- The architect who never was?
- Belgians in Britain during the First World War
- The Native Guano Company
- Proposed Greenwich by-pass road
- Obscure London gasworks No 4
- New River Action Group
- LTE Stockwell Garage, London SW8
- Letter to the editor
- 156news.pdf
Wallis, Gilbert and Partners will be well known to many readers as the architects responsible for an impressive numbers of buildings erected in and around the London area during and before the 1930s. The practice was set up in 1914 to specialise in industrial buildings and soon after the First World War it began to be recognised as a leader in the design of the so-called 'daylight' factory. Factories were built for British companies desiring a new image and American ones starting to produce consumer products new to the UK (eg chewing gum).
Among the achievement of Wallis, Gilbert and Partners were the Caribonum Glassworks Factory, Leyton, of 1918; the Solex Factory Marylebone Road 1925; the Wrigley's (chewing gum) factory Wembley designed in 1926 (not now as originally built); the Shannon Factory, Kingston 1928; the Firestone Tyre Factory on the Great West Road designed in 1928 (a masterpiece now noted for its infamous demolition); the India Tyre and Rubber Company Factory (derelict but still existing near Glasgow airport); the Pyrene Factory on the Great West Road (London) 1930; the Hoover Factory complex, Perivale, on Western Avenue, built 1931-38 (GLIAS Newsletter December 1993); the Klingerit Factory on the Sidcup bypass 1935-36 (Dutch Expressionist-style brickwork not the firm's more usual Art Deco Great West Road American style); the HMV Factory, Hayes; the Chatou Factory, Paris; the Daimler Hire building London; Victoria Coach Station (pictured), Buckingham Palace Road SW1 (recently refurbished); and the Philips Factory, Commerce Way, Croydon, 1955-57. So many factories by Wallis, Gilbert and Partners were built along the Great West Road that at one time it was nicknamed Wallis Avenue.
The design work for most of the above buildings was carried out by Thomas Wallis together with unnamed partners. Thomas Wallis (1873-1953) was born in Streatham London, the son of a builder. After the Second World War Thomas's son Douglas took over his father's practice. One might ask who Gilbert was? This appears to be a difficult question to answer and perhaps he never existed. The name might just have been invented to give the practice a name which sounded good, redolent of Gilbert Scott perhaps.
Anyway Wallis, Gilbert and Partners was set up in conjunction with the Trussed Concrete Steel Company, a division of which was established in Britain in 1909 by the American Moritz Kahn. Trussed Concrete's purpose was to campaign for and construct reinforced-concrete industrial buildings using the Kahn System. Reinforced concrete was not popular in Britain at the time (1914) but with Trussed Concrete supplying the necessary engineering know-how and having American connections enabling it to secure clients in the shape of successful American industrialists wishing to break into the British market, this was an excellent opening for the talented young architect Thomas Wallis to make use of. Bob Carr
Belgians in Britain during the First World War
About 117,000 Belgian men women and children settled in Britain during the First World War (GLIAS Newsletter February 1994; GLIAS Newsletter August 1994) when most of their country was occupied by the Germans. It appears not all these Belgians stayed here as houseguests or lodgers as they probably did in Richmond.
There was a Belgian Government in Exile and at Birtley in County Durham a large munitions factory was set up with Belgians living in their own town administered by Belgians. This was called Elisabethville and local Birtley people were not admitted.
It had its own school, shop, church, police station and post office etc staffed by Belgians. Families lived in pre-fabricated bungalows and the streets had Belgian names. The population was about 6,000 and there was Belgian-type beer.
By the beginning of 1919 most Elisabethville residents had gone home but the buildings remained until the late 1930s. The street names were changed soon after the Great War and the area was rebuilt as an ordinary British housing estate after the Second World War. Bob Carr
The Native Guano Company works in Kingston-upon-Thames were on the site of what (at least until very recently) was Kingston B electric power station (GLIAS Newsletter December 1994). Opened in 1888 and using machinery by Willans and Robinson of Thames Ditton, sewage from Kingston and Surbiton was treated at the guano works to produce water clean enough to be put into the Thames and solid matter that was dried, ground and sold as fertiliser. Hampton Wick joined the scheme a little later, sending its sewage to the Guano Works by pipe via the adjacent railway bridge. The fertiliser produced became a British export and according to the local press boosted harvests in Singapore and helped to promote the growth of sugar in Barbados.
Unfortunately the smell in the town from the sludge drying caused complaints and the Corporation was forced to terminate the guano company's lease in 1909. The guano works moved to Southall and sludge was sent there by barge from Kingston for conversion into fertiliser. Despite this initial setback the use of fertiliser prepared from sewage has persisted in the area and products for horticulturists have been available from local treatment plants elsewhere for much of the time since the closure of the works in Down Hall Road. There is no denying the efficacy of this fertiliser in promoting plant growth but the present writer has been informed by a local gardener that it does have a drawback for domestic garden use. Tomato seeds will still germinate after passing through the human digestive system and an unacceptable amount of weeding in the garden becomes necessary to remove all the would be tomato plants. The fertiliser is pleasant to handle, consisting of rich brown granules. Bob Carr
Proposed Greenwich by-pass road
Greenwich Council has commissioned engineering consultants Colin Buchanan and Partners to carry out a feasibility study on Greenwich's town centre traffic problem. One of the proposed solutions is to build a one-mile concrete box tunnel along the foreshore from Tunnel Glucose Refinery to Pope & Bond barge- builders near the 'Cutty Sark", which would completely destroy Canaletto's view of Greenwich.
Another solution is to have a cut-and-cover bypass through Blackheath.
Environmental groups and others are strongly opposed to the destruction of the foreshore and the destruction of homes with the Blackheath proposal. Editor
Devotees of real ale should note that even in 1800 people thought that big breweries were ruining the beer. If they examine the 1813 Horwood Plan they will see marked 'Genuine Beer Brewery' in Golden Lane. This was the site of the best known of London's early gas making plants. I am not going to pretend that it is obscure; it has been well written up by a number of people (E.G.Stewart, Dean Chandler. & A. Douglas Lacey, Sir Arthur Elton, Hugh Barty King). They have all, however, made one very basic mistake. The Golden Lane Brewery was not owned by Whitbreads, whose Brewery was just round the corner in Chiswell Street. I will write about their contribution to the early gas industry in a future article. They were, as a big commercial brewer, the deadliest rivals of Golden Lane and contributed to their downfall. The Golden Lane Brewery has a fascinating history which has been detailed by Peter Mathias.
I am not going to go into a lot of detail about the Golden Lane works. Those who are interested can look at the authors mentioned above. In summary: the works was set up in 1207 and gas from it was subsequently used for a demonstration of street lighting in Beech Street. This was arranged by the local Alderman, Matthew Wood, the politician and City of London 'improver', who may also have had an interest in the brewery. He was to support a number of other gas companies.
It is not known who installed the Golden Lane plant. Winsor disclaimed it publicly. Elton speculated about William Murdoch, who was involved with an isinglass manufacturer opposite the brewery, as Mathias also noted. It also seems likely that the Brewery owners took over a Boulton and Watt steam engine installed by the previous occupant. Stewart (who confused it hopelessly with the Whitbread plant) ascribed it to Pemberton a Birmingham factory owner who had some connections with Boulton and Watt.
One of the most interesting things about Golden Lane is that they were prepared to invest in the new technology that gas represented. But it is typical of London cynicism that the locals were not impressed: 'the flame issuing from the chimneys has afforded nightly amusement to the frequenters of the neighbouring alehouses'. Today the Golden Lane Brewery site is covered with housing - Peabody and local authority. In 1810 this was one of the most. exciting areas in London as a network of new industries grew up; brewing and gas were major contributors.
References :
A to Z of Regency London, Harry Margary, Lympne Castle, 1985.
Hugh Barty-King, New Flame, Graphmitre, Tavistock, 1988.
D. Chandler & A. Douglas Lacey, The Rise of the Gas Industry in Britain, British Gas Council, London, 1949.
Sir Arthur Elton, Triumph of Gas Lights.
Peter Mathias, The Brewing Industry in England 1700-1830, London, CUP, 1959.
Stewart, E.G. A Historical Index of Gasworks Past and Present in the area now served by North Thames Gas Board, NTGas, 1958.
Also: Thanks to N. Redman, Archivist, Whitbread PLC. Mary Mills
A conference held by NRAG on October 22nd considered a paper by Fred Clarke (Southgate Civic Society) and Don Hackett (Haringey Wildlife Trust). This dealt with the future of the Hornsey Waterworks and Alexandra Park filter beds, which are no longer needed by Thames Water. It included a proposal to establish a TV museum in the old BBC station of Alexandra Palace. A revised paper is being prepared. The proposal by Thames Water to develop the filter beds at Stoke Newington independently of the two reservoirs there, went a step further when TW submitted a planning application for housing, which would occupy the whole site. NRAG have objected on the grounds that no funds would therefore be made available for amenity development of the two reservoirs.
At a talk given by Elain Harwood of English Heritage, at the Enfield Archaeological Society, it was learned that her work on the New River bed produced new information on the sluice house at Bush Hill and that it was built by William Mylne in 1796.
The sluice house has since been listed. Don Munday
LTE Stockwell Garage, London SW8
The following notes are based on a personal diary kept by the Agent, David Shennan, who was in charge of the construction over 40 years ago.
The main garage is formed by ten reinforced concrete ribs of nearly 200ft. span, and intermediate vaulted roof spans. The unobstructed floor area is almost 200ft. x 400ft. or say about 75,000 sq. ft. It is now in 1993, a Grade Il Listed Structure. In addition, supporting facilities included an office block, workshops, machine room, boiler house and stores.
Nine tenders were submitted in March 1950, the successful one being only marginally below the second. The next three were some 5% higher. Doubts were raised about the price being too low, but these were resolved when the scaffolding sub-contractor indicated that the contractor's design of mobile centring was substantially cheaper than what they had proposed to other tenderers. At a meeting with the Architects, at the end of May 1950, it was confirmed that there were still 9 large houses on the site awaiting demolition (most of the others had been brought down by enemy action in the 1940s). Tentative starting dates proposed were 1st July 1950 for the Office Block and ist August for the Main Garage. During this period the bulk of the somewhat complex drawings for centring and shuttering were prepared.
In the post-war period 1950-1952 the supply of materials could still present some of the wartime difficulties. This applied particularly to timber and reinforcing steel.Steel panels were therefore used as much as practicable for shuttering. The sides of the arch ribs were a combination of standard steel panels and specially built timber panels at top and bottom. Reinforcement priorities were altered to concentrate on supply to Office Block and ancillary buildings (if need be, buses could be parked in the open). The first stage therefore included 3 only of the arched ribs, as the supply of steel was so uncertain.
There was also a shortage of experienced supervising staff such as carpenter foremen, and general foremen who could control several hundred men. As construction progressed (slowly), changes had to be made, but eventually a first-class team emerged with corresponding improvement in production and efficiency of working.
Work on site started with the laying of blinding concrete over consolidated hardcore in the Main Garage floor area. On this were laid steel channels on Larssen piles which formed the runways along which rollers under the arch centring travelled.
The centring was arranged in five sections - 2 haunches, 2 intermediate and one central. As each section was concreted and matured, the centring under it could then be jacked on to rollers and moved to the next bay.
A minimum of scaffolding on the trailing side of the rib was all that had to be dismantled and re-erected. Before any centring could be erected however, trenches had to be excavated for the ties which took the arch thrust. 1½ inch dia. bars were butt welded and subsequently encased in concrete. After the initial successful use of the arch rib shutters on one wall of the end box beam, there was a local slip of the shutter forming the second wall of the box, due to omission of some through-bolts. After rectification the box rib was completed without further trouble. Difficulty was experienced in placing concrete at the arch springings due to the limited clearance available where column and rib steel intersected. After trying various mixes this problem was solved by re-location of bars so that a poker vibrator could be inserted. A new problem arose when 7 day cubes failed to come up to specification core and sonic tests confirmed this. No satisfactory explanation was found, in spite of the comments of several experts who were called in. The most likely explanation seemed to be a concentration of silt caused by a heavy downpour of rain, washing it down to the bottom of the batch plant sand hopper. Welding of 1½ inch dia. reinforcement was another early problem. Some failures could be attributed to lack of skill, but in cold weather chilling took place unless precautions were taken. It took time to discover a suitable electrode, and access was not easy particularly in the tie-rod trenches. There were over 1000 butt welds. David Shennan
With reference to Don Clow's item on the new Beckton DLR extension (GLIAS Newsletter October 1994) members might be interested to know that the view at the end of the line is no longer quite as bleak. 'Robert' an 0-6-0 standard gauge saddle tank locomotive built by Avonside of Bristol, now resides on a plinth for travellers' appreciation. Restored by Historic Steam Ltd, the trading arm of Kew Bridge Steam Museum, the locomotive is another of LDDC's 'industrial sculptures'. (Historic Steam has also previously restored two grain pumps from the Rank Hovis Empire mill.)
Unfortunately 'Robert' has no connection with Beckton Gasworks, having been built in 1933 for the Staveley Coal and Iron Company. However in recent years it resided at North Woolwich as part of a private collection. Restoration has been largely cosmetic, but nothing has been done to the engine which might prevent restoration to working order at some future date.
HELP NEEDED - Following my recent GLIAS lecture on the Europe's Industrial Legacy, I would be most grateful if any members who know of sites in Europe could send me details, no matter how sketchy, for the database I am preparing. On the other hand if you are going abroad this year and would like a listing of sites to visit I can provide that, as long as any updates or extra information are relayed back to me. Further information from 31, The High Street, Farnborough, Kent BR6 7BQ or tel: 0689 852186. Sue Hayton