More around the Meridian – It’s seldom possible to actually walk for more than a few yards actually on the Greenwich Meridian in London and while planning my Meridian Walk I often wandered around considerably, having to make detours and also looking for the more interesting routes. So not all these images are exactly on the Meridian, but most were taken within a short distance from it.
When I began this project the Meridian was not marked on the Ordnance Survey or Street maps, and one of may first tasks was to get a ruler and pencil it on to them. In 1999 it was added to the OS maps of the area, but does not seem to be on the latest versions. In 1995 there were no smart phones with online maps and GPS which would have made things so much easier.
The Greenway was the recently rebranded path above the Northern Outfall Sewer which rans across East London from Hackney Wick to the sewage treatment plant at Beckton, going under the road here close the the bridge over Abbey Creek on the Channelsea River, where Abbey Lane becomes Abbey Road. You can see the bridge at the left of the picture.
Greenway, Channelsea River, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1153
The Greenway is a great traffic-free cycle route for pedestrians and cyclists, running straight and level and this picture gives some evidence of that.
Channelsea River, Long Wall, Stratford, Newham, 1995, 95p4-1111
I’m not sure what this pipe was for, perhaps for taking gas across the river. Not far away on the other side of this tidal creek was one of the largest gas works in London – and you can still see its listed gasholders, though the view is likely to change soon with the site being redeveloped.
But behind me when I made this picture was the Abbey Mills sewage pumping station and on the edge of the creek below were the storm outfalls where sewage would be released after heavy rains. With the changing tides it would flow downstream a little and then could be taken miles upriver along the Prescott channel and the River Lea.
Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321
I think the Meridian went through the centre of the taller gas holder at Poplar Gas works.
Flats, East India Dock Rd, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1321
Another view with the gasholders in the background.
Clove Crescent, East India, DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1273
My pencilled line for the Meridian shows it going through both the water in the dock and the brick building at left which was the former Blackwall Power Station in both of these pictures.
Clove Crescent, East India DLR, South Bromley, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-1263
South of the East India Docks the line crosses the River Thames above and between the two bores of the Blackwall Tunnel, closer to the original western tunnel now used by northbound traffic. I couldn’t take photographs in the tunnel – though it was possible for those on foot to take a bus across, but these would have been rather boring in any case.
This picture shows the southern entrance to the tunnel with its 1897 Grade II listed gatehouse by the London County Council’s Superintending Architect Thomas Blashill. In front of it a less ornate red and white striped arch with heigh and weight restriction signs and hangers to hit any overtall vehicles and hopefully prevent damage to the gatehouse.
One picture not I think actually on the Meridian but not far from it, taken from the long footbridge over the Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach.
Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1762
My path continued south along the riverside path, with the Meridian going into the River Thames on the extreme left of this picture.
Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1742
I kept to the land continuing along a path I’ve walked many times and making a few more pictures.
Riverside Path, Greenwich, 1995, 95p4-1743
Like much of London’s riverside almost all of the industry has now gone, but some relics remain, though most of this part of my route is now lined by rather boring flats.
I left London for a weekend in the middle of May 1989, going up to a conference in Derbyshire, taking the train from St Pancras to Chesterfield and then a bus journey with my family. We had come up to London by train and taken the Underground from Vauxhall to Kings Cross/St Pancras, arriving far too early for the train we had tickets reserved on.
I’m not sure if this was accidental or part of a plan by me to take a short walk and made some pictures before catching the train, but that is what I did, walking up York Road and then down to the Regent’s Canal on Goods Way to make this view across the canal.
A little further west on Goods Way I stopped at the bridge over the canal leading to the Granary. As you can see the view of the Granary then was restricted by a number of rather utilitarian buildings on the yard in front of it.
Further still along Goods Way, the road itself was between tall brick walls but gave a splendid view of the magnificent gas holders, including the fine triplet. I think some of the brick wall at right may remain, covered now in creeper, but on the left side are now new office buildings and no gasholders are in sight, with St Pancras International in their place. It’s a change I still find depressing, though at least the gas holders have been preserved in a new site.
I turned left into Pancras Road to take another picture of the block of shops containing the entrance to the Turnhalle (the German Gymnasium) with on one side the St Pancras Cafe and on the corner G Franchi & Sons, Locksmiths and Tools, with two ladders for sale leaning on its frontage.
I think photographers since W H Fox Talbot had always had a bit of a thing about ladders which perhaps made me take another picture of this scene, and I chose also to include the London taxi at left. I will have waited too for the man walking along the street to clear the shop, but as always there were also some elements outside my control.
Finally it was time to board my train and we were allowed onto the platform where it was waiting. I just had time to walk almost to the end of the platform and made this picture before we left the station.
Baslow Edge, Derbyshire,1989
We did eventually get to Derbyshire and there was time while we were they for some short walks and I took just a few pictures. The first is I think on Baslow Edge.
Goods Way, Gasholders & St Pancras: My walk around King’s Cross continued after the walk led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society finished on Saturday 8th April 1989 . The previous post was More from King’s Cross Goods Yard.
I walked west along Goods Way, running parallel to the canal a short distance to the south. It was a way I’d walked before and I didn’t stop to make many photographs. Ii wanted to photograph the bridge across the canal to the goods yard, but couldn’t get the view I wanted and had to make a note to come back another day – which I did a couple of weeks later when I arrived early to take a train from St Pancras.
But this rather nicely proportioned building seemed worth recording at 3 and 3A, perhaps offices and a factory at right, particularly as it seemed unlikely to survive the redevelopment of the area. You can see the girders of a gasholder reflected in the window above the main doorway.
This splendid group of gasholders is of course no longer at the corner of Goods Way and Camley Street. The last gasholder on Goods Way, on the south side and not included in this picture was demolished around 2010 while these ones were moved a short distance away to the other bank of the canal by St Pancras Lock.
The large name on the wall, HADEN YOUNG were electrical contractors and one of the smaller signs is for Balfour Beatty. The gasworks had been here and although the UK had been converted to gas the gasholders were still being used for storage.
Another view of the gasholders, this time from close to the bridge under the lines out of St Pancras, now underneath the widened viaduct for the Eurostar high speed rail link. Nothing in this picture remains in place, with gasholders and the brick Victorian water tower having been re-sited and the rest demolished.
St Pancras Station, Pancras Rd, Somers Town, Camden, 1989 89-4g-15
Pancras Road runs down the west side of St Pancras Station and this view disappeared with the building of St Pancras International Station which was officially opened in 2007, with much of the original station being converted into a shopping mall.
Culross Buildings was built by the Great Northern Railway as housing for railway workers in 1891-2. As well as flats 1-40 and a basement workshop and boiler room there was an adjoining Mission Hall, Culross Hall and a canteen at 41 Battle Bridge Road. Derelict in postwar years and squatted the building eventually became a part of a housing co-op and the flats were brought closer to modern standards.
As the large writing on the wall states, in 1989 the building was home to 150 people. The buildings were unlisted but within the King’s Cross Conservation Area and were demolished in 2008.
Coal Drops and Canal Kings Cross 1989: My posts about my walk around King’s Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society on Saturday 8th April 1989 continues. The previous post was Gasholders, Flats and the Goods Yard – Kings Cross 1989
The Coal Drops Yard was reopened to the public in 2018, 29 years after I made the pictures in this post as what TripAdvisor calls “King’s Cross’ boutique shopping and foodie hotspot“, and I went along shortly after they opened to take some photographs of the transformed site which you can see on My London Diary at Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops. You can read more about its early history in a post by Peter Darley on the Gasholder site.
Coal was carried in railway waggons from coalfields in the Midlands and North of England to the coal drops and these facilities built in the 1850s were an early example of bulk handling of goods. The Eastern Coal Drops, together with a coal and stone basin opened in 1851 could handle 1,000 tons of coal a day. Later around 1860 a second set, the Western Coal Drops were added. Derelict for many years, parts of the Eastern Coal Drops were badly damaged by fire in 1985.
Rather than unload the coal waggons by hand, the coal drops allowed a waggon at a time to be discharged into a storage hopper below, at the bottom of which it could be fed into sacks and loaded onto the waiting horse-drawn coal carts. There was also a coal drop to allow the waggons to be discharged into barges for onward transit.
The waggons could be tipped sideways in a special rig to empty, but it was easier to use waggons which had a bottom that could be opened to simply let the coal fall into the hopper of the floor below the track.
As well as supplying coal to businesses and homes across London, the nearby gasworks would also have been a major coal user. But I imagine they would have had their own rail sidings for delivery. The gasholders have been relocated since I made these pictures, which sometimes makes it difficult to understand the geography of the area.
In 1866 a viaduct was opened across the canal from the Western Coal drops to Samuel Plimsoll’s coal yard on the south on what was then Cambridge Street (marked as Coal Shoots on the OS map. He patented an improved coal drop which treated the coal more gently and avoided much of the breaking up and dust produced by the earlier drops and was more suitable for the softer household coal he traded in. (There were also coal drops on the other side of Cambridge St, on a siding from the lines into St Pancras.) However visiting the Camley Street Natural Park now on his site shortly after it opened in 1985 I found at least in parts the ground was still more coal dust and fragments than soil. Parts of the demolished viaduct could still be seen when I photographed from the canal towpath in 1979.
Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-33
As well as taking waggons full of coal to the coal drops, a second track was needed on the viaducts to bring back the empty waggons, which were moved sideways using a traverser or waggon turntable. I think these had long disappeared before our visit in 1989.
This picture is I think of the viaduct for the Western Coal Drops, and the sign BERLIN BANK presumably reflects its use as a location for a film. Perhaps someone can tell me more.
Western Goods Shed, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-34
The covered loading bay of the Western Goods shed was in rather poor condition at the south end, but was still providing cover for the loading and unloading of lorries further along. The lorries have the name ‘newsflow’, a name now in use for a number of media and news aggregators but then I think rather more physically connected with the newspaper and magazine industry, possibly for delivery of the printed papers.
Although looking rather derelict parts of the area were still in use for various purposes and I think a small piece of sculpture visible here suggests a sculptor’s studio. In the 1980s and 90s the goods yard was a popular spot for raves.
Viaduct, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-35
We were able to wander around the area fairly freely, although there were obviously some rather dangerous areas where we could have fallen like the coal, and others where roofs or walls seemed unsafe. But our wanderings make it difficult to place the exact location of some of my pictures. I think this is the viaduct for the Eastern Coal Drops, and it clearly shows the two tracks, one for the coal drop and the closer for the return of emptied waggons. Underneath you can see the area for the hoppers and where carts would be loaded, in the picture used for parking. Across the tracks are a line of newsflow lorries.
More of my pictures from the GLIAS walk around the area in a later post.
My posts about my walk around King’s Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archeology Society on Saturday 8th April 1989 continues. The previous post was Albion Yard and Balfe Street, 1989.
We returned to York Way, where I made this picture looking across some of the platforms of Kings Cross Station towards the gasholders. York Way is one of the ancient streets of the area, recorded as Mayde Lane in 1476, later Maiden Lane, and its bridge over the Regent’s Canal is still the Maiden Lane Bridge, though the street became York Rd in the later 219th century.
I wasn’t around when its name was changed yet again to the current York Way in 1938, but for my walks I often made use of large-scale OS maps from previous eras, which provided more information than the street maps or current OS maps. So I sometimes confuse myself and others by still calling it York Rd.
The gasholders have been moved and Culross Buildings and Culross Hall in Battlebridge Rd were demolished around 2004 for the comprehensive redevelopment of the area, so this great piece of urban landscape is no more. The flats built in 1891-2 were home to 150 people.
This basin on the Regent’s Canal was made at the same time as this part of the canal was dug in 1820, and some of the buildings around it date from 1822. Originally named for its owner as Horsfall Basin it was later known as Maiden Lane Basin, but later took the original name of the Kings Cross area. The area here had been marshy, and Horsfall contracted to take the spoil from the canal’s Islington tunnel to build up the land around with the basin being used used to bring the spoil.
The area once had a bridge over the River Fleet – underground here since 1825. The river used to run along the west side of Pancras Road. According to legend this is where the the rebel British Celtic Iceni queen Boudicca led an army and defeated the the Romans in AD 60/61, rampaging through much of the south east of England burning towns and settlements though soon after her forces were decisively defeated at Fenny Stratford, near to Milton Keynes.
By the 1970s the basin was unused and many of the industrial buildings around it derelict. In 1978 a group of boat owners formed the non-profit organisation the London Narrow Boat Association and negotiated with on of the factory owners to allow them to moor here.
Both the larger buildings at the right of this picture have since been converted to flats, the taller block as Albert Dock. New buildings including the Guardian newspaper and Kings Place concert hall have replaced some of the old industrial buildings. The former ice warehouse, built around 1860 by ice cream maker Carlo Gatti to store ice from Norway brought here by ship and then canal is now the London Canal Museum.
King’s Cross opened as the southern terminus of the Great Northern Railway’s East Coast mainline in 1852, and Midland Railway services from Leicester began to run here in 1858.
Goods traffic was an important aspect of the railway, bringing coal, grain, fish and other goods into London, and a huge area to the north of the station became railway goods yards. It made more for the railways than passenger traffic.
At the time of this walk, proposals for the development of this huge site were being put forward by the London Regeneration Consortium. These were later dropped as plans for the development of the High Speed Rail link changed considerably, and much of the railway lands were used in connection with the construction of this.
After the new Eurostar line into St Pancras International opened in 2007, work began on the redevelopment of the area most of which has now completely changed. Some of the major buildings have been retained and repurposed.
The Midland Goods Shed was initially built in 1850 as a temporary passenger station while the main King’s Cross station was being constructed. The canopy here was I think a later addition from 1888.
This was in use for many years for handling potatoes and the area to the east was the potato market. In 1989 it was in use for magazine and newspaper distribution.
These listed buildings have been converted into a Waitrose store and cookery school and have retained some of the orginal features.
These were I think the offices on the front of the Midland Goods Shed and are now looking rather tidier than in 1989
Fish & Coal Offices, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-56
This group of buildings are on the edge of the Regent’s Canal, and tower above it when you walk along the towpath below. They are now in much better condition and a part of the Coal Drops Yard reformation of the area.
Built from 1851 to 1862, although these are unlisted they were scheduled to be retained and refurbished in the development proposals.
The Granary, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-41
The most impressive of the buildings on the goods yard site, the Grade II listed Granary was purpose-built to designs by Lewis Cubitt to store grain and flour in 1852 as a part of the original plans for the station. It was built to store around 5,000 tons of grain and had hydraulic lifts for the sacks of grain. The granary also used to have two short canals from the Regent’s canal to its basement as well as an open dock.
The Granary, Kings X Goods Yard, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 89-4f-55
The Granary is now home to Central Saint Martins – University of the Arts London.
Our exploration of the Goods Yard will continue in a later post.
On Saturday 3rd Novemeber I got to London earlier than anticipate and had time for a little walk before photographing the first protest I had come to cover, over the cuts to public libraries. Later I went to photograph another protest about the plans to demolish many London council estates under so-called ‘regeneration’ plans which involve demolition and rebuilding by developers with little social housing.
Euston to Kings Cross Coal Drops – Sat 3 Nov 2018
Problems on my railway journeys into London are rather common, often involving considerable delays. Last weekend a replacement bus for part of the way meant that my usually slow journey scheduled to take 35 minutes to travel 20 miles instead took an hour and a half. But on Saturday 23rd November 2018, there was something of a miracle. When I arrived at the station a train which should have arrived half an hour earlier was just pulling in and an announcement told me it would be running non-stop to Waterloo.
Where possible I like to arrive at events perhaps 10 or 15 minutes before the advertised start time make sure I don’t miss anything. Travelling across London is often a little unpredictable, with odd holdups so I usually allow plenty of time. I’d arrived at my station a few minutes early, and with the non-stop service got me to Waterloo around 25 minutes before I expected. The normal timetable schedule gives a 5 or 10 minutes slack to make it less likely that train operating company has to pay fines for late running, and without stops the journey is significantly faster. Together with an Underground train that came as I walked onto the platform I arrived at Euston with around three quarters of an hour to spare.
This gave me time for a walk to the newly opened retail development in the former King’s Cross coal drops. I’d photographed the disused coal drops many years earlier, taking pictures of the demolished bridges across the Regents Canal and the still standing drops on the north side where coal brought from the North in railway goods waggons was transferred into carts for delivery across London. At first the waggons were lifted and tipped, later waggons had opening doors in their bottoms to dischage directly in the waiting carts and lorries.
My walk also took me through Somers Town, which has some of inner London’s more interesting social housing and past the new Francis Crick Institute before reaching the canal and a new walkway to Coal Drops Yard and Granary Square, and gave some views of the gasholders relocated across the canal from Kings Cross, some of which are now filled with flats. I made my way back with just enough time to visit the toilets in St Pancras Station before going to the meeting point for the Library protest at the rear of the British Library in Midland Road.
Save Our Libraries march – British Library, Sat 3 Nov 2018
The march and rally against cuts in library services, which are a vital part of our cultural services, especially for working class schoolchildren and young people was organised by Unison and supported by PCS and Unite, but they seem to have done very little publicity and the numbers were far fewer than expected.
Unfortunately the march clashed with another event I wanted to cover and I had to leave a few minutes before it was due to start. Perhaps more joined the protest for the rally at the end of the march outside Parliament.
No Demolitions Without Permission – City Hall, London. Sat 3 Nov 2018
‘Axe the Housing Act’ had called a protest to demand an end to the demolition of council estates unless these were approved by a ballot of all residents, and for public land to be used to build more council homes rather than being turned over to developers to make huge profits from high-priced flats.
Most of those who came were from London council estates under threat of demolition by Labour London councils and speaker after speaker from estate after estate got up and spoke about the lies, evasions and often illegal activities of London Labour councils bent on demolishing their council estates.
Green Party co-leader and London Assembly’s Housing Committee chair Sian Berry
Instead of looking after their working class populations Labour councils are time and time again forcing through demolition of council estates, enabling developers to make huge profits by building flats for sale largely at market rent, with a small proportion of high rent ‘affordable’ homes and a miserably small number of homes at social rent, promoting schemes which cut by thousands the number of council homes.
Tanya Murat, Chair of Southwark Defend Council Housing
Although a new policy was about to come in to insist their should be residents ballots, London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan had responded to this by fast-tracking 34 demolition schemes by Labour councils before it was implemented. He allowed some schemes to go forward without a ballot, and had failed to insist that all residents were allowed to take part in such ballots.
Former Lambeth Council leader and veteran Labour politician Ted Knight
Among the groups taking part in the rally were Class War and the Revolutionary Communist Group, both very much involved in campaigns across the capital on housing, and among the most effective at raising the issues involved in London’s housing. For some reason the rally organisers would not allow representatives of either of these to speak at the event, which led to a loud confrontation when Labour supporter Ted Knight came to speak. More below on this.
At the end of the rally people marched around City Hall with their banners.
Class War protest Labour Housing record – City Hall, Sat 3 Nov 2018
Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright
Although Class War supporters were one of the larger groups taking part in the ‘No Demolitions Without Permission’ rally at City Hall they and others were denied any opportunity to speak as a part of the official rally.
Class War have been the most active group in supporting and raising the profile of campaigns in London against estate demolition mainly by London Labour councils who are responsible for the great bulk of estate sell-offs and demolition involving over 160 council estates – social cleansing on a massive scale. Among those protesting at the rally with Class War was Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina under orders from the Labour Mayor of London.
Leigh Miller, recently illegally evicted from Gallions Point Marina and Lisa McKenzie hold the banner high
It was no surprise that when a prominent Labour politician got up to speak, Class War erupted, shouting him down to make clear that it was Labour who was responsible for estate demolitions. It was perhaps unfair on Ted Knight, a former Lambeth Labour leader who together with other councillors defied Thatcher and was surcharged and banned from holding public office for 5 years.
Ted Knight (right) and Martin Wright (left) shout at each other
Knight has supported Central Hill Estate residents in their fight against Lambeth Council’s plans for demolition, singing from much the same hymn sheet as Class War on housing issues. As Lambeth council’s leader he was clear that “Nothing is too good for the working classes” and estates such as Central Hill reflect this. And there was a little of old scores in the verbal attack on him by Whitechapel anarchist Martin Wright.
Finally at the end of the rally, Leigh Miller did get a chance to speak.
As a number of those estate residents allowed to speak at the rally pointed out, homes will only be saved if people become more militant and engage in the kind of direct actions which Class War advocates – and not by rallies like today’s outside a closed City Hall.
Class War stood to one side at the end of the rally when most of the rest taking part marched around the empty offices, they were calling for a rather different revolution.
Bromley-by-Bow Gasholders: A week ago on Monday 28th March I was invited to go with a team from Cody Dock on a site visit to the gasholders which are a prominent feature of the local landscape, seen by many thousands every day from the Underground and National Rail lines as they travel in and out of London as well as local residents and walkers along the Lower Lea and Bow Creek, including those following The Line sculpture trail. We were there invited to study the heritage, history and ecology of the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks site which has just been sold by its future developers.
The seven gas holders, all to a similar design were built between 1872 and 1882 and are all Grade II listed. Nine were built on the site but two are no longer there, the base of one now forming a large circular lake in the site. Holder No 1 was given an extra upper tier in steel in 1925-7 to more than double its capacity. All were taken out of use in the 1980s.
The real value of the site is not in the individual holders although these were some of the “most aesthetically distinguished and finely detailed gasholders ever built” (according to the listing text) but in the ensemble, thought to be “the largest group of Victorian gasholders known to remain in the world, which is testament to the scale of Britain’s pioneering gas industry and its contribution to the Industrial Revolution.” It is a heritage site not just of national importance but of world importance.
Given their importance the group, together with the adjoining memorial garden with its Grade II listed memorial lamp and statue of Sir Corbett Woodall surely deserves both Grade I listing and preservation, and the former gas works offices could form a heritage centre for the area. The offices were for some time a gas museum.
The circular pond is the base of a former gasholder
Just across the Channelsea river from the site is the Grade I listed Three Mills and a little to the south the former gas works Dock at Cody Dock, now a thriving creative and community hub, the sites linked by a riverside path which currently stops at Cody Dock but which should long ago have been opened as planned to lead to the Thames at Trinity Buoy Wharf, passing on the way the Bow Creek Ecology Park. Many sites along here played an important part in Britain and the world’s industrial history, but unfortunately little evidence remains, making it essential to preserve what does.
We were shown around the site in the morning by two of those responsible for planning the development who expressed their wish for the development to retain these elements which make the site unique and to open them up to the public, but good intentions are not enough, particularly for company accountants.
Given what has happened at other sites greater protection is required to make sure that any development in the area leaves the gasholders intact and preserves their landscape value, in particular the views of the ensemble from the railway and Underground lines, from Three Mills and the riverside footpaths by the Channelsea River and River Lea and the navigation. We do need more housing, or at least more social housing rather than luxury flats many of which remain largely unoccupied as investments, but we also need to preserve important monuments such as these which record and could celebrate our history.
Many more pictures from the day, mainly inside the holder site in my album Bromley-by-Bow Gas Holders. You can click on any of the images above to see a larger version in the album – and browse from there. Most of the images have an horizontal angle of view of approximately 145 degrees. There are more pictures of the area in various posts on My London Diary including Bow and The Fatwalk, Bromley-by-Bow to Star Lane and Gasworks Dock Revived.
Bow Common Lane, Bow Common, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7r-35
Although this image is labelled as being on Cantrell Road in my very skeletal notes written small in black ink on the contact sheet, it is actually still there next to the railway on the west side of the gasworks site in Bow Common Lane.
This fairly substantial house is on the edge of the gas works site mentioned in the previous post and I wondered if it might have been a part of this development, perhaps a manager’s house. The gasholder was removed in 2016-7
Bow Common, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7r-21
I’m fairly sure that Turnbull & Son Builders were not on Cantrell Road as my notes suggest, but certainly somewhere in Bow Common, possibly on Bow Common Lane, Devons Road or St Paul’s Way which were on my route. Little of the older industry in the area now remains.
Bow Common, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7r-23
Again there is a frustrating lack of information on the contact sheet, possibly because I was lost. So I’m unsure of the location of this detached Victorian house, but I think it may have been on Turners Road which I went down on my way to Clemence St.
Finally a location I can be sure of, as the block in the background has two signs on it. ‘No Ball Games’ is on not helpful, but over the entrance way just above the thighs of what looks to me a naked rudimentary female figure I can read ‘Gatwick House’.
Although Trevor Tennant (1900-80) entitled this ‘play sculpture’ Gulliver it still looks female to me. It is described in The Buildings of England London: East as “in Festival of Britain Spirit”, though it looks vaguely Henry Moore to me. Tennant in taught at various art colleges including Camberwell School of Art (1930-4). The sculpture commissioned by the LCC for the Locksley Estatew was probably installed when the block was built in 1954-6 and by the time I photographed it was deteriorating – perhaps due to some rather more robust physical play than anticipated. It was originally at the centre of a large sandpit with the base buried in the sand. I suspect the sand was removed after being too often used as a toilet for dogs, a common fate with sandpits in public places.
A gloomy building by a gloomy canal, close to St Anne’s Church which towers above the tree at right. This building at the rear of a ‘dangerous structure’ on Commercial Road opposite the church is still standing, though the lower structures to the right have been demolished. I think this is 777 Commercial Road, a former sail loft, part of the Grade II listed run of buildings here. According to the listing, 777 dates from 1893-4 and was designed by Marshall & Bradley and built by J.H. Johnson for Caird and Rayner. The site is now ‘Sailmakers’ a mixed-use development which will retain the building frontage.
The Flood barrier on the Limehouse Cut presumably became redundant after the building of the Thames Barrier. On the other side of Commercial Road you can see both St Anne’s Church over a billboard and Limehouse Town Hall.
The Empire Memorial Sailors’ Hostel, now called The Mission Building, was built in 1924 to house some of the many sailors in the city needing lodgings. Money to fund it came from an appeal organised largely by women from across the British Empire to save these men who might otherwise have spent the night and their earnings in the company of the oldest profession. They appealed for the funds to build it as a memorial to the 12,000 merchant seamen who were killed in the Great War.
The Grade II listed building originally had 205 single rooms (cabins) and appears to have been designed to the demands of a committee whose members advocated differing styles. It was enlarged in 1932 along Salmon Lane to meet the huge demand, but as the docks closed became a hostel for the homeless. It closed in 1985, presumably not because of any lack of homeless people but because of the cost of housing them, and in 1994 was sold off to a developer who converted it to a gated and portered residential development.
4-12 West India Dock Road, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7r-14
A little of the old West India Dock Road, this row of shops is now long gone. The large Grade II listed building at right is still there, built as the Passmore Edwards Sailors Palace, the Headquarters of the British And Foreigh Sailors Society in 1901, with a grand frontage including a crowned Britannia holding on each shoulder a strangely morphed galleon and child. The side view here is rather more utilitarian.
Sail Makers, Ships Chandlers, 11, West India Dock Rd, Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, 1988 88-7r-16
A sign over the door for Pastel Print shows its use in 1988, when local demand for sails, candles and other marine equipment has shrunk to zero. A plaque near the apex of the facade states ‘ERECTED AD.1860’. I think it has now been made into flats and offices retaining the facade.
The next part of my walk, going back into Bow and on towards Bromley-by-Bow will continue in a later post.
Clicking on any of the pictures will take you to a larger version in my album 1988 London Photos from where you can browse the album.
Three Mills Lane which runs from Hancock Road, a short walk from Bromley by Bow Underground station takes you across the Lea Navigation and Bow Creek to a remarkable ensemble of four of Newham’s listed buildings, including the Grade I listed House Mill from 1776, the early 19th century offices and the 1817 Clock Mill, with its 1753 Clock Tower. The fourth is easy to miss, as it is the stone setts and flagstones under your feet, dating back to the 19th century.
Together they make a splendid early industrial landscape, though now a little hemmed in by rather more recent flats. When I photographed there in the 1980s and 1990s, the area around was full of largely 20th century industrial sites, mainly along the navigation, and a little still remains, particularly an impressive set of gas holders (seven Grade II listings) on the southern side of the Channelsea River at the former Bromley-by-Bow gas works (which also has listings for its bridge across the canal and Bow Creek as well as its war memorial and statue of Sir Corbet Woodhall.)
Three Mills Wall River
In more normal times the House Mill, which was saved from demolition in the 1970s and has been partially restored offers reasonably priced guided tours on Sundays from May to October and at some other times as well as hosting various events. The mill is a tide mill, and is on a site recorded in the Domesday Book, with foundations dating back to the end of the 14th century. It was able to generate power for 7-8 hours a day, though the output varied with the monthly changes in tides. Together with the Clock Mill it would grind an average of 125 tons of grain a week.
The towpath running south from Three Mills is on a narrow strip with the navigation on the west and Bow Creek to the west, and it leads down under railway bridges to Twelvetrees Crescent (where recent stairs now allow you to go on to the bridge and continue your walk beside Bow Creek) and under the bridge to Bow Locks where you can continue along the Limehouse Cut.
You won’t see the empty lighters on the navigation that were there when I walked along here in 1983, not long after commercial traffic ended. The large pipe across in front of the bridge would have carried gas from the Bromley gas works across to deliver gas to London west of the works. The listed bridge dates from 1872. Under it you can see the bridge which takes the path across Bow Locks and on to Gillender St or to the towpath beside the Limehouse Cut.
More on page 4 of River Lea – Lea Navigation. Click any of the images above to go to larger versions on my Flickr site.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
North of Covent Garden in the 1km wide strip of London in TQ30 we come into the areas of St Pancras in LB Camden (which includes Kings Cross) and Pentonville in Islington which were largely outside the tourist zone, apart from housing a number of hotels, none of which appear in my colour pictures from 1986-93.
Businesses here catered for London, and many were failing thanks to changes in technology and the de-industrialisation of our economy. A large swathe was blighted by plans for development of the railway lands, including much outside the actual rail areas that were threatened by demolition, though thanks to local opposition much has so far been saved.
North of Kings Cross there was to be wholesale demolition, and even listed buildings were not safe. The gasholders that were such a prominent landmark in the area were soon to be dismantled, with some being re-erected some distance away on the opposite side of the canal.
And the dancers on the side of Stanley Buildings were having their final dance before they and the other nearby buildings were demolished.
Perhaps surprisingly I took few pictures of the Regent’s Canal in colour, though rather more in black and white, but I had photographed around here fairly extensively in the previous few years and perhaps felt I had little more to say.
But it was good to have a picture of the road side of Charles Bartlett, Export Packers & Shippers, whose chimney and works dominate this stretch of the canal.
But the road that fascinated me most was the Caledonian Road and its side streets, as a number of the pictures here show. You can see these and others on the third page of my album TQ30 London Cross-section.
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
