The South Metropolitan Gas Company before
the Liveseys
Thomas Livesey’s new job was to be with the
South Metropolitan Gas Company. He began
work there in 1839 when they had already had a short but chequered history
A number of gas companies had been floated
in South London in the early 1820. In
some cases there may have been an attempt to build a works. However by the early1830s
when South Met was set up there were a number of functioning gas works here.
Gas was already being supplied by the Phoenix
Gas Company which had grown out of a small Bankside works begun by a Mr. Monro[1]
and which was called the South London Gas Company. Another works had been built in Wellington Street
just off the Blackfriars Road.[2]. They had merged as the Phoenix Gas Company.[3]
In the 1820s Phoenix had also taken over a small works in Greenwich and expanded
there with a works at the mouth of Deptford Creek. [4]
Phoenix were a successful and apparently well managed company and would be a formidable
rival to a newcomer.
Several London Gas Company were, if not
completely fraudulent, at least tending in that direction. The 1820s were their heyday. South Metropolitan was, sadly, part of this
trend. It had been set up, probably in 1829 in the Old Kent Road in what was
then part of Camberwell. The origins of South
Met are not particularly clear, and the earliest records do not exist.
Phoenix Gas Company, already supplying gas
in the area, had opposed the new company’s bill to become a statutory gas
company and noted South Metropolitan was seeking permission to lay mains in the
Old Kent Road area in 1831.[5]
South Met was thus founded with a Deed
of Settlement and Phoenix continued to oppose their attempts to become statutory.
The Old Kent Road is known for the medieval
Pilgrims and their many successors who travelled down it as the Dover road. It
was also known for the pubs which lined it until very recently. The new gas works was to be built where the
Grand Surrey Canal crossed the road.
This canal had been opened about 20 years previously in 1807 running
between the Thames and Peckham – planned extensions were never to
materialize. The crossing place was the
site of the ‘Kent Pond’ and this had been bought by the gas company in 1832.
Some cottages, called Canal Place, had already been built to overlook the
pond. They were soon to be surrounded by
the Gas Works – and, indeed, have outlived both the gas works and the canal and
remain in the 21st century.
Maps of the area from the 1830s show this
area as ‘Peckham New Town’, essentially a triangle filled with little streets. Backing
onto the works was Caroline Street – later Sandgate Street - where a mission stood
which was frequented by gas workers.[6] One side of the triangle was Church Street
which led to Christ Church, built in 1838 at the end of Caroline Street.[7] It had been built to serve the district under
the Parish of Camberwell and a gold braided beadle officiated there.[8] After demolition the pinnacles of the church
tower were moved to enhance the clock tower in the gas works and Church Road
became Ruby Street. To the south east was a large piece of land into which the
Gas Works was eventually to move. The works was to grow and grow and this brief
attempt at a suburb was completely gone
The original Gas Works entrance faced
Peckham Park Road but in later years as the Gas Works grew in size a new
entrance was opened further down the
road towards New Cross and opposite the Kentish Drovers – one of the Oldest and
best known of the Old Kent Road pubs. The new entrance was also close to the
end of Asylum Road where the Asylum - the Licenced Victuallers old people’s
home - had been built in 1827 – at around the same time as the Gas Works,
although it has fared rather better.
The company was set up to make ‘cannel’
gas. ‘Cannel’ or ‘parrot’ coal is an oil rich product said to produce gas with
a brighter and better light.
“Once again the leadership of the new
concern proved to be fraudulent”[9]. The original Chairman of what became the
South Metropolitan Gas Company was Ewan Meredith Roberts, described as an
ironfounder of Helmet Row, St. Luke’s. He was also a shareholder in the
Imperial Gas Co. A number of others were involved including a William Clare of
Charles Street, City Road and Lewis Roberts of West Hackney. [10] In 1833 it was discovered that little attempt
had been made to use the initial capital of £70,000 for building a new works
and that the Chair and some directors had issued false bills of exchange in the
name of the company. Other directors
then had had to issue press notices warning against unauthorised bills issued
by the company. Towards the end of 1833 two
separate proprietors meetings were held by two different factions, one set up
by a committee of proprietors. The meeting heard that the company’s liabilities
were £11,000 while its assets £983 2s 6d.
A new deed of settlement was drawn up and signed. A loan of £5000 pounds
was raised from the Foster family. [11]
The Foster’s London business had begun with
two Foster brothers who came to London from Lincolnshire with a drysalters
business and who later became commission merchants trading with Brazil and
Portugal. In the late 1820s they were
based in Crutched Friars in the City.
The loan to South Met was based on an annuity from John Foster to be
paid to his child. As we will see members of the Foster family were to play a
crucial role in South Met and the role played eventually by George Livesey.[12]
A new Board was set up to manage the company.
The leading figure in this was a solicitor, William Baker of 3 Crosby Square in
the City of London and a Middlesex County Coroner.[13] George Holgate Foster, a banker, was the Chairman.
In the 1870s it was said that the, by then, enormous prosperity of the company
was entirely due to the plans laid down by him in this period.[14]
Managing director of the company for the time being was Frederick Blakesley. He
was a tortoise shell dealer with a business in Bishopsgate patent who by then
lived nearby in the Paragon. What his qualifications were to run the company is
not known but he clearly acted as technical advisor at this time.
By 1834 the South Met works had been built,
designed and engineered by George Holworthy Palmer. He had
already had a very varied and lively career in a number of gas companies. He had been a draughtsman working for Clegg
at the Chartered Company and had been Engineer in charge at the Imperial’s
Shoreditch (Haggerston) works.[15]
There are no records of the start of his career at South Met but in other
companies he had sometimes told them of his new ideas and in the future that
was to involve cannel coal. [16]
In South Met however, in 1834, everything
appeared to be in good order. It has
been built by direct labour at Palmer’s suggestion that this was cheaper. However
he clearly though little else about costs as the board constantly reminded him
that the need for economy. Generally
however South Met was beginning to pull away from its troubled past. Disaster
was soon to strike again. Meanwhile the works grew and some important customers
were supplied. Astey’s Theatre became a customer for their gas[17]
and a ‘gentleman from the Greenwich Railway’, then under construction, called
to discuss supply. [18]
Palmer meanwhile had been experimenting with
ways to use naphtha, the volatile oil which was a distillate of coal tar. He was undertaking experiments and keeping
very quiet about what he was doing. By May, 1836 things had got so bad that Palmer
had ceased to communicate with Blakesley and had also ‘made some allegations’. The
Board thought that Palmer was ‘over excited’ but they still wanted to know what
he was doing. They called on him for ‘the last time …. to explain his
allegations’. He refused and was sacked. A number of the company’s workmen promptly
went on strike demanding his reinstatement. He remained on site in the Canal Grove company
house. He did not collect his salary but the demanded to be allowed to collect
his property still on site. A month
later he was still there refusing to answer letter or to answer the door. [19]
A committee of proprietors was set up
and called for a general meeting to investigate ‘certain reports’ and it was
assumed that Palmer was behind these.[20]
The situation was resolved with some
suddenness on the 8th of October when a major explosion shook the
works hurling bricks and much else over the canal. Two men lay badly injured. Blakesley came to set about rescue works Palmer appeared and Blakesley ‘requested his
assistance’. But ‘Mr. Palmer left the
works having recommended that the area be abandoned and that there was a great
danger of a second explosion’.[21]
An inquiry showed that the explosion had
been caused because of the lack of ventilation in Palmer’s special octagonal
purifying house into which a workman had gone with the naked flame. Three weeks
later one of the gasholders ‘grounded ‘– i.e. it collapsed – and the company
were unable to fulfill lighting contracts. It was a Saturday night’s and the night
watchman was sacked
The works was in ruins and the newly
appointed engineer, a Mr. Hills, was grievously injured. It was rebuilt with
advice from Frederick Albert Winsor, Jnr[22].
The purifier house was rebuilt with the help of William Leeson, a Greenwich
based doctor and consulting engineer[23]
The unfortunate and injured new engineer
Mr. Hills lasted only another two years.
He was sacked because of the ‘dangerous condition of the works’ in 1838.
He had already been admonished by the board for ‘lack of respect’.[24] At the same time a row developed with the
company’s coal supplier, the Marquis of Lothian. They war then forced to use ‘common coal’ and
to make ‘common gases.
The company now had no engineer and was
coping with the help of Mr.Kirkham who worked for the Imperial Gas Company and Mr.
Blakeley who was managing the works on a day to day basis. Mr. Holland, the Clerk, was given the company
house and was asked to ‘give general surveillance of the works’ ‘particularly after office hours’. He lasted only another year. [25]
South Met in 1839 clearly needed to be sorted
out
[2] This is now Pocock
Street and the works site lay alongside what is now Rushworth Street and is now
in educational use.
[10] Deed of Settlement,
South Met. Gas Co. (LMA) The addresses
given of all three have proved elusive
[13] He gave his address as Church Row, Limehouse, where he was vestry clerk to Stance’s Parish
[16] Some fifteen years
later Palmer was to persuade the Kensal Green Western Works of the virtues of
cannel coal and his revolutionary gas works design. Western Gas Light Co.
Director’s Minutes.
[18] The Greenwich Railway
was intending to build its own gasworks, so this call was about a temporary
supply.
[22]This is the son of the man who publicised and
set up the Chartered Company. He
remained n England when his father returned to continental Europe, and
continued on the Board of the Chartered.
[23] This is probably Dr William Beaumont Leeson.
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