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Daily Photo: 02/12/09: Gas Holders in the Snow

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Many thanks to Cllr Mary Mills for submitting this photo

She says: “I took it in 1986 while trespassing on the derelict gas works site – its taken from somewhere near the river wall where the Beckham Academy is now and looking east. The gas holder on the left is the one which is there, the other half gas holder frame is then remains of the, much larger, gas holder No.2 then being demolished I was taking pictures of it as it came down, most days. The gantries in the background are on Victoria Deep Water Wharf – now Hansons – so you are effectively looking right across the Peninsula.”

Former South Metropolitan Gas Company Employees Sought

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Eastside Community Heritage is searching for former employees of the South Metropolitan Gas Company to share their memories at a planned reunion.

The South Metropolitan Gas Works was the last gas works to be built in London, the brainchild of George Livesey. He received parliamentary permission to build the works on 140 acres of Greenwich Marshes (now called Greenwich Peninsula) in the December of 1880. In keeping with Livesey’s religious ideals, frivolous decorative features were not a part of his grand design for the works; however the two gas holders were the biggest in Europe. The works were grand, but plain. Livesey later introduced a profit sharing scheme with the workers, although this was a move unpopular with the union as it included a clause preventing the workers from striking.

Despite several problems faced in the early years of the South Metropolitan Gas Works, the works expanded over following years, providing not only employment but a plethora of social activities and venues which the workers could take advantage of.

The event to be held at the Greenwich Heritage Centre will be an opportunity for former employees of the Gas Works to get together and talk about old times. Participants are invited to bring along any old photographs, papers and artefacts to show to others, if they have any.

This is a part of the Working Lives of the Thames Gateway project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, that aims to record the experiences of working in industry in Havering, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich and Bexley.

The reunion will take place at Greenwich Heritage Centre on Friday 8th January 2010. To get in touch with Eastside Community Heritage, contact Judith Garfield, (office@ech.org.uk, 0208 553 4343) or Claire Days (claire@ech.org.uk, 0208 553 4343).

HCA Gives Cash Boost To Greenwich Developments

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The London board of the Homes and Communities Agency has announced a cash injection worth £32 million to kickstart stalled developments projects in the borough of Greenwich.

The HCA has allocated just over £30 million to the first phase of the Kidbrooke Regeneration project where 456 new homes will be provided by Berkeley Homes and Southern Housing Group.

£2 million will be used for the first phase of new housing delivered by Bellway Homes and London & Quadrant Housing Trust at Greenwich Peninsula. Greenwich Council is working closely with the HCA and its partners on both sites.

The Mayor of London, and Chair of the HCA’s London Board, Boris Johnson, said: “This further funding from London’s housing budget will deliver more urgently needed affordable homes, create jobs to support the capital’s economy during the downturn and transform the quality of life for thousands of Londoners.

Peninsula Projects On Hold

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Regeneration projects on the Greenwich Peninsula could be delayed by up to half a decade. That was the verdict of Andrew Storey – joind Chief Exec for the Greenwich Peninsula – when he spoke at the Thames Gateway Forum.

“‘House prices are now 20 per cent below where they were [when permission was granted in 2007], so we need to wait until they return to what they were before we can go ahead” said Storey.

This means that planned developments for thousands of new homes in the area will be mothballed, and even projects where work had begun may be put on hold.

Read more about what came out of the Thames Gateway Forum at The Architect’s Journal.