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Notes and news — June 2026

In this issue:

From the chair

Stanley Halls © Robert Mason

Another busy couple of months with SERIAC, End of Year accounts to prepare and the AGM at the end of May.

GLIAS hosted an excellent meeting of SERIAC — the South East Region Industrial Archaeology Conference — in South Norwood at the end of April. It benefitted from some very interesting presentations from all around the region and was held in a suitable venue for industrial archaeologists, the Stanley Halls (right) which were established by a local industrialist William Stanley.

Attendance numbers were not as we would have hoped. It will be a shame if this event disappears from the calendar due to lack of support from the IA community as it is a great place to meet people from other societies.

Thanks to Jo Jones (Berkshire) who spoke on Reading's Other Industries; Roger Davies (Hampshire), Brunel's Timber Viaducts; Geoff Mead (Sussex), The Working Coast; David Perrett (GLIAS), West Ham Sewage Pumping Station Project; Andrew Millar (Stanley Arts) on the Stanley Arts venue; and Robert Mason (GLIAS) on the Industrial History Online database.

Also thanks to all those who have helped out with organising SERIAC and staffing the GLIAS stand. Thanks too for help with the complexities of accounts to keep us in line with the rules and regulations

We've also held our lectures at The Gallery, Cowcross Street with thanks to the speakers and the 'back stage' organisation, finding speakers and getting the lectures out to the wider online audience. Thanks, especially, to those who turned up in person.

As you can see there are many aspects to running GLIAS — understanding things like social media and publicity is still part of our learning curve.

Do get in touch if you would like to help. Dan Hayton

Sir Neil Cossons remembered

I, then living in North Somerset, first met Neil Cossons (1939-2026) on Saturday 8 May 1965, on a group visit to a storeroom in Bristol holding the City Museum's nascent collection of industrial material for which he, as its newly appointed Curator of Technology the previous year, was responsible.

Neil was tall, slim, dark-haired, amiable, and enormously enthusiastic. He had taken a degree in Geography at Liverpool University in 1961, followed by postings at Leicester Museums and the Great Western Railway Museum in Swindon before moving to Bristol in 1964.

From 1966 to 1970 he and Angus Buchanan organised an annual IA conference in Bath, before in 1971 it became what Angus labelled 'peripatetic', held in Bradford, Glasgow, the Isle of Man, and in 1974 at Keele University — the first conference of the newly formed Association for Industrial Archaeology.

Neil was also the first Secretary of the Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society, formed in 1967, and with Angus ran various local classes in IA. Together they also wrote Industrial Archaeology of the Bristol Region, published in 1969 in the David & Charles 'Industrial Archaeology of the British Isles' series. By then, however, Neil had been appointed as Deputy Director of Liverpool Museum, a post he held for just three years (1968-71) before becoming the first Director of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

His 12-year tenure at Ironbridge saw the multi-site museum flourish under his leadership, being declared Museum of the Year in 1977 and resulting eventually in the Ironbridge Gorge's inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986 (one of the first in Britain). He moved on again to be Director of the National Maritime Museum (1983-1986), before realising his declared ambition to be Director of the Science Museum, whose development he led for fourteen years. From 2000-2007 he was Chairman of English Heritage. He received an OBE in 1982 and was knighted in 1994.

Neil was a leading figure in the museums business, and alongside these 'day jobs', he was an enthusiastic and eloquent advocate for IA in his writings and lectures, also encouraging its development through his energetic involvement in both local and national organisations. Re-reading some of his writings, it is clear to me that he understood and appreciated (in both senses) the personal satisfaction and the valuable accumulation of knowledge that can come from the pursuit of IA.

He supported the 'bottom-up' approach begun largely by 'amateurs' (in the true sense of the word) that has led to the present standing and recognition of industrial heritage. Beyond that he also saw, from a historical perspective that, as industrial sites, buildings and landscapes inevitably change or disappear, IA can provide important evidence to assist understanding of the beginnings and development of this remarkable period of human existence that is distinguishable and identified as 'Industrialisation' — which largely originated in Britain.

From the mid-1960s there had been extensive and often passionate debate on whether IA needed a national organisation. Eventually, at the 1973 Isle of Man conference, the collective decision was made to form the Association for Industrial Archaeology. (This saga, and much besides, is well-covered in Perspectives on Industrial Archaeology, edited by Neil and published by the Science Museum in 2000.) A provisional Council was formed, including among others Tom Rolt as President, Neil as Secretary, yours truly as Conference Secretary, and fellow GLIAS member Christine Vialls (author of several excellent children's texts on industrial history and archaeology).

For the AIA's inaugural meeting to be held at Imperial College on Saturday 23 March 1974, a first Bulletin was needed. It would seem that this had been left rather late, as my diary records that Neil called into my office on the Monday before with a four-page 'master' typescript produced at Ironbridge, which I then took to Fermaprint on Fleet Street, printers of our GLIAS Newsletters by photolitho. I collected printed copies on the Friday (phew!), to distribute at the meeting, which went smoothly (phew again). Sadly, Tom Rolt died on 9 May: chairing the meeting was his last public event.

In early 1975 I had a phone call from Neil asking me to suggest a suitable London venue for the launch of The BP Book of Industrial Archaeology that he'd written. I proposed the Engine Room at Tower Bridge, which was agreed, and on Wednesday 16 April I was among the press and other attendees for this, at which Neil gave a typically lively and articulate presentation.

That same year I attended the Second grandly titled International Conference on the Conservation of Industrial Monuments (ICCIM) held in Bochum, then in West Germany, at which Neil gave a keynote speech in the cavernous meeting hall of the Bergbau (Mining) Museum (with simultaneous translation in German and French). Later, on field tours by coach, cordial East-West dialogue with some attendees from East Germany was 'facilitated', if memory serves, by Watneys Red Barrel brought over in a car by Neil and the late Stuart Smith, his Museum Curator at Ironbridge. I have similarly pleasant socialising memories from the Third ICCIM in 1978, starting in Stockholm before moving to a delightful lakeside venue in a former rural mining area.

I 'dropped out' of active IA around 1979 due to work pressure and other matters, so I met Neil only occasionally thereafter. David Perrett's recently published tribute in the GLIAS Journal includes personal recollections mostly from the 1980s on. Of my later encounters, I'll mention only two.

I was at the formal opening on 21 September 2007 of the new workshop of Dorothea Restorations in Bristol, with whom I was then engaged in work at St Pancras Station. Sir Neil, in his last year as Chairman of English Heritage and as guest of honour, gave an impromptu address from a stepladder. Then, donning protective clothing and welder's helmet (and looking like a clone of Darth Vader!) he flame-cut through a horizontal steel bar at the workshop entrance, thus symbolically opening the works for business.

Opening of Dorothea Restorations in Bristol © Michael Bussell Opening of Dorothea Restorations in Bristol © Michael Bussell

I last saw Neil at the memorial service for Sonia Rolt (widow of Tom) held in the Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral on 14 May 2015, at which he delivered a characteristically informative and thoughtful address. Sadly, this was also the last time I was to see Angus Buchanan who, like Neil, I had first met 50 years earlier. Michael Bussell

Wapping Hydraulic Pumping Station

There are signs that the former London Hydraulic Power Company pumping station in Wapping may become more accessible to the public in the future.

© Robert Mason

Repurposed as an arts venue in the 1990s but closed since 2013 (GLIAS Newsletter June 2019), the station is now branded as '25 Wapping Wall' and is run by the Glass Castle Foundation who intend to restore the site and open it regularly for public art and other events.

It is also available for hire for filming, photography and events via a company called Location Works.

The station, which opened in 1892, was the world's last working hydraulic pumping station on public supply system when it closed in 1977.
Keep an eye on the following websites for more information: https://25wappingwall.com/ and www.locationworks.com/wapping/

House of Illustration at New River Head

As this newsletter is going to print the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration is about to open to the public on Friday 5 June.

The 'world's largest space dedicated to illustration' occupies historic buildings at New River Head in Islington that will be of interest to GLIAS members (GLIAS Newsletter December 2024).

Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Robert Mason Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Robert Mason Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration © Robert Mason

The opening follows a 25-year campaign by the well known illustrator Quentin Blake to establish a permanent national centre for illustration, and builds on the charity's previous temporary stint as House of Illustration in King's Cross.
Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, 1 Myddelton Passage, EC1R 1AG. Weds-Sun, 10am — 5pm. https://qbcentre.org.uk/

Planning to archive: Part 2

graphic

In the last Newsletter (GLIAS Newsletter April 2026), I introduced my plan for this series of articles encouraging members to prepare their collections for future archiving. This month I shall take an overview of formal archives — the ones in buildings (as opposed to online) that physically collect and conserve documents and artifacts. Of course, they all also have an online presence to a varying degree, but I shall consider fully online archives later.

Most UK archives accept material based on its long-term research value, clear provenance, and stable physical or digital condition. They generally follow national standards set by The National Archives 1, but each institution also applies its own collecting policy and presentation requirements.

Their common expectations are:

1. Clear provenance information: Archives need to know who created the material, how it was used, and how it came into the donor's possession. They also need to be assured of ownership and copyright.

2. Logical organisation: Most archives do not require donors to catalogue items in detail, but they do expect items grouped by creator, project, or theme, with lists of contents where possible. The better the items are organised and summarised, the more likely they are to be accepted. The National Archives explains that 'use of appropriate standards; formats and identifiers is key to achieving discoverability, access and impact' 1.

3. Stable formats: For digital material, archives prefer open or widely supported formats such as TIFF, PDF/A, or WAV 1 (but see below). Physical items should be in a stable condition.

As a local example of an archive's individual collecting policy, The London Archives (TLA, formerly London Metropolitan Archives) describe themselves as a 'collecting archive... which seeks out and takes in material which relates to the City of London, to the Greater London area, and which is of London-wide significance' 2. They accept a wide range of formats, including minutes, correspondence, registers, plans, maps, photographs, printed and audio-visual material, emails, and born-digital files (files created digitally). They receive over 500 linear metres of new collections annually, which shows the scale of their intake and the need for careful selection.

Every potential donation to TLA is reviewed by an acquisitions group of archivists and conservators. According to their guidance, they 'consider each offer of records carefully to decide whether they are worthy of long-term preservation... and whether The London Archives is the right place for them ... Material may be declined if it duplicates existing holdings or exceeds storage capacity'. 2

Donors should also clarify copyright ownership and any restrictions on access 3.

More generally, to support the acquisition process, a donor would prepare:

  • A brief description of the material
  • Dates, creators, context and provenance
  • A simple inventory
  • Digital files in stable formats (e.g. TIFF, PDF/A)
  • Physical items clean, grouped, and labelled
  • Any copyright or rights information

    This is all a bit formal, so I'm going to talk to The London Archive to better understand their practical attitude to acquisitions and how far they accommodate a non-archivist's world. For instance, most of us have JPG photo files and not TIFFs; we use simpler PDF rather than archive-friendly PDF/A. And I'm interested to know if there are simple ways that make donations more likely to be accepted. All that in the next Newsletter.

    And then I'll move on to less formal, so more easily accessible, online archives such as Geograph and Flickr (and don't forget our own IndustrialHistoryOnline.co.uk), before looking at how to physically prepare photos and other stuff.

    Tim Sidaway. Email: Tim_Sidaway@btinternet.com

    Railway electrification

    At its formation in the Railway Grouping of 1923 1 the Southern Railway had three major constituents. Although two of the three had already embarked on a programme of electrification, the South Eastern and Chatham Railway had been relatively impoverished and had accomplished comparatively little.

    Soon after the Grouping the Southern Railway commenced an ambitious scheme of railway electrification in South East London. The electric services started in 1926 2; this was a very major scheme including lines from London to Dartford. The line through Greenwich was to be electrified and the electrification right from the start extended as far as Dartford.

    Was this ambitious and enormously expensive scheme in any way a political manoeuvre? Did SR fear that London underground railways would invade South London? There was already an electrified underground line through the Brunel tunnel which extended as far south as New Cross.

    This suburban electrification of railways was carried out in a manner not dissimilar to that which had been adopted by the LCC tramways. From a central power station electricity was transmitted at quite a high voltage using alternating current but in order to power electric motors suitable for traction, the voltage had to be stepped down and direct current produced. This was done was by means of motor converters — an alternating-current motor was connected to drive a direct current generator which then produced direct current, originally at little over 600 V DC. The alternating current for transmission had a frequency of 25 cps (cycles per second), the motor converters could not cope with the higher frequency 50 cps that we have today.

    At suitable intervals along the railway, substations were established in which the high-voltage alternating current was converted to a lower voltage direct current to be applied to the conductor rails. As with the LCC tramway substations these Southern Railway substations were quite lavish establishments with staff facilities. They had to be manned pretty well 24 hours a day and were kept in good order rather like Metropolitan Water Board pumping stations. This situation continued well into the 1950s until a less costly method of providing direct current for traction took over.

    The Southern Railway substations were housed in relatively magnificent buildings reminiscent of the nave of a church. They acquired the nickname 'cathedral style', perhaps with Guildford Cathedral in mind. Many of these fine buildings still exist; they are of architectural quality and have been neglected. The example at Charlton should perhaps have been included in the Docklands History Survey published by the GLC in 1984, ISBN 978-0716813293.

    Quite a high proportion of these cathedral-style substations are still in existence and a few examples will now be given. They are very easy to spot by means of Google. The Charlton example is at TQ 409 783 and you can get a view of this building from Troughton Road. There are also surviving examples at Plumstead TQ 453 788, Belvedere TQ 493 791 near the railway station, and Dartford Junction TQ 534 747. Bob Carr

    Motor-generator efficiency

    Just how efficient were the motor-generator converter sets which were in use circa 1915 to turn high-voltage alternating current into direct current at just over 600 volts for tram cars and suburban trains?

    An electric motor at that time was probably only about 80% efficient and generators probably had a similar efficiency. Now 80% times 80% gives 64%. So if we say the efficiency of each of the two parts of the converter was about 80%, the overall efficiency converting incoming alternating current into direct current for traction purposes would be something like 65%. This is a really frightening figure! Can it really be correct?

    It means that about a third of the energy going into the converter as alternating current, instead of being converted into DC, would appear in the substation in the form of heat. The early tramway substations must have been almost unbearable and the nightshift popular!

    This makes clear why the need to have better ventilation for substations was of great importance. It explains why the cathedral-type railway substations built in south-east London were as lofty and airy as they are.

    Of course, it might be argued that circa 1915 there were men used to working in retort houses and boiler houses and even people who would work in ship's engine rooms in the tropics. However, the people attending the converters would have been mechanical and electrical engineers rather than rough hardened stokers and one can see why more appropriate architecture with better ventilation was introduced. Bob Carr

    LCC tramways

    The electric tramway substations were accommodated in buildings if anything more magnificent than the cathedral-style examples of the Southern Railway. Many of these substantial LCC buildings survive and some of them are listed. Examples include one at the Angel Islington and the so-called 'tram shed' in Woolwich, locally listed. These tramway substations had a dual purpose. As well as housing the motor converters they also had space inside to accommodate a few tram cars to start the service into London early in the morning.

    This was strictly necessary; it would have been intolerable for people to have to wait until a tramcar came all the way out from a central depot to the terminus and then reversed in order to have a service back into London! The electricity supply to the LCC tramway substations continued to be transmitted at 25 cps right up until the very last tramcar ran in July 1952. Bob Carr

    Street tramway substations

    Dating from 1905-6 the tram shed and substation near the Angel Islington at 359 Upper Street (TQ 315 834) is architecturally impressive. You can see where the motor generators were because on the roof at the north-west corner of the building there are three prominent ventilators. Compared with highly efficient AC to AC transformers, motor generators were considerably less efficient. It would have been uncomfortably hot indoors making ventilation highly desirable. Following the end of tramcars the substation served London trolley buses until about 1960.

    tramway substation in Camden Town at 104 Arlington Road tramway substation in 359 Upper Street

    Dating from 1908 the tramway substation in Camden Town at 104 Arlington Road (TQ 289 836) is also well thought of architecturally. However, it is taller and has a hallway at the back with a clerestory roof. Judging from the dates of these buildings there was a learning curve that good ventilation was highly desirable.

    There is an interesting tram shed and presumably former substation at 377 Camden Road (TQ 305 858) and the building is also along Warlters Road. It is just off the Holloway Road and this is a tall and airy building currently in alternative use. Designed by the architect E Vincent Harris (1876-1971) it dates from 1907 and is locally listed. Bob Carr

    Southern Railway electrification

    The Southern Railway electric substations in south-east London built in the 1920s are really impressive. They are prominent features in the landscape and definitely have architectural quality. It is surprising that they have been neglected; there are so many of them and some of them are in prominent locations and easy to see.

    These substations are generally located at railway stations which presumably was done to assist the staff getting to work there. They would have been manned on a three-shift basis. The trains did not run in the middle of the night so that that a shift from midnight to say 6am would certainly cover the gap and this is when maintenance such a changing brushes and other maintenance jobs in the substation could be carried out.

    If you look at the outside of the tramway substation at the Angel Islington you will see that there are a substantial number of ventilators on the roof at the north-west corner of the building. Now motor converters are much less efficient than our familiar AC to AC transformers so much heat would be generated and these LCC Tramway stations, although architecturally desirable, could have been quite uncomfortable to work in?

    The Southern Railway built their cathedral-style substations because they were well lit and airy and would have been much more comfortable for the staff. The whole thing was a splendid exercise and these substations were presumably meant to be temples of progress and modernism.

    At Barnehurst the cathedral-style substation has been demolished and more or less on the same site is a very advanced substation of the present-day kind which is basically a collection of small enclosed buildings, that is windowless huts, and boxes. This looks to be a very substantial substation which is presumably intended to cover lines further out of London and it will be interesting to know what this actually does. Are there more of these about? Bob Carr

    Dockland or Docklands

    When traditional East Enders used to visit the area of the Port of London they were discomfited. It was not the East End that they knew, there were brick walls preventing anyone seeing much in the way of shipping and suspicious-looking foreigners about the streets. This was not the kind of thing they were accustomed to and for them it was another world — the 'land of the docks'. Hence the term Dockland came about which was in general use up to the early 70s.

    In the 1970s there were changes, some of the walls surrounding the docks were breached and you could then see more. The area had changed. Speculators in the City began to view the area in terms of plots of land ripe for purchase — for investment, and possible redevelopment. Hence Docklands came into use which is now the version most of us use.

    When the GLC was about to be abolished in 1986 it was decided to produce an expanded version of the existing Docklands History Survey 1 to be called Dockland, with introductory chapters by invited authors and with the addition of plenty of illustrations. It was to be a popular book about the mighty Port of London.

    It was to be about the old Port of London, not what was happening at that time. Fortunately for us George Nicholson 2, who was chairman of the GLC planning committee, had been a ship's engineer when young and was quite sympathetic to the idea of a book which would celebrate the existing Port of London area which was now about to quickly disappear. We owe a considerable debt of gratitude to George Nicholson for the very generous funding he was able to provide making the substantial book Dockland, with over 300 pages, a financial possibility. Sadly George died this year on 1 February, aged 79.

    George wrote the introduction to Dockland, possibly with some advice from John Earl, and certainly the first page is well worth reading. George was very interested in photography. He held a number of exhibitions and published a couple of books 3.

    When Dockland was published 40 years ago members of the committee that was organising the work began to get cold feet because 3,000 copies were to be printed. Some thought even 1,000 copies would be too many, fearing great piles of the book would be in remaindered bookshops for years to come! Many Penguin books don't sell 1,000 copies.

    As it happened Dockland 4 began to sell out within a few months and there was a question of reprinting which gave rise to a 'second edition'. Bob Carr

    A growing awareness

    There is a growing awareness that many people who made a significant contribution to advances in technology remain largely unknown 1. In the 18th century and earlier no one considered it worthwhile to write about anyone who was not relatively wealthy and probably titled or connected with the Church. This meant that the people that did much that historians of technology are interested in have almost no written record and an archaeological investigation is the only way we can learn anything about them, and this record is scanty.

    The assertion that nothing was written is surely not literally correct although it might be true for the very first working Newcomen engines constructed prior to 1712 in the Devon and Cornwall area that are now coming to light. There may at the moment be no printed record of the earliest Newcomen engine erectors but it seems unreasonable that such people have no written record of any kind, at least in handwriting. There should be financial accounts, as well as diaries and letters by members of relatively well-to-do family members and their children and so on which may in the course of time be revealed by local historians.

    There is a particular exception to the lack of names and that is a man called Isaac Potter who actually has his name on a €2 coin. He was the man who installed the first Newcomen engine on the European continent in 1722. The location is now in Slovakia.

    We are now hearing about the earliest Newcomen engines with increasing frequency and a recent publication in Industrial Archaeology Review, volume 47 part 2, pp85-99, gives information on an early Newcomen engine in Lancashire erected in 1719. The name Stonier Parrott emerges as a possible engine erector, see p88. However, this person was also a relatively successful businessman and has been well known for a considerable time 2. More and more early Newcomen engines are coming to light when not that many years ago it was thought that there were very few such engines. This assumption is now proving to be incorrect.

    In the early days of the Newcomen engine, a great deal of difficult work was necessary to actually produce a working engine. It was by no means easy for the first engine erecters. Those that have carried out experimental archaeology attempting to build a working Newcomen engine, as they have done at Dudley, found much that was not understood and they had to learn by trial and error. Experimental archaeology can be useful because it dispels erroneous ideas as to how things were done in the past.

    The following example is somewhat different; we know the names of some millwrights but have almost no idea of their theoretical knowledge. It has been mentioned before that Professor Alec Skempton was impressed by millwrights who clearly had an advanced knowledge of hydrodynamics. Yet we know little about this as nothing was ever written down. Theirs was an oral tradition, passed on from Master to apprentice. Their theoretical knowledge is now lost except for what can be deduced from the remains of their mills and the leats and water courses that survive.

    About 25 years ago there was a surfeit of barristers and a great lack of plumbers. The media talked about young barristers retraining as plumbers because they would have a more lucrative profession. Bob Carr

    The buildings of London

    In the 1980s I began a fairly systematic photographic survey of buildings in London with a particular interest in commercial and industrial buildings and in recording the typical as well as the better-known buildings. I also had an interest in 20th-century buildings which were then very poorly represented in national archives. A little of this work was supported by the National Building Record.

    Since lockdown I have been digitising a selection of these images — roughly one in fours of those I took — and making them available on Flickr, though some were already online as smaller images on several of my websites and in mainly self-published books. Although these images are copyright, they are generally available (with accreditation) free for non-commercial use.

    As an introduction, on Saturday 8 April 1989 I came up to London to take photographs in the King's Cross area and later met up with GLIAS members for a guided walk led by Malcolm Tucker. On my >Re:PHOTO blog in 2023 I published a series of articles of that day illustrated by a few of my pictures from Flickr. This is one, online at http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=14682

    Gasholders, Flats and the Goods Yard — King's Cross 1989

    My posts about my walk around King's Cross led by the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society on Saturday 8 April 1989 continues. The previous post was Albion Yard and Balfe Street, 1989.

    King's Cross Station, gasholders, Culross Buildings, York Way, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    We returned to York Way, where I made this picture looking across some of the platforms of King's Cross Station towards the gasholders.

    York Way is one of the ancient streets of the area, recorded as Mayde Lane in 1476, later Maiden Lane, and its bridge over the Regent's Canal is still the Maiden Lane Bridge, though the street became York Road in the later 20th century.

    I wasn't around when its name was changed yet again to the current York Way in 1938, but for my walks I often made use of large-scale OS maps from previous eras, which provided more information than the street maps or current OS maps. So I sometimes confuse myself and others by still calling it York Road.

    The gasholders have been moved and Culross Buildings and Culross Hall in Battlebridge Road were demolished around 2004 for the comprehensive redevelopment of the area, so this great piece of urban landscape is no more. The flats built in 1891-2 were home to 150 people.

    Battlebridge Basin, Kings Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    This basin on the Regent's Canal was made at the same time as this part of the canal was dug in 1820, and some of the buildings around it date from 1822. Originally named for its owner as Horsfall Basin it was later known as Maiden Lane Basin, but later took the original name of the King's Cross area. The area here had been marshy, and Horsfall contracted to take the spoil from the canal's Islington tunnel to build up the land around with the basin being used to bring the spoil.

    The area once had a bridge over the River Fleet — underground here since 1825. The river used to run along the west side of Pancras Road. According to legend this is where the rebel British Iceni queen Boudicca led an army and defeated the Romans in AD 60/61, rampaging through much of the south east of England before her forces were decisively defeated at Fenny Stratford, near to Milton Keynes.

    By the 1970s the basin was unused and many of the industrial buildings around it derelict. In 1978 a group of boat owners formed the non-profit organisation the London Narrow Boat Association and negotiated with one of the factory owners to allow them to moor here.

    Both the larger buildings at the right of this picture have since been converted to flats, the taller block as Albert Dock. New buildings including the Guardian newspaper and Kings Place concert hall have replaced some of the old industrial buildings. The former ice warehouse, built around 1860 by ice cream maker Carlo Gatti to store ice from Norway brought here by ship and then canal is now the London Canal Museum.

    Midlands Goods Shed, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    King's Cross opened as the southern terminus of the Great Northern Railway's East Coast mainline in 1852, and Midland Railway services from Leicester began to run here in 1858.

    Goods traffic was an important aspect of the railway, bringing coal, grain, fish and other goods into London, and a huge area to the north of the station became railway goods yards. It made more for the railways than passenger traffic.

    At the time of this walk, proposals for the development of this huge site were being put forward by the London Regeneration Consortium. These were later dropped as plans for the development of the High Speed Rail link changed considerably, and much of the railway lands were used in connection with the construction of this.

    After the new Eurostar line into St Pancras International opened in 2007, work began on the redevelopment of the area most of which has now completely changed. Some of the major buildings have been retained and repurposed.

    Midland Goods Shed, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    The Midland Goods Shed was initially built in 1850 as a temporary passenger station while the main King's Cross station was being constructed. The canopy here was, I think, a later addition from 1888.

    This was in use for many years for handling potatoes and the area to the east was the potato market. In 1989 it was in use for magazine and newspaper distribution. These listed buildings have been converted into a Waitrose store and cookery school and have retained some of the original features.

    Goods Offices, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    These were I think the offices on the front of the Midland Goods Shed and are now looking tidier than in 1989.

    Fish & Coal Offices, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    This group of buildings are on the edge of the Regent's Canal, and tower above it when you walk along the towpath below. They are now in much better condition and a part of the Coal Drops Yard reformation of the area.

    Built from 1851 to 1862, although these are unlisted they were scheduled to be retained and refurbished in the development proposals.

    The Granary, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    The most impressive of the buildings on the goods yard site, the Grade II listed Granary was purpose-built to designs by Lewis Cubitt to store grain and flour in 1852 as a part of the original plans for the station. It was built to store around 5,000 tons of grain and had hydraulic lifts for the sacks of grain. The granary also used to have two short canals from the Regent's Canal to its basement as well as an open dock.

    The Granary, King's Cross Goods Yard, King's Cross, Camden, 1989 © Peter Marshall

    The Granary is now home to Central Saint Martins — University of the Arts London.

    Our exploration of the Goods Yard will continue in a later post.

    The first post on this walk was King's Cross, St George's Gardens & More (http://re-photo.co.uk/?p=14609)

    Other websites with some IA interest include Hull Photos (http://hullphotos.co.uk) and River Lea/Lee Valley 1980-2010 (http://river-lea.co.uk/).

    Peter Marshall

    St Pancras Waterpoint

    St Pancras Cruising Club, who look after the St Pancras Waterpoint, are holding a number of open days throughout the summer.

    St Pancras Waterpoint © Robert Mason

    The Waterpoint was built in 1872 to supply the Midland Railway's steam engines with water. It was relocated to its current position in 2001 and fitted out as a viewing platform giving good views of the lines into St Pancras, the tree tops of the Camley Street Natural Park, the St Pancras Basin, and the west side of the Goods Yard.

    Open Days are scheduled for:

    More information: www.stpancrascc.co.uk

    Boat trips from London Canal Museum

    This summer on selected Wednesdays the London Canal Museum will be offering guided cruises on the Regent's Canal. Lasting roughly three hours you can travel on the historic boat Tarporley. There will be a guide on board from the museum who will also serve tea/coffee and biscuits during the trip.

    Forthcoming dates are:

    Bookings can be made online at www.canalmuseum.org.uk/visit/historic-boat-trips.htm

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