George saves the world
George Livesey, from
the early 1870s, began to move into a world of gas politics much bigger than
the area covered by a South Met. Gas or indeed, South London. Livesey was to play a major role in the way
in which gas companies were to operate in the future. As we shall see by the end of the decade
South Met. had become the major gas company in London playing a role, via
Livesey, to which all the others had to conform.
The way in which
public utilities were provided was changing as the 19th century
progressed. Local authorities war still major
customers for town gas using it for street lighting. Increasingly public
utilities were managed by local authorities and outside London a great many gas
works were municipally owned. In London the gas companies remain private but
increasingly they had to interact with
government bodies concerned with public finance and regulation and also with
the changing world of London politics where a fragmented system of small
parishes were being supplement by London wide bodies.
Clearly George Livesey
had been enmeshed in national gas politics through his involvement, and indeed
leadership, of the national British Association of Gas Managers throughout the
1860s. The 1870s were to see him move into ‘the lead’ of the London Gas
industry
First we need to look briefly
at the shape of the London gas industry in 1871 when George took over as Engineer
and Secretary of the South Metropolitan Company.
THE LONDON GAS
INDUSTRY IN 1870
We need to look at the
shape and trends within the London gas industry before the 1870s. It is not always easy to define what we mean
by London, since the Greater London which we know now simply didn’t exist. Livesey himself would probably have gone along
with the definition which evolved in his lifetime which was the area covered
initially by the Metropolitan Board of Works and later, from 1889, the London
County Council.
In the first chapter
we left the first Thomas Livesey inventing the means of gas company management in
the first gas company, the Gas Light and Coke Company – also known as the
Chartered - in the 1820s and 1830s. Since
then the industry had grown very quickly as small gas companies opened, closed
or were taken over. By the early 1870s the Chartered had grown and
prospered. Their earliest works – first
of any gas company was in Great Peter Street, Westminster, and had supplied gas
since 1813.[1] They had built two other early works Brick
Lane[2] and Curtain Road.[3] These were all closed in the 1870s having
been replaced from 1868 by the enormous Beckton works on the borders of East
Ham and Barking.[4]
The Imperial Gas Light
and Coke Company had opened three works in the 1820s St Pancras,[5] Shoreditch,[6]
and Fulham.[7] Like the Chartered Company they had a large
out of town works, at Bromley by Bow on the River Lea, opening in 1870.[8]
A number of smaller companies also operated individual works in north London
and had survived into the 1870s. The earliest of these works was the City of London
Company whose Blackfriars works dated from 1814[9] Others taken over by the Chartered included
Bow Common,[10] Pimlico,[11]
and Silvertown[12] and later during the 1870s Haggerston, [13] and Kensal Green[14]. All of these companies would eventually be
taken over by the Chartered and only the Commercial Gas Company in the east end
remained outside the Chartered to become part of George Livesey’s sphere of
influence. They had works at Stepney, [15]
Sun Tavern Fields,[16]
and Wapping[17] and were to open a works in Poplar in 1878.[18]
South of the river was
of course George Livesey’s home territory at the Old Kent Road gas works. The
area had been dominated by the Phoenix Company. They had taken over an original
works belonging to the South London Company set up before 1816 in Bankside[19]
and also had a works in Pocock Street[20]
in the Borough. In 1826 they added a
site in Greenwich and in 1846 a works was opened at Vauxhall.[21]
In the same area the London Gas Light Company had broken all precedent by
operating on both sides of the river. They
had a works west of the Phoenix Works in Nine Elms Lane.[22] Other works in south east London were the Rotherhithe
Works[23]
owned by the Surrey Consumers Company who had also taken over a smaller works in
Deptford.[24] There were two works in Woolwich[25]
and a tiny works in Eltham.[26]
Beyond these works and
in the area now covered by Greater London and the various counties were numerous
other works many of which were to be affected by George Livesey’s actions in the
next few years. This included another
south London company to the west in Wandsworth. Their large works dated from
1834 and grew to be the Wandsworth and
Putney Gaslight and Coke Company, taking over many works outside of the LCC to
the south west[27]
but apparently uninvolved in the company takeovers of the companies to the east
and north of them.
A BIT MORE BACKGROUND
- WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘LONDON’?
From the
early 19th century the area we now call London was growing
rapidly. In local government terms
London did not really exist – except in the tiny area governed by the ancient
Corporation of the City of London confined behind the Roman wall. Outside of the City, apart from its
Liberties, local government was still down a multiplicity of parishes within
the County areas of Middlesex, Essex, Surrey and Kent. In 1854 a Royal Commission
had proposed a system of boroughs with a central Board of Works and an Act of Parliament
in 1855 set up the Metropolitan Board of Works, made up of nominees from the
parishes. This system lasted until the setting up of the London County Council
in 1889.
The Metropolitan Board of Works was from the start concerned with London
wide public utilities and it is for the sewers that they were most famous. However throughout this period public works
in the area we now call London involved various Government bodies, principally
the Board of Trade, the Metropolitan Board of Works, the City Corporation and
the parishes. It was into this system
that George Livesey brought the privately owned London gas companies in an
attempt to bring about change.
Part of this was the continuing mergers of the London gas companies into
large bodies north and south of the river, and also about measures taken to
regulate pricing of gas which was still mainly sold to the local authorities for
street lighting.
It should be noted any gas company selling gas for public supply had to
have its own Act of Parliament to allow it to undertake works in the public
realm. In practice most companies of any
size would have to obtain an Act of Parliament for almost any activity thus
they were well used to Parliamentary procedures, but this system also allowed
the Government to insist on regulation as part of any Act which a company
wanted. Everything they did had to be approved by the Board of Trade.
SO WHAT HAPPENED - FIRST OF ALL REGULATION OF PRICING.
What George Livesey
did was to give evidence to a Select Committee on gas pricing which was
different to the policies of London gas works management, including the South Met.
Board. He proposed a radical new method of gas financing.
Throughout the middle
years of the 19th century the relationship of price and efficiency
in public utility companies was linked to their ownership. ‘Consumer Groups’
were set up – mainly by the local authorities – that made a fuss if they
thought prices and profits were too high.
They pointed out that gas company profits were being made at the public
expense.
A number of possible
solutions had been put forward to try to make shareholders more accountable to
the public interest. Outside of London
this had sometimes been solved by setting up a gas works owned by the local
authority or by stipulating in the gas company’s necessary Act of Parliament
that share ownership should be local. However
in London where gas companies were entrenched and had been set up in the earliest
days of the industry this was not really possible
Attempting regulation through
‘districting’ and ‘consumer’ companies was tried. As described earlier with,
varying success. Those Governments which
favoured ‘free trade’ discouraged districting and accepted the accidents and
inconvenience which went along with a free for all. If they accepted regulation
then the results were price rings and complacent companies.
As described above a ‘consumer’
company had been set up in Rotherhithe. When
it was opened gas prices had indeed fallen quickly as other nearby companies
lowered their prices to meet the competition.
As a result they kept existing customers who did not want the disruption
of moving so the new company did not get enough customers to keep their low prices
in place. Very soon they opened negotiations with the rival existing companies
and a price ring was established.
After 1872 it was
possible for a local authority to set up a gas works without a private Act of
Parliament. By 1881 there were 60 municipally owned gasworks.[28]
Failure to municipalise gas in London may have been because of the capital’s divided
local government structure. [29]
The parishes were mainly small with few officers and little expertise [30]
with the wealthy City Corporation generally not politically sympathetic. When the Metropolitan Board of Works was set up
in 1855 it seems likely that among the opponents to it were the gas company directors.
In London therefore a
method was needed which could reconcile the public interest with that of the
private companies. What had emerged was ‘legislation in1860 which put forward
the idea that (gas) companies should have a reasonable prospect of obtaining
from time to time with ‘due care and management’ the maximum dividend’. [31] The phrase
‘due care and management’ was resonating for many years.
One solution was seen
as company amalgamations to reduce the number of small gas companies and thus
achieve efficiency savings – and we will come to those in the next
section. The other solution was to find
a regulatory device – and that was where George came in.
After the formation
the Metropolitan Board of Works they began to work jointly with the City
Corporation. Throughout the 1860s gas bills were submitted to the two
authorities and inquiries held into the working of the private gas companies. George
Livesey was heavily involved in this – writing to the press, speaking at meetings
and no doubt undertaking very many private conversations.
A Southwark Gas Consumers’
Committee was set made up of ‘sundry gents in white chokers’. [32] It was also rumoured that a Bill was to be put
to Parliament to set up an elected board to manage gas supply the whole
metropolitan area
In January 1874 three bills
were submitted to Parliament by the London local authorities. One was to buy p
and muncipalose the gas companies. Another
was to establish a competing gas supply. The last was for a regulation
bill. [33]
Any purchase was, of course, dependant on the continued support of the City
Corporation – the only body with enough cash to pau for it.. That summer George
Livesey was the President of the British Association of Gas Managers and
mentioned the situation in London in his presidential address. He spoke
strongly about the importance of independent gas companies against the monopoly
position of municipal supply. It was noted that he ‘had the courage to say that
gas companies have duties’. [34]
The gas companies
expected compulsory purchase by the Metropolitan Board of Works to take place
at any moment. The North London based Chartered
and the Imperial even agreed to it[35] and South Met in November 1874 minuted that
it was inevitable. Because the South
Met. chairman could not attended all meetings, George was sent along on the Company’s behalf with , instructions to no more than
listen, take notes, and report. By early
1875 the various London gas companies had sorted out their position and drafted
a petition against the Metropolitan Board of Works’ Parliamentary Bill. George Livesey was asked to present this on
behalf of South Met.
In June 1875 yet
another Select Committee into the Metropolitan Gas Companies was set up. Gas
managers and directors appeared before it to give evidence and defend their company
interests. George Livesey spoke, not for South Met. but for the Board of Trade
and the Government. He put a view which
was distinctly at odds with that of his company – and indeed of all the other
gas companies. He said that he had no choice but to appear as he was under ‘speaker’s
orders’ to do so. It is nevertheless clear that he had been persuaded to do
this by officers at the Board of Trade.
He explained that gas
consumers have no protection ‘if it were distinctly interests of the company to
serve the consumers then the consumers would be well served’ and more tellingly
‘we should make them partners’.[36]
This is a phrase which was to resonate through a lot of what George had to say
in the coming years but at the moment he confined it to profits and prices.
What he proposed was to be known as the ‘sliding scale’ and basically it
allowed dividends to be paid only as a result of prices going down.
We should appreciate
George's position on this committee – regardless as to whether or not he was
coerced by officials. He was an employee
of the South Metropolitan Gas Company and the policy which he was advocating
was not that of his Board - in fact some of them violently opposed it. It was a
policy which went again the interests and beliefs of the other London Gas managements. He was still a young man at the start of his
career. Such behaviour might have been acceptable if he was an elder statesman
on the point of retirement and ‘when he attended meeting of companies .... He
was treated with a marked degree of incivility’.[37]
When he put forward
his proposal the pricing system in the London Gas industry was ruled by a
decision taken in 1868. This had set up
a system of adjudication on price by the Board of Trade. Gas companies were
expected to keep their prices low and illuminating standards high consistent
with ‘due care and management’ and then they got 10 per cent dividend for
themselves. The 1875 proposal suggested
by Livesey was for an automatic system whereby as prices fell so profits might
go up and, of course, vice versa. It was
widely accepted on all sides that this was his idea
Gas companies could do
very little to expand or change without Parliamentary permission via a private
Bill. Thus the system which had been employed
by governments for many years which was designed to enable Government policies
to be imposed on gas companies had been to produce model clauses which the gas companies
were obliged to accept when presenting a Bill to Parliament.
Governments could therefore expect to force
all gas companies to accept Livesey’s sliding scale
The London gas
companies reacted with horror to this regulation of their prices and
profits. Over the next few years, one by
one, they were obliged to accept.
Compared with the
other London Gas companies South Met’s
financial situation was very advantageous and they were able to charge low prices down and keep them low. If you listened
to George Livesey and no one else you would think it was entirely down to his
efficient management but this was not really the case. The company he had inherited was said to be
'the very best Metropolitan gas management ... his path strewn with flowers of
the rarest and choicest buds the cultivation of which should have been a labour
of love and pleasure’. [38] We have seen how Thomas Livesey and Chairman
Thomas Bridges Simpson had built up a large suburban district which had
gradually expanded so that capital expenditure could take place gradually as
other building works took place. It was a policy which had paid off. It meant
that they had never needed to raise large sums of capital and so did not have a
large number of shareholders to service and pay out dividends to, and thus no
need to raise prices.
GEORGE IN TROUBLE –
THE NEXT SOUTH MET. COMPANY MEETING
After George’s appointment
as South Met. Secretary and following the gas workers’ strike, company meetings
began to take an unusual turn. It was clear that following his evidence to the
Select Committee on the sliding scale that something would be said at Board
level and would be repeated at the twice yearly meeting of shareholders
Almost immediately after
the Select Committee the South Met. Board passed a resolution against the sliding
scale and its enforcement on the company.
The company Chairman then was still the long serving and very elderly
Thomas Bridges Simpson who was understandably proud of the work he had done for
the company and what had been achieved.
The October 1875
shareholders’ meeting was clearly unusual in that the meeting was packed. Simpson
asked for the share register and the list of those present to make sure all of
them were shareholders. He said that strangers
should be required to leave the room before a vote was taken. #
We must assume that the resolution was to be
one condemning George Livesey. when the
registers were examined it turned out that most of the incomers ware workers from
the Old Kent Road works all holding one
and two shares and ask all entitled to vote. Simpson was very angry “the
meeting is packed – there are parcels of our workmen who will do whatever our Secretary
tells them – I do not know who brought them here – our Secretary I suppose”. George replied “I thought, sir, that you had
withdrawn your charge of my having packed the meeting. Had I really had done so
I would have done it twice over.” Simpson replied “you did it before” which must mean the meeting three years
previously from which Livesey had emerged with an increased salary. He went on to defend his evidence giving to
the Select Committee “I took very independent action before Parliament and I
can tell you I was actuated with the single idea of benefiting the company.”[39]
It is ironic that the
first instance of share ownership by Old Kent Road workers was so that Livesey
could pack company meetings. This was
just the start.
COMPANY AMALGAMATIONS
– HOW GEORGE AND SOUTH MET. TOOK THE LEAD
George Livesey was
also involved in another aspect of government policy towards gas companies in
the 19th century. This was to implement company amalgamations.
The structure of the
London gas industry has been described above. Government thought on the structure
for the industry not only covered the sliding scale and gas pricing but also on
economies of scale. Some of the older gasworks were very small and
sited in the inner city where pollution and danger from fire were very real
issues. It was thought that more efficiently produced gas would be cheaper gas
The lessons of the
Chartered Company’s Beckton Works were seen as crucial. Their three original works were all built
before 1815 and landlocked in the inner city – with no river or canal access
for coal deliveries. The company had
expanded and grown but were unable to enlarge these sites. They were also under
pressure from various ‘consumer groups’ to become lower prices. The eventual,
and sensible, solution was to build a large out of town works on a down river site
ever since known as ‘Beckton’ –after the Chartered's Governor was responsible
the policy, Simon Adams Beck. This enormous
works is usually described – like Livesey’s East Greenwich – as the ‘largest in
the world’. Government was impressed and
the issue had been taken up as early as 1857 by Mr. Cardwell in his Select
Committee Report. He recommended an
amalgamation of the inner city gas companies in order to reduce expenditure and
better serve consumers.
The first wave of
amalgamations took place in North London – in which Livesey was not involved. By the late 1870s the area north of the Thames
had been reduced to two companies – the greatly expanded Chartered with their
head office in Westminster and the Commercial - a small company which operated
in riverside inner east London.
The gas industry in South
London was also in involved in the push to form larger companies and when
Thomas Livesey died in 1871 George had been involved in discussions on a
takeover of South Met by the Phoenix. In
South London the Phoenix was the large company with four works, which was
expected to take over the very much smaller South Met. All of these amalgamations involved bids and
subsequent discussions on the complex arrangements of company finance. They
then had to be submitted to the Board of Trade and passed through a Parliamentary
process.
When George Livesey took
over management at South Met they seemed likely to be swallowed up by another larger
Company. The largest company in inner South
London was Phoenix and the smallest was Surrey Consumers. Also, in a more ambivalent position of being
in both south and north London was the London Company.
South Met had been
approached in early 1871 by the smaller Rotherhithe based Surrey Consumers
Company with the offer of a merger which they had turned down.[40]
Negotiations with the larger Phoenix
Company had continued but there had been numerous hold ups – South Met director
John Ewart had died, then it was the conference season, then Thomas Livesey
died, shareholders were doubtful, and then the local authorities objected on
grounds of possible price rises.
By 1875 a general
amalgamation of all gas companies was being discussed. The South Met. Board however
passed a resolution to ’at all costs to maintain the independence of the
company’. [41] In
November the Chartered made an offer to takeover all three South London
companies. All refused.
Meanwhile South Met went
ahead with a new parliamentary bill passed in 1876. Crucially it gave them
powers to take over other gas companies – as the predator rather than a victim.
As soon as their new Act
was passed Livesey called a meeting with Phoenix and Surrey Consumers to
discuss a merger. Surrey Consumers were then
in discussion with the Chartered and they were so frightened by the approach
from South Met. that their engineer went straight off to Horseferry Road to see
the directors of the Chartered. He called them out of a meeting and demanded an
immediate resolution to take them over. Next he went straight to the Old Kent
Road and suggested to Livesey that South Met. too might like to be taken over
by Chartered. Livesey’s said he would ask his Board.
What South Met Board
thought was quite clear. They should
proceed with discussions in South London saying that they should ‘break up the
coalition operating against us and exclude the Chartered Gas Company from
obtaining a footing in the district south of the river’.[42]
Chartered Company
prepared packages of amalgamation with all the South London companies but they
appear however to have been frightened off by the low prices which South Met
charged for gas. They offered to take
over the other south London companies in an attempt to isolate Livesey. What Chartered did not know was that Livesey
was continuing in discussions with Phoenix.
In 1879 Phoenix broke off negotiations with Chartered and announced that
an amalgamation with South Met was to go through. [43]. Soon both Surrey Consumers and Phoenix were
part of South Met. This involved a
considerable shake up of board members and staff but Livesey remained for the
moment as Secretary and Chief Engineer.
It should be noted
that from then on that Chartered treated South Met as an equal rather than a
potential takeover bid.
London Gas politics
now appeared to consist of two blocks north and south of the river with only the
Commercial Company remaining independent and they soon also became a client
company of Livesey
There was another
problem which was difficult to deal which was the existence of the London
Company which had a district covering both north and south of the Thames. South Met’s low prices in South London were
an important factor in any proposed takeover.
The Board of Trade would not agree to a merger with a north London
company if it meant any south London gas prices customers going up to more than
if they were supplied by South Met.
The London Company was
however taken over in 1883 by the Chartered which gave them a foothold south of
the Thames. The agreement between the London Company and Chartered said that south
of the Thames the Chartered could not charge a higher rate than that charged by
South Met. But if Chartered prices went down South Met did not need to lower
theirs to match them. This meant that Chartered prices even north of the river
were tied to South Met. prices. So
Livesey was in the position of setting the gas prices for the whole of London
South Met. was now a
very large company controlling a major section of the London Gas Supply. Clearly
Livesey's ambitions did not end there.
He began discussions with Chartered on a merger between them and South
Met. This was stopped by the Board of Trade
at the request of the Metropolitan Board of Works and the City Corporation on
the grounds that the low prices south the river must be maintained.
Relations between
South Met and Chartered deteriorated after this.[44] It was to lead to a long court case concerning
Nine Elms Goods Yard which ended in the House of Lords. A new chair at Chartered was William Makins
and he and Livesey began a long and antagonistic battle
In 1887 Livesey wrote to
the Chartered to say that South Met desired to promote friendly and more
intimate relationships between the companies. This was not to be. Cross river animosities
survived until the closure of all works in the late 20th century.[45]
[1] Stewart ‘Gas Works of
the North Thames Area’. Everard ‘History of the Gas Light and Coke Co.’. This supplied gas from 1813 . It closed in
1875 but the Chartered’s head office remained there until nationalisation. The
works site has since been used as Government offices, and famous for
underground bunkers allegedly built in the gasholder tanks.
[2] Stewart, Everard. Opened
in 1813. This was sited between the Goswell Road and Central Street. The site
is still, amazingly, in gas industry use as a depot for Transco.
[3] Stewart, Everard. Opened
in 1813. This was at the back of what is now Liverpool Street Station alongside
the new defunct railway line from Broad Street Station. A recent dig by MOLA
may, or may not, have examined the site.
[4] Stewart, Everard.
There are also a number of specialist histories and photo albums of Beckton
which remained open until the 1980s. It
was subsequently disguised as Vietnam and blown to bits as the set for ‘Full
Metal Jacket’.
[5] Stewart, Everard. Opened
in 1822 and closed in 1907. This is the now famous site at Kings Cross where
gas holders have been used to hold flats.
A number of recent specialist histories about this conversion and the
background to the works have been produced.
[6] Everard, Stewart,
Co-partnership 1911. Opened in 1823, closed 1952. The site is now Haggerston
Park.
[7] Everard, Stewart. ,
opened in 1824 and closed post-nationalisation. There are also articles in
local history publications in the area. This enormous site in what is now a
very posh area included housing and still has the oldest gas holder in the
world as well as listed office and laboratory buildings. It is currently under
– ‘regeneration’ - for housing.
[8] Stewart. This works closed post-nationalisation. For a while
it housed the Bow Gas Museum but the whole site is now a trading estate.
[9] Stewart, Everard. , was taken over by the Chartered and closed in
1874. The works site became the City of London School
which has since been converted into a commercial building. A governor house remained at the rear until
the 1980s.
[10] Stewart, Everard. This had
been a consumer works called the Great Central and opened in 1851 under the
auspices of the City Corporation. It had
been taken over by the Chartered in 1870 and remained as an operational works
after nationalisation. It stood on a large site in Bow Common Lane and which
appear still be in use by the gas industry. A very large office block also
remains
[11] Stewart, Pimlico. This had been opened
by the Equitable Company in 1831. It was taken over by the Chartered in 1871
and closed in 1901. It stood on the Embankment adjacent to Grosvenor Road. The
site is now housing.
[12] Stewart, Silvertown. This had been opened by the Victoria Docks company in
1858 and taken over by the Chartered in 1871.
It was to remain open until 1909. It stood on the Riverside near the
current site of the Lyle Golden Syrup works.
[13] Stewart, Haggerston Works. This was opened by the Independent Company in 1825 and eventually taken over by
the Chartered in 1876. It stood on the Regent’s Canal slightly north of the
Imperial Company’s Shoreditch works. Rhea
site is now housing
[14] Stewart, Kensal Green Works. This was
opened in 1845 by the Western Gas Light Company as a cannel works. It was taken
over by the Chartered Company in 1872. It stood at the north end of Ladbroke
Grove adjacent to Kensal Green Cemetery from which its large gas holder can
still e seen.
[15] Stewart. Stepney works had been opened by the Commercial Company in 1837 and
closed before nationalization in 1946. It remained in gas industry use until
the 1980s. The site is now housing but some relic remain on site as decorative
items, including a large section of the works wall
[16] Stewart. This works
may have originated as a private gas making plant. (my own research not in
Stewart) It had opened in 1817 and was
owned by the Ratcliffe Gas Light and Coke Company and taken over by the
Commercial Company in 1875 who then closed it.
He work had been cut in half by a railway and the part bought by the
Commercial Company was a holder station only.
[17] Stewart. Wapping Works. This had been
opened probably by a body known in the East London Gas Light Company in 1831
which became are the Ratcliffe Gas Light Company in 1835. It was taken over by
the Commercial COMPANIES in 1875 and closed in 1935 following a fire, the site
now a school. The
[18] Stewart. Poplar works.
This was opened by the Commercial Company in 1870 and in remained open
following nationalisation. the site, in
Levan Street, near the Blackwall Tunnel Approach, is still in gas industry use but holders are
being demolished as I write
[19]Garton. Bankside Gas Works
opened pre 1816 and closed around 1938. The site is now under the Tate Modern
conversion of Bankside Power Station
[20] Garton, Wellington Street Works. This was originally opened by the
South London Company in 1822. It appears to have remained in use until the
mid-1870s. The site lay between Weber
street and Pocock street and is now a school
[21] Garton. Vauxhall Works. Opened by Phoenix in 1846. The site, on the
west side of the south bank of Vauxhall Bridge is now housing.
[22] Stewart. Vauxhall works. Opened in 1857 by the London Gas Light Co.
and taken over by the Chartered in 1883. The works survived nationalisation. It
was on the south side of Nine Elms Lane east of Sleaford Street.
[23] Garton. Rotherhithe Gas Works. Opened as a consumer company in
1851. A gasholder still survives in what
is now Salter Road adjacent to Surrey Water.
[24] M.Mills ‘The early Gas
industry in Greenwich’. The Deptford Works had begun as the Greenwich Railway
Gas Works which had then been taken over y a Deptford and Rotherhithe Company
and then the Surrey Consumers. It survived as a holder station until the Great
War the site is now the Ecology Centre on thaw West Bank of Deptford Creek
alongside the railway in Copperas Street.
[25] Co-partnership Journal.
Survey of Woolwich. The Woolwich Equitable Company a (1837) and the Woolwich
Consumers Protective Company. (1843)
these works were near each other on the Woolwich Riverside. One near the Arsenal Wall on an area now amenity
land and housing, the other under the site of the Leisure Centre. Both were
closed by South Met. in the 1880s.
[26] This was on a corner of Eltham Green off Eltham Hill. It was closed
down by South Met. In the 1880s.
[27] Info Brian Sturt. Wandsworth
Works. This dated from 1834 and was on a
very large riverside side adjacent to Fairfield Road and Warple Road. The works
continued after nationalisation, closing in 1970. The site is now hotels, housing, etc.
[29] Chatterton. The London Gas
Industry
[30] Mills. The early Greenwich Gas Industry. In the 1820s Greenwich was
a sizeable town with a reasonably well informed vestry and population. They
were however at the mercy of ‘experts’ selling them what turned out to be
disastrous gas lighting schemes.
[31] Hayward. Comptroller of the LCC to the Select Committee into Met.
Gas Cos. 1899
[32] JGL 14th April 1874
[33] Select Committee evidence 1899
[34] JGL August 1874
[35] Matthews. Thesis.
[36] CPJ April 1911
[37] Gas World 18th October 1884.
[45] In the 1990s I was at
the site of Bow gasworks and with a prominent member of the South London gas fraternity. North Thames gas vehicles were driving around
the site and my South London friend said they had better stand on the pavement
as if they knew he was from South London they were sure to run him over
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