Woolwich Manor Way

More From Beckton, Cyprus and Silvertown – 1994

I spent a long day in July 1994 travelling up and down the recently opened Beckton Extension, taking some pictures from the trains but also getting off at every station and explouring the area around the stations, sometimes at some length. The previous set of pictures, DLR – Beckton Extension – 1994, began from around the end of the line at Beckton, and these images start with those from a walk from the next station along, Gallions Reach.

In the 2000s there was a plan to extend the DLR from here to Dagenham Dock, but these were cancelled in 2008; now plans have been approved for an extension to a Beckton Riverside station and on under the Thames to Thamesmead.

DLR, Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13 — *DLR, Gallions Roundabout, Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-716-13*

From the Gallions roundabout you can go north and south along Woolwich Manor Way or take the more recent roads, Royal Albert Way, Royal Docks Road and Atlantis Avenue. My picture was made from Woolwich Manor Way looking roughly north. In the centre of the roundabout is a pumping station, which I think is a 16-sided building, though I always lose count. On top in its centre is a small 8 sided pimple. Locally listed, it was built for Thames Water in 1974.

*Ruins, Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-61*

Beckton Gas Works were built on the East Ham Levels from 1868-1870 by the Gas Light and Coke Company which had been founded in 1812 by Frederick Albert Winsor and was not only the UK’s first gas company but the first public gas company in the world. It was for some years the largest gas works in Europe and until 1969 produced gas for industry and homes across much of East London.

The site was named Beckton after then company chairman Simon Adams Beck and covered a huge of 550 acres. As well as giving room for the huge works, its site on the Thames well to the east of London meant that larger colliers could bring coal to it than to the gas works closer to the city.

As well as town gas, the site also contained the Beckton Product Works which became the largest UK manufacture of tar and ammonia by-products. Beckton was a huge local employer, providing jobs for as many as 10,000 men.

For many years after it closure the site remained derelict and was used in a number of films, most notably Stanley Kubrick’s Vietnam War film ‘Full Metal Jacket’. Back in 1994 there was little left on the site which is now largely a retail park.

I’d taken a few pictures in the area in black and white and colour ten years earlier when more of the works where still there – such as this one:

Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984 81-NorthWoolwich-008 — *Beckton Gas Works, Beckton, Newham, 1984*

[If you open the image you can browse a few more on Flickr.]

Royal Docks Rd, Galions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52 — *Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-52*

A view made from underneath Gallions Reach Station looking roughly north-east towards the former gas works site.

DLR, Approaching Woolwich Manor Way, Cyprus, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43 — *View from Gallions Reach DLR, Station, Atlantis Avenue, Gallions Reach, Newham, 1994, 94-717-43*

I went up to the station platform and made this picture as I waited for a train to arrive. At right you can see the Thames Water pumping station in the middle of the Gallions roundabout. On the left others waiting on the platform can be seen in a mirror. Beyond that is the Royal Albert Dock and in the distance the hills on the other side of the Thames. In the sky is a plane shortly after take-off from London City Airport.

DLR Station, Beckton Park, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31 — *Beckton Park Station, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-31*

I can’t remember if I got off the train first at Cyprus station or continued directly to the next stop, Beckton Park. The two stations are fairly similar and both are in the centre of roundabouts in the Royal Albert Way, built for the LDDC and opened in 1990.

*DLR, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-11*

I got back on a train to go to the next stop on the line, Royal Albert, where I took a walk around the area beside Royal Albert Dock dock, making this picture from its west end looking east down the dock. In the distance is a DLR train approaching and to the left is the road leading the the Connaught Bridge. I think the brick structure at left of picture is a ventilator for the railway tunnel below.

Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, West Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12 — *Connaught Bridge, Royal Albert Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1994, 94-717-12*

I made this from a temporary footpath across the channel between the Royal Victoria and Royal Albert Docks a few yards to the west of the Connaught Bridge. Under the bridge is the full 1.75 miles of the Royal Albert Dock, built in 1875-80 and opened by the Duke of Connaught. The dock finally closed to commercial traffic in 1981.

In 1984 I got permission to go onto the site and photograph the remaining buildings – virtually all now demolished. They had no great architectural value but were an important part of London’s history. You can see some of the black and white pictures I took in the book The Deserted Royals – there is a good preview with over 40 pictures on the website and the PDF version is reasonably priced – and rather more, including colour work on Flickr – in the two albums 1984 London Photographs and 1984 Docklands Colour.

More Docklands colour from 1994 in my next post in this series.

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DLR – Beckton Extension – 1994

DLR – Beckton Extension: One of the earliest projects I had used a panoramic camera on was the building of the Docklands Light Railway Beckton extension which had been a part of a transport show at the Museum of London in 1992. I had made these pictures on black and white film – you can view these along with many other pictures in my Flickr album ‘1992 London Photos‘

*DLR, Train, Station, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-715-11*

So when the Beckton branch from Poplar opened at the end of March 1994 I made a note to myself to return there and make more panoramas along the completed route, but this time working in colour. But I was busy with other things and it was only in July 1994 that I finally managed to go and take some new pictures.

*Station Entrance, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-715-13*

I began by taking a DLR train to the end of the line, Beckton Station, and then walked out to make a few pictures in the area surrounding the station.

*Horses, sculpture, Brian Yale, Beckton Bus Station, Woolwich Manor Way, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-62*

I’d first visited Beckton in 1981, and had gone back briefly when I was working on the DLR construction in 1982, but by 1994 things were very different to my first visit. Then Beckton was still a largely uninhabited area, noted for its gas works – then mainly in ruins and for being at the end oof London’s Northern Outfall sewer.

*Station Entrance, DLR, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-51*

There had also been a large postwar prefab estate, but that had been swept away and plans to build large council estates to help solve Newham’s huge housing problems were swept away with the advent of the London Docklands Development Corporation, who sold off most of the land for private housing. The LDDC also commissioned the Horses sculpture by Brian Yale, who had worked for many years as an artist and environmental designer for the architecture department of the Greater London Council, creating “designing murals, sculptures, public art works and play spaces for GLC housing estates and schools“. He was also commisioned by them to produce the long 50 panel The Docklands Frieze at Prince Regent Station.

*Robert, Steam Engine, Winsor Terrace, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-32*

Robert, a 0-6-0 tank engine was built in 1933 for the Staveley Coal and Iron works and worked in their sidings until 1969. It then went to various preserved railway sites, at one of which it gained its name. Kew Bridge Steam Museum in 1993 restored it to look like a Beckton Gas Works engine (presumably for the LDDC) and it was placed here. After some vandalism Newham Council took Robert over and moved it close to Stratford Station. The engine was again moved during building works assocatied with the 2012 Olympics and finally came back to a different location outside Stratford Station in 2011. It was still there when I last went to Stratford a few weeks ago.

I took a long walk around Beckton, and made quite a few normal format images in black and white, but relatively few colour panoramas, mainly close to the station, then walked rather futher around the area making more panoramas, only relatively few of them on-line at Flickr – two of those in this post are online for the first time including ‘Link Road, Beckton’ below.

*Link Road, Beckton, Newham, 1994, 94-716-11*

I this was part of one of the ring road schemes around London that was never built, Ringway 2, which was planned go under the River Thames at Gallions Reach in a new tunnel between Beckton and Thamesmead. When I made this picture it simply came to a dead end not far on.

More panoramic pictures from around the DLR Beckton branch in a later post.

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1995 Colour – Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown

Poplar, Bow, Leyton, North Woolwich & Silvertown: These pictures come from a number of visits to areas of London working on several different projects and are my final selection of colour panoramas made in 1995. There are a few more colour images, including some panoramas I made in 1995 in the images in the Flickr album as well as many I have not digitised; some very similar to those online, others that I now find of less interest. Some of these were taken as a part of my project on the Greenwich Meridian in London – you can see a set of 16 images from this on the urban landscape web site.

*Bow Locks, River Lea, Bow Creek, Bow, Tower Hamlets, 1995, 95p4-752*

Bow Locks separate the tidal River Lea from the Lea Navigation and the Limehouse Cut which offers an alternative route to the Thames to avoid the winding and dangerous Bow Creek. First built in 1850 they were remodelled in 1930. At the highest Spring tides water from Bow Creek would overtop the locks and raise the level of the canals here – the locks were modified in 2000 to stop this and avoid the silting it caused.

London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 5p4-743 — *London Galvanizers, Leven Rd, Poplar, Tower Hamlets, 95p4-743*

The Poplar Gas Coompany built a local gas works here in the 1820s at the request of the Poplar Vestry after ratepayers lobbied them to provide gas street lighting. The site was cleared in 2011 and I was commissioned to photograph the removal of toxic earth from the site using barges on Bow Creek. Something around an eigth of the material was removed in this way, tides making the removal of more difficult. The original gasholders had to be built to special safety standards because of their proximity to the West India Dock wall. The last of the gasholders was removed in 2017.

London Galvanizers had modernised their galvanizing plant here in 1983-5 and were one of the most important jobbing galvanizers in London and the Home Counties.

*Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-862*

This street corner is close to the Meridian and I had stood here for some time outside the Chinese restaurant which was having some joinery work done. I liked the contrast between its orange paint and the blue on the opposite corner and the warm brown of the Birkbeck Tavern at right. I think I had made at least one exposure when a young girl in a red coat on roller skates came to see what I was doing – and I made this exposure as a red car come around, filling an otherwise rather empty grey space.

St Patrick's Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841 — *St Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, Langthorne Rd, Leyton, Waltham Forest, 1995, 95p4-841*

The Meridian also passes through this cemetery and I chose a viewpoint which included the cemetery chapel with a fine group of monuments in the foreground, I think all for people of Italian origin.

Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, 1995, 95p4-963 — *Stratford Station, Great Eastern Rd, Stratford, Newham,1995, 95p4-963*

I’m unsure what this railway building to the east of the station was, perhaps a 1930s signal box. Parts of this area have now been redeveloped, and this has been behind fences for more than ten years and could stil be there, as least in part.

*King George V Dock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-171*

Finally four pictures from a walk along Woolwich Manor Way, this taken looking westwards along the south side of the King George V Dock. You can see the bridge over the dock entrance at right and the City Airport terminal and Canary Wharf at the end of the dock.

*Royal Albert Dock Basin, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-161*

At left is the old swing bridge that took the road over the dock entrance from the basin. To its right is the elevated DLR and the pumping station at the centre of the Gallions roundabout. Further on only two buildings were standing along the side of the Basin, the Gallions Hotel and the Royal Docks Pumping Station.

*Containers, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-162*

Land to the south of the Royal Albert Dock Basin just east of Woolwich Manor Way.

*King George V Lock, Woolwich Manor Way, North Woolwich, Newham, 1995, 95p9-153*

This swing bridge across the dock entrance is still there.

*Royal Victoria Dock, Silvertown, Newham, 1995, 95p11-262*

This was taken from Silvertown Way, looking across the Royal Victoria Dock. There are still cranes along the dockside here but the foreground now has flats. The Millenium Mills are still there, but there is nothing in the picture where the Excel Centre now stands and none of the other new developments on the north side of the dock. The council flats at the right have been demolished.

You can see these and some other colour pictures I took in 1995 at 1995 London Colour.

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North Woolwich Photos – 2006

North Woolwich Photos: My account of my day on Friday 16 June 2006 is rather short – and manages to include a mis-spelling: “I took a trip to North Woolich and made some pictures there.” And the 45 pictures I posted had only the additional heading “North Woolwich, Thames, Royal Docks & Silvertown” but no captions. I think they deserve more, so I’ll correct that for a few of them in this post.

The ferry is the James Newman, built in 1963 and named after a prominent local figure who was Mayor of Woolwich in 1923–25 and was taken out of service in 2018. But I hadn’t arrived on the ferry but had put my folding bike onto a Silverlink service on the North London Line which then ran from Richmond to North Woolwich Station (the section from Stratford to North Woolwich close at the end of 2006.)

The building in the background of the second image is North Woolwich Station, though it had by that date been abandoned by trains which stopped being used as a station in 1979, replaced by a considerably less grand and basic structure on its south side. For some years it was a museum and this fine 1854 building is now home to the New Covenant Church. My picture is taken from the riverside path.

Next came three pictures showing the reverside flats just past the Old Bargehouse Draw Dock and Causeway at the end of Bargehouse Road. Until the Woolwich Free Ferry was introduced in 1889 this was where ferries ran across the river to Woolwich. On this occasion I’d cycled past the remains of the Free Ferry without taking any pictures, probably because I had photographed them on several occasions before. You can see the other two pictures of the flats on My London Diary.

I took a few pictures looking across the River Thames most of which I didn’t post on My London Diary and then this one after I’d crossed the lock gates of the King George V Dock entrance and had come to the lock entrance to the Royal Albert Dock Basin. The building here has since been replaced by the flats of Lockside Way.

The riverside path – part of the Capital Way – continues north to an abrupt end close to Atlantis Avenue and this view from its end shows the remains of the jetty which brought coal to the Beckton Gas Works. I retraced my path, taking more pictures – some concrete pipe sections, a disused lock gate and a lorry park on My London Diary and then made my way to Woolwich Manor Way.

Here I could photograph across the dock. At the left are new flats built between the dock and University Way and in the foreground are two yellow towers carrying approach lights for the runway of London City Airport.

*A plane takes off from London City Airport*

The haze that you see in this picture, taken with a 300mm (equivalent) lens is a little more obvious than in the other pictures thanks to air pollution, which the airport contributes to.

I made some more photographs in North Woolwich – tthere was a Football World Cup taking place in Germany – England were eventually knocked out by Portugal in the quarter-finals.

London City Airport DLR station had opened in December 2005 and I was able to take photographs from there both of the Airport Terminal and of Tate & Lyle’s sugar refinery.

I took more pictures in Silvertown and Canning Town, some of which you can see on My London Diary, before making my way back to Central London. There I took some more pictures around Brick Lane, some of which I put on My London Diary in a seperate post. It had been a good day for me.

More pictures:
North Woolwich, Thames, Royal Docks & Silvertown
Brick Lane

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