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GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY

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Notes and news — June 1995

The Twenty-how-many-th AGM?

Members who attended the AGM will recall that there was some confusion as to the number of the meeting. The notice convening it said the 24th, but we were asked to approve the minutes of last year's meeting as the 25th, implying that the 1995 meeting was the 26th.

To be honest I thought last year's minutes were correct, because I had calculated the number from the records I hold as secretary but, since I did not have the records with me and I had not gone right back to the beginning, I thought it best to say nothing in case I was wrong. However, I thought the record should be put absolutely straight so I have been looking into the archives. The 'Formation Meeting' of GUIAS, as it is described, was held on 12th April 1969. The FIRST AGM and it is clearly so described in the minutes, was held on 4th July 1970. Calculating from there the 1995 AGM was the 26th. It seems that everything went well until 1984 when the 15th meeting was advertised as the 16th and the minutes followed suit, thus putting both one number ahead. Then in 1986 what should have been the 17th meeting was advertised as the 19th, but this was corrected the next year when the notice again said the 19th!

The minutes went on in sequence so that in 1987 everything came back to being one ahead. This continued until last year when the notice remained one ahead in advertising the 26th meeting, but I was right to call it the 25th in the minutes, although the previous year's minutes were also for the 25th meeting! I am unclear why this year's notice said the 24th AGM — let's just say it was an aberration.

Confused? I don't blame you, but let's hope we can keep confusion out of it in the future. BILL FIRTH

When listing isn't enough

The timely and welcome listing of the Thames Tunnel casts a new light upon what has become a perennial issue in the Newsletter.

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link Bill, currently in its Commons committee stage, proposes the removal of listed building consent inside the limits of deviation' within which the new railway will be built. When the Bill is passed the builders of the railway will have the right to demolish structures, using an abbreviated and limited consultation exercise with the local authority, subject to appeal to an inspector appointed by the Secretary of States of Environment and Transport, who of course, cannot be said to be entirely disinterested in the outcome. The Committee hopes that the issue of individual buildings can be dealt with by negotiation between the promoters and petitioners, and need not be brought before them. The petitioners say that the limits of deviation are too large, and are much greater than the path of the line (and its ancillary buildings) require. For example, the St. Pancras terminus includes part of King's Cross, the Great Northern Hotel as well as the listed gas-holders, St. Pancras itself and the waterpoint, part of the German Gymnasium, and the Stanley buildings. The demolition of some of these is clearly required to build the line, but not all. But the builders, who will be the new owners of Union Railways, will have a free hand to remove what they wish, whether for operational reasons or not.

This important matter of principle has received relatively little attention and it is being left up to King's Cross Conservation Advisory Committee and others, such as the Victorian Society, to highlight this major defect. And there is a quandary.

Should the merits of the various buildings be advanced when it is clear that they may have to be demolished whatever line is built? Should the issue be that of principle alone, and the value of individual structures not be brought to the attention of the Committee?

The issue of the St. Pancras gas-holders illustrates how little the promoters are prepared to go out of their way to accommodate modest conservation issues. Whatever line is built they will have to go. Though Union Railways have commissioned a report from Dorothea Restorations to show that resiting of the Siamese triplet is technically entirely feasible, and at a moderate cost in relation to the whole project, they have agreed no proposals for saving this unique structure. What hope then for the other buildings, most of them listed, within the limits of deviation?

If this Bill goes through in its current unacceptable state, it will create a precedent for other promoters to wriggle free from the constraints of listed building consent in a similar manner. What will protect the Thames Tunnel then? With regard to the Channel Tunnel Bill, GUIAS AGM adopted a resolution to condemn this unsatisfactory state of affairs. Might I suggest that those who feel similarly contact their MP or members of the Committee to register their protest? CHARLES NORRIE

Angarsk

You may have noticed the photograph of a Russian steamship on page 32 of Tim Smith's recent excellent publication, 25 years of GLIAS. The ship in question was a regular visitor to London and in the 1970s could often be seen in the Surrey Commercial or Millwall Docks.

She was built at Rostock in former East Germany in 1956 by VEB Schiffswerft Neptun and registered in Leningrad (now St Petersburg). Her ice-strengthened hull was of welded and riveted construction and gross tonnage was 3,258.

The Angarsk generally brought cargoes of timber from the Baltic and perhaps Northern Russia. She was one of a class of about 15 vessels, built by the Neptun yard 1953-8. Length overall was 335 feet and beam overall 47 feet.

Readers will probably be most interested in the steam engine which propelled the ship. At her date of building reciprocating steam engines were becoming unusual for new ships. Angarsk had a four-cylinder compound engine with a low-pressure turbine for the final stage of steam expansion. There were two cylinders of 465mm bore and two of 1,000mm bore with a common stroke of 1,000mm (ie one metre). Power output was 1,828kW (2,450ihp) giving a speed of 12½ knots. This engine was built in Magdeburg by Schermaschine Karl Liebknecht. The Angarsk was oil-fired and carried up to 589.5 tonnes of oil fuel (tonnes of 2,205 lbs).

The present writer took considerable trouble in the late 1970s to try to arrange a visit for GLIAS but at that time such a visit required the permission of a Russian citizen and despite correspondence with the Russian Embassy we never managed to achieve this. How times have changed. Bob Carr

Foxtrot U475

An ex-Soviet submarine designated 'Foxtrot' class by NATO, is moored one-and-a-half cable lengths East of the Woolwich Barrier, on the South bank of the Thames and is open to the public. A visit to this submarine, providing you do not suffer from claustrophobia, should impress you with the sheer physical size of this 'conventional' boat. It is worth bearing in mind that quite a lot of equipment has been removed to facilitate visitor access and to give a clearer view of the craft. It must be said that the removal of this equipment has been conducted with much care and sensitivity. Balance all this apparent space against the fact that this boat was home to 75 crew members sharing one shower and two toilets for up to three months at a time, with temperatures reaching 50 degrees Celsius and the scale of the cramped conditions are now brought into perspective. This class of conventional submarine was probably one of the most successful in the Soviet fleet, proving exceptionally difficult to locate by NATO anti-submarine detection equipment. This success is undoubtedly due to Soviet technology, however, the engineering finish (or lack of it) bears no resemblance to that found in British warships and for anyone interested in engineering, historical or otherwise, this boat is worth a visit. For further information regarding a visit, telephone 0181-854 8090. PETER J. SKILTON

The Midland Railway's City Goods Depot

Royal Mint Street, E.1. (NGR: TQ 339808)

The Midland Railway's City Goods Dapot, also known as 'Mint Street Depot' was on the south side of the London & Blackwall Railway viaduct, just east of Mansell Street. It opened on 1st October 1862 and was closed by British Railways on 1st July 1949. The cleared site has been used as a car park for several years. The entrance to the Docklands Light Railway tunnel to Bank is on the site. There remains a tall hydraulic accumulator tower in the north-west corner.

The depot was on a compact site and was awkward to work. Hydraulic power was used from the outset, with engines and boilers under the viaduct arch just east of the accumulator tower. There were two steam pumping engines, one of 24 horsepower and one of 30 horsepower, and two boilers, with a 150' chimney outside the arch. A hydraulic wagon hoist, adjacent to the next arch to the east, brought trucks down to the low level goods depot where there were three tracks, roughly parallel with the viaduct, linked together via wagon turntables. A loading bank, between the first two tracks, had five hydraulic Granes. Four sidings, from wagon turntables, led into the viaduct arches, each with loading banks and a hydraulic crane. A fifth siding led from the wagon hoist into the arch behind, but, although there was a loading bank, there was no crane. There was an office at the west end.

For the first twenty years, shunting was performed by seven horses, a group of ten being kept in stables nearby. About 1882, two capstans were fitted at the upper level and two more on the lower level. Snatch-heads or fairleads (unpowered dummy capstans) strategically placed, allowed all wagon movements to be performed by these capstans. In 1923 the London, Midland and Scottish Railway inherited City Goods, together with the nearby Haydon Square depot (formerly owned by the London & North Western) and Commercial Road depot (built for the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway). The latter had a large warehouse above it, leased to the Port of London Authority. In 1923, the PLA complained to the LMS about the high cost of hydraulic power, which the LMS supplied to the warehouse from a pumping station in Hooper Street. The LMS found that by switching to a supply from the London Hydraulic Power Company they could reduce the cost by 30%. It is highly probable that the LMS changed over to LHP at the City Goods Depot soon afterwards.

The original hydraulic installation must have had an accumulator tower, but it is not known where it was. The present tower first appears on the Ordnance Survey plan in 1939. It is not shown on the previous plan of 1921. So it was probably built by the LMS as a prerequisite of switching to the LHP supply.

The tower is rectangular in plan, built of red brick with a hipped, slate roof. There is a door in each end wall, with a shallow, segmental arch above. At the equivalent of second floor level there are four windows in the south wall, in panels between five piers. There is a similar window in a larger panel on the west side, and a door of the same size in the east wall. At the north-east corner, on the east wall, a rolled steel beam projects at a level just below the bottom of the door, as if to support a balcony. The reason for having a door here was to give access to the top of the accumulator. Some accumulator towers, the one at Hooper Street for example, have internal ladders affixed to the wall for this purpose.

On the south wall, two columns of circular tie-plates can be seen, on the second and fourth piers. These hold in place 12" by 10" timbers which supported the accumulator guides. The two accumulators have been removed but the lower sections of the cylinders are in situ, showing them to be 2' in diameter The tower is approximately 40' to the eaves, so the accumulators were, perhaps, 18" ram diameter by 18' stroke. Butt joints in the brickwork of north and south walls, just east of the centre, show that the western half was built first, for one accumulator. The eastern half was added to house a second accumulator. That the tower survived the closure of the depot in 1949 suggests that the accumulators were regarded as forming part of the LHP network rather than being specific to the LMS depot. Perhaps they were owned by LHP. TIM SMITH

News from Crossness

Crossness Engines Trust held its Annual General Meeting in Welling, Kent, on May 4th. The Trust's Chairman, John Ridley, in his yearly report, told members of the progress made during the preceding year and emphasised the importance of the signing of a lease with Thames Water Utilities. He reported on the achievements of the engine restoration group and the painting team's work in the 'Octagon'. John continued with an outline of plans for the future and an urgent request for a replacement Treasurer and Public Relations Officer.

There followed the elections of members of the Board, a Chairman, and Vice-Chairman and this brought the A.G.M. to a conclusion and a break for refreshments. The second half of the evening was devoted to a talk by Lesley Bossine from Kew Steam Museum. Lesley deliverd a most interesting talk on the establishment of Kew Steam Museum and pointed out similarities and differences.

Open Day

Last year many members of GLIAS visited Crossness Engines on our Open Day and learnt something of our aims to restore one of the four great James Watt rotative beam engines and the engine house that houses them. On the 29th April 1995 we were open to the public again, this time in conjunction with the Garden Scale Model Railway Society. The day was a success in spite of a change in access route. On gaining our lease with T.W.U. we also acquired our own 'front door? which requires visitors to Crossness Engines to follow a new route to our site. (Please see enclosed map.)

Crossness Engines is pleased to announce their next Open Day on 1st July 1995 and hope that many GLIAS members will come to see how much progress has been made. I can assure you of a warm welcome. TOSHER

Three Mills, Bromley-by-Bow

Three Mills, Bromley-by-Bow, is well known as an industrial archaeological site. It must be the most active IA site closest to the centre of London. The tidal House Mill has undergone partial restoration. During the winter the adjacent Visitor Centre has been completed and the Mill will be open between 2pm and 4pm on Sunday afternoons during the summer from 14th May. Access is easy. Take the slip road for the Tesco supermarket off the southbound A102 (Blackwall Tunnel Northern Approach Road) and turn down Three Mills Lane immediately before the store. You may park on Tesco's carpark. The 108 and S2 buses stop outside the store and it is only a short walk from Bromley-by-Bow station on the District Line.

Besides milling grain for the bakery trade, the mills also ground for the very large distillery which occupies another part of the overall site.

A nucleus of volunteers has been formed to act as guides but more are needed to enable the opening periods of the mill to be extended. Volunteers are also needed to carry out other functions such as model-making, preparation of explanatory panels and drawings, restoring parts of the equipment and researching the history of the mill. Anyone interested should write to Michael I. Burkham at 84 Richmond Road, London SW20 OPD. Phone 0181-947 8702; Fax 0181 946 3165. PATRICK GRAHAM

A well-known gas works in West London

Hansard records a House of Lords discussion on 1st March 1975 about the demolition of the Department of the Environment's Marsham Street, SW1 building. Viscount Ullswater told the House that this was the site of the 'first public gas works'.

From the gas historian's point of view the site is anything but obscure. The Gas Light & Coke Company's Great Peter Street gas works must be the best known in the world! It was the 'first operational public gas works', set up by Winsor, Grant, Hargreaves & Barlow, and largely designed by Samuel Clegg. It first supplied gas for lighting in September 1813. I would refer interested readers to Sterling Everard (History of the Gas Light & Coke Co., Benn Bros, 1949) and to E G Stewart (A Historical Index of Gasworks Past & Present in the area now served by North Thames Gas Board, NTGas, 1958).

Before 1811 the site, Providence Court, had been a Cudbear works. This was a lichen and ammonia based dye for which the process had been developed in Scotland by Charles Mackintosh but illicitly passed by one of his workers to a Mr Grant. It may be co-incidental that the first Chairman of the Gas Light & Coke Co. was also a Mr Grant. When Westminster Works was closed for gas making in 1875, two large holders were built there. They appear on contemporary maps and anyone who walks down Peter Street today can see that these holder sites appear to match the large circular structures on which the 1960s office block rests. E G Stewart explained that in 1941 the tanks of the two holders were converted into 'heavily reinforced underground strongholds each equipped to house several thousand Government officials.. joined by tube railway to similar strongholds'. Stewart gave no source for this information which has been repeated in several books on 'secret' or 'underground' London. Viscount. Ullswater told the Lords that 'the towers of 2 Marsham Street are built on the rotundas of two large gasholders'. Over the years I have met people who claim to have seen inside the rotundas, which are alleged to go down at least four storeys. This begs the question of how these gas holder tanks from the 1870s could have been deep enough for thousands of civil servants and a tube railway. Does anything remain of the actual tanks? If so it would be of exceptional interest to the industrial archeaologist. Marsham Street is to be sold, perhaps to developers, and 'when demolition takes place the base of the rotundas will be removed and contamination will be dealt with'. (Vis. Ullswater again.) We can be sure that the Ministry will have removed anything of real interest long before that. Meanwhile, is there an industrial archaeologist with security clearance who can go and have a look?

This article includes information taken from A. & N. Clow, The Chemical Revolution, Blatchworth, London, 1952, and material from the City of Westminster archives department. MARY MILLS

Beckton and other gas works railways in London

1. 'Gas Light and Steen' by M. Millichip, published by British Gas at £9.50. Available from the British Gas Museum, Bromley-by-Bow, E3 3JH at £9.50 + £2.00 p&p.

2. 'Railways of Beckton, Part 1. 1868-1973 by J.E.Connor in Issue 1 October 1994 of 'The London Railway Record' and Part 2 in Issue 2 — January 1995. Published by Connor & Butler at £2.00/issue.

I have long wondered why one of the most interesting of the large industrial rail networks in the UK has been almost completely neglected by writers. In my youth I spent many an hour from the vantage point of the Northern Outfall Sewer watching the Beckton gasworks railway in operation. The lack of documentation has now been adequately remedied in two ways.

Although the country gasworks could function on wheelbarrow transport, a large gas works could not have functioned without an efficient mechanical handling system, and this often included a railway network for getting coal to and coke away from the retorts as well as the handling of by-products and waste materials. Beckton possessed the supreme example of a gasworks railway system, and at its peak operated about 50 locomotives moving some 10,000 tons of materials each day. It had well equipped workshop facilities with the capacity. to carry out major rebuilds of locos and even built two in 1902. In the main gasworks there were nine miles of high level track on viaducts for transporting coal from the riverside wharfs to the retort houses. 32 miles of track at ground level dealt mainly with coke from the retorts. Inclines connected the two natworks, two with gradients as steep as 1 in 30, and one at 1 in 40 which provided more than enough ample noise and smoke as the squat locos blasted their loads up the inclines. The very squat form of the locos was necessary to enable them to enter the retort houses. The extensive Products works used locos of more conventional appearance and that system operated more or less independently of the gasworks railway even to the extent of the locos having different liveries. The shift from coal gas manufacture in the mid-1960s saw the rapid demise of the Beckton railways.

Millichip's book covers not only Beckton but 26 other gasworks railways of the former North Thames Gas Board and its constituent companies. Like Beckton, most railways were of standard gauge but five had narrow gauge systems each of a different gauge. In addition, Shoreditch had an unusual automatic railway without locos. The 219 page book is well produced with 49 photographs and lay- out diagrams of most of the works. A summary of the history of each gasworks is included. The 'Steam' in the title also extends to the collier ships which brought coal to several of the works. It would have helped if a brief description of gasworks operation had been included. Connor's article reviewed below does this effectively and concisely. The Millichip book is not an easy read and would have benefited from more rigorous editing and proof-reading but its merits clearly cutweigh such reservations.

'The London Railway Record' articles deal only with Beckton. Part 1 concentrates on the gasworks railway and Part 2 deals with the Docklands Light Railway to Beckton and the association of its route with the past. The 'Record' is a new magazine which is devoted basically to railways within the former GLC boundary. The April 1995 issue incidentally has an article on the nearby Gallions Branch of the PLA system.

Neither Millichip nor Connor mention that part of the Beckton system which took waste materials to the 'Beckton Alps' dumping ground — the track ran along the summit ridge and materials were tipped down the steep slopes — and I can recall seeing wagons which had followed their contents down the slope! However, neither author mentions the legend that a loco was buried under the spoil. The Alps reached 16 metres in height and covered an area of 12 acres — the contents were mainly boiler ah, clinker, iron oxide and lime residues, with much colourful blue staining from ferric ferrocyanide. DON CLOW

Letters to the editor

  • From David Thomas, who writes :
    Re: 25 Years of GLIAS

    I bemusedly read page 11 of the booklet, listing past events. Firstly, a confession. The walk from Wolverton to Northampton never happened. It was planned for a day in the midst of an industrial dispute affecting local trains from Euston. The small group who gathered there decided not to risk being stranded at Northampton. Secondly, the walk alongside the definitely unnavigable Ver was in the midst of a programme of canal-side ones. It included passing Redbournbury Mill, which is now restored (see Diary for open days). The group included two friends of members' who subsequently married, and are living happily ever after.

  • Mr. A. B. Knight has written as follows :
    Thank you for GLIAS 157 just received, with pleasure. Just a note on listed railway stations, (page 6).

    There is a permanent exhibition of the work of Charles Holden in the centre of Arnos Grove Station, in the old ticket kiosk.

    One of the few original stations on the west coast main line (ex LMS) is at Hatch End, red brick with white facings and clock tower, probably about 100 years old.

  • And one from Mary Mills:
    Friends of the Earth have been on to me, following my article on the Poplar Gas Works in the last Newsletter. They are worried about damage to their image among GLIAS members. GLIAS is a non-political organisation and it would not be proper for it to comment on Friends of the Earth's main role — which is to campaign on environmental issues. GLIAS' role is to research old industrial sites and I am sure that CUAS members understand that difference, and judge Friends of the Earth in their main role according to their own political views. I would however comment that I have had more responses on that article from GLAS members than on any previous occasion.

  • From Pam Moore, Chairman of SUIAG and Secretary of the Twyford Trust:
    Ron Mapp, Administrator of the Twyford Waterworks Trust, member of Southampton University IA Group and former GUIAS member, died on 13th May 1995 after a short illness.

    A Londoner, Ron was born in 1920, and after studying engineering at West Ham Municipal College, had several jobs. After service in the Army, Ron became a draughtsman at the Power Flexible Metallic Tubing Co.; he 'climbed the ladder' and stayed with the company until his retirement, as Standards Manager in 1983. One of his last tasks was to design a manual of Bellows Expansion Joints — this he completed on the day of his retirement. It is now used all over the world. After retirement, Ron and his wife Kath decided to move to Hampshire — Ron hoped to pursue his hobbies of DIY and photography. Little did he know how much his skills would be channelled in a particular direction!

    Waiting to meet up with a coach party from GUAS at Coultershaw, they encountered the Secretary of SUIAG. The coach was late, by the time it had arrived, we had got to know each other and soon Ron and Kath joined SUIAG. When the Twyford Waterworks Trust were seeking an Administrator soon afterwards, we approached Ron and he agreed to take on the role.

    This was indeed fortuitous for Twyford project. Ron's many talents — as well as administration, he was skilled in photography, display, woodwork, lecturing, leading visits — the list of tasks he could tackle was very long indeed. He had a vast capacity for hard work and his enthusiasm and dedication have ensured that the project developed positively as it was steered through its formative years.

    Now it will not be long before Twyford is 'in steam'... and I feel very sad that Ron, who has contributed so much to the achievement, did not live to see it. Just before he was taken ill he completed a fine piece of work - the painting of the plaque presented to us by the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust. As with so much at Twyford, it will remind us of Ron every time we see it.

    The Twyford project owes much to a late coach! It also owes much to Ron Mapp and to Kath who was always his support and companion. I will miss Ron a great deal, not just as a colleague, but also as a dear and valued friend. Our sympathy goes to Kath and Michelle, his daughter, in their loss.

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