In this issue:
- From the chair
- Peter Skilton 1933-2023
- Unité d'habitation meets De Stijl in Islington
- My first job
- Thames Water — Finsbury Park Road and Myddleton Avenue sites
- Battersea Power Station tours
- Reviving the Brighton Belle
- Cabmen's shelters
- What is a slaphead?
- Sullivan buses
- Items for disposal
- Database spotlight
- Street industries
- Greenwich Industrial History Society's talks on YouTube
- Books
- 330news.pdf
Happy New Year (if belated).
GLIAS started the 2024 Lecture Series with John Kanefsky's talk on Early Steam Engines in London, using his research into the uses and manufacturers, not only Boulton and Watt, of rotative steam engines used in London. We had an audience of 40 in the room and a further 30 joining online. The audio visual equipment had been updated recently and we apologise for any problems that occurred for the online audience. Our thanks to John for his informative and entertaining presentation.
The lectures will continue throughout the Spring with details in the Newsletter and on the website.
The year holds regular events of note to members at venues with connections to GLIAS — the regular days at Crossness, Kempton Park, The London Museum of Water and Steam, Kirkaldy's Testing Museum and the Brunel Museum at Rotherhithe to name but a few.
I'm sorry to note that SERIAC in Chichester has been postponed until the autumn; more details later. Danny Hayton
We are sorry to learn of the death of long-time GLIAS member Peter Skilton just before Christmas.
Peter helped in many ways from serving on the Committee to the organisation of the AIA Conference at Imperial College in 1982.
Through GLIAS Peter came in contact with the Kirkaldy Testing Museum and Crossness where his ability to grow Victorian-style beard and side whiskers added representing David Kirkaldy and Joseph Bazalgette to his other activities. I also remember him supporting 'Brunel' as an assistant, testing concrete in a scene on broadcast television.
Peter's 90 years contained many experiences from 'crossing the line' as a Merchant Navy steward through being a soldier during the Korean War to photography and as a communications engineer with the GPO. Peter brought this wide experience to his volunteer roles for GLIAS and others.
The Society extends its condolences to Peter's family and friends. Danny Hayton
Unité d'habitation meets De Stijl in Islington
The photograph of a tower block having the appearance of a prison with steel bars over the windows (GLIAS Newsletter June 2023) illustrates City North as it is now following its fairly recent development. City North is immediately north-west of Finsbury Park railway station and now includes two 21-storey towers believed to contain over 300 flats plus shops, restaurants and offices.
This is a prestigious development by Islington architects Benson & Forsyth who were nominated for the Stirling Prize in 1999 and 2002 — it is certainly not a prison.
Most of this development was completed about six years ago. The idea of the new City North is due to Jack Morris, chairman of the firm that transformed the Royal Agricultural Hall in Upper Street into the Business Design Centre which opened in October 1986.
Islington Council planning committee gave permission for this Finsbury Park development in 2010. There were few objections from Islington residents as few lived nearby. City North is surrounded by London Boroughs other than Islington.
The design for the redevelopment by Benson & Forsyth beat those of John McAslan & Partners, Panter Hudspith, FLACQ and Studio Egret in a high-profile Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) competition. Competitors in the competition were asked to produce concepts for the site including high quality public spaces and a range of land uses. All the five proposals had been previously shortlisted.
Benson & Forsyth were also the architects for The Pod in Nottingham completed in December 2012. This is in an architectural style similar to City North.
At City North there is a circular drum-like tower with a rectangular service shaft on the southern edge of the site. The photograph in GLIAS Newsletter 326 shows the rectangular second tower which stands on Wells Terrace and is orientated to sit perpendicular to a long, low-rise building.
As previously mentioned (GLIAS Newsletter October 2013), a commentator liked the 'Unité d'habitation meets De Stijl' aura of the proposal. The steelwork over the windows shown in the photograph in GLIAS Newsletter 326 superficially resembling prison bars is not a later addition; it was included in the original design. Perhaps this is a nod towards brutalism? Also see GLIAS Newsletter October 2023.
CIL, a well-known shopfitting firm (GLIAS Newsletter June 2006), used to occupy part of the site to the north west of Finsbury Park station. Their building was demolished to make way for the present City North and CIL relocated to Braintree.
The photograph above shows how the whole City North development sits within the surrounding Victorian housing. Bob Carr
At the end of my Secondary Modern Education in Dagenham in 1960 I had decided that I wanted to become a draughtsman. With the help of the Careers Office in Broad Street Dagenham, I had an interview with structural engineers Moreland Hayne at Clerkenwell. I declined their offer as they wanted me to start immediately and I wished to take my RSA exams in a few weeks' time at about Whitsun.
A second interview was arranged again at a structural engineers, this time Ellis-Jones and Partners Ltd at 20/21 Took's Court, Cursitor Street, EC4. I was met there by Miss Margaret A Catt and taken in to be interviewed by Mr Arthur Wallace Berriff AMI Struct E (subsequently known as 'B' with double underline) and Mr Denis Goom. I was offered the job which was as an apprentice structural steelwork detail draughtsman in their drawing office at 27/29 Furnival Street, EC4 on the third floor, only about 150 yards from the office in Took's Court.
On starting work at Furnival Street, I found that 'B' occupied one small office where he did the estimating; Mrs Iris Patrick (typist), always called by her maiden name Miss Grey, occupied the other small office. Then there was the drawing office; it had seven positions with very old drawing boards, all wooden with multiple holes in each corner from drawing pins. It was well before drafting tape, well, it was in this office, each board had an ebony edged 'Tee Square'. Two of the positions were occupied by Ron Jarrold and Reggie Wise. I also learnt that we had a fabricating works at Hoddesden run by John Gosbee who would occupy a third board on every Monday and it was he that gave me my first simple drawing jobs plus lots of practice at printing! The works was on the left hand side of the main street in Hoddesden when going north, just before the Tottenham Hotspur training ground. There was also a steel erecting gang run by Reg Arundel and Chris Hayman. Not long after I started they employed another lad, also from Dagenham, Pete Ryder. All jogged along nicely up to Christmas 1960 but Pete and myself were in for a big surprise when we returned in January.
'B' had sold the company — it was now Ellis-Jones Structural Engineers Ltd. Owned and run by Alan Patterson Shearer (formerly of Measures Bros (1911) Ltd), living in Kent, Leonard Twist living at Englefield Green, and James Edgar Knox living at Upminster. 'B' had vacated his Chelsea flat and retired to his weekend cottage at Meesden, near Bishop's Stortford. Jarrold, Wise and Gosbee all went, I never saw them again, the works closed, and the erection department became SEC Ltd (Steelwork Erection Contractors Ltd). For a short while they had an office with us but then moved to what had been a shop in Grangewood Street, East Ham with Denis Goom manning the phone. Miss Catt also went along with the others.
Pete Ryder was allocated to Len Twist and I was put with Jimmy Knox, Mr Knox to me! He had served his apprenticeship at Cargo Fleet Ironworks at Middlesbrough and spent several years in Canada detailing electricity pylons. I got on very well with Knox; we would quite often go out on site visits together and stop for a cup of tea. It did not matter how hot it was, he would drink it straight down and say 'are you ready?' I never was.
This story was going to be just a request for information about a company called 'Daco Structures' — let me explain. Somewhere in the past Goom and Miss Grey had some connection with Daco, the name came from a Mr DAwson and COmpany. Sometime before I started here, Dawson had retired, I think to Southend-on-Sea and we had inherited a large quantity of tracing paper which we had to use. Shearer was a Scot (if I am allowed to say that) — we had to either cut out the Daco name at the bottom right-hand corner of each sheet or alternatively scratch it out using a razor blade (common practice if you needed to remove ink from tracing paper), then add our name. We also had taken over the old Daco telephone number HOLborn 1812, alongside our two lines HOLborn 2353 & 2354. SEC had a phone in the next room but that was a CHAncery number; it always puzzled me how there could be two different exchanges in the same building.
I did contact the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA) asking if they had any records of Daco Structures but the answer was a rather curt 'no sorry'. I had quoted our BCSA number which was LA8, the A signifying that we did not have our own works but even this did not help.
The drawing office. This had probably seen no change since it was built. The benches that the drawing boards were on consisted of T&G boards on 2" x 2" legs, all unpainted. There were three wires tightly stretched from end to end of the room over the centre of each pair of boards; there was one 60 watt bulb with a Cooley type white shade over each board, the electricity supply coming from a twisted flex supported on porcelain rings so that we could move the bulb so that it was above which ever end of the drawing we were working on. During daylight hours the natural light was good as the whole drawing office was under a steeply sloped wire cast glass roof. However, this did have its drawbacks: rain ingress and condensation! To help with this, horizontal blinds had been installed that could be pulled across the office, each supported on two wires. This helped but was not 100% successful and if you have ever dropped water onto tracing paper you will know what I mean, it goes very crinkly.
I left this job shortly after completing my apprenticeship and found work in Romford, much nearer home. I went back to look at Furnival Street about 10 years ago with a view to taking some photos but the whole building had been demolished and replaced.
When my son left college he got a job as a draughtsman at a company making aluminium powder tankers. He had the use of Computer Aided Design (CAD) — what a long way we had come in such a short time. David Apps
David would be interested to hear from members who know more about Daco. Please contact him via phone 01553 840402 or email ddcapps@btinternet.com
Thames Water — Finsbury Park Road and Myddleton Avenue sites
Work is continuing along the pipe track which is laid along the course of the New River and runs north westwards from Green Lanes, by Stoke Newington pumping station, to Finsbury Park (GLIAS Newsletter October 2023). There is a trench at the north end of Finsbury Park Road and, according to a notice displayed there, work will continue at the site until 17 May 2024. One 36-inch water main has already been given a blue plastic lining and the other two mains are likely to be receiving similar treatment.
Shortly after Christmas mass-concrete foundations were being cast at the site in Finsbury Park Road. These will be to restrain and support the hefty winch which is to pull linings through the mains. The tension in the cable attached to the plastic lining being pulled through a main can be the best part of a hundred tonnes and it looks likely that the next haul will be over a greater distance with a higher tension.
Photographs 1 and 2 taken around New Year 23/24 show the site at the north end of Finsbury Park Road. Photograph 1 (above, left) shows concrete blocks being cast and photograph 2 (above, right) shows a block with the shuttering removed. Photograph 3 (below) shows the grass rectangle surrounded by Myddleton Avenue which is just to the west of Green Lanes. Blue plastic linings are stored here prior to being welded together and drawn through the mains.
If anyone is in doubt as to the purpose of these water mains which are being lined, they convey clean drinking water. Bob Carr
The revamped Battersea Power Station goes from strength to strength and is now recognised as one of London's most visited tourist destinations.
Figures released in December show that over 11.2 million people visited in 2023.
Now 75-minute guided tours are being offered every Monday which includes access to the restored Art Deco Control Room A (pictured below). Tickets are usually released four weeks in advance.
Details: https://batterseapowerstation.co.uk/official-guided-tours/
The general public as a whole are taking a surprising interest in the revival of famous trains and this is not just railway enthusiasts interested in steam locomotives. Many people watch television programmes with presenters and celebrities such as Michael Portillo taking the viewer on interesting journeys and at times experiencing luxury train travel. Detective programmes involving Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple have included period trains and mainstream television seems to have created a wider interest.
So perhaps rather unexpectedly there is a growing market for travelling on period trains in Britain and experiencing what is believed to be the luxury of the good old days, the 1950s. Our own chairman recently made a railway journey which involved a steam locomotive (GLIAS Newsletter August 2023). A considerable amount of money is being donated and invested into bringing old trains, or replicas, back into service to satisfy a growing market for specials and running special trains is now becoming a financially viable business.
The Midland Blue Pullman of the 1960s has been revived. This is not actually the original train, it is a High Speed Train refitted internally and with the exterior painted up to resemble the original. The new replica has a much better performance than the 1960s train, for instance using this new impostor it is possible to run a trip from Penzance travelling over the Settle and Carlisle line, and back to Penzance in a day! As they are diesel-electric High Speed Trains have really good route availability; they can go almost anywhere, opening up the possibility of luxury land cruises to some really interesting destinations.
Astonishingly there is now an ongoing programme to revive the Brighton Belle, the electric train that used to travel back and forth between Victoria station in London and Brighton. This service ended in April 1972.
A railway Pullman car called Doris, which formerly was part of a Brighton Belle five-car electric multiple unit, used to be kept at Finsbury Park railway station on the west side of the line behind a wire fence (photograph taken in April 1995, below). Doris was on the property of CIL International Ltd, a privately owned shop-fitting firm which used to be connected to the national railway network. CIL bought this Pullman car from British Railways and the car was refurbished at Swindon works before being delivered to Finsbury Park in 1972. Doris was placed alongside the platform on the disconnected stub of CIL's railway siding and the firm used their Pullman car for corporate hospitality.
All seems to have gone reasonably well until Christmas 2003 when the car was daubed with graffiti. Doris was moved to the Bluebell Railway for restoration and safekeeping (GLIAS Newsletter October 2013). It was purchased by Bluebell in 2006 but not used on their trains. It remained in static use; cream teas were sometimes served in the car. It was the intention to use Doris as part of the Bluebell Railway's Golden Arrow Pullman Dining Train but this never happened.
A separate trust was being established to restore a Brighton Belle electric set for main-line operation. Doris was initially the only first-class car available for this, so a deal was struck whereby Carina, a locomotive-hauled kitchen car, would be exchanged for Doris. For the Bluebell Railway Carina was attractive because it would be easier to maintain than an all-steel Brighton Belle Car and also because it had been used on the Golden Arrow service.
By 2015 Doris was in store behind Horsted Keynes station and at the end of the year went to Barrow Hill, in exchange for the Pullman car Carina. Barrow Hill is a loco depot near Chesterfield, Derbyshire. In 2016 Doris was at Langwith Junction for the restoration to be completed and then went back to Barrow Hill. At the end of 2017 after major work on the steelwork the final stage of work on the interior was in progress. Towards the end of 2019 Doris was moved to Crewe LNWR Heritage for electrical testing and final fitting out and then was to be moved to Eastleigh. For readers interested in more detail there is a website (http://brightonbelle.com/) which contains good photographs of the interior of Doris now looking remarkably impressive; they have done a really good job.
The driver's cabs of the newly refurbished Brighton Belle, presently a four-car set, will be equipped with entirely up-to-date control and signalling equipment giving the train maximum capability and route availability on the third-rail network. The new Brighton Belle will also be equipped so as to be able to work in conjunction with a Southern Region bimodal electric-diesel locomotive. The refurbished train has lifting shoegear and is fitted with 400 series multiple running gear so it can work with a Class 73 electro-diesel. This all sounds an innovative and exciting project and the new train will have considerably more environmental credibility than a steam-hauled special; essentially it will be future proofed.
The CIL building at Finsbury Park was demolished to make way for the present City North redevelopment and CIL relocated to Braintree (see above). Bob Carr
Many people will be familiar with London's green cab shelters. There is an interesting YouTube video available which gives lots of background information about them and describes the history of the 13 surviving in London, also some in other places. The video is by 'RobsLondon' and is entitled 'London's 13 historic taxi shelters'. There are quite a few videos from this creator, some of which are of IA interest. They are all interesting and well-researched. David Flett
A slaphead (GLIAS Newsletter December 2023) is an addition above the cab of a van or lorry which looks as if a giant hand has slapped it on. It is the bulge or protuberance which you often see on the cab of road vehicles (see photo, below).
A van fitted with a slaphead will be more streamlined than the old-style Luton. Commercial vehicles now travel at quite high speeds on motorways and the advantages of a more streamlined shape will have become apparent, the old-style rectangular box front Luton seems to be on the way out. More recently genuine Luton vans can now have a rounded front to the box over the cab to improve their aerodynamics.
Indeed, the traditional British removal van may be on the way out. For smaller removals a new vehicle has been noted with a tail lift which was using a system reminiscent of British Railways BRUTE, which stands for British Rail Universal Trolley Equipment. BRUTEs were low trolleys, with a tall frame and mesh round three sides for containing the load; they were used from 1964 until 1999 for the sorting, handling and transporting by rail of parcels, and newspapers, etc. Readers may remember how common they were on the platforms of London railway termini. Painted dark blue BRUTEs could be coupled together and towed in a train by a small battery-electric tractor. On a crowded station platform these small trains could become annoying, trying to nose their way through a group of waiting passengers.
There is a slang expression for slaphead meaning a man with a bald head. Taking an anthropomorphic perspective is there a connotation that the man in the cab has a bald head or that the cab itself is bald? As is often the case the origin of the word is obscure and in any case it may not be in widespread use. Bob Carr
David Flett's excellent article on Sullivan buses (GLIAS Newsletter October 2023) is most welcome; we owe you many thanks David. Much is now clear.
Regarding the colour that Sullivan buses are painted, there are two shades of green, a lighter green (photograph 1) and a darker green (photograph 2). There is also at least one bus in London Transport red livery (photograph 3). The photographs were taken in July 2023. The name Sullivan has nothing to do with D'Oyly Carte! The firm was set up by Mr Dean Sullivan in 1998. Bob Carr
I was, for over 30 years until 1995, employed by the LEB and then its privatised successor. Over these years, I collected various items pertinent to the electric supply industry in London. A bulk of these I passed on to a London-based historical electrical engineering enthusiast when I moved north in 1997.
Now I'm 80, I need to downsize and find a home for two particular remaining artifacts. I wonder if any members of GLIAS would be interested in acquiring them?
They are a complete METESCO pit cover and the cast iron door from (possibly?) an original St Marylebone Oxford Street lamp column:
METESCO Footway pit cover (below)
Cast iron with concrete infill and inset brass company logo — 1920s?
22" x 22" x 2½" (55.8cm x 55.8cm x 6.7cm)
Recovered from inside the Tower Street Sub Station, so never used externally or having had traffic running over it.
St Marylebone Street Lamp column access door (below)
Probably from the original Oxford Street central reservation lighting scheme.
Cast iron with St Marylebone Council Coat of Arms — c1908
10¾" x 27" x 1½" (27cm x 67.2cm x 3.2cm)
Recovered when the central reservations and lamp columns were removed some time after 1965.
Both are very heavy (45kg and 16kg respectively) and not practical to post and pack to London from here. Any willing recipient(s) would need to collect from Newcastle.
Robin Brooks. Tel: 01661 854452. Email: robin_brooks99@hotmail.com
We would like to encourage members to make greater use of the GLIAS online database and start contributing to it more.
We would welcome:
- improvements to existing entries, with fuller descriptions, fact-checking and proof-reading
- addition of new sites
- photographs of new and existing sites
Many of the entries date back to the 1980s and have not been updated or expanded since.
To help promote the database in the newsletter we are going to start featuring entries. It’s great fun to use the map facility of the database to explore an area of the capital and see what’s there.
This month we look at the former London Leather, Hide and Wool Exchange, database reference GTL03950.
Based at 15/17 Leathermarket Street, in Bermondsey, it was built in 1878, by George Ellington and Sons. It had only a short active life, until 1912.
Today the handsome building is offices and part of it has been converted into a pub, The Leather Exchange.
The first and most obvious thing to note is the large entrance porch with Atlas figures and the words 'LONDON LEATHER HIDE & WOOL EXCHANGE'.
Then note the five roundels which adorn the walls depicting different stages of the leather industry:
1. 'fellmongering' (scraping the flesh and hair from the skins).
2. two workers turning the skins in the tanning pit.
3. the skins are flattened and hung up to dry
4. the skins are rolled and stored.
5. a prospective buyer inspecting the goods.
There is much more to see in the Bermondsey area, with several database entries to look at. The whole area, close to London Bridge station, is well worth a visit.
Industry, both large and small, is usually associated with premises, machinery, craftspeople, products and records, all of interest to the industrial archaeologist and diligently investigated.
But there are many other smaller industries, indeed they may be called micro-industries, that have few of the above and rely upon one or several workers, very little in the way of equipment, little security of employment and no premises.
Indeed, most use streets and town centres for their trade and clientele. Usually they leave little trace of their presence and get little notice from passers-by.
Many of these street trades have now virtually vanished, often due to enforced legislation, with only photographs as memories.
Examples of such micro-industries include demolition by hand tools or even a ladder! Indeed, a ladder is often the main tool used for many tasks reflecting its centuries old existence.
Examples shown here are for window cleaning, sign writing, changing posters on billboards and altering signage. People using sandwich boards and placards need little material. Street entertainers and buskers included organ grinders and hurdy-gurdy men, usually with a monkey or parrot. Other entertainers were the escapologists, fire eaters and dancers.
Other solitary trades were those of a chair repairer, umbrella salesman and shoeshine man.
Signs requesting casual labour for tasks such as snow clearance were to be found and still present are the stern warning notices about hawkers and callers. Finally, there was the 'rag and bone man' or 'totter' with his horse and cart as a vanishing reminder of the huge horse population of London. Sidney Ray
All photographs taken by the author in London over the last 50 years
Greenwich Industrial History Society's talks on YouTube
Over the past couple of years talks on Zoom for Greenwich Industrial History Society have been recorded to be made available on YouTube.
The talks listed below are now available and more will be added soon. They can most easily be accessed via the YouTube search system — the general link is www.youtube.com/@GreenwichIndustrialHistorySoc
Charlton and Woolwich's role in building the Pipeline Under The Ocean (PLUTO) of WW2. Stewart Ash. How Siemens Operation PLUTO got fuel to the Normandy beach-head in the Second World War.
Deptford, Greenwich and the History of Enslavement. Judith Hibbert and Helen Paul (Museum of Slavery and Freedom). The sad role of our part of London in the trade in enslaved people. Deptford is the original point of departure for the first slaving ships.
George England and the Hatcham Locomotive Works. Kevin Robinson. Hatcham Locomotive Works, New Cross was where George England (1812-1885) built six engines for the Ffestiniog Railway.
Greenwich and Woolwich became the Birthplace of the Global Telecoms Network. Alan Burkitt-Gray. Workplaces in Greenwich and Woolwich began what is now the global network that lets people communicate by phone, WhatsApp, Facebook and other platforms.
Greenwich Marsh to Greenwich Peninsula, 300 years of Regeneration. Mary Mills. The Greenwich Peninsula, now home to the O2, has been the scene of industry for a thousand years.
Greenwich Riverside, from Deptford to Charlton. Mary Mills. What do we really know about the Greenwich riverside? How has it evolved and been used over the centuries?
Keeping the World Connected, with Greenwich's High-tech Industry. Stewart Ash. About submarine telecommunication cables and the vital role our area has played.
Marie Celeste de Casteras Sinibaldi, the undefeated blacksmith of Deptford. Ann Dingsdale. The extraordinary personality of Marie Celeste de Casteras Sinibaldi, whom she calls the 'undefeated blacksmith'.
Peter Marshall's photographs of Greenwich and Docklands history since 1970. Peter Marshall. Photographing London since the 1970s with a particular interest in industrial and commercial buildings.
Progress Estate, Eltham, Munitions Workers' Housing. John McGuinness. The Great War created a need to house the enlarged workforce. The Progress Estate in Eltham was built in 1915 to house Woolwich Arsenal workers.
Royal Greenwich: Archaeological Sites, Past, Present and Future. Mark Stevenson. The Archaeological Advisor to the Borough on sites from the recent past, current sites and sites soon to see — archaeologists hard at work.
South London's Failed Canals. Alan Burkitt-Gray. There are still remains of canals in south London if you know where to look. Built to connect to the English Channel they ultimately failed, while north London's canals thrive.
Tools of Empire? The International Landscapes of the People and Materials of Submarine Telegraphs. Cassie Newland. Deconstruct the cables into their messy constituent parts, and tease out the international landscapes of people and materials linked by them — from the colonial copper-smelters in Chile to the indigenous gutta-percha collectors of Sarawak; and the peasant tar-burners of rural Sweden.
Was There Really a Victorian internet? Bill Burns. Over 170 years of history of communication after the laying of Greenwich-made cables began in the mid-19th century.
What about the workers? The Social History of Greenwich Hospital. Jacky Robinson. The Royal Hospital for Seamen, 1705-1869, and the nurses and officers who lived and worked there.
When Doctor Who and the Cybermen Came to Greenwich. Nigel Fletcher The 25th anniversary of the TV series 1988 was marked by Silver Nemesis, part-filmed in Greenwich, on the peninsula.