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GREATER LONDON INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETY

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Notes and news — August 2011

In this issue:

Re-housing of people associated with railway development

Peter Butt and Richard Graham touch on provisions made associated with the Great Eastern Railway's development of the west side of Liverpool Street station (1864 Act, mandatory workmen's trains — GLIAS Newsletter February 2011) and the Great Central Railway's Marylebone station and goods yard (re-housing at Wharncliffe Mansions — GLIAS Newsletter April 2011). I hope a reader can give proper chapter and verse on the legal side and add information about any 're-housing' still standing. But meantime here are a few additional bits.

1. The first 'proper' railway in London, the London & Greenwich, required demolition of housing. So this was always an issue. As early as 1853 promoters of bills that would involve demolition of 30 or more houses occupied by 'labouring classes' had to say what remedy was proposed — but not actually obliged to do anything.

Later, this may have been revised to 20 or 10 houses, and a 'house' was defined to count each separate occupancy in blocks of flats.

2. From 1861 onwards a clause requiring provision of workers' trains was inserted in some, but not all Railway Acts. Ones affected included those for the North London Railway's Broad Street line and station, the London, Chatham, & Dover's line from Victoria to Ludgate Hill and the Metropolitan's extension to Moorgate. The GER allegedly obstinately provided workers fares only on the two lines specified in their 1864 Act, to Walthamstow and Edmonton, and not on other lines.

3. The 1883 Cheap Trains Act compelled all railways (? nationally or just London) to offer cheap workers fares.

4. From 1885, Acts for compulsory purchase for railways and other 'urban improvements' included a requirement to re-house those where land had been compulsorily purchased. It seems, however, that by now a minimum of 20 houses applied, and that this was not enforced if enough alternative land/accommodation was available. There might also have been a requirement for re-housing to be within a mile (see 9, below).

5. In London, the London County Council, 1889, was sometimes both the instigator of an 'urban improvement' and provider of replacement housing. An example is housing in Poplar associated with the Blackwall Tunnel approaches. I've seen an oblique reference to land acquired for schools also requiring re-housing.

6. The London & South Western Railway housed 1,041 displaced by widening of their lines in 1886 to 1892 at Coronation Buildings, South Lambeth Road, Vauxhall. Later, those displaced by extension of Waterloo station were housed in the architecturally identical five blocks of Campbell Buildings, directly behind Lambeth North tube station on the site of Maudslay's Works. A further block was in nearby Stanegate Street. Jackson's 'London Termini' mentions that these provided more space than needed solely for the 1,750 displaced people. Gordon Biddle says that the flats were built for railway workers. So is the reality that the LSWR allocated the surplus to its staff? In any case, it is likely that many of those displaced would have been railway employees. All blocks have been demolished.

7. The Great Eastern Railway enlarged the eastern side of Liverpool Street station in about 1890. Jackson records that 600 displaced people were relocated at the company's expense. Three sites were used to erect four-storey tenements. Ones erected in Quaker Street and Fieldgate Street, E1, both shown in 1900 Kelly's as Great Eastern Buildings, have been demolished; I have not checked the third site, Winchester Street, nearer Bethnal Green. The Company carried out lots of widening works and there may be further examples. But of course, by the 1890s there were several organisations building workers' dwellings. It would have been easy to arrange for some of their tenements to be allocated to those displaced by railway works.

8. Malcolm Tucker's article on Bricklayers Arms Station in GLIAS Journal 4, 1989, says re-housing, since demolished, was provided by the South Eastern Railway in Rotherhithe New Road. He also mentions that the London Brighton & South Coast Railway demolished property, but was not aware of provisions made. A recent conversation with Malcolm led to checking the origin of Brighton Buildings, 1892, at appx. 54 Tower Bridge Road (previously Bermondsey New Road). These and nearby Arundel Buildings are the only two remaining of eight blocks erected by the LBSCR, the others being named Chichester, Eastbourne, Hastings, Portsmouth, Ryde and Worthing. So, out of London sites identified so far, only Brighton and Arundel Buildings survive.

9. A chance discovery was that 1892 Act for the LNWR's Spen Valley line, near Leeds, required re-housing within a mile; apparently some larger houses were carefully knocked down and rebuilt.

10. Finally, demolition of property automatically reduced rate income for the local authority concerned until the site became operational, possibly several years later; they thus had a vested interest in opposing such developments. But the railway companies had to spend money on re-housing before they could start demolition. Deals had to be done ... David Thomas

High Speed 2 and the Camden Winding Vaults

Consultation has recently ended on some locally adjusted alignments for the Euston to Birmingham high-speed railway route, which HS2 Ltd is promoting on behalf of the Government.

The interchange with the Great Western Main Line and Crossrail is still proposed at Old Oak Common, on the site of the present passenger train depot, but an extra tunnel has been added from there to Chalk Farm, for a reversible track to join the North London Line. With a suitably upgraded structure gauge, this would connect to HS1 at St Pancras.

The main tunnels leading to Euston, before they emerge next to the existing West Coast Main Line south of Parkway in Camden Town, have been moved a little north-eastwards and now pass beneath Gloucester Avenue. Concerned residents there would like the tunnels moved further, to keep largely under the existing railway at that point, which would cause them to pass under the Camden Winding Vaults. Those are the huge underground vaults, now listed Grade II*, built by Robert Stephenson to house the stationary engines that drew trains up the Camden Incline between 1837 and 1844.

The Camden Railway Heritage Trust sees this not as a threat but an opportunity, allowing the refurbishment of the vaults as a Robert Stephenson Museum to celebrate the engineering achievements of the original London and Birmingham line. Further information is on their website at www.crht1837.org, under News. Malcolm Tucker

Broadgate listing

In June English Heritage recommended that the early phases of Broadgate Square in the City of London should be listed grade II*. This includes Broadgate Square phases 1-4 (Nos. 1-2, 3, 4, 6 and 8-12 Broadgate and 100 Liverpool Street, including the Octagon Arcade, the Broadgate Circle and Stage Area) the four associated sculptures ('Ganapathi and Devi', 'Go Between', 'Leaping Hare and Bell' and 'Fulcrum') [1], and the integral paving and landscaping.

English Heritage (EH) concluded that Broadgate phases 1-4 'can confidently be regarded as one of the most important and successful developments of its period and type, possessing more than special architectural and historic interest' and on this basis EH recommend Grade ll* listing: Broadgate Square is an exemplar of commercial place making. There is dismay in some business quarters — this listing gives an unfortunate signal that the City is not 'open for business' [2].

Some good buildings have already gone including at least one by Ove Arup's. Broad Street station which was here previously closed in 1986. To some of us this is quite a recent event [3]. The whole office and retail estate covers 32 acres. Bob Carr

Hornsey gasholder under threat

The last of the St Pancras gasholders (GLIAS Newsletter April 2008), of which there were seven in use only eleven years ago, has been demolished in the last few weeks. However, No 8 Gasholder, erected in 1883 and Grade 2 listed, has had its guide frame carefully taken down and sent up to Yorkshire for overhaul and temporary storage, together with the guide frames of the renowned 'triplet', Nos 10, 11, 12, which were dismantled to make way for High Speed One . All four will in due course be re-erected north of the canal as part of the 'Kings Cross Central' development.

Hornsey No 1 © Bob Carr

Not so safe, it seems, is Hornsey No 1 Gasholder (pictured), erected in 1892 beside the East Coast Main Line four miles north of King's Cross. This has one of Samuel Cutler's Patent guide frames, a striking design with the girders arranged spirally instead of as horizontals, so that it is made up of isosceles triangles — perhaps the first 'geodesic' design. The diagonals are designed for the frame to perform like a tubular cantilever to resist the force of the wind in a most efficient manner, as George Livesey had first done 11 years before at Old Kent Road No 13. But unlike Livesey, Cutler made them not as flat cross braces within rectangular panels but as lattice girders, with their webs oriented to provide stiff rings around the frame. That made the frame very robust and simple to erect without guys or other temporary restraints. Cutler's firm went on to build quite a number of this type, for gasholders of moderate size, until the 1930s — a remarkably successful design. But the tall and narrow proportions of Hornsey No 1 are the finest of those still remaining. This was the second one to be built. The prototype, erected at Tunbridge Wells in 1889, is shorter and less elegant in its details, but its existence was one of the arcane reasons given by English Heritage for refusing to list the Hornsey example back in 2006.

Independently of that, Haringey Council insisted in removing Hornsey No 1 from its list of buildings of local architectural interest, because potentially in the way of its development ambitions for 'Hornsey Heartlands'. These ambitions are now manifest in a current planning application that would erase this spectacular landmark. Malcolm Tucker

Somers Town Goods Depot open days

On Saturday 16 April and from Monday 18 to Thursday 21 April this year archaeologists showed us what was still at Somers Town Goods Yard (GLIAS Newsletter April 2011) and we saw the excavated remains of a hydraulic power station at approximately TQ 298 830 — accumulator and chimney bases, remains of brickwork for the six boilers, etc. Also on the site were crane rails and granite setts.

Virtually everything pre-railway had gone. The site was completely cleared down to the London Clay when the depot was built 1883-7 and no remains of the dense housing previously on the site survive.

Just a small collection of personal artefacts were shown to us: candle snuffer, a child's marble, nit comb etc.

There were many familiar faces but few GLIAS members seem to have taken part in these visits. Bob Carr

More on 'Tommy' Fairclough

As I said in my last piece (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011) I did put out feelers in my classic lorry club. The information I got added to discoveries I had already made as a result of the research triggered by Eric's request. He may like to know 48 Gowers Walk still exists, it would seem the street was consecutively numbered so it was probably 'the house next door'.

In 1930 a large hall (in 1925 known as Premierland Boxing Hall, connected to many famous boxers) at the corner of Commercial Road and Back Church Lane reverted to its owners Fairclough's and was then used as a motor garage.

It would seem that Fairclough's was not only meat hauliers, its enterprises reached into other areas of road haulage. Not only as T.M. Fairclough Ltd (head office Christian Street, four roads east from Gowers Walk) but in the form of many wholly owned associated companies working under their own name, eg Dawson in the meat field. At the time of nationalisation (1948) it owned 1,000+ vehicles nationwide (205 on the meat operation in east London) with various depots including a large one in Manchester. It was involved in parcels collection and delivery in competition with the likes of Carter, Paterson; Sutton's of Whitecross Street (Sutton's philanthropy established several estates of 'worker's dwellings'); City and Suburban; Thomas Tilling (also a bus operator back to horses) and Pickfords. It also operated a number of vehicles on contract for various firms including breweries, often in their own liveries. Even some furniture vans, in an area always thought of as extremely specialised. On nationalisation its operations were so diverse that it vehicles and depots went in to different parts of the new organisation. It had a large depot at Victoria Park where many contract hire vehicles were based, this became one of the BRS Contract's operating centres and workshops. London 'meat fleet' was added to that of R.J. Weeks and based at Weeks' depot at Waterden Road, Hackney. Prior to nationalisation the vacancy for a foreman at Weeks was filled with the winner of a fight between the senior drivers.

Thanks to a friend who is a British Road Services historian I have seen the British Transport Commission's disposal schedule for the part of its holding which incorporated all the parts of the Fairclough organisation which had been nationalised in 1948 and become part of the meat haulage division. From it, it is possible to see that the head offices in Christian Street, the former Premierland Hall and any property in Gowers Walk did not form part of the disposal. Freehold premises automatically formed part of the taken over company and many of these are listed in the schedule as for sale. This suggests that at take-over all those other premises were leased or rented. In those cases if the premises were going to continue in BTC use either leases were renewed or disposed of in the normal commercial manner. If rented either the rental continued (with the landlord's agreement) or the property was returned to the landlord. There were leasehold depots included in the disposal, but my friend can find no record of disposal or surrender of a rental in the early days for Christian Street, Premierland or houses in Gowers Walk.

There were many examples of haulage companies being set up in the 1920s and run from premises already owned by the operator in the course of one of their other businesses, with the premises only rented even lent to the haulage arm.

As it is known that Premierland already belonged to Fairclough and the connection to Christian Street tenuous it seems possible that the family was already property owners in the area and only moved into haulage later, it could be the reason for Fairclough Street.

The 'Tilbury Depot' is shown on Edward Stanford's 1891 map as belonging to the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway. Bounded on the west by Lambeth Road (now marked by a pedestrian spur of Hooper Street), Commercial Road to the north, with the ground level vehicle entrances and to the east by Gowers Walk (which has recently acquired an apostrophe). Its job was to take cargo moved from Tilbury Dock by the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway to store or distribute by road around London. Conversely, to accumulate cargo for the Dock to be moved in bulk to the ships side by rail. Old drivers will know the cry, 'have to wait driver we're doing rail trucks', which persisted into the days of British Rail.

It was connected by a spur from the main line (already on a viaduct) which started just east and south of Pinchin and Johnson's 1858 factory and ran beside Pinchin Street curving north into the depot crossing Back Church Lane on a bridge at its junction with Pinchin Street (East abutment still visible) and further north over Hooper Street (low building about where the bridge would have been). The line of the railway is plain today with the curving line of arches on the south side of Pinchin Street. There was a further 'marshalling spur' from that loop also on the viaduct. This means that the railway entered the building at first floor level.

I understand from older lorry drivers that railway trucks were lowered on some form of lift and manoeuvred with a capstan (one very old driver thought he also remembered a horse being used) alongside a loading bank to discharge goods to be stored or transferred to road vehicles for delivery and reloaded with the 'smalls' for Tilbury Dock brought in by carriers. They also recalled a ramp leading to the upper floor for road vehicles. Eric says he remembers trucks being hauled across Hooper Street, so it is possible the railway hired extra storage as even today there is an old building with arches (now windows) at ground level which could have been a warehouse, although the 1891 map shows this an open yard.

At that time there was an LTS station at Leman Street and a further LTS spur looping south behind John Fisher Street (then Glasshouse Street) over The Highway to the north west corner of London Docks. South bridge abutment still visible on the corner of Vaughan Way

Tilbury Depot in its guise as 'Tilbury Shelter' was written about by Ritchie Calder in his book, 'Carry on London' and painted by Henry Moore OM CH. Bob Rust

Wood block roadways

A visit to the Museum of London's current exhibition of London Street Photography reminded me of earlier discussions about wooden blocks used on roadways (GLIAS Newsletters 223; 224; 225; 227; 229; 231).

Here in the exhibition was a 1935 photograph of men 'Applying hot tar, these roadworkers are asphalting wooden blocks that they had previously laid on the road surface. Wolfgang Suschitzky photographed the everyday life of London. "I take pictures of whatever attracts my eye, that is the essence of photography, you are tempted by views of other life," he said. Suschitzky worked as a film cameraman in nearby Soho. Between his working hours, he created a series of photos depicting the activity in and around Charing Cross Road.'

I noticed in the exhibition how many of the photographers were recent emigrés to the UK. They had regular day jobs, but with the end of a roll of film or in their spare time they documented London life. Perhaps they saw us in our streets in a way the average Londoner had long since ceased to notice.

The exhibition runs until 4 September, and copies of many of the prints featured are for sale, including this one. Sarah Timewell
Website: www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Bunhill Fields guided walks

Following on from the excellent article on Bunhill Fields (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011) you may care to tell members that I (and a few colleagues who are all qualified City of London Guide Lecturers) lead guided walks around the Burial Ground every Wednesday throughout the summer until the end of October — starting at 12.30 from the gardener's hut.

As well as recounting the history of the site we take visitors behind the railings for a closer look at some of individual tombs, including that of Thomas Bayes, who, as the articles suggests, is most unaccountably overlooked by history.

The cost of the walks is £5 and last about an hour (or longer if there is sufficient interest!). If the Society would like to organise a private walk at a more convenient time (perhaps on a weekend) do let me know and I will arrange it. We limit the size of groups as the area is not large, so if there is a lot of interest I would arrange for additional guides. Sandra Lea

News in brief

Spherical gasholders (GLIAS Newsletter February 2010) often associated with sewage works seem relatively abundant. Further examples have been noted to the west of Crewe close to the River Weaver at SJ 663 573 (painted green) and in London to the north of Lower Marsh Lane Kingston at TQ 194 683 (painted white). Grid references are approximate.

Outside the UK spherical 'gas tanks' are quite common. For a photographic typology see Gas Tanks by Bernd and Hilla Becher, 102pp MIT Press 1993, ISBN 9780262023610. Is this industrial archaeology raised to such a sublime level it becomes Art? Anyway they did make Bernd a Professor.

In the London Borough of Islington the Malett, Porter and Dowd building of 1874 may be being demolished. There is a demolition sign on the outside and the single-storey building to the north between it and Caledonian Road underground station has already gone. On the west side of the road at TQ 305 848, the three-storey locally-listed 1874 building is a characteristic period piece. An eleven-storey building has been proposed for this site, in line with the Mayor of London's policy that the building of tall residential blocks close to good transport should be encouraged.

Stamford Hill railway station TQ 333 879 is a pleasant later-Victorian brick building situated in Amhurst Park N16 5AG. The station entrance is at street level with the platforms at a lower level just to the north. The east wing of the station building has been used as a shop selling Vicwardian fireplaces and similar salvaged items. Unfortunately the shop was being demolished in April and there is now just an unpleasant hole reminiscent of a bad tooth extraction. The loss of this part of the station is regrettable. Hopefully it will be not left like this.

Stamford Hill © Roger Harris

At about number 205 Homerton High Street on the north side of the road at TQ 360 852 is a tiny shop which has become more and more ruinous as the years go by. It once had a distinguished gold-on-black period shop sign which read F A Murrells' but it is now without any visible name. It used to have a notice in the window 'we buy gold'. Does anyone know this shop?

The 6½ mile long Epping Ongar Railway (GLIAS Newsletter February 2008) now gives the impression of a really well managed railway preservation scheme. An open day was held at North Weald railway station TL 496 036 (pictured below) on Sunday 3 July. The 1865 station building is now in good order and the fully equipped signal box of 1888 is not far from completion. Volunteers have been doing some first rate work restoring the station to 1940-1960 appearance. New track which has been laid came from the North Woolwich area. Two diesel locos were in operation, a beautifully restored English Electric class 37 Co-Co D6729 (*) hauling a passenger train and an 0-6-0 Wilson-Drewry diesel-mechanical shunter, class 03 number 03170 of 1960. There were footplate rides and a ride through the Forest pushed and pulled by D6729 in a Pullman car, probably from the former London — Manchester loco-hauled service. The strong period flavour of the dark-red interior, in remarkably good condition, was most striking.

North Weald railway station © Robert Mason

There was also a connecting 20-minute frequency shuttle bus service between the station and North Weald aerodrome for the Bus Rally organised by the North London Transport Society, held at the aerodrome the same day. Many famous LT types were to be seen RT, RTL, Routemaster and single deckers. Crowded with passengers they brought back vividly memories of road transport before the days of near-universal car ownership.

55 Broadway, 2004. © Robert Mason St James's Park LT station and the offices above it, designed by the architect Charles Holden, were listed grade 1 about six months ago. When it opened in 1929 Fifty-five Broadway (pictured right) was London's tallest office building and is sometimes said to be London's first skyscraper.

Five VDL SB200 Wright Pulsar hydrogen-powered buses (GLIAS Newsletter June 2009) were operating service RV1 together with conventional buses. Following a fire on June 12 the hydrogen buses have been withdrawn. The vehicles are expected to be back in service shortly. A further three hydrogen buses are to join the RV1 fleet this year and the route will then be entirely hydrogen-powered. The buses work from Lea Interchange (Hackney Olympic) garage. This garage was opened in 2007 to replace the depot in Waterden Road, closed for the development of the London 2012 Olympic Park. In 2004 the Waterden Road garage received Mercedes-Benz Citaro hydrogen fuel cell buses (GLIAS Newsletter February 2006) for evaluation on route 25 and later on route RV1. When Transport for London acquired articulated Citaros in 2003 and 2004, four buses caught fire, although there were no casualties involved. They received the nickname 'Chariots of Fire'.

The building proposed to replace Elizabeth House (GLIAS Newsletter February 2011) looks positively Stalinist. Is this the new architectural style?

It is suggested that the police may soon check pollen in beehives to look for evidence of genetically modified plants in the neighbourhood. Dedicated police beehives would probably be used for this surveillance. Bob Carr

To the west of the north end of Cambridge Heath Road (TQ348834 ish) on the southern side of the Regents canal is an archway at canal level which appears to have once led into a basin or loading area.

Until recently this archway was filled with rubble and rubbish to the canal waterline, but travelling along the tow path a few days ago I noticed that the rubble has been removed and the archway opened up into the back of the property to the south once again giving canal access from the property. Jasper Wallace

SS Robin arrives in London ... for TV coverage, see www.itv.com ...and there are some excellent photos of the river journey from Tilbury at http://homepage.mac.com/markbryanmakela/SS%20Robin%2013%20July%202011/

Feedback

Re: Iron Churches (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011). I know this is somewhat off-topic as it relates to somewhere about 7,000 miles away from London but in Arica, now the northernmost city in Chile, there is an iron cathedral, prefabricated by Gustave Eiffel in France.

Originally the church was bound for Peruvian Ancón, but a huge (8.5) earthquake and tsunami struck the Peruvian/Bolivian/Chilean coast in 1868 and virtually demolished the whole coastal town of Arica, completely destroying the ancient Church of Arica.

The church was therefore redirected to the city of Arica, in replacement of the destroyed cathedral.

At the time Arica was in Peru but after the War of the Pacific (1879-1883), was ceded to Chile.

Gustave Eiffel (1832-1923) was responsible for a great many buildings and bridges in South America. (Lionel) Barry Emmott

Re: Bob Rust's request for information on the underground link between Harrods store and its warehouse store across the road (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011).

This was all featured in a TV program about the redevelopment of the site.

The program was extremely interesting and went into quite considerable detail on the architectural, structural and cosmetic problems encountered.

It looks like the Depository (also called repository) was redeveloped into residential use.

The websites www.harrodsestates.com and www.walshgroup.eu.com give information on the current building. (Lionel) Barry Emmott

Bob Rust asks about an underground connection at Harrods. My wife, who worked in the Toy Department at Harrods as a casual at Christmas 1961, remembers a major network of what she describes as streets under the store. She also remembers that she had to enter the store via the network rather than through the front door! David Smith

Back in the 50s/60s Accles and Pollock (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011) made a tubing for cycle-frame manufacture which competed with Reynolds 531 double-butted tubing (this was thicker at the end where the lugs or joints were brazed). A & P was superior in that heating caused it to harden whereas 531 softened. This made A & P much better for 'All welded' or 'Lugless' frames

Throughout the cycling world it was known as Knackers and Bollocks. Bob Rust

John Parker

I would like to add just a bit about John and Bet Parker's GLIAS activities with the Recording Group (GLIAS Newsletter June 2011).

In the later 1970s and early 1980s he and Bet were on visits in Southwark to Stevenson & Howell's factory and St Mary Overy, Pickfords, New Concordia, Hibernia and Clink Wharves. On one hectic August 1978 day, missing lunch, they fitted in a morning at Vogan's Mill in Bermondsey and an afternoon in Chelsea Flour Mill, two complex sites both then in operation.

John was methodical in taking notes and measurements and both he and Bet spent many additional hours researching in the Wharves and Warehouses Committee's minute books and plans at the Guildhall Library to put the buildings and their use into context. They helped write up reports; some appearing as supplements to the Newsletter, also contributed several evenings to collate and staple stand-alone GLIAS publications — the coffee, office space and stapler being by unwitting courtesy of London Buses. David Thomas

Help with the technology

When we called on Denis and Lyn Smith, prior to their move to Scotland, among the items they were finding were a number of films in 8 & 16mm formats and also reel-to-reel audio tapes of interviews Denis had made with various people who had been involved with IA sites in London.

Several of Denis' oral history tapes have previously been transcribed and edited for use as articles in the GLIAS Journal along with suitable photographs and on particular tape would, we hope, be suitable for publication. It is an interview with Mr Sindall who ran a narrow fabric weaving factory in the East End which produced furniture restoration trimmings, military sashes and even the decorative ropes for the flagpoles in the Mall.

As I have moved on past videotape to direct recording onto hard disk. I haven't any kit to help with exploring the films, some of which are labelled, some not. The position with the audio is as bad!

Could anyone in the Society volunteer to help with reviewing the material and helping us to decide if it is worthwhile converting any of the films to DVD or in transcribing the audio for publication?

Please let us know if you can help. Dan & Sue Hayton, treasurer@glias.org.uk

Help wanted

Apologies to those who noticed that the last Newsletter came out a little late. This was due to the fact that I had to go to Sweden to help lead the AIA trip there, but it does point out the fact that GLIAS depends on a small number of volunteers to keep it going and that if they are not available then events and publications suffer. I have been duplicating the Newsletter now for over 20 years and have been Membership Secretary for even longer, not that I mind the work involved but it would be nice to think that there was backup to help if needed.

I go to Kirkaldy's every two months to use the printer there, having received the Newsletter electronically from the Editor. It takes me at least an hour to drive there from home, two hours or so to print and then I deliver the completed pages to the team who collate, staple and put it in the envelopes for the post. Sometimes this team is also busy and the Board assembles a work team who will get the Newsletter into the post. We have succeeded so well at this that few realise the effort until there may be problems.

As you can see, this is not necessarily hard work but it is time consuming so that when real life intervenes, GLIAS work has to be put on the back burner. Every year, a call is made for volunteers to help the Society but rarely is this call taken up. You do not have to be a member of the Board to help the Society but perhaps you have all been diffident because you do not know what needs to be done. I, for one, would like to have a couple of back up people who could be called on to help with the duplicating and I am sure that if you put for name forward to help collate the Newsletter you would be called on no more than once a year.

There is also help needed in arranging walks. You would not necessarily have to lead the walk but if you were willing to showcase your own patch, then why not put your name forward? Similarly Dave Perrett always welcomes suggestions for lectures, perhaps you have attended an interesting one recently which might be of interest. Then why not let him know? The Publications Stand goes to a number of events but again it's not fair to let the same people spend their free time manning the stall when you might have an hour or so free.

This is not meant as a moan, we could easily spend money and have the Newsletter professionally copied and mailed out but then there are financial implications. The subscription rate would have to rise massively to reflect the increased expenditure. GLIAS has always prided itself on being good value for money and we would not like to change that now.

Last year Denis Smith asked for volunteers to keep the Society going and there were none forthcoming. Perhaps GLIAS members should realise that the present group of volunteers cannot keep going ad finitum and that we do need help. If you feel that you might be able to help the Society in some way, however small, then please do get in touch via the GLIAS Secretary. Sue Hayton

Articles for GLIAS Journal invited

Many GLIAS members have their own pet projects where they have researched, or have some specialist knowledge of, a particular site or industry in London. Often no permanent record is made of this and the opportunity to disseminate the information more widely is lost. One way of avoiding this would be through publication of an article in the GLIAS journal, London's Industrial Archaeology. Articles can be on any topic related to London's industrial past and would typically be 3,000-8,000 words long, accompanied by appropriate illustrations and tables. Manuscripts for consideration should be submitted (preferably electronically) double spaced in 12 point font.

If you have an article or just want to discuss an idea for one, then please contact either Fiona Morton (minmorton@yahoo.com) or Martin Adams (m.adams@surrey.ac.uk)

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© GLIAS, 2011