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Blackwall Reach North Bank(East India Dock Entrance to opposite Deptford Creek)
WORK IN PROGRESS
Heading upriver on the North bank, from the East India Dock entrance, north of O2, we find:
Northern Section:
Pura Foods;
Settlers Memorial;
Brunswick Wharf;
Blackwall Yard;
Reuter's Pier;
Blackwall Tunnel (northbound);
New Providence Wharf;
Blackwall Stairs;
Blackwall Tunnel (southbound);
Northumberland Wharf;
West India Dock Entrance (closed);
Crown Wharf;
North Wharf;
Concordia Wharf;
The Gun;
Middle Section
South West India Dock Entrance;
Slipway Wharf;
Folly Wall Wharf;
Stewarts Wharf;
Ovex Wharf;
New Union Wharf;
London Yard Drawdock;
London Yard;
MillWall Wharf (Pier);
Southern Section
Millenium Wharf;
Dudgeons Wharf;
Plymouth Wharf;
Cubitt Town Wharf;
Stores Quay;
Caledonian Wharf;
Empire Wharf;
Grosvenor Wharf;
Newcastle Drawdock;
Cumberland Mills Square;
Luraida Gardens;
Island Gardens;
Greenwich Footway Tunnel Cupola;
Calders Wharf;
Johnson's Drawdock;
Midland Wharf;
Livingston Wharf;
Fellstead Gardens;
Millwall Slipway;
Barnard's Wharf;
Lockes Wharf;
Langbourne Wharf;
Clyde Wharf (Nelson Wharf) (opposite Deptford Creek);
The north bank upstream from East India Docks Entrance, opposite O2:
Pura Foods
Pura Foods Ltd (now part of
ADM) is a manufacturer and supplier of edible oils and fats.
The plant here closed in 2006.
Settlers Memorial
The
First Settlers Memorial was first unveiled in 1928 by the American Ambassador,
dedicated to the First Settlers of America who had sailed from Blackwall in 1606 in three small Merchant ships.
It was unveiled again in 1951 with the addition of a bronze mermaid by Harold Brown on top.
It was then vandalised and has been moved several times.
Barratts developers restored it in 1999 and added an Astrolabe to replace the mermaid.
The third picture shows the American Ambassador shaking hands with Tim Childs, the Barratts Director.
 |
 |
 |
| The original memorial | which was later vandalised | and restored in 1999 |
Brunswick Wharf
British History Online
In the early 1830s the river frontage between Blackwall Yard and the upper entrance to the East India Docks basin was rebuilt as a steam wharf by the East India Dock Company. Called Brunswick Wharf, it was intended to cater for the burgeoning steam-packet trade, which was already causing overcrowding in the Pool, and within a few years of opening in 1834, the new wharf was linked to the City by a frequent rail service. Sited on the wharf, the railway terminus was one of Blackwall's more distinguished architectural compositions, while the earlier river wall was a notable example of late-Georgian engineering. Brunswick Wharf survived into the late 1940s, when, together with the East India Export Dock, it was redeveloped as part of the site of the Brunswick Wharf Power Station.
Brunswick Wharf Plan based on the Ordnance Survey of 1867 70
Brunswick Power Station
Wikipedia:
The station was built in stages between 1947 and 1956 on the site of the former East India Export Dock,
itself originally the Brunswick Dock of the Blackwall Yard shipyard.
The site was controversial due to both potential air pollution in a densely populated part of London,
and to the implications of further concentrating generating capacity in an area
that had been a strategic target in The Blitz.
The building was a monumental brick structure with fluted concrete chimneys, similar to Gilbert Scott's
design for Battersea Power Station. Its main building contractor was Peter Lind & Company with
Redpath Brown & Company supplying the steelwork, Tileman and Company building the reinforced concrete chimneys
and Marples, Ridgeway and Partners being the main civil engineering contractors.
Metropolitan-Vickers supplied the six turbo-alternators and Clarke, Chapman & Company
and John Brown & Company supplied the 11 boilers.
A new 855 feet (261 m) concrete wharf with three Stothert & Pitt luffing cranes was built to land coal
brought by colliers.
The first phase of the station was supposed to be commissioned in 1948 but in fact did not start
supplying electricity until 1952. The station was officially opened by BEA chairman Walter Citrine,
1st Baron Citrine in 1954 but was not completed until 1956.
In 1957 the alternators were uprated to produce a total of 118 MW.
The final configuration of the station was 4 x 55 MW generators and 2 x 60 MW hydrogen cooled generators.
Eleven boilers were installed. The station was originally coal-fired, but the BEA's successor,
the Central Electricity Generating Board, had it converted to oil in 1970 - 71.
The conversion to oil included the first solid state furnace controls in the UK,
installed by Associated British Combustion, of Portchester UK.
Associated British Combustion was subsequently in financial trouble and was acquired by Combustion Engineering of USA.
The CEGB planned to enlarge the station, but the 1973 oil crisis increased the price of oil,
and the CEGB found it had surplus generating capacity. The CEGB therefore decommissioned the station in 1984
and sold it in 1987.
The power station was demolished in 1988 - 89, with the exception of the switchgear house, which survived until the 1990s
but was later redeveloped. Three blocks called Elektron Towers and a block called Switch House have been built
on the site of the power station.
Blackwall Yard
There is an extensive history in
British History Online summarised here:
1614: The original Blackwall Yard was created by the East India Company for the building and repair of its own ships.
William Burrell supervised the digging of a dry dock. The dock was extended over the next few years
and various workshops and stores were added.
1650s: Successive owners developed into one of the largest and most celebrated mercantile shipyards on the Thames.
1703:
Blackwall Yard in 1703. A diagrammatic plan reproduced from Joel Gascoyne's Survey of the Parish of St Dunstan, Stepney.
The plan shows the ranges of buildings around three sides of the yard,
the Great Wet Dock of 1659 - 61 (with East Indiamen in it),
and, along the river-front (from west to east), the 'great' or 'double' dry dock of 1614 (extended 1615 and 1624),
the 'little new' dry dock of 1630 - 1, the 'second' dry dock of 1618, and a launching slip.
1683 - 1719: Managed by Henry Johnson who amassed a small fortune. Pepys said of him:
An ingenious young gentleman, but above all personal labour, as being too well provided for to work much.
1779. The Perry family of shipwrights, most of whom were called either John or Philip,
expanded and diversified the business throughout the century and, under their direction,
Blackwall regained the pre-eminence it had held in the seventeenth century,
as the most important private shipyard on the Thames.
1780s: A decade of great expansion in the yard.
Not only were increasing numbers of East Indiamen and naval vessels being built and repaired,
but the value of the work undertaken rose. They built a number of ships-of-the-line.
In 1780 the Belliqueux, a 64-gun ship of 1,376 tons, was completed, followed in 1783 by the Powerfull, a 74-gun ship,
and in 1784 by the Vennable, another 74-gun ship, of 1,652 tons.
The Hannibal, also of 1,652 tons, was built at Blackwall between June 1782 and April 1786 at a cost of £31,509
Blackwall Yard and Brunswick Dock in 1803
1803 : Much of the eastern part, including the late-eighteenth century Brunswick Dock,
was bought by the East India Dock Company for its new Export Dock.
1814: The end of the Napoleonic Wars brought decline in employment at the yard.
1815: After 1815 the fortunes of English shipbuilding improved and Blackwall Yard prospered again.
Not only did the building and repairing of East Indiamen return to the yard after the European peace
allowed a revival of trade, but also a period of expansion and diversity began at Blackwall,
both in the types of ships constructed and in the materials used.
1821: the first steam-vessel to be built at Blackwall Yard was launched: this was the 401 ton City of Edinburgh.
1824: George Green purchased the Sir Edward Paget, and founded the line of passenger sailing vessels
to India and Australia, known as the Blackwall frigates,
which became very popular with travellers for their speed and comfort.
Green had also become active in the whaling trade, constructing whalers and engaging in commerce in the South Seas.
1830s: the northern area was sold after it had been cut off from the rest of the yard
by the new London and Blackwall Railway, whose tracks sliced the premises in two.
1843 : The oldest part of the yard untouched by the previous division, was partitioned to create
two separate shipbuilding establishments.
Blackwall Yard in 1843, showing how the yard was divided between R. & H. Green and Wigram & Sons
Blackwall Yard in the 1860s, based on the Ordnance Survey of 1867 - 70
1877 : the western and most historic portion was bought by the Midland Railway and completely redeveloped as a collier-dock
Blackwall Yard and the Midland Railway's Poplar Dock in the mid-1890s. Based on the Ordnance Survey of 1895
1950s: Charringtons took over the western area following heavy damage during the 2nd world war.
the works at Blackwall being known as Blackwall Engineering.
British Shipbuilders was wound up in 1982, but the yard continued in the occupation of Blackwall Engineering until 1987.
In the eastern area the upper graving dock of 1878 remained in use until closure;
1989: it was partially filled in and the new Reuters building was constructed astride the site.
1991: The late-eighteenth-century eastern dry dock one of the earliest remaining on the Thames -
was refurbished and cut back to its original length.
It is constructed of brick and stone, with the usual stepped bottom, the entrance being faced
with blocks of ashlared granite. The present caisson gate is made of mild steel and probably dates from c1950.
Reuter's Pier
Next to the Thomson Reuters building.
Blackwall Tunnel (northbound)
1891: Work began on the eastern tunnel,
designed by Sir Alexander Binnie and built by S Pearson & Sons for the
London County Council at a cost of £1.4
million. It
was then the longest underwater tunnel in the world at 4,410 feet (1,344
m) long. It took six years to construct, using
tunnelling shield and compressed air techniques.
1897:The (eastern) tunnel was opened by the then Prince of Wales.
By the 1930s, capacity was becoming inadequate, and consequently the western
second bore opened in 1967, to handle southbound traffic
while the earlier 19th century tunnel handled northbound.
New Providence Wharf
Source -
This development built in the early 21st century is on the site of what was most of the Midland Railway Yard.
Their advertising says ... "development along the Thames ... often developed with little regard
for their context ... New Providence Wharf ... boldly takes a very different approach.
Excavations before construction showed timbers of two dock structures including a wall of the Wet Dock of 1659
modified and repaired until its closure in the mid 19th.
The dock wall was built of oak, pine and teak."
Also found was "planking and working debris belonging to a slipway built in 1860 and closed in 1877".
The development by the Irish developer Ballymore consists of blocks of flats - all "luxury"
and with American (US) names. Providence Tower will have 43 floors of flats
designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
Ontario Tower also has "luxury" 29 storey high-rise flats built in 2007 as "new executive housing"
and the tower has a blue LED rimmed elliptical profile. There is also a posh hotel.
Blackwall Stairs
Blackwall Tunnel (southbound)
Opened in the 1967 to handle the southbound traffic.
Northumberland Wharf
The Thames Steam Tug and Lighterage Co. Ltd.
West India Dock Entrance (closed)
1799: Act authorising the West India Docks
1802: Painting by W Daniell -
A view of the proposed West India Docks and City Canal by W Daniell, 1802.
This view is looking west towards the City of London.
The final layout of the docks was somewhat different, with three broad docks rather than two docks and a canal.
West India Docks by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson
from Rudolph Ackermann's Microcosm of London, or, London in Miniature (1808-11)
The Dock entrance was last used in 1968 and permanently dammed in 1987
Crown Wharf
William H Cox, bargebuilder; Thomas Ducas, wharfinger;
Vokins & Company Ltd., lightermen and barge-repairers (c.1915-1970s)
North Wharf
Source -
Metropolitan Asylum Board's ambulance station, known as North Wharf. From 1885 onwards smallpox patients were ferried out to floating isolation hospitals moored in the Thames. The General Steam Navigation Company sold its property there to the Metropolitan Asylums Board. They wanted the riverside site for an ambulance wharf where smallpox patients from north London could be brought for transfer by boat to the Board's hospital ships moored at Long Reach. At the wharf the Board required a floating pier to transfer patients at all states of the tide and connected to the wharf by a gangway. The work was carried out in 1884. Both pontoon and gangway survived into the 1960s. A galvanized-iron canopy to protect patients from the rain was also built. In about 1915 two four bed single-storey wards were built on the wharf for infectious cases and there was also disinfector and a boiler. The wharf passed in due course to the London County Council and in 1969 to the borough council. The structures were demolished in 1992 - 3.
Concordia Wharf
Source -
This was the site of the Stewart family's cooperage. Founded by Richard Stewart in the 1760s, the works was on a site later taken for the City Canal. They later moved to the west side of Coldharbour. The cooperage closed in 1831, and the General Steam Navigation Company used the site for its cattle wharf which was on the opposite side of the street. When General Steam Navigation Co. left in the early 1880s the Stewart family's old riverside residence was still standing. In 1886 oil merchants J. W. Cook & Sons, renamed it Concordia Wharf and left in 1890. In 1898 the wharf was taken over by Charles Grant Tindal, and the Australian Meat Company, which imported tinned and fresh meat and stayed until 1920. In 1921 the British Bluefries Wharfage & Transport Ltd, but moved following a fire in 1924. It was later occupied by the White Sea & Baltic Company pine-tar refiners and distillers.
The Gun
Source -
There was a pub here in 1716 called the King and Queen, later called the Rose and Crown, and then the Ramsgate Pink. It became became the Gun in 1770. The current building may incorporate old fabric and The Oldest part the North end, single-storey to street, extended in 1875 by F. Frederick Holsworth. It is associated with the opening of the West India Dock in 1802 when the first ship to enter was the Henry Addington firing guns on the way in. There is a concealed staircase with a spy hole facing out to the river, which it is said was used to check that for the presence of revenue men. Said to be the meeting place of Nelson and Lady Hamilton and a room above the bar is called the Lady Hamilton Room, and the pub is reputed to be haunted by her ghost. The pub was believed to have had a secret passage connected to a house possibly occupied by Nelson.
South West India Dock Entrance
Slipway Wharf
Folly Wall Wharf
Stewarts Wharf
Source -
This is now the the northern part of the site between the old river-police station at 19 and the Gun public house.
This included the Stewart family's own residence. The Stewart family also leased a wharf upstream and other property.
West of their workshops was an L-shaped timber-pond known as the 'canal'.
One building was a buoy-store of 1787 - 8 for Trinity House.
Richard Stewart, the founder of the cooperage, had been buoy-maker to the Corporation.
Ovex Wharf
Source -
The southern part of the Blackwall Iron Works site was occupied from c1910 by the Ovex Fuel Company,
which carried out some repairs and building, but left c1913.
In 1920 the Ross Smith Steamship Company was using part of the wharf for storage,
although the buildings were by then 'rather dilapidated'.
The newly formed Thames Plaster Mills Ltd described as a manufacturer and dealer in plaster of Paris,
cements and 'ceramic ware of all kinds' - took a lease of the wharf in 1931.
It surrendered the lease in 1938, however.
A new one was then granted to Robert Abraham Ltd, but damage by enemy bombing in 1940
rendered the wharf 'unfit for the purposes' for which it had been let,
and the remaining buildings were hit by a V1 flying bomb later in the war.
Abraham's successor was the Rye Arc Welding Company, a ship-repairing and engineering firm,
which moved on to the site in 1946 and was granted a new lease in 1947.
It carried out a redevelopment, erecting some new buildings and reconstructing 181½ft of wharf frontage.
The company remained at the wharf until c1973
New Union Wharf
Source -
The shipbuilding firm of Yarrows, one of the successful businesses in Cubitt Town in the late nineteenth century,
was established by Alfred Fernandez Yarrow (1842 - 1932) in the mid-1860s.
The inventiveness which he displayed as a young man developed into considerable engineering skills -
he served an apprenticeship with the marine engineers Ravenhill & Salkeld -
and he supervised both the technical and business sides of the firm.
In 1866 Yarrow established a small engineering firm in partnership with Robert Hedley.
The partnership became increasingly uneasy, however, and was dissolved in 1875.
Following the withdrawal of Hedley, the firm became Yarrow & Company;
it was converted into a private limited company in 1897.
In 1866 the partners took a lease of a barge-builder's yard between the river and the Folly Wall
which had been briefly occupied by Joseph Temple. Known as Hope Yard, this plot had a river frontage
of only a little over 90ft and the further drawback that a right of way ran across it to the Folly House.
The freehold of both the yard and the adjoining area on which the Folly House stood was purchased in 1875,
however, and the residue of the lease of the public house was acquired soon after.
The yard then became known as Folly Shipyard. A lease of the ground between the yard and Samuda Street,
taken in 1866, was renewed in 1878, with the addition of a strip of ground along the southern edge of the premises.
The yard was further enlarged by the purchase in 1875 of the residue of the lease of land to the north from
the widow of Nathaniel John Hudson, a barge-builder.
Hudson had acquired the lease in 1861 from Charles Ross, who had used the land as a stone-wharf.
The original site was constricted and contained two cottages and some sheds, all in a fairly dilapidated condition.
An engineers' shop was erected, using some salvaged timber, galvanized iron and glass.
In 1872 - 3 the land on the west side of the Folly Wall was enclosed and an office was built upon it.
Despite the disadvantages of the yard, the firm quickly established itself as a builder of steam launches
and achieved an 'unrivalled position' in the production of such vessels, which it still held in the 1890s.
The premises were substantially redeveloped following the acquisition of the extra land in 1875.
Much of the building work was carried out by Harris & Wardrop and W. Whitford & Company, both of Limehouse.
Workshops were erected on the southern part of the site and open sheds over the boat-building slips.
The Folly House was initially used by the firm, with the front rooms becoming its drawing offices,
but by 1881 it had been demolished. The development of the foreshore included the construction of a small dock
and the reclamation of some additional ground.
The enlargement of the yard in 1875 also coincided with a broadening of the range of vessels
constructed by the company, with the production of river steamers and gunboats,
especially for service in Africa and South America.
Yarrows was also a leading builder of torpedoboats, which developed in the early 1890s into destroyers;
the firm supplied the Royal Navy's first two destroyers in 1893.
Both torpedo-boats and destroyers were sold to many foreign navies, as well as to the Admiralty.
The problem of space was eased when that part of Samuda's Yard as far south as the drawdock was leased
following the death of Joseph Samuda in 1885, increasing the river frontage by 150ft.
Nevertheless, even larger premises were needed and in 1898 a lease of London Yard was acquired
and the business was transferred there, the Folly Shipyard being completely vacated.
Yarrow's successor was the Union Lighterage Company of Blackwall, with the name of the premises changed to
New Union Wharf.
The new occupiers used the wharf for the repair of their boats, gradually replacing most of the buildings.
The alterations included, in 1923, the construction of three slipways, for repairing barges, and their roofing over.
That part of the wharf formerly held by Samuda was occupied by Messrs Joseph F. Ebner,
who took a 40-year lease from the Union Lighterage Company. Ebners let part of the wharf for commercial storage
and used the remainder for their manufacture of parquet and woodblock flooring.
A drying-shed was built in 1901 by H. Groves of Greenwich and other sheds were extended or replaced.
There were fires at the premises in 1917 and 1927.
Ebners left their part of the wharf during the early 1940s and the lighterage company occupied the whole
until they vacated it c1970.
London Yard Drawdock
London Yard
Westwood, Baillie & Co shipyard; Yarrows; Morton's jam factory;
former site of Samuda Brothers shipyard
MillWall Wharf (Pier)
Source -
The current extent of Millwall Wharf and the remaining Grade II listed warehouses there
are the legacy of James W. Cook & Company, wharfingers, lightermen and shipping agents, of the Minories.
Cooks, who also held property at Orchard Wharf, Blackwall, were occupants of part of the present Millwall Wharf site
from 1883 and of the whole from 1900 until 1964.
This extensive wharf, reaching from (and eventually subsuming) Pier Street in the south to London Yard to the north
was originally composed of three wharves and two inland plots.
The southernmost wharf, with a river frontage of 200ft immediately north of Cubitt Town Pier, was taken by James Ash,
shipbuilder, in 1862. Ash, who had been naval architect to both C. J. Mare and the Thames Iron Works Company,
established an impressive yard here, with an extensive two-storey brick office and works building.
In setting up the business Ash had borrowed heavily from Overend Gurney & Company, and he was one of the many
yard-owners forced to close following the failure of that company in 1866.
In 1875 the lease was purchased by the Millwall Wharf & Warehouse Company, and James Cook took over the premises,
by then known as Millwall Wharf, early in 1883.
At that time the wharf comprised four brick-built and slateroofed warehouses.
Between 1883 and 1892 Cook & Company erected a further seven brick warehouses, a travelling crane,
and a corrugated-iron landing-shed facing the river.
The wharf was used for storage, mainly of jute and other fibres.
Immediately to the north of the original Millwall Wharf was Plough Wharf, a combination of three plots
with a river frontage of 150½ft, leased by Cubitt to the London Manure Company between 1853 and 1861.
The wharf contained an engine house, a boiler house, and the burners, chemical chambers and sheds required
for the manufacture of artificial manures from crushed bones and sulphuric acid.
A jetty was later added for manure barges. In 1868 the freehold of Plough Wharf was acquired by the
Millwall Dock Company as part of its proposal for an eastern arm of the Millwall Docks,
and the manure company's wharf was later extended to Manchester Road by a lease of land
including Nos 811 London Terrace. The London Manure Company went bankrupt in 1892, and James Cook annexed
Plough Wharf in 1896. Cook & Company rebuilt two existing riverside sheds of Millwall Wharf.
Further redevelopment took place between 1897 and 1900.
The third component was a wharf of over 150ft of river frontage, occupied by the National Guaranteed Manure Company
since 1858. This site was also purchased by the Millwall Dock Company, which leased a further inland plot
to the manure company in 1875. In 1900 the wharf, with nine brick, iron, and wood warehouses, was taken by
Cook & Company, which thus completed its acquisition of the present-day Millwall Wharf.
Having obtained these properties, the firm embarked upon a new building programme. In 1900 and 1901 plans
for a series of riverside warehouse buildings were prepared by Edwin A. B. Crockett, Surveyor to the London Wharf
and Warehouse Committee. Holland & Hannen of Bloomsbury built four new pairs of brickand-slate warehouse units;
in 1901 - 1902, incorporating remnants of the earlier nineteenth-century sheds of Plough Wharf.
These single-storey, twin-gabled warehouses form four-fifths of the extant riverside range.
The units are divided in two by fire walls with double iron doors, and have what were by 1901 - 2
rather old-fashioned roofs of paired queen-post trusses supported on rows of cast-iron columns.
Curiously, the roof to the southern half of Shed 7 is carried on king-post trusses.
The warehouses are devoid of any decorative features save to the river, where each gabled bay encloses
a high-set Diocletian window framed by brick pilasters. These sheds were bonded and used for storage,
initially of sugar and fibres.
During the first quarter of the twentieth century Cook & Company continued to expand and develop its business.
In 1907 and 1908 it annexed two areas of land formerly belonging to Yarrow & Company to the north of Millwall Wharf,
and erected a further brick warehouse. This was of a similar style to the earlier ones, but with the roof
carried on steel trusses and stanchions. Further developments included the rebuilding of D Warehouse following a
fire in 1908, and the erection in 1911 of a group of six further brick warehouse units, with a roadway for vehicles
between them.
Cook & Company remained in occupation of Millwall Wharf until 1964, when the leases to the property were assigned
to Cory Associated Wharves Ltd. After lengthy negotiations the PLA sold the freehold of Millwall Wharf to
Cory Associated Wharves' parent company, Ocean Transport & Trading Ltd, which still owns the wharf as Ocean plc.
Millenium Wharf
Dudgeons Wharf
formerly shipbuilding yard of John & William Dudgeon
In 1880 it became used for oil storage (London Oil Storage Company)
The wharf was cleared in the 1960s and earmarked for public housing.
The site is now Compass Point Development.
Plymouth Wharf
Cubitt Town Wharf
Source -
In 1857 William Cubitt erected a timber pier roughly three-quarters of a mile along the shore from Potter's Ferry, and by 1858 had hired a steamboat to ferry passengers to Greenwich and other places on the opposite shore. This was intended to serve the new inhabitants of Cubitt Town without diverting passengers from the established ferry at Potter's Ferry, but it appears that the new ferry was used mainly by dock workers, and as a result the older one lost more than half its income. Litigation followed in the early 1860s, with the ferry company as successful plaintiffs, although Cubitt retained his right to ferry to and from the Isle of Dogs. However, services must have ceased well before 1891, when the Thames Conservancy asked for Cubitt's Pier, which was in a dilapidated and dangerous condition, to be repaired. The pier was demolished c1892.
Stores Quay
Caledonian Wharf
Empire Wharf
formerly Polar Dry Dock
Grosvenor Wharf
Source -
In 1858 William Simpson & Company established an engineering works and factory, known as Grosvenor Works, on this site. Early buildings included a smiths' shop, a machine shop, a boiler shed, stores and offices. In 1862 the original plot was extended westwards to meet Wharf Road, and further factory buildings were erected.
William Simpson surrendered his interest in the works to his relative James Simpson in 1862, establishing his own ship-repairing yard at Empire Wharf further north (see below).
Grosvenor Works remained in the possession of the Simpson family until 1865, and it was later taken over by James Mason as an extension of his copperore depot at Alpha Wharf adjoining to the north (see below).
Unoccupied for much of the 1870s and early 1880s, Grosvenor Wharf became a coal works in the late 1880s,
and the site was leased c1889-91 to the Block Fuel Syndicate Ltd. The company modified the works for the production of block fuel, for which it had the sole right of manufacture within a 20-mile radius of London Bridge. A jetty was built 30ft into the river to accommodate barges, from which coal was taken by cranes and via shoots into a brick-and-iron store on the river front. A series of conveyors and elevators transferred the coal into a mixing chamber where pitch was added, and the resulting mixture was transformed into block fuel by five briquette machines, each capable of producing five tons of fuel per hour. The product was then taken back to the riverside for delivery into barges.
The venture was not a success, however, and the next 15 years witnessed a succession of coal and mineral manufacturers and dealers at Grosvenor Wharf.
By 1916 the premises were occupied by Sternol Ltd (also known as the Stern Sonneborn Oil Company Ltd) as an oil and grease refinery. At that time the wharf contained a pair of brick-and-iron storage sheds facing the river, and a group of the original 1860s buildings facing Wharf Road which comprised a boiler house, purifying and blending houses, and a two-storey brick office and dwelling house.
Further brick sheds were added during the 1930s.
In the 1970s the site, with Alpha and Empire Wharves to the north, was acquired by the Borough of Tower Hamlets
Newcastle Drawdock
Built as part of Cubitt's initial development of the riverside in the 1840s, this drawdock is constructed of brick, with wooden buttressing to the south-west wall and rendered buttressing to the north-east one.
Cumberland Mills Square
Luraida Gardens
previously Luraida Wharf and before that Lukach Wharf and originally Honduras Wharf
Island Gardens
Greenwich Footway Tunnel Cupola
In Island gardens
Greenwich Foot Tunnel, Island Gardens. Alexander Binnie, LCC Engineer, 19002
a) Section looking east through the lift-shaft and lift-shaft building
b) North elevation of the lift-shaft building
c) Section through the tunnel showing construction.
Calders Wharf
Source -
The Unsinkable Boat Company in the 1890s and, in 1926, the wharfingers J. Calder & Company.
After the London and Blackwall Railway station closed c1928, Calders took over the whole site,
stowing chemicals and other goods in the open, underneath the old platform,
and in a shed made out of the covered way which had led down to the pier.
Later they were using the railway arches south of Manchester Road, and the disused subway leading
from the old station to Wharf Road
Calder's Wharf remained in use for wharfage until c1969, when a boathouse for the
Poplar, Blackwall & District Rowing Club (which had been using the old covered-way shed) was built on the site.
The architects were E. S. Boyer & Partners.
Poplar, Blackwall and District Rowing Club -
PBDRC was formed in 1845 and is believed to be the third oldest rowing club in Great Britain.
Johnson's Drawdock
Midland Wharf
Livingston Wharf
Fellstead Gardens
Millwall Slipway
Barnard's Wharf
Lockes Wharf
Langbourne Wharf
Clyde Wharf (Nelson Wharf)
(opposite Deptford Creek);