Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Hill

Telegraph Hill at New Cross is only just inside what was once the Kent border.  The Manor of Hatcham, in which it stands,  has long been a disputed area, and, in 1636 was the subject of a legal action when its owner was assessed for ship-money from both Kent and Surrey. Today it is in the London Borough of Lewisham – but for the purposes of this article, unless we want to re-start the action of 1636, it is in Kent.

There is however a boundary marker and, walk a few yards from it and you are in a park.  Enter it at the top, near Haberdasher's Aske's school, and you will see a concrete octagon set in the ground. It looks like the base of a statue – but there is nothing there to tell you what stood  there.  It was, however,, a fountain and, to be  honest, I don't know where it has gone now but I do know   what it commemorated. Surprisingly enough it was all about strike breaking!

On a day in early November 1889  a man stood at that spot and looked down at South London beneath him. He was particularly concerned about the gas works – you can still see the big gasholder in Old Kent Road from Telegraph Hill today.  The man, tall, thin with a big beard, had walked a long way that morning, He had come from Reigate where he had left his wife having travelled with her from Eastbourne.  As he walked he had no doubt been going over in his mind a whole set of problems about the company of which he was Chairman. It would be easy to think that his main concern was trade union activity in the gas works down in Old Kent Road

below – but it was rather more complicated than that.

George Livesey was a complicated man.  He had been brought up in the Old Kent Road gasworks of the South Metropolitan Gas Company and for over fifty years had stayed there, seen it grow and change, and now he was Company Chairman.  George was not a conventional man; his instincts were always revolutionary. Since his father died in 1871 he had taken on the whole gas industry, tried to make them  efficient, introduced the concept of partnership with the customers, and, on the whole, changed things. That is, except for the hated, and enormous, North London based Gas Light and Coke Company, which remained elusively beyond his control. Since boyhood he had been immersed in the London temperance movement and the Church of England.  This had led him to a strong ideology, which was generally about partnership, working together and improving the lot of the working man by inducing him to self-help.  This was not a concept that he had been able to further in the gas works since even his own board, generally sycophantic, would not accept ideas of co-operation, or even profit linked bonuses.

In the summer of 1889 summer east London had been swept with the great Dock Strike. The dockers had won their 'tanner' and other groups of workers had wondered if they too could benefit from a little militant action. North of the river, in the works of the Gas Light and Coke Company, trade union activity had been stirring under the leadership of one, Will Thorne – previously a stoker at Old Kent Road.   The  agitation was around the re-arrangement of the shift system into stints of eight hours, rather than twelve.   As a result of this on 4^th November a meeting had been held at the Cannon Street Hotel between the union leaders and representatives of the Boards of the various London gas companies.   Here the negotiations had moved on to the reduction of the hours worked on Sundays – something Livesey felt strongly about and had tried to tackle for years.  As the meeting had progressed Thorne and the north London managements grew closer together – became remarkably friendly in fact. While the two sides reached an agreement the South Metropolitan Gas Company stayed outside. In theory Livesey should have been in favour of the workers getting together to help themselves – it was something he had always advocated – but as far as Will Thorne's Gas Workers Union was concerned, Livesey hated them. He described them as 'outsiders' – people from outside 'his' gasworks, and, worse,  had started in North London and the Gas Light and Coke Company, In the future workers organisations at South Met. were ony encouraged so long as Livesey was in charge of them!

As he looked at the view and the beauties of the November morning Livesey clearly had a lot on his mind.  He later said that he thought how the area should be dedicated as a public park for the people of South London – but we must assume that mostly he thought about the Gas Workers Union.   What happened next is not entirely clear.  In fact, it must be said that accounts of this story vary considerably and that it is impossible to come to any exact conclusion on the sequence of events. Livesey was a strong Christian gentleman and we should not be tempted to think that he might have just possibly been making all this up – so, just in case,  perhaps we should take someone else's version of events.

Charles Tanner was the head foreman at the Old Kent Road gas works, but, in his account of events, he wisely misses out some crucial details.  He told the story  some twenty years later about how Livesey arrived at the works and that he asked Livesey 'how he could keep the men out of the hands of the Union'.  Livesey's own version was rather more dramatic. He said that he arrived at the works from his long walk to meet Charles Tanner, and that Tanner said ' we have lost all authority in the retort houses --- unless you do something -- we shall be completely in the power of the union!!!'  Livesey went on 'I had not thought out anything and cannot explain how or why this thing came to be but in a quarter of an hour on half a sheet of paper the scheme was set out in writing and when the Board met was submitted to them'.  This hastily thought out scheme was Livesey's triumph – a profit sharing scheme designed to offer the company's workforce an inventive by offering them a bonus based on profits while at the same time making future strike action impossible. Despite the drama and the walk from Telegraph Hill it was in fact the scheme that Livesey had been pressing on his reluctant Board

for years. Given the emergency, and the fact that Livesey had announced it all in advance, the Board had little choice but to agree.

This is an article about Telegraph Hill and it is not the place to go through all the details of the South London Gas Workers strike in the winter of 1889 – or, indeed, the long and successful history of the profit sharing scheme. Once Livesey had announced profit sharing the Gas Workers Union called a strike on the issue of 'liberty' – i.e. no compulsion to join the scheme and the right to join a union. Livesey then set about breaking the strike and smashing up the union with relentless and frightening efficiency (particularly for a Christian gentleman). By the time he had finished there was a different workforce in place, one that was only too keen to do whatsoever he wanted. As time went by the profit sharing scheme became 'Co-partnership' with many embellishments and a works 'Co-partnership' committee - the minutes of which exhibit an unbelievable level of sycophancy. For the last twenty years of Livesey's life he made a new career out of promoting it as a new way of reconciliation between master and men.

So – what about Telegraph Hill? After the strike was over South Metropolitan Gas Company felt that it had something to celebrate.  At the end of February 1890 two of the shareholders wrote to the Times asking that money – not more than two guineas each – should be subscribed to a fund as a testimonial to Livesey 'in recognition of the eminent services rendered to the community on the occasion of the recent stokers' strike'.   1,450 people subscribed and £2.216 was collected.  In August the testimonial committee presented a portrait of Livesey to the company which was hung in the Board Room. The balance - £1,700 – was given to Livesey who said that he 'wished it might be devoted to the  benefit of working people'.  He contacted the Greenwich Board of Works, offering them £2000. They voted another £2000 themselves as did the London County Council.  He then approached the Haberdasher's Company for the piece of land on which he had stood.

The area was, and is known as Telegraph Hill – and the early telegraph which once stood on it, although extremely interesting,  is not relevant here. Before the telegraph came the area had been called Plow Garlic Hill and at the opening ceremony of the park Faithfull Sturdee, the local historian, presented pictures of the telegraph to the dignitaries concerned..  The Haberdashers Company agreed to sell the land for the £6,000 which had been collected – although they valued it at £8000 thus allowing the reduction in price as their own contribution.  The park was, and is, in two sections. The southerly portion is where the telegraph stood – while the northern portion looks out –  as Livesey did – towards the Thames and inner London.  It is 160 feet high and, at the time, the view was said to be of Knockholt Beeches – although I am very unclear as to whether that area can still be seen now

.

The park was not easy to lay out because of the steep slope and rough nature of the ground. In particular the southern portion present problems with potential slippage of the clay, and a special drainage system had to be installed. £7,500 was spent in laying it out – although who paid for that it not clear, presumably the London County Council. The park was laid out and designed by the great Col. Sexby, Chief Officer of the LCC's  Park's Sub-Department - whose work on London parks of this period is one of the great design achievements of the late Victorian era.  There was a lake, flower beds, and a 'grove of trees', a wrought iron fence and a bandstand.  It was stepped in such a way as to be 'approachable even by persons whose climbing abilities are not conspicuous'.

On the top of the hill was a children's play area where 'half the children of the neighbourhood were rushing over the grass and standing on their heads … without their coats, in spite of the keen wind'.

The park was opened on April 6^th 1895 by Arthur Arnold, then Chairman of the London County Council.   He was accompanied by other members - including Sydney Webb, the Fabian intellectual and founding father of the Labour Party. It was not a nice day. 'the wind had a great deal of the north in it .. dull heavy clouds driving before the wind …. and a sharp cold shower of rain'.  There were however colourful 'bannerettes' and an 'admirable' band playing, under Mr. Warwick Williams, 'a number of popular airs'.   Happily. seating for the official party was 'judiciously placed to the leeward of the bandstand' but they were watched from behind the railings

by a crowd 'who tried to look as if they liked the invigorating energy of the wind'.

Many of the speakers paid tribute to Livesey and his efforts which had made the opening of the park possible. Arnold spoke about 'the liberal and munificent spirit' which had made the money available and 'of the great social struggle in which Mr. Livesey had played a prominent part'. 

So, what about the empty plinth? Livesey donated a drinking fountain which was to be placed at the spot where he had looked down on south London. Many years ago I was given a copy of the plans for the inscription on this fountain when it had turned up among items being thrown out of the old Deptford Borough stores.  The anonymous sender pointed out that the inscribed name 'Sir George Livesey' has been altered and enlarged.    The fountain seems to have disappeared at some time since the second world war – but  I have never met anyone who actually remembers it. Why was it removed?  Was it damaged? It must have been a fairly heavy item to shift and difficult to destroy. I would be amazed if it had been taken much further than the council yard. Does it still lurk somewhere in a Lewisham Council depot, or, was it resurrected somewhere else? Has anyone ever seen it?  Was it actually taken down because someone remembered that it was really a monument to strike breaking?  I think we should be told.