (demolished 2019) - Gas Holder No.2. (demolished at around the time the book came out)  – coal and coke jetty (tiny bit remains with statue on it  - Reforming plant (long since gone) – ammonium sulphate storage shed (amazing building demolished years ago but in lots of ‘80s TV thrillers) - brick acid towers (long gone) - oil gas plant (long gone)  - railway bridge with signal cabin (this was beside the Pilot Pub) – Coalite plant (long gone) – Blackwall Point Power Station (only jetty remains)  -  LCC Tramway repair depot (long gone)

Woolwich - Royal Dockyard (now housing estate) - Engine store (the Albion sugar building - long gone) - the smithery (now at Iron Bridge Museum) – Cubow (now housing site), Mast Pond Wharf (now flats) -  - Woolwich power station remains (all gone) – Co-op department store (in other use) – Tramway rails in Beresford Square.

 

That leaves a number of sites in the Arsenal – then still closed to almost  everyone.  I understand that the Survey was given a publishable list of buildings from an official source and excluded from seeing them.

 

So what happened to the Docklands History Survey? Basically it became a sub section of the North East London Polytechnic.  I went and met them as part of my job with Docklands Forum - they had published a couple of what were basically picture books but by then many such books were appearing.  There was no sign of the Survey Committee or their research worker – and they didn’t want to join the Forum.