Riverside east of the Tower, north bank. Millwall
Riverbank east of the Tower, north bank only.
Millwall
Riverside strip once home to major industrial sites, including some major shipyards - where Brunel's Great Eastern was built. Much other important industry - colour works, a major flour mill, cable works, iron and engine works. All now covered by 20th housing. The area also includes the southern section of the Millwall Dock.
This post covers only that parts of the square which are north of the river. The south bank is Deptford Riverside
Post to the north Millwall
Post to the west Thames Tributary Earl Sluice - Deptford
Post to the south Deptford Creek
Post to the east Cubitt Town and Highbridge and Ballast
Arden Crescent
17 Cedar Centre. Community centre. The road is part of Timber Wharves Village.
Ashdown Walk
Part of Timber Wharves Village. A housing project of 1987-92, built on the areas once used for the stacking of timber. It was built speculatively and acquired by the LDDC on the suggestion of Michael Portillo to rehouse those displaced by the building of the Limehouse Link. Ashdown Walk itself closes the main axis.
Blasker's Walk
Dr.Morris Blasker was a local GP and two local ladies campaigned to have the riverside walk named after him.
Burrell’s Wharf
Burrell & Company. They were oil refiners and manufacturers of paints, varnishes and colours, had been established in the Minories in 1852. They had a number of other factories. From the late 1880s until the early 1920s a succession of stores, warehouses, workshops and minor ancillary buildings were built here. Colour making was their main activity as a result of the unavailability of German-made aniline dyes during the Great War. During the Second World War, the works produced a variety of chemicals for the government. After the war distemper became an important product. When Burrell’s was wound up in 1981 Blythe Burrell Colours Ltd, a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey plc continued to make colours here until the closure of the works in 1986. Production of Burrell's range of classic pigments was continued by Ciba-Geigy.
Remains on site. One relic is the stump of Fairbairn's octagonal chimney. There was also Scott Russell's ‘Big shop’ Plate House built for Scott Russell by William Cubitt & Company on the site of William Fairbairn's fitting and turning shop of c1837. The tower had been used for water storage from at least the late 1920s, with a 24,000–gallon tank on the top floor. It is was thought to have been the place where the iron plates for the Great Eastern were prepared, but it is thought it was specially built, with overhead travelling cranes, for assembling the Great Eastern's 40-ft high paddle engines, the largest ever built. It is London's only surviving former marine engine works.
Kentish Homes' Burrell's Wharf Development. Kentish was controlled by Keith and Kay Preston. From refurbishing terrace houses they moved onto bigger schemes. Undeterred by the 1987 stock market crash Kentish pressed on with Burrell's Wharf. But sales at Burrell's Wharf ceased, and by July Kentish was in receivership along with their contractors. The development was relaunched by Halifax New Homes Services in 1992. It is designed by Jestico & Whiles. The two main buildings of the Venesta factory, the forge and foundry are converted into flats; there are also new buildings on the riverside and around the site. The Plate House is now converted to flats with ground-floor car park and swimming pool? The pyramidal roof and matching turret over the staircase have been restored as part of the refurbishment of the building. The remaining buildings have been adapted as residential units.
Britannia Road
Britannia Dry Dock. The dock site was bought in 1839 from Ferguson by David Napier and to William Tindall. Tindall built a wharf and dry dock in 1841. It was called Britannia Dock from 1863, when it was sold to the Rotherhithe shipbuilder William Walker. It closed in 1935. The site became a timber-yard, known as Britannia Wharf.
Cahir Street
Poplar Gas Light Co. Works. Opened in 1841. (The site of the works at this location was described by Stewart, the authority on North London gas works sites as being "near Cahir Street". On the 1869 Ordnance Survey sheet a "gasometer" is shown here to the rear of the Millwall Iron Works site. Survey of London however identifies the site as further north adjacent to Cassell’s tar making plant on the corner of Union Road. See Edith’s earlier Millwall posting)
Chapel House Estate.
Chapel. The name comes from a medieval chapel. A chapel in the marsh dedicated to St Mary is noted in 1380 n connection with a farm and settlement owned by a William Pomfret. A chapelry had been founded in Stratford-at-Bow in 1311. Repairs were carried out in 1415, and bequests were made to it until the mid-15th. On Lady Day 1449 the river burst through the wall opposite Deptford, and this may have signalled its end. The dry dock in the south east corner of Millwall Inner Dock is said to be on its site.
The estate dates from 1919-21, the first public housing in Poplar Borough as part of the government's post-war drive for 'Homes for Heroes'. This garden-suburb was laid out by Harley Heckford, with houses built by H.M. Office of Works to designs by their Chief Architect, Sir Frank Baines. It is said to have been built in a deal with Millwall Lead Works.
Claude Street
Area of poor quality housing bombed and later cleared by the Council. It was then used by transport and other industries
Gates – at the end of the road on a private estate called Odyssey, preventing access to the riverside. It is understood that the riverside path is also blocked by gates in both directions.
Clippers Quay
This was one of the first private estates to be built in the London Docklands in the early 1980s by Robert Martin Assocs. It is built around what was a dry dock off the main Millwall Inner Dock. There are two private access road and two private walkways.
Crews Street
Area of poor quality housing bombed and later cleared by the Council. It was then used by transport and other industries
Cutlers Square
Cutlers Wharf. This was set up by Samuel Cutler & Sons in 1873 replacing their former site to the north with the same name. He sire had previously been used by Ferguson and Todd to made marine-blocks and gun-carriages. Cutlers' products made marine boilers and machinery, but they specialised in gasholders and other plant for the gas industry. The sire was severely bombed in the Second World War. The works closed in the 1960s. It was redeveloped in the early 1990s as part of the Masthouse Terrace housing scheme
Deptford Ferry Road
Guelph Patent Cask Company Ltd. This was, known as the Canadian Cooperage. It was Burned out in 1900, and replaced by a warehouse, cask store and mill.
Dockers Tanner Road
The ‘Dockers Tanner’ relates to demands made in the 1889 Dock Strike over pay.
East Ferry Road
Mudchute Station. Opened in 1987 on the original line of the Docklands Light Railway between Crossharbour and Island Gardens Stations. It is on the line of the Millwall Extension railway. The elevated station was the last station before the then terminus at Island Gardens and was originally intended to be named Millwall Dock, but around the time the DLR was being constructed, Millwall had experienced some particularly nasty incidents with fans and so Mudchute – the name of the local City Farm – was substituted. In 1999 when the line was extended to Lewisham the station was rebuilt in a shallow cutting immediately before the tunnel entrance.
Lone tall Chimney. This is on the far side of the DLR tracks and it is a landmark here. It is relic of a refuse incinerator built here in 1952 by Heenan and Froude
Falcon Way
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Ferguson Close
Site of new housing named for Charles Ferguson who had a 19th block making factory here.
Harbinger Road
This was called British Street until 1929. It had been meadows and swamp until 1817. Housing in the street was later demolished by the London County Council or bombed flat before the present housing was built in the road
British School. This school was the first school on the Island. It was financed by private subscription, founded by local businessmen and built in 1846–7 on a site donated by the Countess of Glengall. It was designed by William Wallen, jnr, of Greenwich with two rectangular schoolrooms. In 1871, it was transferred to the School Board for London. It Closed 1873 and was used as the Millwall tabernacle and then for cookery classes. It was used for ordinary teaching in 1932 but was badly damaged in bombing. It later became a scrap yard.
Harbinger School. Built by the School Board for London in 1872. It is is a rare early Board School design by R. Phene Spiers, Master of Architecture at the Royal Academy schools as the result of a competition. It is a three-decker. The main front has a plaque in coloured tiles. The building followed Robson's principles in segregating girls, boys and infants and it operated on the Prussian system. The school was remodelled in 1906-8. After the abolition of the London School Board, the school was known as British Street Council School and from 1930 as Harbinger London County Council School. It is now known as Harbinger School.
Hesperus Crescent
Local authority housing - circle of cottages and cottage flats with tight cul- de-sacs opening from it designed in 1929-30 by Harley Heckford, Borough Engineer. Garden walls of ceramic waste and brick rubble.
Homer Drive
New housing completely gated off together with the river front.
Anchor Wharf. This was the site of Brown, Lenox & Company's Works. Samuel Brown began experimenting in the use of chain for the Navy in 1806 and later supplied of chain to the Admiralty. Initially the chain was made in Narrow Street, but Brown went into partnership with Samuel Lenox and built this works in 1812 opposite Deptford dockyard. In 1812 the Admiralty started to use wrought iron anchor chains instead of hemp anchor cables. Every chain had to be tested in 15 cable lengths. In 1816 Brown Lenox installed a hydraulic chain testing machine and anchors, buoys and water tanks were also made. In 1816, a second factory was opened in Pontypridd. By the 1930s they were producing pressed-steel sectional tanks, rivetted tanks, coal bunkers, hoppers, chimneys, gantries and a variety of buoys. By then the works had expanded and other local sites used. The Millwall works closed in the 1980s. Pontypridd closed in 2000.
Victoria Wharf. This was on the site of what is now (gated) Homer Drive. From 1888 -1921 Crosse & Blackwell, the preserved-provisions manufacturers were on the site previously used by Brown Lenox. It was later taken over y the occupiers of Cyclops Wharf and renamed Cyclops (Victoria) Wharf.
William Roberts's Fire-engine Works (Jupiter Iron Works). This was on the site of what is now (gated) Homer Drive. William Roberts set up a pump factory in the late 1850s as part of the Brown, Lenox works, and by the early 1860s was making fire-fighting appliances. In 1865–6 he built a works south of Brown Lennox. In 1877as Jupiter Iron Works, they were taken over by Samuel Cutler & Sons
Lambourne Place
More gates.
Maconochie’s Road
Northumberland Yard. This was laid out for shipbuilding as part of the Millwall Iron Works in the 1860s. The frigate Northumberland was built here in 1863. In 1878 the works was taken over by the same men as in Dudgeon & Company. This failed after a short time.
Northumberland Works was occupied by the electrical-engineering company Latimer Clark, Muirhead & Company Ltd, and their German associate Lorenz Ammunition & Ordnance Company Ltd, it closed in 1894.
Maconachie Brothers were here from 1896. They were wholesale provision merchants and manufacturers of pickles, potted meat, jam, etc. By 1920 they had redeveloped the site, building a pickle factory. After the Second World War, following bombing, the wharf was used for wool storage. It was redeveloped in the late 1980s by the Great Eastern Self-Build Housing Association
Riverside walk. In 1990 a public walkway was laid out at the riverside by the London Docklands Development Corporation.
Maconochie's Wharf. This was a self-build scheme for local people, initiated by Jill Palios and Dr Michael Barraclough, and included Dr Barraclough's own house. Many of the early self-builders, in the Great Eastern Self- Build Housing Association, were in the building trade so the construction is traditional. The first houses were of white calcium-silicate brick, the later ones built in 1987-90 of yellow brick. .
Masthouse Terrace
Drunken Dock (see Riverside)
Mast House. This was probably built by a Mr. Harris who may have adapted a previous building. It had three timber ranges and a slipway plus a mast maker’s residence and three cottages as well as smithies, and a sawpit. The active partners were Charles Ferguson, and Thomas Todd. It closed in 1861 and the Ironmongers' Company bought it at auction, enclosed the dock, and sold it to the new Millwall Iron Works.
Charles Ferguson & Co. Block factory. After the sale of the Mast House, Ferguson set up a block and gun-carriage which continued until about 1871. The works was subsequently occupied by Laing, Howlett & Company, gun-carriage makers, and from 1873 it was the Providence Iron Works of Samuel Cutler & Sons (see Cutler Square)
St. Andrews Wharf. The Mast House site later became known as St, Andrews Wharf (see St. Andrews Wharf)
Britannia Dry Dock. (See Britannia Road above)
Napier Yard. (See Napier Yard, below)
Britannia Yard. This small shipyard was south of the Napier Yard. It was occupied by Forrestt & Sons from the early 1880s. It included the former foundry, engine factory and smithies of the Millwall Iron Works (see Millwall Ironworks, below). From the late 1880s the yard was used by Edwards & Symes and was used for boat and barge-building until the 1930s. It was later used for experimental work by British Smokeless & Oil Fuels Ltd
Burrell's Wharf (see Burrell’s Wharf)
Masthouse Terrace. The site was developed from 1987. It was begun by Kentish Homes and completed by other developers after their bankruptcy in 1989. The architects were Jestico & Whiles. Housing association flats and houses by Alan J. Smith Partnership, 1990-2.
Millwall Dock
This square covers only the south quay of the Outer Dock.
McDougall’s flour mill. In 1871–2 five McDougall brothers leased land here. They built a fertiliser factory and compounds to sell to gas works to absorb ammonia. The discovery of a new type of baking powder had led Arthur McDougall into the manufacture of self raising flour in Manchester in 1865. The Millwall site was redeveloped for flour milling in 1887. In 1895 a mill and offices were built. The railway ran through the middle of the site. A fire in 1898 destroyed the mill and a new flour mill was built in 1899. H. Jameson Davis was the milling engineer and Robert E. Crosland the architect. It was a brick building around three sides of a yard and the mill proper, had 12 grain elevators, top-floor sifters for grading the flour, and second-floor purifiers with mahogany hoppers feeding 13 first-floor double-roller mills. An 82ft-tall tower housed wheat-cleaning machinery and a water tank. There were offices, stores, a 142hp steam engine, and a chimney. As Wheatsheaf Mills, this building became the centre of McDougall’s business. The fertilizer premises were sublet to J. Taylor & Sons in 1914 for the production of cattle food. Two ranges of 51ft-tall timber bin silos were also built. In 1934 a 100ft tall silo was added with a capacity of 8,000 tons and with massive reinforced-concrete columns. There were associated buildings including a pneumatic intake plant with a tower that travelled along a steel-framed quayside gantry over a conveyor. In 1935 the 19th were replaced with other buildings mainly in mass concrete. Rank Hovis McDougall closed the mill in 1982, and the buildings were demolished in 1984
Hooper’s Telegraph Works. William Hooper had been making patent rubber-core insulator for submarine telegraph cables in Mitcham since 1862. This was different to other cables with gutta-percha insulation. In 1870 He formed leased a plot on the south side of the docks and built a cable factory with cable tanks and storage space for jute. In 1872 he commissioned the Hooper, the first purpose-built cable-laying ship, which was then the largest vessel to have used the Thames, excepting the Great Eastern. Hooper made cables to link Portugal to Brazil and Hong Kong to Vladivostok but there were no new contracts, and the firm was wound up in 1877. Hooper’s son continued the business but in 1882 part of the factory was let to William Frederick Dennis & Company, cable and wire manufacturers and other areas were reverted to the dock company for other uses. The works were gutted by bombing in 1944. Some work continued after the Second Wrold War but the site was levelled in 1950–1, and used to park cars for export.
Dry dock. This is in the south-east corner of the Inner Dock and was the first dry dock in a London dock system. Earlier Thameside shipbuilders had prevented dry dock and ship repair works in the docks. Dry docks for ship-repair were central to early plans for the Millwall Docks and up to six were to have been built off the quays of the wet docks, but there was eventually just one. It is said to be on the site of the ancient Chapel of St. Mary. The dock was completed by 1867. Despite the promise made to Parliament, the graving dock was not 'public' and was let to shipbuilders and repairers, not to ship-owners. Initially it was let to C. J. Mare, of the Millwall Iron Works. J. Langham Reed & Co leased it later and others followed. In 1909, the PLA resolved to stop letting the dry dock and to lengthen it and this was done in 1911. The caisson was replaced in 1922 and to cope with larger vessels coming to the dock through the Millwall Passage, a 10-ton hydraulic capstan was fitted in 1930. Closure was proposed in 1966, as it was losing money and it was closed and flooded in 1968. The site and the 25-ton crane were used for a barge berth. The dry dock area was redeveloped as the Clippers Quay housing estate in 1984–8 (see Clippers Quay)
Millwall Iron Works
Millwall Iron Works. In 1836–7 the engineer William Fairbairn laid out an ironworks on a site, purchased from Charles Ferguson. His main works however remained in Manchester. At Millwall he exhibited in 1841 the first all iron building in England. He also built More than 100 ships here. The stump of his central chimney is preserved on Burrell’s Wharf development. In 1848 the premises were taken over by John Scott Russell and his partners. The best-known part of the business was shipbuilding, launching vessels full fitted out.
The Great Eastern. From 1854 until 1859 the Millwall Iron Works and Napier Yard were dominated by the construction and fitting-out of Brunel’s the Great Eastern. She was vastly bigger than any existing vessel. The ship had to be built broadside on to the Thames for a sideways launch which was technically difficult and financially ruinous. Building began on 1 May 1854, and she was launched on the afternoon of 3 November 1857. Great Eastern is said to have been a disaster but she was enormously important in the laying of the Atlantic cable which could not have been done at such an early date without her. In 1886 she was broken up in Liverpool. The main structure of the slipways at Millwall remain. They comprise a section of the concrete-and timber sub-structure, have been preserved on site for public display. The refurbishment work was carried out by Livingstone McIntosh Associates and Feilden & Mawson with guidance from the LDDC's Wapping and Isle of Dogs landscape team.
The Millwall Iron Works, From 1859 and Scott Russell's bankruptcy, the Millwall Iron Works was used by C. J. Mare & Company, and then its successor the Millwall Iron Works. In the 1860s this was the most ambitious industrial concern ever established in Millwall, employing between 4,000 and 5,000 men, who enjoyed half-day Saturday working, a canteen, sports clubs and works band. They not only built ships but made the iron from which they were built. The works were on either side of Westferry Road, linked by a horse-tramway. On the riverside were slips, wharves, sawmills, an engine factory, foundries, and a mast factory. On the land side was heavy plant for iron forgings and rolling mills. The scale of the armour-plate mill was vast – nought at scrap value it was eventually reinstalled at Thames Iron Works. The subscribers were all partners in Overend Gurney & Company. Within a few weeks the company was in liquidation and the Millwall Iron Works, Ship Building & Graving Docks Company Ltd was floated in its stead. The new company also purchased Britannia Dry Dock and Ferguson's Mast House and Mast Pond. Overend Gurney famously collapsed in May 1866 taking much of the national economy with it, and in 1871 the company was liquidated and the works broken up. Most of the site of Fairbairn's original works in 1888 became Burrell's Wharf
Beyond Klondyke Yard, the old Millwall Iron Works buildings were mostly occupied from 1912 to c 1919 by the BDP Syndicate Ltd as Florencia Works. Owned by William Petersen, a shipowner, the company carried out experimental metallurgical work. (fn. 56)
Millwall Lead Works
Millwall Lead Works, the Millwall Lead Works was set up by Pontifex & Wood in about 1843. They had been since 1788 in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. The Millwall works embraced a wide range of metallurgical and chemical activities, including dye, colour, paint and varnish making, white lead, copper sulphate, citric, tartaric and sulphuric acids, and the smelting and refining of silver, copper and antimony. Eventually White lead, used in paint manufacture, became the principal product. Pontifex & Wood Ltd were wound up in 1888 and the business became Millwall Lead Company Ltd. The works was later taken over by Locke, Lancaster & W. W. Johnson & Sons Ltd. Other companies were also on the site at various times - the London Lead Smelting Company Ltd, Henry Grace & Company Ltd, white lead makers, and the Millwall Chemical Company Ltd, extracting distillates from sawdust. From the early 1890s until 1910 the Millwall Oil Company Ltd was on an area eventually known as Millwall Oil Wharf. By the 1950s Associated Lead Manufacturers were on the whole site. They made tinned lead-foil for lining tea-chests and casings for X-ray equipment. The area was built over with lead rolling and wire-drawing mills, a large department for the production of lead monoxide and others. The only remnant of the 19th works was the furnace chimney-shaft which is thought to have been the tallest ever erected on the Isle of Dogs. The disused lead works buildings ere demolished in 1986–7 Associated Lead's Paint Division was last on the site.
Millwall Pottery
308 Millwall Pottery. This was set up in 1852–3 by Thomas Wilcox, Edward Price Smith and Orlando Webb, earthenware manufacturers. The trading name changed over the years. And Millwall Pottery does not seem to have been adopted until the early 1870s. In 1881 Willcox set up the Millwall Pottery Ltd to take over the works. The premises were entered by a narrow path north of the Ferry House and they were old warehouses and cottages. They had previously been used by the Bastenne Gaujac Bitumen Company and wood pavement manufacturer. The pottery produced a range of general and sanitary earthenware and closed in the late 1880s. It was then occupied briefly by the J. R. Alsing Pulverizer & Mill Company Ltd, makers of cylinders for grinding.
Garrard - From the mid-1870s Frederick Garrard, 'decorator of earthenware' and architect, was there making wall tiles. John Lewis James and William James took over when he died, making encaustic tiles, insulators and decorative earthenware.
St. David's Wharf. Vidal. In 1892 the former Millwall Pottery was redeveloped as the copper-depositing works of the General Electric Power & Traction Co. This closed in 1897, and a wharf was added, after which they were occupied by Vidal Fixed Aniline Dyes Ltd and its successor, the Vidal Dyes Syndicate Ltd. This was owned by Raymond Vidal, a Parisian chemist and after years of litigation the wharf was closed. In 1905 the ship-propeller manufacturers, the Manganese Bronze & Brass Company Ltd, took over the premises, which were renamed St David's Wharf. In the late 1940s the works were vacated, and the premises were amalgamated with the Millwall Lead Works
Napier Avenue
Named for the nearby Napier Yard and Works
Napier Yard. David Napier, marine engineer, bought the site undeveloped in 1837, and laid it out as a shipyard for his sons. It contained a workshop and a Millwall House. The works remained until burnt down in 1853; It was then leased to John Scott Russell as the building site of the Great Eastern, and was later bought by the Millwall Iron Works (See Millwall Ironworks above).. By the 1880s it was partly leased to ship- and barge-builders
Westwood & Co. The site was as occupied from the mid1880s by Joseph Westwood & Company, manufacturers of constructional iron- and steelwork. Later their subsidiary Armitage & Crosland Ltd, made calendering machines, probably for the laundry trade and wallpaper-making in the 20th. Large steel-framed buildings were put up in the 1930s.
Hawksley's Patent Treads - this was the manufacture of safety treads for stairs and steps.
Pointers Road
Pointers is part of the Great Eastern self build scheme.
The Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company's Chemical Works. In 1824–7 the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company set up a chemical works on what would in future be Nelson Wharf. New buildings, designed by Francis Edwards were put up. High hopes were entertained of the profitable conversion of the tarry and ammoniacal by-products from gas manufacture into saleable chemicals. But the works were sold in 1829. The eventual purchaser was George Elliot, chemist and druggist
Nelson Wharf. The wharf lay on the riverside between the current sites of Pointers Road and Langbourne Place. This area was occupied in the mid-1840s by Ernest Jametel & Company, borax manufacturers, and thereafter by Sir William Burnett & Company
Langbourn Wharf. Works of Couper, McCarnie & Co., manufacturing chemist sal ammoniac. Later London Wire Netting co. and others.
Burnett‘s works. Burnett was a naval surgeon who from 1831 was head of the Medical Department of the Navy. In 1836 he devised an anti-rot and mothproofing treatment for timber, cordage, canvas and other cloths, using chloride of zinc. In 1838, to the scandal of the medical profession, he patented this invention and exploited commercially. 'Burnettizing' became a standard wood-preservative technique. The buildings at Nelson Wharf were brick and corrugated-iron sheds but in 1906and 1914 new sawmills were built. Occupants included Homan & Rodgers, girder manufacturers 1860s, Liepmann Carbon Company Ltd, in the 1870s. In the late 1970s Sir William Burnett & Company Ltd, to Cuffley.
Powis Road
This was south of Claude Street and was later called Cyclops Place. It was built to provide access to Millwall Pier
Cyclops Wharf. This was north of Powis Road. It lay between Winkley's Wharf and Victoria Wharf in 1863. Charles Powis of New Cross set up an engineering works making steam-engines, boilers, and machinery and plant for the building and engineering industries, including brick- and tile-making machines, mortar mills, cranes, hoists and pumps. In 1887 the works were used by John Good, a cordage manufacturer, who built a warehouse and a chimney. The premises were called the Pier Cordage Works. In 1898 Edward Le Bas & Co Tube Company moved in and renamed it Cyclops Wharf. From 1965 it was used by an asphalt business which left in 1987. The site is now housing - apartments and mews houses with river views and a leisure complex on the second and first floors of the nine storey main block
Millwall Pier Powis Road (later Cyclops Place) Millwall Pier. 1861 because of objections to West India Dock Pier the Thames Conservancy built one here and laid out Powis Road for access. It was closed and demolished in 1894. A new, longer Pier was erected here in 1905, for the London County Council's passenger-steamboat service. Fromm 1908 the pier was used by others but in 1913 it was taken down, and the pontoon moved to Greenwich Pier. Powis Road was reduced and in 1937 renamed Cyclops Place and closed in 1947.
Riverside
Winkley’s Wharf. In the early 18th there had been a windmill here along with a shipwright and barge builders. By 1850 there was a pub called the Windmill but the site was cleared following a fire in 1884. The site was later used by Fleming & Co, printing-ink makers and the Metal Smelting Works Co and others. This was called Glovers Wharf. The part of the site used by the barge builders became Weston’s cement and plaster works in the 1830s tit until the 1890s. In 1893 Mark Winkley, an oil wharfinger, took on both Weston's and Glover's Wharves, and called it Winkley's Wharf. It was used for storing oil. It was badly in the Second World War. It was a cleared site in the mid 1980s
Le Bas Wharf (see Powis Road above)
Cyclops Wharf. (See Powis Road above)
Millwall Pier Powis Road This was later called Cyclops Place. (See Powis Road above)
Anchor Wharf. Brown, Lenox & Company's Works. (See Homer Drive above)
Victoria Wharf. (See Homer Drive above)
William Roberts's Fire-engine Works (Jupiter Iron Works). (See Homer Drive above)
Willow Bridge Ferry. Shown on 19th maps, but with no indication as to where it goes.
Providence Iron Works (Cutler's Wharf). (See Cutler Square above)
Drunken Dock. This was the 16th name to an inlet. Until the 19th it was regarded as a public dock and used for timber storage. The Mast House needed it floating masts and spars, but when that closed it was filled in
Windmill. In the 18th the land was of marsh, with reed beds and osiers. A windmill was built in 1722, with a house and granaries. They were replaced in 1766 by a the buildings of the mast-works
Masthouse (see Masthouse above)
Ferguson's Wharf (see Masthouse above)
Rose Wharf (see Masthouse above)
St Andrew's Wharf (see Masthouse above)
Britannia Dry Dock. (See Masthouse above)
Cocoanut Stairs. Causeway alongside the desiccated coconut works.
Guelph Wharf (See Deptford Ferry Road, above)
Napier Yard (see Napier Road, above)
Britannia Yard (see Britannia Road above)
Millwall Iron Works. (See Millwall Iron Works above)
The Venesta Factory (see Venesta below)
Whittock Wharf (see Venesta below)
Burrell's Wharf (see Burrells above)
Nelson Wharf. (See Pointers Close above)
Clyde Wharf. (See Riverside, above)
Vidal Wharf/ St David's Wharf. In 1892 the former Millwall Pottery, which stood inland, was redeveloped and a wharf was added to the site. It was used by Vidal Fixed Aniline Dyes Ltd and its successor, the Vidal Dyes Syndicate Ltd. In due course they moved to the north of England. 1905 the ship-propeller manufacturers, the Manganese Bronze & Brass Company Ltd took over the premises, which they renamed St David's Wharf. New foundries and workshops were erected, covering most of the site. In the late` 1940s the works were vacated, and it became part of the Millwall Lead Works by Associated Lead Manufacturers
Locke's wharf (see Millwall Lead Works)
Maconochies Wharf (see Maconochies wharf above)
Spindrift Avenue
Docklands Medical Centre by Jefferson Sheard built 1990-2
St. Andrews Wharf
St. Andrews’ Wharf. The name of St. Andrews wharf was first used when, after the end of the Millwall Iron Works, the old Mast House site was occupied by N. J. & H. Fenner and it was used as ship-breaker and petroleum storage. The site of the Mast Pond itself became a pit for barrel storage. This is the area at the eastern end of Mast House Terrace, and Phoenix Court.
Ferguson's Wharf. This part of St Andrew's Wharf was taken by Mark Winkley & Co. who used it to store oils, wax, tallow, resin and tar. From 1895 it was occupied by the Vacuum Oil Company for storage and then by Chetwin & Newark, grease manufacturers. Later still by British Oil & Turpentine Corporation Ltd, oil blenders, who called it Speedwell Wharf. There was a major fire in 1935.
Rose Wharf. This was used by W. A. Rose & Co. who made paint, white lead, colour, varnish, grease, tar oil and tallow. Their six storey oil refinery was burnt down in 1896 but was replaced. In 1932 it was used by International Shipping & Transport Ltd. Goods stored were celluloid toys and Christmas crackers but by 1937 only waste paper. Later the occupier was the Thames Oil Wharf Company
St Andrew's Works. This site had been the coconut-desiccating works of G. Davis & Son. In the 1920s it was used by the occupiers of Ferguson's Wharf.
St Andrew's Wharf itself was bought in 1899 by Young & Marten Ltd, builders' merchants of Stratford. They used it to store building materials. In 1919 it was taken over by Thames Oil Wharf Co for petroleum storage. They also took over Rose Wharf but closed in 1968 following Government restrictions
Taeping Place
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Thermopylae Gate
Named after clippers on the Australian route
Undine Road
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Venesta Works
The Venesta Factory was on Whittock Wharf This was the southernmost part of Napier Yard. Venesta took it over in 1906 and installed buildings designed by John J. Robson. They made wood and metal cases, boxes and barrels. In 1935, the disused factory was renamed Eastern Wharf, and refurbished by new owners. In 1937 they changed the name to Whittock Wharf. After the Second World War the premises became part of Burrell's Wharf.
West Ferry Road
130 Lowe's Wharf. In the 1880s Cassell’s tar works was taken over by Charles Lowe & Co. Later in the late 1880s it was briefly Canning Town Glass Co. and the Thames Soda Manufacturing Co. Ltd, makers of washing soda. Their subsidiaries remained here using the wharf for storing lubricating oil and the wharf was eventually cleared in the 1980s.
146 Windmill House. A pub called the Windmill once stood in this area.
154-156 The Kingsbridge Arms. This was a riverside pub, built around 1800. In the 19th it was also called the Kings Head or the Kings Arms. A Whitbread’s house it closed in 2003 and was demolished soon after
180 Cyclops wharf (See Powis Road, above)
188 Brown, Lenox & Company's Works (See Homer Drive, above)
188 Vanguard Business Centre. Vanguard, founded in 1964, provide storage place for personal effects. They are proud of the sites connection with Brown Lenox and have a life sized picture of Brunel there which you invited to admire with a cup of coffee.
St. Cuthbert’s church. This was a mission church within the parish of Christ Church, built in 1897 on a site given by Lady Margaret Charteris. It was a very high church and maybe not popular locally. IT was designed by J. E. K. and J. P. Cutts An organ-gallery was added in 1900. It was more or less destroyed by a bomb in 1940. It was on the corner of Cahir Street
194 The Magnet & Dewdrop. This was there by 1878. It was renamed The Telegraph in 1985 when West Ferry Printers, up the road, began to print that newspaper. It closed in 1995 and was demolished in 2001
210 Ironmongers Arms. This was a music hall from around 1861. This closed in 1891, but the pub continued until 1921. The building was destroyed in the Blitz.
233 The Millwall Docks Tavern was pub opened in 1869 and was destroyed in the Blitz.
240 Vulcan. This pub dated from the 1870s, closed in 1994 and is now a Japanese restaurant.
242 The Venesta Factory was on Whittock Wharf
248-250 Robert Burns Pub. This was built in 1839 by Patrick Heyns, a Limehouse cooper. It was extended in 1853. It closed in 1991 and is now a mosque.
248 Islamic Community Centre. Medina Masjid, Dockland Madina Masjid. This is in the old Robert Burns Pub
260 decorative anchor and a mural. The ground here was cleared as part of the redevelopment of the site to allow the Plate House to be seen. (See Burrell’s Wharf above)
262 The Gatehouse. Blue plaque which says “The S.S. Great Eastern. Launched 1858. The Largest Steamship of the 19th Century”. This was a warehouse and offices beside the entrance to what became Burrell’s wharf.
264-6 Counting House. Built in 1854 it has an original “Scott Russell & Co”. Stucco name panel. Together with the adjoining houses it was built by Robinsons and Russell in the early 1850s, as a house and offices. In the 1930s, it was converted to an electricity sub-station. Previously it had had a first floor board-room and office, the rest of the building being stores.
Millwall Yard was north of Westferry Road and occupied for many years by Westwoods. Their alterations included the erection of a machine shop in 1939. Part of the old Millwall Iron Works remained in use into the 1990s for steel stockholding and fabrication.
Klondyke Yard was north of Westferry Road and occupied for many years by Maconochies
269 The Space. This is an arts venue hosting music in what was St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. This was built in 1859 built, for the London Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in England by T. E. Knightley to serve the Scottish men who worked for Millwall shipbuilders in the 1850s. John Scott Russell, the Scottish builder of the Great Eastern and the son of a Presbyterian minister laid the foundation stone in 1859. It never attracted a big congregation and its use dwindled. It closed as a church in 1972. It was then used for industrial storage, a side windows was removed to form a doorway. Inside was a Lloyds British Crane with lifting services. It was saved and fitted out as a performance space-cum-film theatre in 1993-6 by Janet Callings and Bevis Claxton of Claxton d'Auvergne Callings. Its front is a miniature, polychrome interpretation of Pisa Cathedral. A big door is left over from a former use in a crane-maintenance shop. The vestry and classrooms are now a bar. It has an open timber roof with semicircular ribs of laminated timber which are bolted not glued. The windows have cast-iron tracery and Art Nouveau- inspired glass engraved with the building’s history – although the original glass was destroyed by bombing. There is now an outdoor café open every day.
Millwall Dock Club. This was next to St Paul’s. It was set up fir the workers at the Millwall Dock Company. A substantial club-house was built behind the houses in 1873. Demolished.
St Mildred's House. This was in the buildings of the Millwall Dock Club and used after the club's closure in connection with St Paul's Church. Part of the building was let in 1897 to Miss Hilda Barry as an institute for poor girls, known as St Mildred's House. They moved away in 1906. The building was demolished.
285 Clyde House. There was a business here by an engineer, iron and steel stockholder and supplier of nuts, bolts, screws, rivets
287 St Edmund. Roman Catholic Church built 1999-2000 by David Aitken, replacing a church of 1873-4. It is built in Yellow and red brick exterior with pitched roof. The altars are made from the marble altar of the old church and the Font, sculptures, and crucifixion from the same source. The Stations of the Cross are in the manner of Eric Gill, done in 1956 by Sister 'W.W. of Stanbrook Abbey.
287 St Edmund's Roman Catholic Church. This was designed by Francis W. Tasker and replaced a chapel in Moiety Road. From the start there was trouble with the foundations. To save money the only deep foundations were under the nave piers. The church suffered badly from damage, neglect and the loss of some of its art works and decoration. It has now been demolished and replaced.
288 Maconochie's Wharf. This was formerly Northumberland Works. (See Maconochie’s Road above)
290 Ship Pub. This was part of a terrace of houses called Ebenezer Terrace, which was demolished after the Second World War. The first two were rebuilt as The Ship
299 St Edmund's Roman Catholic Schools. There had been various classes for local Catholics in the area. In 1908–9 they were replaced by the present building. It is a three-decker by Robert L. Curtis. In 1928–9 a large ground-floor extension was added,
302 Nelson Wharf (see Pointers Close, above)
304 Langbourn Wharf. (See Pointers Close, above)
306 Clyde Wharf. (See Riverside, above)
308 Millwall Lead Works (see Millwall Lead Works above)
308 Millwall Pottery (see Millwall Pottery above)
333 Barnfield Works. This was a factory for the production of organic reds which transferred to a factory in Stratford.
367 The Glengall Arms. This was opened in the late 1830s, built by Henry Bradshaw, a local grazier who built up some of the surrounding area. The Pub was bought in 1925 by the London Diocesan Fund for use as a priest's lodging and clubhouse for St Cuthbert's Church. In 1932 it was demolished by the London County Council for public housing developments
397-411 Forge built in 1860, by William Henry Dorman, engineer, and John Hughes (resident ironmaster), for C J Mare and Company, engineers and shipbuilders. Incorporates a workshop of 1854, built for J Scott Russell and Company. It was used for the manufacture of iron and steel girders until c1951. This is the only surviving mid 19th century iron shipbuilders' forge in London, and possibly England, outside the Royal dockyards.
461 Millwall Fire Station, This was built in 1904–5, replacing an earlier station on the same site from 1877. The need for such a building was recognized by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1872 as residents and property owners drew attention to the inadequate fire-fighting provision and that there was a need for a station from which fire fighters could reach the docks without the risk of encountering raised bridges. The land here was duly leased and the station opened in 1877 with six firemen and a steam fire engine. In the mid-1890s it was realized that the building was too small. It was cheaper to rebuild than enlarge the building and the current station was erected. It was designed by the Fire Brigade Section of the LCC Architect's Department, erected by the Council's Works Department, and was completed in 1905. The main building is of four storeys, in red brick. A triangular steel hose-hoist tower was erected in the yard. The adoption of motorized appliances meant the stables were not needed and in 1925 they were converted into a mess room and offices.
Wheatsheaf Close
Named after McDougall’s Wheatsheaf Mill which was nearby
Whiteadder Way
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Sources
Banbury. Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
Blue Plaque Guide
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Carr. Dockland
Carr. Dockland History Survey
Clunn. The Face of London
Field. London Place Names
Gill, Report
GLIAS Newsletter
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Web site
London Docklands Heritage Trail
Marcan. London Docklands Guide
Nature Conservation in Tower Hamlets
Odyssey. Wikipedia Web site
Port of London Magazine
Stewart. Gas Works in the North Thames Area
Survey of Poplar.
Thames Basin Archaeology of industry Group. Report
Transactions. London Shipbuilding Conferences
Walford. Village London
Wilson. London’s Industrial Archaeology
As with other squares on the Isle of Dogs an embarrassingly large amount of material has been taken from the Survey of London volume on the area. Edith has ruthlessly summarised it – while very much appreciating it. Please, reader, go to the Survey itself for the detail and the high quality of its world class research.
Millwall
Riverside strip once home to major industrial sites, including some major shipyards - where Brunel's Great Eastern was built. Much other important industry - colour works, a major flour mill, cable works, iron and engine works. All now covered by 20th housing. The area also includes the southern section of the Millwall Dock.
This post covers only that parts of the square which are north of the river. The south bank is Deptford Riverside
Post to the north Millwall
Post to the west Thames Tributary Earl Sluice - Deptford
Post to the south Deptford Creek
Post to the east Cubitt Town and Highbridge and Ballast
Arden Crescent
17 Cedar Centre. Community centre. The road is part of Timber Wharves Village.
Ashdown Walk
Part of Timber Wharves Village. A housing project of 1987-92, built on the areas once used for the stacking of timber. It was built speculatively and acquired by the LDDC on the suggestion of Michael Portillo to rehouse those displaced by the building of the Limehouse Link. Ashdown Walk itself closes the main axis.
Blasker's Walk
Dr.Morris Blasker was a local GP and two local ladies campaigned to have the riverside walk named after him.
Burrell’s Wharf
Burrell & Company. They were oil refiners and manufacturers of paints, varnishes and colours, had been established in the Minories in 1852. They had a number of other factories. From the late 1880s until the early 1920s a succession of stores, warehouses, workshops and minor ancillary buildings were built here. Colour making was their main activity as a result of the unavailability of German-made aniline dyes during the Great War. During the Second World War, the works produced a variety of chemicals for the government. After the war distemper became an important product. When Burrell’s was wound up in 1981 Blythe Burrell Colours Ltd, a subsidiary of Johnson Matthey plc continued to make colours here until the closure of the works in 1986. Production of Burrell's range of classic pigments was continued by Ciba-Geigy.
Remains on site. One relic is the stump of Fairbairn's octagonal chimney. There was also Scott Russell's ‘Big shop’ Plate House built for Scott Russell by William Cubitt & Company on the site of William Fairbairn's fitting and turning shop of c1837. The tower had been used for water storage from at least the late 1920s, with a 24,000–gallon tank on the top floor. It is was thought to have been the place where the iron plates for the Great Eastern were prepared, but it is thought it was specially built, with overhead travelling cranes, for assembling the Great Eastern's 40-ft high paddle engines, the largest ever built. It is London's only surviving former marine engine works.
Kentish Homes' Burrell's Wharf Development. Kentish was controlled by Keith and Kay Preston. From refurbishing terrace houses they moved onto bigger schemes. Undeterred by the 1987 stock market crash Kentish pressed on with Burrell's Wharf. But sales at Burrell's Wharf ceased, and by July Kentish was in receivership along with their contractors. The development was relaunched by Halifax New Homes Services in 1992. It is designed by Jestico & Whiles. The two main buildings of the Venesta factory, the forge and foundry are converted into flats; there are also new buildings on the riverside and around the site. The Plate House is now converted to flats with ground-floor car park and swimming pool? The pyramidal roof and matching turret over the staircase have been restored as part of the refurbishment of the building. The remaining buildings have been adapted as residential units.
Britannia Road
Britannia Dry Dock. The dock site was bought in 1839 from Ferguson by David Napier and to William Tindall. Tindall built a wharf and dry dock in 1841. It was called Britannia Dock from 1863, when it was sold to the Rotherhithe shipbuilder William Walker. It closed in 1935. The site became a timber-yard, known as Britannia Wharf.
Cahir Street
Poplar Gas Light Co. Works. Opened in 1841. (The site of the works at this location was described by Stewart, the authority on North London gas works sites as being "near Cahir Street". On the 1869 Ordnance Survey sheet a "gasometer" is shown here to the rear of the Millwall Iron Works site. Survey of London however identifies the site as further north adjacent to Cassell’s tar making plant on the corner of Union Road. See Edith’s earlier Millwall posting)
Chapel House Estate.
Chapel. The name comes from a medieval chapel. A chapel in the marsh dedicated to St Mary is noted in 1380 n connection with a farm and settlement owned by a William Pomfret. A chapelry had been founded in Stratford-at-Bow in 1311. Repairs were carried out in 1415, and bequests were made to it until the mid-15th. On Lady Day 1449 the river burst through the wall opposite Deptford, and this may have signalled its end. The dry dock in the south east corner of Millwall Inner Dock is said to be on its site.
The estate dates from 1919-21, the first public housing in Poplar Borough as part of the government's post-war drive for 'Homes for Heroes'. This garden-suburb was laid out by Harley Heckford, with houses built by H.M. Office of Works to designs by their Chief Architect, Sir Frank Baines. It is said to have been built in a deal with Millwall Lead Works.
Claude Street
Area of poor quality housing bombed and later cleared by the Council. It was then used by transport and other industries
Gates – at the end of the road on a private estate called Odyssey, preventing access to the riverside. It is understood that the riverside path is also blocked by gates in both directions.
Clippers Quay
This was one of the first private estates to be built in the London Docklands in the early 1980s by Robert Martin Assocs. It is built around what was a dry dock off the main Millwall Inner Dock. There are two private access road and two private walkways.
Crews Street
Area of poor quality housing bombed and later cleared by the Council. It was then used by transport and other industries
Cutlers Square
Cutlers Wharf. This was set up by Samuel Cutler & Sons in 1873 replacing their former site to the north with the same name. He sire had previously been used by Ferguson and Todd to made marine-blocks and gun-carriages. Cutlers' products made marine boilers and machinery, but they specialised in gasholders and other plant for the gas industry. The sire was severely bombed in the Second World War. The works closed in the 1960s. It was redeveloped in the early 1990s as part of the Masthouse Terrace housing scheme
Deptford Ferry Road
Guelph Patent Cask Company Ltd. This was, known as the Canadian Cooperage. It was Burned out in 1900, and replaced by a warehouse, cask store and mill.
Dockers Tanner Road
The ‘Dockers Tanner’ relates to demands made in the 1889 Dock Strike over pay.
East Ferry Road
Mudchute Station. Opened in 1987 on the original line of the Docklands Light Railway between Crossharbour and Island Gardens Stations. It is on the line of the Millwall Extension railway. The elevated station was the last station before the then terminus at Island Gardens and was originally intended to be named Millwall Dock, but around the time the DLR was being constructed, Millwall had experienced some particularly nasty incidents with fans and so Mudchute – the name of the local City Farm – was substituted. In 1999 when the line was extended to Lewisham the station was rebuilt in a shallow cutting immediately before the tunnel entrance.
Lone tall Chimney. This is on the far side of the DLR tracks and it is a landmark here. It is relic of a refuse incinerator built here in 1952 by Heenan and Froude
Falcon Way
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Ferguson Close
Site of new housing named for Charles Ferguson who had a 19th block making factory here.
Harbinger Road
This was called British Street until 1929. It had been meadows and swamp until 1817. Housing in the street was later demolished by the London County Council or bombed flat before the present housing was built in the road
British School. This school was the first school on the Island. It was financed by private subscription, founded by local businessmen and built in 1846–7 on a site donated by the Countess of Glengall. It was designed by William Wallen, jnr, of Greenwich with two rectangular schoolrooms. In 1871, it was transferred to the School Board for London. It Closed 1873 and was used as the Millwall tabernacle and then for cookery classes. It was used for ordinary teaching in 1932 but was badly damaged in bombing. It later became a scrap yard.
Harbinger School. Built by the School Board for London in 1872. It is is a rare early Board School design by R. Phene Spiers, Master of Architecture at the Royal Academy schools as the result of a competition. It is a three-decker. The main front has a plaque in coloured tiles. The building followed Robson's principles in segregating girls, boys and infants and it operated on the Prussian system. The school was remodelled in 1906-8. After the abolition of the London School Board, the school was known as British Street Council School and from 1930 as Harbinger London County Council School. It is now known as Harbinger School.
Hesperus Crescent
Local authority housing - circle of cottages and cottage flats with tight cul- de-sacs opening from it designed in 1929-30 by Harley Heckford, Borough Engineer. Garden walls of ceramic waste and brick rubble.
Homer Drive
New housing completely gated off together with the river front.
Anchor Wharf. This was the site of Brown, Lenox & Company's Works. Samuel Brown began experimenting in the use of chain for the Navy in 1806 and later supplied of chain to the Admiralty. Initially the chain was made in Narrow Street, but Brown went into partnership with Samuel Lenox and built this works in 1812 opposite Deptford dockyard. In 1812 the Admiralty started to use wrought iron anchor chains instead of hemp anchor cables. Every chain had to be tested in 15 cable lengths. In 1816 Brown Lenox installed a hydraulic chain testing machine and anchors, buoys and water tanks were also made. In 1816, a second factory was opened in Pontypridd. By the 1930s they were producing pressed-steel sectional tanks, rivetted tanks, coal bunkers, hoppers, chimneys, gantries and a variety of buoys. By then the works had expanded and other local sites used. The Millwall works closed in the 1980s. Pontypridd closed in 2000.
Victoria Wharf. This was on the site of what is now (gated) Homer Drive. From 1888 -1921 Crosse & Blackwell, the preserved-provisions manufacturers were on the site previously used by Brown Lenox. It was later taken over y the occupiers of Cyclops Wharf and renamed Cyclops (Victoria) Wharf.
William Roberts's Fire-engine Works (Jupiter Iron Works). This was on the site of what is now (gated) Homer Drive. William Roberts set up a pump factory in the late 1850s as part of the Brown, Lenox works, and by the early 1860s was making fire-fighting appliances. In 1865–6 he built a works south of Brown Lennox. In 1877as Jupiter Iron Works, they were taken over by Samuel Cutler & Sons
Lambourne Place
More gates.
Maconochie’s Road
Northumberland Yard. This was laid out for shipbuilding as part of the Millwall Iron Works in the 1860s. The frigate Northumberland was built here in 1863. In 1878 the works was taken over by the same men as in Dudgeon & Company. This failed after a short time.
Northumberland Works was occupied by the electrical-engineering company Latimer Clark, Muirhead & Company Ltd, and their German associate Lorenz Ammunition & Ordnance Company Ltd, it closed in 1894.
Maconachie Brothers were here from 1896. They were wholesale provision merchants and manufacturers of pickles, potted meat, jam, etc. By 1920 they had redeveloped the site, building a pickle factory. After the Second World War, following bombing, the wharf was used for wool storage. It was redeveloped in the late 1980s by the Great Eastern Self-Build Housing Association
Riverside walk. In 1990 a public walkway was laid out at the riverside by the London Docklands Development Corporation.
Maconochie's Wharf. This was a self-build scheme for local people, initiated by Jill Palios and Dr Michael Barraclough, and included Dr Barraclough's own house. Many of the early self-builders, in the Great Eastern Self- Build Housing Association, were in the building trade so the construction is traditional. The first houses were of white calcium-silicate brick, the later ones built in 1987-90 of yellow brick. .
Masthouse Terrace
Drunken Dock (see Riverside)
Mast House. This was probably built by a Mr. Harris who may have adapted a previous building. It had three timber ranges and a slipway plus a mast maker’s residence and three cottages as well as smithies, and a sawpit. The active partners were Charles Ferguson, and Thomas Todd. It closed in 1861 and the Ironmongers' Company bought it at auction, enclosed the dock, and sold it to the new Millwall Iron Works.
Charles Ferguson & Co. Block factory. After the sale of the Mast House, Ferguson set up a block and gun-carriage which continued until about 1871. The works was subsequently occupied by Laing, Howlett & Company, gun-carriage makers, and from 1873 it was the Providence Iron Works of Samuel Cutler & Sons (see Cutler Square)
St. Andrews Wharf. The Mast House site later became known as St, Andrews Wharf (see St. Andrews Wharf)
Britannia Dry Dock. (See Britannia Road above)
Napier Yard. (See Napier Yard, below)
Britannia Yard. This small shipyard was south of the Napier Yard. It was occupied by Forrestt & Sons from the early 1880s. It included the former foundry, engine factory and smithies of the Millwall Iron Works (see Millwall Ironworks, below). From the late 1880s the yard was used by Edwards & Symes and was used for boat and barge-building until the 1930s. It was later used for experimental work by British Smokeless & Oil Fuels Ltd
Burrell's Wharf (see Burrell’s Wharf)
Masthouse Terrace. The site was developed from 1987. It was begun by Kentish Homes and completed by other developers after their bankruptcy in 1989. The architects were Jestico & Whiles. Housing association flats and houses by Alan J. Smith Partnership, 1990-2.
Millwall Dock
This square covers only the south quay of the Outer Dock.
McDougall’s flour mill. In 1871–2 five McDougall brothers leased land here. They built a fertiliser factory and compounds to sell to gas works to absorb ammonia. The discovery of a new type of baking powder had led Arthur McDougall into the manufacture of self raising flour in Manchester in 1865. The Millwall site was redeveloped for flour milling in 1887. In 1895 a mill and offices were built. The railway ran through the middle of the site. A fire in 1898 destroyed the mill and a new flour mill was built in 1899. H. Jameson Davis was the milling engineer and Robert E. Crosland the architect. It was a brick building around three sides of a yard and the mill proper, had 12 grain elevators, top-floor sifters for grading the flour, and second-floor purifiers with mahogany hoppers feeding 13 first-floor double-roller mills. An 82ft-tall tower housed wheat-cleaning machinery and a water tank. There were offices, stores, a 142hp steam engine, and a chimney. As Wheatsheaf Mills, this building became the centre of McDougall’s business. The fertilizer premises were sublet to J. Taylor & Sons in 1914 for the production of cattle food. Two ranges of 51ft-tall timber bin silos were also built. In 1934 a 100ft tall silo was added with a capacity of 8,000 tons and with massive reinforced-concrete columns. There were associated buildings including a pneumatic intake plant with a tower that travelled along a steel-framed quayside gantry over a conveyor. In 1935 the 19th were replaced with other buildings mainly in mass concrete. Rank Hovis McDougall closed the mill in 1982, and the buildings were demolished in 1984
Hooper’s Telegraph Works. William Hooper had been making patent rubber-core insulator for submarine telegraph cables in Mitcham since 1862. This was different to other cables with gutta-percha insulation. In 1870 He formed leased a plot on the south side of the docks and built a cable factory with cable tanks and storage space for jute. In 1872 he commissioned the Hooper, the first purpose-built cable-laying ship, which was then the largest vessel to have used the Thames, excepting the Great Eastern. Hooper made cables to link Portugal to Brazil and Hong Kong to Vladivostok but there were no new contracts, and the firm was wound up in 1877. Hooper’s son continued the business but in 1882 part of the factory was let to William Frederick Dennis & Company, cable and wire manufacturers and other areas were reverted to the dock company for other uses. The works were gutted by bombing in 1944. Some work continued after the Second Wrold War but the site was levelled in 1950–1, and used to park cars for export.
Dry dock. This is in the south-east corner of the Inner Dock and was the first dry dock in a London dock system. Earlier Thameside shipbuilders had prevented dry dock and ship repair works in the docks. Dry docks for ship-repair were central to early plans for the Millwall Docks and up to six were to have been built off the quays of the wet docks, but there was eventually just one. It is said to be on the site of the ancient Chapel of St. Mary. The dock was completed by 1867. Despite the promise made to Parliament, the graving dock was not 'public' and was let to shipbuilders and repairers, not to ship-owners. Initially it was let to C. J. Mare, of the Millwall Iron Works. J. Langham Reed & Co leased it later and others followed. In 1909, the PLA resolved to stop letting the dry dock and to lengthen it and this was done in 1911. The caisson was replaced in 1922 and to cope with larger vessels coming to the dock through the Millwall Passage, a 10-ton hydraulic capstan was fitted in 1930. Closure was proposed in 1966, as it was losing money and it was closed and flooded in 1968. The site and the 25-ton crane were used for a barge berth. The dry dock area was redeveloped as the Clippers Quay housing estate in 1984–8 (see Clippers Quay)
Millwall Iron Works
Millwall Iron Works. In 1836–7 the engineer William Fairbairn laid out an ironworks on a site, purchased from Charles Ferguson. His main works however remained in Manchester. At Millwall he exhibited in 1841 the first all iron building in England. He also built More than 100 ships here. The stump of his central chimney is preserved on Burrell’s Wharf development. In 1848 the premises were taken over by John Scott Russell and his partners. The best-known part of the business was shipbuilding, launching vessels full fitted out.
The Great Eastern. From 1854 until 1859 the Millwall Iron Works and Napier Yard were dominated by the construction and fitting-out of Brunel’s the Great Eastern. She was vastly bigger than any existing vessel. The ship had to be built broadside on to the Thames for a sideways launch which was technically difficult and financially ruinous. Building began on 1 May 1854, and she was launched on the afternoon of 3 November 1857. Great Eastern is said to have been a disaster but she was enormously important in the laying of the Atlantic cable which could not have been done at such an early date without her. In 1886 she was broken up in Liverpool. The main structure of the slipways at Millwall remain. They comprise a section of the concrete-and timber sub-structure, have been preserved on site for public display. The refurbishment work was carried out by Livingstone McIntosh Associates and Feilden & Mawson with guidance from the LDDC's Wapping and Isle of Dogs landscape team.
The Millwall Iron Works, From 1859 and Scott Russell's bankruptcy, the Millwall Iron Works was used by C. J. Mare & Company, and then its successor the Millwall Iron Works. In the 1860s this was the most ambitious industrial concern ever established in Millwall, employing between 4,000 and 5,000 men, who enjoyed half-day Saturday working, a canteen, sports clubs and works band. They not only built ships but made the iron from which they were built. The works were on either side of Westferry Road, linked by a horse-tramway. On the riverside were slips, wharves, sawmills, an engine factory, foundries, and a mast factory. On the land side was heavy plant for iron forgings and rolling mills. The scale of the armour-plate mill was vast – nought at scrap value it was eventually reinstalled at Thames Iron Works. The subscribers were all partners in Overend Gurney & Company. Within a few weeks the company was in liquidation and the Millwall Iron Works, Ship Building & Graving Docks Company Ltd was floated in its stead. The new company also purchased Britannia Dry Dock and Ferguson's Mast House and Mast Pond. Overend Gurney famously collapsed in May 1866 taking much of the national economy with it, and in 1871 the company was liquidated and the works broken up. Most of the site of Fairbairn's original works in 1888 became Burrell's Wharf
Beyond Klondyke Yard, the old Millwall Iron Works buildings were mostly occupied from 1912 to c 1919 by the BDP Syndicate Ltd as Florencia Works. Owned by William Petersen, a shipowner, the company carried out experimental metallurgical work. (fn. 56)
Millwall Lead Works
Millwall Lead Works, the Millwall Lead Works was set up by Pontifex & Wood in about 1843. They had been since 1788 in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street. The Millwall works embraced a wide range of metallurgical and chemical activities, including dye, colour, paint and varnish making, white lead, copper sulphate, citric, tartaric and sulphuric acids, and the smelting and refining of silver, copper and antimony. Eventually White lead, used in paint manufacture, became the principal product. Pontifex & Wood Ltd were wound up in 1888 and the business became Millwall Lead Company Ltd. The works was later taken over by Locke, Lancaster & W. W. Johnson & Sons Ltd. Other companies were also on the site at various times - the London Lead Smelting Company Ltd, Henry Grace & Company Ltd, white lead makers, and the Millwall Chemical Company Ltd, extracting distillates from sawdust. From the early 1890s until 1910 the Millwall Oil Company Ltd was on an area eventually known as Millwall Oil Wharf. By the 1950s Associated Lead Manufacturers were on the whole site. They made tinned lead-foil for lining tea-chests and casings for X-ray equipment. The area was built over with lead rolling and wire-drawing mills, a large department for the production of lead monoxide and others. The only remnant of the 19th works was the furnace chimney-shaft which is thought to have been the tallest ever erected on the Isle of Dogs. The disused lead works buildings ere demolished in 1986–7 Associated Lead's Paint Division was last on the site.
Millwall Pottery
308 Millwall Pottery. This was set up in 1852–3 by Thomas Wilcox, Edward Price Smith and Orlando Webb, earthenware manufacturers. The trading name changed over the years. And Millwall Pottery does not seem to have been adopted until the early 1870s. In 1881 Willcox set up the Millwall Pottery Ltd to take over the works. The premises were entered by a narrow path north of the Ferry House and they were old warehouses and cottages. They had previously been used by the Bastenne Gaujac Bitumen Company and wood pavement manufacturer. The pottery produced a range of general and sanitary earthenware and closed in the late 1880s. It was then occupied briefly by the J. R. Alsing Pulverizer & Mill Company Ltd, makers of cylinders for grinding.
Garrard - From the mid-1870s Frederick Garrard, 'decorator of earthenware' and architect, was there making wall tiles. John Lewis James and William James took over when he died, making encaustic tiles, insulators and decorative earthenware.
St. David's Wharf. Vidal. In 1892 the former Millwall Pottery was redeveloped as the copper-depositing works of the General Electric Power & Traction Co. This closed in 1897, and a wharf was added, after which they were occupied by Vidal Fixed Aniline Dyes Ltd and its successor, the Vidal Dyes Syndicate Ltd. This was owned by Raymond Vidal, a Parisian chemist and after years of litigation the wharf was closed. In 1905 the ship-propeller manufacturers, the Manganese Bronze & Brass Company Ltd, took over the premises, which were renamed St David's Wharf. In the late 1940s the works were vacated, and the premises were amalgamated with the Millwall Lead Works
Napier Avenue
Named for the nearby Napier Yard and Works
Napier Yard. David Napier, marine engineer, bought the site undeveloped in 1837, and laid it out as a shipyard for his sons. It contained a workshop and a Millwall House. The works remained until burnt down in 1853; It was then leased to John Scott Russell as the building site of the Great Eastern, and was later bought by the Millwall Iron Works (See Millwall Ironworks above).. By the 1880s it was partly leased to ship- and barge-builders
Westwood & Co. The site was as occupied from the mid1880s by Joseph Westwood & Company, manufacturers of constructional iron- and steelwork. Later their subsidiary Armitage & Crosland Ltd, made calendering machines, probably for the laundry trade and wallpaper-making in the 20th. Large steel-framed buildings were put up in the 1930s.
Hawksley's Patent Treads - this was the manufacture of safety treads for stairs and steps.
Pointers Road
Pointers is part of the Great Eastern self build scheme.
The Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company's Chemical Works. In 1824–7 the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company set up a chemical works on what would in future be Nelson Wharf. New buildings, designed by Francis Edwards were put up. High hopes were entertained of the profitable conversion of the tarry and ammoniacal by-products from gas manufacture into saleable chemicals. But the works were sold in 1829. The eventual purchaser was George Elliot, chemist and druggist
Nelson Wharf. The wharf lay on the riverside between the current sites of Pointers Road and Langbourne Place. This area was occupied in the mid-1840s by Ernest Jametel & Company, borax manufacturers, and thereafter by Sir William Burnett & Company
Langbourn Wharf. Works of Couper, McCarnie & Co., manufacturing chemist sal ammoniac. Later London Wire Netting co. and others.
Burnett‘s works. Burnett was a naval surgeon who from 1831 was head of the Medical Department of the Navy. In 1836 he devised an anti-rot and mothproofing treatment for timber, cordage, canvas and other cloths, using chloride of zinc. In 1838, to the scandal of the medical profession, he patented this invention and exploited commercially. 'Burnettizing' became a standard wood-preservative technique. The buildings at Nelson Wharf were brick and corrugated-iron sheds but in 1906and 1914 new sawmills were built. Occupants included Homan & Rodgers, girder manufacturers 1860s, Liepmann Carbon Company Ltd, in the 1870s. In the late 1970s Sir William Burnett & Company Ltd, to Cuffley.
Powis Road
This was south of Claude Street and was later called Cyclops Place. It was built to provide access to Millwall Pier
Cyclops Wharf. This was north of Powis Road. It lay between Winkley's Wharf and Victoria Wharf in 1863. Charles Powis of New Cross set up an engineering works making steam-engines, boilers, and machinery and plant for the building and engineering industries, including brick- and tile-making machines, mortar mills, cranes, hoists and pumps. In 1887 the works were used by John Good, a cordage manufacturer, who built a warehouse and a chimney. The premises were called the Pier Cordage Works. In 1898 Edward Le Bas & Co Tube Company moved in and renamed it Cyclops Wharf. From 1965 it was used by an asphalt business which left in 1987. The site is now housing - apartments and mews houses with river views and a leisure complex on the second and first floors of the nine storey main block
Millwall Pier Powis Road (later Cyclops Place) Millwall Pier. 1861 because of objections to West India Dock Pier the Thames Conservancy built one here and laid out Powis Road for access. It was closed and demolished in 1894. A new, longer Pier was erected here in 1905, for the London County Council's passenger-steamboat service. Fromm 1908 the pier was used by others but in 1913 it was taken down, and the pontoon moved to Greenwich Pier. Powis Road was reduced and in 1937 renamed Cyclops Place and closed in 1947.
Riverside
Winkley’s Wharf. In the early 18th there had been a windmill here along with a shipwright and barge builders. By 1850 there was a pub called the Windmill but the site was cleared following a fire in 1884. The site was later used by Fleming & Co, printing-ink makers and the Metal Smelting Works Co and others. This was called Glovers Wharf. The part of the site used by the barge builders became Weston’s cement and plaster works in the 1830s tit until the 1890s. In 1893 Mark Winkley, an oil wharfinger, took on both Weston's and Glover's Wharves, and called it Winkley's Wharf. It was used for storing oil. It was badly in the Second World War. It was a cleared site in the mid 1980s
Le Bas Wharf (see Powis Road above)
Cyclops Wharf. (See Powis Road above)
Millwall Pier Powis Road This was later called Cyclops Place. (See Powis Road above)
Anchor Wharf. Brown, Lenox & Company's Works. (See Homer Drive above)
Victoria Wharf. (See Homer Drive above)
William Roberts's Fire-engine Works (Jupiter Iron Works). (See Homer Drive above)
Willow Bridge Ferry. Shown on 19th maps, but with no indication as to where it goes.
Providence Iron Works (Cutler's Wharf). (See Cutler Square above)
Drunken Dock. This was the 16th name to an inlet. Until the 19th it was regarded as a public dock and used for timber storage. The Mast House needed it floating masts and spars, but when that closed it was filled in
Windmill. In the 18th the land was of marsh, with reed beds and osiers. A windmill was built in 1722, with a house and granaries. They were replaced in 1766 by a the buildings of the mast-works
Masthouse (see Masthouse above)
Ferguson's Wharf (see Masthouse above)
Rose Wharf (see Masthouse above)
St Andrew's Wharf (see Masthouse above)
Britannia Dry Dock. (See Masthouse above)
Cocoanut Stairs. Causeway alongside the desiccated coconut works.
Guelph Wharf (See Deptford Ferry Road, above)
Napier Yard (see Napier Road, above)
Britannia Yard (see Britannia Road above)
Millwall Iron Works. (See Millwall Iron Works above)
The Venesta Factory (see Venesta below)
Whittock Wharf (see Venesta below)
Burrell's Wharf (see Burrells above)
Nelson Wharf. (See Pointers Close above)
Clyde Wharf. (See Riverside, above)
Vidal Wharf/ St David's Wharf. In 1892 the former Millwall Pottery, which stood inland, was redeveloped and a wharf was added to the site. It was used by Vidal Fixed Aniline Dyes Ltd and its successor, the Vidal Dyes Syndicate Ltd. In due course they moved to the north of England. 1905 the ship-propeller manufacturers, the Manganese Bronze & Brass Company Ltd took over the premises, which they renamed St David's Wharf. New foundries and workshops were erected, covering most of the site. In the late` 1940s the works were vacated, and it became part of the Millwall Lead Works by Associated Lead Manufacturers
Locke's wharf (see Millwall Lead Works)
Maconochies Wharf (see Maconochies wharf above)
Spindrift Avenue
Docklands Medical Centre by Jefferson Sheard built 1990-2
St. Andrews Wharf
St. Andrews’ Wharf. The name of St. Andrews wharf was first used when, after the end of the Millwall Iron Works, the old Mast House site was occupied by N. J. & H. Fenner and it was used as ship-breaker and petroleum storage. The site of the Mast Pond itself became a pit for barrel storage. This is the area at the eastern end of Mast House Terrace, and Phoenix Court.
Ferguson's Wharf. This part of St Andrew's Wharf was taken by Mark Winkley & Co. who used it to store oils, wax, tallow, resin and tar. From 1895 it was occupied by the Vacuum Oil Company for storage and then by Chetwin & Newark, grease manufacturers. Later still by British Oil & Turpentine Corporation Ltd, oil blenders, who called it Speedwell Wharf. There was a major fire in 1935.
Rose Wharf. This was used by W. A. Rose & Co. who made paint, white lead, colour, varnish, grease, tar oil and tallow. Their six storey oil refinery was burnt down in 1896 but was replaced. In 1932 it was used by International Shipping & Transport Ltd. Goods stored were celluloid toys and Christmas crackers but by 1937 only waste paper. Later the occupier was the Thames Oil Wharf Company
St Andrew's Works. This site had been the coconut-desiccating works of G. Davis & Son. In the 1920s it was used by the occupiers of Ferguson's Wharf.
St Andrew's Wharf itself was bought in 1899 by Young & Marten Ltd, builders' merchants of Stratford. They used it to store building materials. In 1919 it was taken over by Thames Oil Wharf Co for petroleum storage. They also took over Rose Wharf but closed in 1968 following Government restrictions
Taeping Place
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Thermopylae Gate
Named after clippers on the Australian route
Undine Road
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Venesta Works
The Venesta Factory was on Whittock Wharf This was the southernmost part of Napier Yard. Venesta took it over in 1906 and installed buildings designed by John J. Robson. They made wood and metal cases, boxes and barrels. In 1935, the disused factory was renamed Eastern Wharf, and refurbished by new owners. In 1937 they changed the name to Whittock Wharf. After the Second World War the premises became part of Burrell's Wharf.
West Ferry Road
130 Lowe's Wharf. In the 1880s Cassell’s tar works was taken over by Charles Lowe & Co. Later in the late 1880s it was briefly Canning Town Glass Co. and the Thames Soda Manufacturing Co. Ltd, makers of washing soda. Their subsidiaries remained here using the wharf for storing lubricating oil and the wharf was eventually cleared in the 1980s.
146 Windmill House. A pub called the Windmill once stood in this area.
154-156 The Kingsbridge Arms. This was a riverside pub, built around 1800. In the 19th it was also called the Kings Head or the Kings Arms. A Whitbread’s house it closed in 2003 and was demolished soon after
180 Cyclops wharf (See Powis Road, above)
188 Brown, Lenox & Company's Works (See Homer Drive, above)
188 Vanguard Business Centre. Vanguard, founded in 1964, provide storage place for personal effects. They are proud of the sites connection with Brown Lenox and have a life sized picture of Brunel there which you invited to admire with a cup of coffee.
St. Cuthbert’s church. This was a mission church within the parish of Christ Church, built in 1897 on a site given by Lady Margaret Charteris. It was a very high church and maybe not popular locally. IT was designed by J. E. K. and J. P. Cutts An organ-gallery was added in 1900. It was more or less destroyed by a bomb in 1940. It was on the corner of Cahir Street
194 The Magnet & Dewdrop. This was there by 1878. It was renamed The Telegraph in 1985 when West Ferry Printers, up the road, began to print that newspaper. It closed in 1995 and was demolished in 2001
210 Ironmongers Arms. This was a music hall from around 1861. This closed in 1891, but the pub continued until 1921. The building was destroyed in the Blitz.
233 The Millwall Docks Tavern was pub opened in 1869 and was destroyed in the Blitz.
240 Vulcan. This pub dated from the 1870s, closed in 1994 and is now a Japanese restaurant.
242 The Venesta Factory was on Whittock Wharf
248-250 Robert Burns Pub. This was built in 1839 by Patrick Heyns, a Limehouse cooper. It was extended in 1853. It closed in 1991 and is now a mosque.
248 Islamic Community Centre. Medina Masjid, Dockland Madina Masjid. This is in the old Robert Burns Pub
260 decorative anchor and a mural. The ground here was cleared as part of the redevelopment of the site to allow the Plate House to be seen. (See Burrell’s Wharf above)
262 The Gatehouse. Blue plaque which says “The S.S. Great Eastern. Launched 1858. The Largest Steamship of the 19th Century”. This was a warehouse and offices beside the entrance to what became Burrell’s wharf.
264-6 Counting House. Built in 1854 it has an original “Scott Russell & Co”. Stucco name panel. Together with the adjoining houses it was built by Robinsons and Russell in the early 1850s, as a house and offices. In the 1930s, it was converted to an electricity sub-station. Previously it had had a first floor board-room and office, the rest of the building being stores.
Millwall Yard was north of Westferry Road and occupied for many years by Westwoods. Their alterations included the erection of a machine shop in 1939. Part of the old Millwall Iron Works remained in use into the 1990s for steel stockholding and fabrication.
Klondyke Yard was north of Westferry Road and occupied for many years by Maconochies
269 The Space. This is an arts venue hosting music in what was St. Paul's Presbyterian Church. This was built in 1859 built, for the London Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church in England by T. E. Knightley to serve the Scottish men who worked for Millwall shipbuilders in the 1850s. John Scott Russell, the Scottish builder of the Great Eastern and the son of a Presbyterian minister laid the foundation stone in 1859. It never attracted a big congregation and its use dwindled. It closed as a church in 1972. It was then used for industrial storage, a side windows was removed to form a doorway. Inside was a Lloyds British Crane with lifting services. It was saved and fitted out as a performance space-cum-film theatre in 1993-6 by Janet Callings and Bevis Claxton of Claxton d'Auvergne Callings. Its front is a miniature, polychrome interpretation of Pisa Cathedral. A big door is left over from a former use in a crane-maintenance shop. The vestry and classrooms are now a bar. It has an open timber roof with semicircular ribs of laminated timber which are bolted not glued. The windows have cast-iron tracery and Art Nouveau- inspired glass engraved with the building’s history – although the original glass was destroyed by bombing. There is now an outdoor café open every day.
Millwall Dock Club. This was next to St Paul’s. It was set up fir the workers at the Millwall Dock Company. A substantial club-house was built behind the houses in 1873. Demolished.
St Mildred's House. This was in the buildings of the Millwall Dock Club and used after the club's closure in connection with St Paul's Church. Part of the building was let in 1897 to Miss Hilda Barry as an institute for poor girls, known as St Mildred's House. They moved away in 1906. The building was demolished.
285 Clyde House. There was a business here by an engineer, iron and steel stockholder and supplier of nuts, bolts, screws, rivets
287 St Edmund. Roman Catholic Church built 1999-2000 by David Aitken, replacing a church of 1873-4. It is built in Yellow and red brick exterior with pitched roof. The altars are made from the marble altar of the old church and the Font, sculptures, and crucifixion from the same source. The Stations of the Cross are in the manner of Eric Gill, done in 1956 by Sister 'W.W. of Stanbrook Abbey.
287 St Edmund's Roman Catholic Church. This was designed by Francis W. Tasker and replaced a chapel in Moiety Road. From the start there was trouble with the foundations. To save money the only deep foundations were under the nave piers. The church suffered badly from damage, neglect and the loss of some of its art works and decoration. It has now been demolished and replaced.
288 Maconochie's Wharf. This was formerly Northumberland Works. (See Maconochie’s Road above)
290 Ship Pub. This was part of a terrace of houses called Ebenezer Terrace, which was demolished after the Second World War. The first two were rebuilt as The Ship
299 St Edmund's Roman Catholic Schools. There had been various classes for local Catholics in the area. In 1908–9 they were replaced by the present building. It is a three-decker by Robert L. Curtis. In 1928–9 a large ground-floor extension was added,
302 Nelson Wharf (see Pointers Close, above)
304 Langbourn Wharf. (See Pointers Close, above)
306 Clyde Wharf. (See Riverside, above)
308 Millwall Lead Works (see Millwall Lead Works above)
308 Millwall Pottery (see Millwall Pottery above)
333 Barnfield Works. This was a factory for the production of organic reds which transferred to a factory in Stratford.
367 The Glengall Arms. This was opened in the late 1830s, built by Henry Bradshaw, a local grazier who built up some of the surrounding area. The Pub was bought in 1925 by the London Diocesan Fund for use as a priest's lodging and clubhouse for St Cuthbert's Church. In 1932 it was demolished by the London County Council for public housing developments
397-411 Forge built in 1860, by William Henry Dorman, engineer, and John Hughes (resident ironmaster), for C J Mare and Company, engineers and shipbuilders. Incorporates a workshop of 1854, built for J Scott Russell and Company. It was used for the manufacture of iron and steel girders until c1951. This is the only surviving mid 19th century iron shipbuilders' forge in London, and possibly England, outside the Royal dockyards.
461 Millwall Fire Station, This was built in 1904–5, replacing an earlier station on the same site from 1877. The need for such a building was recognized by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade in 1872 as residents and property owners drew attention to the inadequate fire-fighting provision and that there was a need for a station from which fire fighters could reach the docks without the risk of encountering raised bridges. The land here was duly leased and the station opened in 1877 with six firemen and a steam fire engine. In the mid-1890s it was realized that the building was too small. It was cheaper to rebuild than enlarge the building and the current station was erected. It was designed by the Fire Brigade Section of the LCC Architect's Department, erected by the Council's Works Department, and was completed in 1905. The main building is of four storeys, in red brick. A triangular steel hose-hoist tower was erected in the yard. The adoption of motorized appliances meant the stables were not needed and in 1925 they were converted into a mess room and offices.
Wheatsheaf Close
Named after McDougall’s Wheatsheaf Mill which was nearby
Whiteadder Way
Private road on the Clippers Quay project
Sources
Banbury. Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
Blue Plaque Guide
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Carr. Dockland
Carr. Dockland History Survey
Clunn. The Face of London
Field. London Place Names
Gill, Report
GLIAS Newsletter
London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Web site
London Docklands Heritage Trail
Marcan. London Docklands Guide
Nature Conservation in Tower Hamlets
Odyssey. Wikipedia Web site
Port of London Magazine
Stewart. Gas Works in the North Thames Area
Survey of Poplar.
Thames Basin Archaeology of industry Group. Report
Transactions. London Shipbuilding Conferences
Walford. Village London
Wilson. London’s Industrial Archaeology
As with other squares on the Isle of Dogs an embarrassingly large amount of material has been taken from the Survey of London volume on the area. Edith has ruthlessly summarised it – while very much appreciating it. Please, reader, go to the Survey itself for the detail and the high quality of its world class research.
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