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“The next stop is HMS Implacable for Maritime Greenwich”

April 20, 2018 By Rob Powell

Steve Cram: The crowds in Greenwich are cheering Mo Farah as he passes the familiar sight of HMS Implacable at about the six and a half mile mark next to the River Thames on this hot Sunday morning.

Brendan Foster: It’s great to see Implacable open again after the terrible fire and long restoration. Mo is tucked in nicely behind the pacemaker as he heads on now to Creek Road.

In an alternate reality, that’s perhaps exactly how this weekend’s London Marathon might be described by television commentators.

Because although the Cutty Sark has been an instantly recognisable landmark on the riverside since the 1950s, and an iconic part of the marathon route since it started in 1981, it was a very different ship altogether that almost came to Greenwich before her.

Duguay-Trouin was a 74-gun ship of the line built by the French in 1797 which saw action at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 where she even engaged against Nelson’s HMS Victory. Captured by the British, she was brought to Plymouth, refitted and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Implacable.

© Illustrated London News – British Newspaper Archive

Fifty years later, Implacable became a Navy training ship and when in 1908 there were plans to break her up, it was the personal intervention of King Edward VII that saved her. By the 1920s, she needed continued help and the Society of Nautical Research (SNR), which helped save HMS Victory, set up a special committee responsible for Implacable – with National Maritime Museum (NMM) director Geoffrey Callender as secretary.

The former Duguay-Trouin deteriorated during the years of the second World War, when she was temporarily recommissioned as a training ship. Following Callender’s death in 1946, SNR member Frank G G Carr was appointed as the NMM’s second director. Carr wanted to find a more permanent solution to the perilous situation Implacable was in.

In October 1947, he suggested that Implacable be restored and re-rigged, and brought to a new purpose-built dry dock in Greenwich. She would be London’s Trafalgar Ship and serve as a monument to the fallen seamen of World War Two.

In early 1948 a drawing by F.A. Evans was published in the Illustrated London News, edited by SNR Vice President Bruce Ingram, and the Sunday Times which showed how the wooden warship would look in a new dry dock at Greenwich on the site of the old Ship Hotel. The Ship had been destroyed in WWII and the London County Council was planning to redevelop the land.


© Illustrated London News via the British Newspaper Archive

The drawing shows a view from the river looking towards the bow of the ship, with the familiar outline of the Pepys building at the Royal Naval College on the left and Greenwich Church Street with St Alfege Church looming above on the right. It’s a vantage point which looks instantly recognisable because it’s strikingly similar to how Greenwich would eventually look – but with the Cutty Sark instead.

If the campaign had been successful, it would have been HMS Implacable that would have become synonymous with Greenwich. Implacable would have been one of the most famous ships in the world, as Cutty Sark now is. It would have been Implacable that would lend her name to a DLR station in the town.

It would be HMS Implacable Gardens, not Cutty Sark Gardens, in which the ship would welcome many thousands of visitors a year. And further east at Ballast Quay, the HMS Implacable pub would be a favourite spot for a drink by the river.

The campaign received further press coverage in the Illustrated London News, The Times, The Sphere, the Western Morning News and other titles, and was raised in the House of Commons in November 1948 and February 1949 by Twickenham MP Sir Edward Keeling.

Civil Lord of the Admiralty Walter Edwards MP replied on the latter occasion that the possibility of “preserving the ship at Greenwich as part of a development scheme by the London County Council was being examined.”

Her fate was even raised with the Prime Minister, Clement Atlee, by the Duke of Edinburgh – who became a National Maritime Museum trustee and who supported Carr’s vision.

But ultimately the cost of restoring Implacable – estimated to be £200,000 at the very least and likely to be higher – was thought to be too high. The NMM board concluded that they couldn’t support the SNR Implacable Committee’s plan. With no other credible proposals to save her, it was decided that she would be broken up.

How the Nottingham Evening Post reported it (via British Newspaper Archive)

On Friday December 2nd 1949, Implacable was towed out to the Solent with both the British and French ensigns flying. She was packed with explosives and blown up with escort ships from the British and French navy watching. Living up to her name, she refused to sink easily and it took over three hours before she was fully submerged.

The scuttling was reported in the press almost like a state funeral with The Times running a large photo under the headline “the last hours of HMS Implacable.”

They recorded that four charges packed in the hull of the ship were fired at 1.45pm.

“When the charges were fired there was a heavy explosion which scattered debris on the water around, and the hull began rapidly to sink… leaving the upper deck floating like a raft with the two ensigns still flying.”

It wasn’t until almost 5pm that she was finally sunk.

Frank Carr was on one of the escort boats. He later wrote in the preface to the International Register of Historic Ships published in 1985:

“I watched as she was towed to her death. I marvelled at the beautiful way in which her lovely hull slid through the water, causing scarcely a ripple; and I wept when she sank. Never again would human eyes see a line-of-battle ship under way.”

Determined that under-threat Cutty Sark would not suffer the same fate, Carr helped form the Cutty Sark Preservation with the Duke of Edinburgh as patron in 1952 and £250,000 was raised by to save her by public subscription. She was berthed at Greenwich in December 1954 and officially opened by the Queen in 1957.

Although Implacable could not be saved – part of the historic ship did eventually make it to Greenwich. The figurehead and stern carvings were saved, restored and presented to the National Maritime Museum in 1950 where they remain on display to this day.

  • Further reading on Implacable and many other stories associated with the development of the National Maritime Museum can be found in ‘Of Ships and Stars’ by Kevin Littlewood and Beverley Butler which has been indispensable in researching this post.
  • Top image: HMS Implacable in Greenwich drawn by Peter Kent.

Filed Under: Rob Powell

Jumbo the Greenwich gasometer moves a step closer to demolition

April 17, 2018 By Rob Powell

Greenwich’s remaining gas holder has moved a step closer to being demolished after planning officers from Greenwich Council approved a technical plan from the owner SGN for bringing it down.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich as Local Planning Authority hereby determines that
the development described above and referred to in your Prior Notification application
received on the 15 March 2018 falls within the limits and procedures of permitted
development… Prior approval for the development is required and is hereby granted. [full decision notice]

When it was built in the 1880s by George Livesey on the Greenwich marshes, as the peninsula was then commonly called, it was the largest gasometer in the world with a capacity of 8,600,000 cubic feet. That accolade was snatched from it by a second, now-demolished, holder built at the East Greenwich Gas Works in 1892 with a capacity of 12,200,000 cubic feet.

But while everyone knows the giant gas holder thanks to its looming presence on the horizon, rather less know that it has a name. Or a nickname, at least. A close look at stories in newspapers in the years after it was built show that it was known as “Jumbo.”

In The Times in 1889, an article referred to “the monster gasometer in Greenwich-marshes known as ‘Jumbo,’ believed to be the largest in the world.”

“The great gasometer, which has been christened Jumbo” was how The Globe newspaper described it in December 1889.

The Kentish Mercury reported in 1890  “another monster gasometer in the marshes” was being erected “by the side of ‘Jumbo’.”

Perhaps because of the larger gasometer built alongside and the continued growth in gas holder sizes, the moniker fell out of use and there seems to be no further instances of the name used in the 20th century.

The aesthetic appeal of gas holders was not, and is not, universally appreciated. ‘The Sphere’ newspaper complained in 1906 that the view had already been “imperilled by ghastly gasometers” and then “finally destroyed” by the newly-built power station chimneys. It was an “eyesore… caused by commerce.”


The Sphere – via the British Newspaper Archive

This photo below from the Britain from Above archives provides an excellent aerial view of the two gas holders.


© Historic England https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW009757

Jumbo, or Gas holder No 1, as it’s more formally known, suffered damage in the massive Silvertown explosion of 1917, again during World War II, and then from the IRA bomb in 1979, which more seriously damaged its bigger neighbour Gas holder No 2 and ultimately led to it being demolished in the mid-1980s.

Read more about the history of the gas holders on the peninsula

The substantial repairs and replacements to the original structure is one of the reasons that Historic England recommended last year that the structure didn’t reach the criteria for being listed. The Department of Culture, Media & Sport declined a Listing proposal and issued a Certificate of Immunity meaning that the gas holder cannot be listed, or have a building preservation notice placed on it by the council, for five years.

Explaining why it was pursuing demolition, owner SGN told The Pipeline earlier this year that:

It’s no longer sustainable for us to keep these structures in a safe and visually acceptable condition long-term. We’re also committed to redeveloping the land they sit on for use that’s more beneficial to the local community, such as housing and business premises.

Although some other gas holders have been saved elsewhere and repurposed while retaining their historic appeal, such as the oft-cited Kings Cross development, that same fate now appears unlikely for Gas holder No 1.

If the iconic structure once known as Jumbo is indeed demolished, as now seems increasingly likely, the local landscape will be changed forever with the loss of one of Greenwich’s most visible reminders of its industrial history.

UPDATE:

Hannah Brett, spokesperson for SGN told Greenwich.co.uk:

Greenwich Council has approved our application to dismantle our Greenwich gasholder, so we are able to proceed with this process. However, we now need to undertake further planning of our own before any dismantling work begins on site. This may take some time, but we hope to start work within the next 12 months. Although we not yet have a confirmed date for dismantling of our Greenwich gasholder to begin, we will update the local community when we do.

Our part of our dismantling programme, we are committed to celebrating and capturing the history of our gasholders. We understand that to many people these iconic structures act as a visual reminder of an area’s history. Therefore, we are working with communities, local history groups and museums to ensure each gasholder we dismantle has its history captured for future generations to learn from.

UPDATE 27/04/2018

Greenwich Industrial History Society has created this petition to save the gasholder.

Filed Under: Rob Powell

160 year old photo of Royal Observatory discovered in New Zealand archives

September 30, 2017 By Rob Powell

One of the oldest photographs ever taken of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich has been found in New Zealand’s Public Library Archives where it’s been kept for over five decades and is described simply as a “building with scaffolding.”


Building with scaffolding. Craddock, Gerald Rainsford, 1910-1990 :Photographs relating to the Glaisher family. Ref: PA1-o-191-43. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22834107

The remarkable 160 year old image is attributed to James Glaisher, the famed balloonist and former Superintendent of Meteorology at the Observatory who lived on Dartmouth Hill and who enjoyed two spells as Royal Photographic Society president.

His photo, taken in 1857 less than 20 years after the birth of photography, captures the construction of the Great Equatorial Building, also known as the South East Dome, which housed the Merz 12.8-inch Visual Refractor. About 35 years later the Merz was replaced in the tower by the famous 28-inch telescope.

Charles Shepherd’s iconic 24 hour clock which was installed in 1852 can also be seen in the picture. But to an unfamiliar eye on the other side of the globe, the photo’s recognisable features and significance appears to have been missed and for over 50 years it’s been catalogued with no detailed description. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell

Changing view from Greenwich Park

April 15, 2016 By Rob Powell

The changing view from Greenwich Park looking towards the Isle of Dogs is well noted as new towers continue to spring up around Canary Wharf. But wandering through the park the other day, I noticed that the view looking towards the Dome has also substantially altered. I took a photo and by luck found one in my archives which roughly corresponded to it so have been able to create this animated GIF which illustrates some of the changes to that part of Greenwich over the past eight years. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell Tagged With: Architecture

Remembering Mike King

September 14, 2015 By Rob Powell

mikeonellistonhouse_edited-1

Mike King was a rather exceptional human being. I first met him early in 2012 in Greenwich Park where he was photographing the start of a cycling event and was soon struck by the sweet nature of this tall, smiling man with a couple of Nikon DSLRs around his neck.

I like to think we became good friends quickly and over the next couple of years it was a great honour to spend time with this gentle man. He was naturally modest but his achievements were many, having covered Olympic games, World Cups and other major events to create a stunning body of work, first as a staff sports photographer on Fleet St and latterly a freelancer. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell

The time a new coat of arms was proposed for the Royal Naval College

August 11, 2015 By Rob Powell

The Royal Naval College was established at Greenwich Hospital in January 1873. While recently perusing through the College archives held at the National Archives at Kew, I found a letter written to the Admiralty in February 1873 suggesting a new coat of arms for the nascent college.

greenwichcouk_submit [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell

Snapshot of a diverse river

July 20, 2015 By Thames Watch

An hour or so spent by the Thames on Saturday in glorious weather gave a glimpse of the wonderfully diverse ways in which people use, work on or just simply enjoy the river. Here are some of the vessels seen passing Greenwich on Saturday… [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell

The woman that walked to the Painted Hall from Cornwall (and nearly wasn’t allowed in)

July 16, 2015 By Rob Powell

Here’s a great story found, found in an 1851 edition of the West Kent Guardian, of how an 84 year old woman walked from Cornwall to Greenwich to see the Painted Hall but almost wasn’t allowed in because she looked too “grotesque”.

Mary Callinich arrived at the gate to Greenwich Hospital, having first visited the Great Exhibition, and asked to see the Painted Hall and the Chapel.

The Sergeant guarding the entrance gate, rather unsympathetically, denied the Cornish pensioner entry on the grounds that she had “got such a funny hat”. With that, she whipped out a black velvet bonnet and obviously transformed her appearance such that she was promptly allowed in.

She expressed her “highest gratification” as she departed after a two hour visit. Having seen what she came for, one wonders if the formidable Mary Callinich simply walked back to Cornwall afterwards.

Read the full article below:

grotesque

You can find more interesting newspaper stories from the past in the British Newspaper Archive.

Filed Under: Rob Powell Tagged With: Local History

HMS Ocean at Greenwich until Monday morning

May 9, 2015 By Thames Watch

HMS Ocean arrived at Greenwich on Thursday afternoon and can be seen moored up there until early on Monday morning.

The visit by HMS Ocean is her first since the two times she visited the capital during London 2012. Lucky ticket holders will be able to look around the recently refitted ship on Sunday. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell Tagged With: River Thames

HMS Defender leaves, HMS Ocean to arrive next week

April 29, 2015 By Thames Watch

After a six day visit to the capital, the Daring class destroyer HMS Defender sailed out of Greenwich yesterday. The Type 45 warship had been in London for a port visit which helped mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli and she also welcomed aboard visitors last weekend who all seemed to give it the thumbs up, judging by the reaction on social media. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Rob Powell Tagged With: River Thames

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