ELECTRICITY JUNCTION BOX

 

Some weeks ago The Greenwich Wire blogger described himself walking in Hillreach in Woolwich where he took a photograph of what most of us would describe as an ‘electricity junction box’ which is rotting away on the corner of Pellipar Road.

I think he wanted to make a point about the neglect of the of the public realm – how our streets and  the ‘street furniture’ in them are not always cared for and kept clean and fresh looking. I can’t be sure exactly what he said because the page has gone from his website and I can’t find a way of getting into it now - so I’m sorry if I am misinterpreting anything.

When I saw his post I followed it up with a a note on the Greenwich Industrial History Facebook page because I knew that there were people who were interested in the history of street furniture and had done some research on some local junction boxes.  Some of their findings had been published in the Greenwich Industrial History newsletter in, I think. 2006 and again, more recently been picked up in 2020. Several people ‘liked’ the Facebook page entry and some added comments  and some put notes about older boxes still standing in the area. I’ve followed all of them up and if they don’t feature here its because there’s not enough space for everything.

The old boxes which people noted were almost exclusively at sites in Woolwich and Plumstead. The power supply in those areas was originally supplied by a Woolwich Council power station until nationalisation in 1947  and some boxes date from then. These old boxes have a raised design on the front with the three guns of the Woolwich heraldic insignia. One of these,  in Burrage Place, Woolwich is on the Council’s local heritage ‘list’ as ‘Electricity Box. Embossed Woolwich Borough Coat of Arms on both sides: three upright cannon barrels festooned with lions heads and the motto ‘Clamant Nostra Tela in Regis Querela’ – ‘Our weapons clash in the King's quarrel’. Arms granted 9th August 1934’. Nothing there about its use or its ownership.

 I’m extremely unsure about such structures in the Greenwich part of the Borough.  The only box I know about is long gone. It was from the Blackwall Point power station and it was on the traffic island on Blackheath and so very difficult to see. It was removed by Transport for London when they were ‘tidying up’ for the Olympics.

One thing that’s important is to remember is that they are not really called ‘junction boxes’ but ‘feeder pillars’. This name seems to be the one used for them in planning documents and anyone intending to raise issues about them with the Council needs to know that. To my mind this is confusing and  a ‘pillar’ is something I would see as’ taller and slimmer than these little street cupboards.  However the term ‘junction box’ covers a myriad of small devices and so is also confusing.

I think in most areas there is a consensus that street furniture like this needs to be kept in good order - looking fresh and clean and up to date. There’s nothing wrong with keeping old stuff as museum pieces in the streets too - but they also need to be kept in good order. Most people who want to complain about them will automatically assume that the local council is responsible for them and must be chased until they are cleaned and repaired. However they are nothing do with the Council but are, like much street furniture, owned by the organisation which supplies the service to the public. Hence they are owned by the supplier of electricity – EDF - Electricite de France, in case you didn’t know that, as a result of privatisation, our electricity supply is owned by the French nationalised industry.

I don’t know how good, or otherwise, EDF are in responding to complaints about their equipment and doing something about it. But I think there is a good chance that that Greenwich Council officer that you’ve been moaning about and saying  how lazy and ineffective they are has actually made many, many calls and written many, many letters to the owners about it. I think the Council is able to take legal action against some of these outfits but I know that it seen a bit as the last resort.

Gradually these old cupboard-like boxes are being replaced by featureless white cubes but those that remain have been the subject of intermittent attention.

The first article which GIHS published on some of the local boxes pointed out one thing which I’ve seen nowhere else. That is about their manufacture and the companies involved. Interestingly both are local to South East London and to Woolwich.

One of these manufacturers, almost inevitably, is Siemens who made so much of electrical and telecommunications equipment which we take for granted today. They left Woolwich in 1968 but their presence still resonates. They had been set up in London in early 1860s with links to the German future multinational. They were based in a complex of buildings which are now largely  inland of the Thames Barrier and some of which are in use as craft workshops and the like. The site has recently been the subject of proposals for regeneration, none of which seemed to have come to fruition. 

In his article for GIHS Richard Buchanan pointed to examples of junction boxes made by Siemens apparently still in use – in Ashridge Crescent and in Kinlet Road on Shooters Hill and another in Timbercroft Lane in Plumstead.           These boxes are described as having a door opening  and facing the pavement with a key operated lock. On the base is “SIEMENS” along with a plaque giving the registration number and patent.

It would be interesting to know more and if these boxes were actually made in Woolwich. When Greenwich Industrial History Society was first set up we had a lot of access to Siemens history.  Ex workers from the factory had a long term organisation which had among other things collected a huge amount of archived material. This was all donated to the Heritage Centre when it was still open. Gradually the members all eventually died and we know of no one to talk to about the history of this amazing company.

The other firm Richard mentions as a manufacturer of these boxes is Henleys. William Henley had known early cable makers like Glass Elliott and eventually set up his own manufacturing unit in North Woolwich. I suppose technically in those days that was Woolwich since North Woolwich was then part of the Borough of Woolwich – but it’s now in Newham. They also expanded to a site at Northfleet taking over part of the old Rosherville Gardens site. My father worked in the print works which was adjacent to the Henley’s site and we all knew numerous men who worked there.

Henley’s boxes also have a door on the side facing the pavement. The door has two key holes top and bottom. The roadside face has a removable panel held on by eight studs and on the base, below the panel, is cast “HENLEY”.

So, back to that lamentable looking specimen in Hillreach. One  of the comments on my Facebook came from the Charlton Society and mentioned there efforts to get it preserved along with the (very, very sadly no longer with us) Councillor Jim Gillman. Jim wanted to get it ‘archived’ with the Greenwich Heritage Centre – then still a going concern.  But the owners said that it was still in use and therefore couldn't be moved. Perhaps we should find out if that is still true.

Anyway – sometimes things sort of work out - on Shooters Hill was a ‘roadside electricity distribution box’ with the Arms of the Borough of Woolwich on it. On Monday 25th September 2006, Dr Barry Gray phoned GIHS’s then Chair Susan Bullivant to say that it had been knocked by a car, and was leaning across the pavement at a dangerous angle.

 

Susan phoned the Greenwich Highways Department who gave her the phone number of EdF, the electricity supply company, whose office is in Ipswich. The staff there were sympathetic and concerned - that the box should be saved - that the electricity supply was safe’ . Chris Foord then in charge at Greenwich Heritage Centre confirmed that they would like to acquire the box. On Tuesday 26th, Dr Barry Gray said that men were removing the junction box, and had said  ‘they had to be careful with it as a lady has phoned up about it’. Susan went to talk to them and was told it would go in their big EdF van to their depot in Bexleyheath Broadway. She told Chris, who made  the arrangements and on the following Tuesday, 3rd October. EdF duly delivered it

So, you see, it can be done.  But of course the next question is...... where is it now??