Riverside - east of the Tower and on the south bank. Charlton Angerstein
Riverside - east of the Tower and on the south bank. Charlton Angerstein
This posting covers only the south bank of the River. On the north bank is Silvertown
Post to the west Charlton Riverside
Post to the south North Charlton and East Greenwich
Post to the west Greenwich Marsh
Anchor and Hope Lane
This was also once known as Manor Way. It was a 'Man Way' or ‘Great Man Way. In the 16th it was as part of a marsh drainage scheme and later a causeway across the marshes. The current street name is derived from the public house.
Moore and Nettlefold. This firm made hand blown glass bottle here about 1901.
United Glass. This had been set up in 1913 as a consortium of bottle and glass manufacturers. Initially the company concentrated production at a newly built factory at Charlton which they had taken over from Moore and Nettlefold who were members of the group. They used sand from the Charlton sandpits but also from America and Redhill. By using American machinery they became the largest bottle making factory in Europe. They made all the milk bottles used in London and after the Second World War the advent of the National Health Service led to a vast increase in medicine bottles and related items. They lost production however with the introduction of plastic bottles and were closed down in 1966. The company still exists in Harlow. The Sainsbury’s depot is now on this part of the site. The site extended to the square to the south,
100 Walter Combes House. Currently in use as office by a bookmaker, this was originally Riverside House, built for Stone Manganese Marine whose propeller works is now based in Birkenhead. This building appears to have been offices and maybe dates from the 1960s. The area behind, now called Anchorage Point, seems to have been the site of their propeller factory. Josiah Stone established a foundry in Deptford in 1831, of which the non-ferrous works subsequently moved to Charlton in 1917 and became J. Stone and Co (Charlton) Ltd in 1951. Its Marine Department produced the propellers for the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Yacht Britannia, among others, and 22,000 propellers for the Navy during the Second World War. It also made variable pitch propellers and water-tight doors including for the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Yacht Britannia. Stone foundries still operates at Charlton but mainly for the aircraft industry and much of the original site is now in other use
Sainsbury's Depot. This depot, on the site of the United Glass works, has recently been rebuilt. It services 200 local convenience stores. The original centre dated from the 1960s and was built in concrete. The new building is the first single skin chill building commissioned by Sainsbury’s with ambient, chill and freezer units, a goods in and despatch office, and main office. There are 67 docks, five level access doors, lorry parking for 142 vehicles and a 200 space car park. There are a range of energy saving technologies, including solar panels for heating water and a rain water harvesting system. The centre achieved an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating.
Horn Link Way
This is actually the ancient Horn Lane, an access road to the river from East Greenwich.
Traveller site. With 10 mobile homes.
Lombard Wall
This is the historic parish boundary of Greenwich and Charlton which lies on an embankment or causeway built as a Manor Way and as a flood barrier. It has been known by that name since 1555 and built by landowner and historian William Lambarde.
Pear Tree Way
This is a new road built as part of the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula for the Millennium Exhibition held in 2000.
Greenwich Millennium Village. Flats on the east side of the road are being built in 2015. Originally designated as an area for workplace units there was a challenge to the planning application. Flats are seen as a better screen for the aggregate works behind.
Riverside
Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park. This is made up of four acres of freshwater habitat and was set up in 2002 having been built as part of the Millennium Village following the Millennium Exhibition. It has two lakes surrounded by marshland that with a small woodland area worth two bird hides. The water supply is derived from pump houses another parts of the peninsula. It is managed by BCTV.
Norton’s Barge builders and repair yard. This was on the foreshore west of the Yacht Club. There were three Nortons – ‘R.Norton, Snr’ – ‘Norton Bros.’ and ‘Norton Jnr’. They used barge blocks running parallel to the bank and two sheds on the other side, one for storing tools, nuts, bolts, paint, etc. In 1908 they rebuilt the wrecked Empress as Scudo and then built Scout, Scud and Serb from new. Scud was a 64-ton vessel, which worked for seventy-three years until she was broken up, Serb, bigger at 75 tons had a shorter life of only thirty-eight years before she was sunk off the North Foreland in 1954. They closed in the 1960s and their sheds were taken over by Greenwich Yacht Club,
Peartree Wharf. Latterly this was used by Palmer barge repairers
Greenwich Yacht club. The club dates from 1908 and originally met in west Greenwich. They then moved to some of Norton’s old huts in this area and then to the Redpath Brown Canteen. When that was to be demolished for the Millennium Exhibiton (too untidy!) English Partnerships built their current new building on Peartree wharf.
Angerstein Wharf. This handles marine aggregates and there is a cement plant. The wharf was named after John Julius Angerstein who built the associated railway. From the 1850s it was worked by the South Eastern Railway and its successors. The tonnage handled at the wharf has varied, peaking in 1914. After the Second World War they handled fullers earth from Redhill, and imports included waste paper, timber, flour and packed manure. During the 1970s the Angerstein Wharf site was used as a railhead to receive large stone boulders from Caldon Low for the Thames Barrier. Until 1987 Thames Metal Company operated a scrap yard here and it was later taken over by Day Aggregates. Since 1990 the site has been used for loading and unloading of sea-dredged aggregates. The current operator is Aggregate Industries.
Angerstein railway. This was built as a private goods line by John Julius Angerstein as a mile long railway line from a junction at Charlton. Built on private land, it did not need an enabling act. The branch was leased to the South Eastern Railway and they later they bought it outright. Branch lines ran to many industries in the area.
Murphy’s Wharf. This is an aggregates terminal with a mixed concrete crusher, and a glass recycling facility,
Christie. This company moved here in 1912 as William Christie Sand Gravel.Co., Ltd,. They were sleeper importers and creosoters and they built a large creosoting works and sawmills. They built what was described in the 1920s as one of the finest ferro-concrete piers of its type on the Thames. The wharf handled over 30,000 tons of sleepers and 30,000 tons of timber, deals and telegraph poles” using steam travelling cranes.
Cunis Wharf. Cunis were dredger, tug and barge owners.
Cory. Wlliam Cory had a coal business from 1838. Off Charlton they moored Atlas, a disused salvage vessel, used as a floating coal berth and known locally as 'The Derrick'. A second Derrick was built in 1865 as did another Atlas. In 1893 Atlas III was built in Newcastle and remained in use until 1902. The barge works here was set up in 1873. Cory Environmental operate their lighterage business from here. There are two dry docks servicing their tug fleet which is made up of six vessels regularly engaged in the transportation of waste. They include twin screw tug Regain, the first lighterage tug to be built for use on the Thames in 30 years.
Durham Wharf. This was Alfred Manchester's building works site in 1896. He originally had a donkey business but moved on to haulage. The side had previously been the Lee District Board of Works depot. Manchester's steam wagons were ex-ammunition lorries and they transported tar for South Metropolitan Gas Co, In the 1940s there were new storage tanks for bulk liquids but they could not compete as companies got their own fleets of lorries and they went into liquidation in 1981.
Charlton Wharf. Site used by Flower and Everett, dredging contractors and mud shoot specialists. They were also at Angerstein Wharf.
Anchor and Hope. The pub probably dates from as early as the 16th.. It was owned by the Lord of the Manor and in 1874 leased by Red Lion Brewery, St. John Street. It was rebuilt in 1889 for local workers. It has its own jetty and causeway. In 1938 it became a Charrington’s house. It is a basic riverside pub with a food view of the Thames Barrier snd really nice food.
Ayles Ropewalk. This was a ropewalk and tar kettleshop opened in 1850 and closed in 1908. It ran parallel to the riverside walk in an area now covered by the Sainsbury depot.
Anchor and Hope Stairs.
Castle Ship breakers. One of this firms works was sited here in the 1860s as an Admiralty approved ship breaking yard. It was at the end of the road on the foreshore. Henry Castle and Sons were a ship-breaking company which had begun in 1838 in Rotherhithe, and moved to Millbank and later tto Charlton. Small sheds were built here in 1875 to be replaced with Hennebique-system reinforced-concrete structures in 1912–14. However, except for cranes, the wharf was kept open for the laying out of old timbers, including ornamental figureheads which decorated the gateway at Millbank. Many famous old warships were broken here. The site was said to have one of the largest stocks of timber on the river and teak was supplied to the Arsenal. It was also used to make garden furniture including for the grounds of Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Other timbers were sawn up and sold as logs for fuel. It is said the timber for the Liberty Store in Regent Street came from here. Copper was also salvaged. The last ship demolished was old Arethusa. The works closed in the mid 1930s. Recent archaeological investigation on the site has identified many timbers here – piles of which still lie around the area.
Vaisey’s Wharf. Now the site of houses built out into the river. Thought to have timbers from broken battleships in the foundations
West Parkside
Road built as part of the Millennium Exhibition infrastructure in 2000
Meadows nursery. Temporary horticultural scheme on land eventually to be developed with housing
Southern Park. Part of the Greenwich Millennium Village amenities.
Sources
Archaeology Data Service. Web site
Bygone Kent
Carr, Dockland,
Goldsmiths. South East London Industrial Archaeology
Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarians journal
Greenwich Chamber of Commerce Journal
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Festival brochure
Port of London magazine
Smith. History of Charlton
Docklands History Survey
Southern Railway Magazine
Spurgeon. Discover Greenwich and Charlton
This posting covers only the south bank of the River. On the north bank is Silvertown
Post to the west Charlton Riverside
Post to the south North Charlton and East Greenwich
Post to the west Greenwich Marsh
Anchor and Hope Lane
This was also once known as Manor Way. It was a 'Man Way' or ‘Great Man Way. In the 16th it was as part of a marsh drainage scheme and later a causeway across the marshes. The current street name is derived from the public house.
Moore and Nettlefold. This firm made hand blown glass bottle here about 1901.
United Glass. This had been set up in 1913 as a consortium of bottle and glass manufacturers. Initially the company concentrated production at a newly built factory at Charlton which they had taken over from Moore and Nettlefold who were members of the group. They used sand from the Charlton sandpits but also from America and Redhill. By using American machinery they became the largest bottle making factory in Europe. They made all the milk bottles used in London and after the Second World War the advent of the National Health Service led to a vast increase in medicine bottles and related items. They lost production however with the introduction of plastic bottles and were closed down in 1966. The company still exists in Harlow. The Sainsbury’s depot is now on this part of the site. The site extended to the square to the south,
100 Walter Combes House. Currently in use as office by a bookmaker, this was originally Riverside House, built for Stone Manganese Marine whose propeller works is now based in Birkenhead. This building appears to have been offices and maybe dates from the 1960s. The area behind, now called Anchorage Point, seems to have been the site of their propeller factory. Josiah Stone established a foundry in Deptford in 1831, of which the non-ferrous works subsequently moved to Charlton in 1917 and became J. Stone and Co (Charlton) Ltd in 1951. Its Marine Department produced the propellers for the Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth and Royal Yacht Britannia, among others, and 22,000 propellers for the Navy during the Second World War. It also made variable pitch propellers and water-tight doors including for the Queen Elizabeth and Royal Yacht Britannia. Stone foundries still operates at Charlton but mainly for the aircraft industry and much of the original site is now in other use
Sainsbury's Depot. This depot, on the site of the United Glass works, has recently been rebuilt. It services 200 local convenience stores. The original centre dated from the 1960s and was built in concrete. The new building is the first single skin chill building commissioned by Sainsbury’s with ambient, chill and freezer units, a goods in and despatch office, and main office. There are 67 docks, five level access doors, lorry parking for 142 vehicles and a 200 space car park. There are a range of energy saving technologies, including solar panels for heating water and a rain water harvesting system. The centre achieved an ‘Excellent’ BREEAM rating.
Horn Link Way
This is actually the ancient Horn Lane, an access road to the river from East Greenwich.
Traveller site. With 10 mobile homes.
Lombard Wall
This is the historic parish boundary of Greenwich and Charlton which lies on an embankment or causeway built as a Manor Way and as a flood barrier. It has been known by that name since 1555 and built by landowner and historian William Lambarde.
Pear Tree Way
This is a new road built as part of the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula for the Millennium Exhibition held in 2000.
Greenwich Millennium Village. Flats on the east side of the road are being built in 2015. Originally designated as an area for workplace units there was a challenge to the planning application. Flats are seen as a better screen for the aggregate works behind.
Riverside
Greenwich Peninsula Ecology Park. This is made up of four acres of freshwater habitat and was set up in 2002 having been built as part of the Millennium Village following the Millennium Exhibition. It has two lakes surrounded by marshland that with a small woodland area worth two bird hides. The water supply is derived from pump houses another parts of the peninsula. It is managed by BCTV.
Norton’s Barge builders and repair yard. This was on the foreshore west of the Yacht Club. There were three Nortons – ‘R.Norton, Snr’ – ‘Norton Bros.’ and ‘Norton Jnr’. They used barge blocks running parallel to the bank and two sheds on the other side, one for storing tools, nuts, bolts, paint, etc. In 1908 they rebuilt the wrecked Empress as Scudo and then built Scout, Scud and Serb from new. Scud was a 64-ton vessel, which worked for seventy-three years until she was broken up, Serb, bigger at 75 tons had a shorter life of only thirty-eight years before she was sunk off the North Foreland in 1954. They closed in the 1960s and their sheds were taken over by Greenwich Yacht Club,
Peartree Wharf. Latterly this was used by Palmer barge repairers
Greenwich Yacht club. The club dates from 1908 and originally met in west Greenwich. They then moved to some of Norton’s old huts in this area and then to the Redpath Brown Canteen. When that was to be demolished for the Millennium Exhibiton (too untidy!) English Partnerships built their current new building on Peartree wharf.
Angerstein Wharf. This handles marine aggregates and there is a cement plant. The wharf was named after John Julius Angerstein who built the associated railway. From the 1850s it was worked by the South Eastern Railway and its successors. The tonnage handled at the wharf has varied, peaking in 1914. After the Second World War they handled fullers earth from Redhill, and imports included waste paper, timber, flour and packed manure. During the 1970s the Angerstein Wharf site was used as a railhead to receive large stone boulders from Caldon Low for the Thames Barrier. Until 1987 Thames Metal Company operated a scrap yard here and it was later taken over by Day Aggregates. Since 1990 the site has been used for loading and unloading of sea-dredged aggregates. The current operator is Aggregate Industries.
Angerstein railway. This was built as a private goods line by John Julius Angerstein as a mile long railway line from a junction at Charlton. Built on private land, it did not need an enabling act. The branch was leased to the South Eastern Railway and they later they bought it outright. Branch lines ran to many industries in the area.
Murphy’s Wharf. This is an aggregates terminal with a mixed concrete crusher, and a glass recycling facility,
Christie. This company moved here in 1912 as William Christie Sand Gravel.Co., Ltd,. They were sleeper importers and creosoters and they built a large creosoting works and sawmills. They built what was described in the 1920s as one of the finest ferro-concrete piers of its type on the Thames. The wharf handled over 30,000 tons of sleepers and 30,000 tons of timber, deals and telegraph poles” using steam travelling cranes.
Cunis Wharf. Cunis were dredger, tug and barge owners.
Cory. Wlliam Cory had a coal business from 1838. Off Charlton they moored Atlas, a disused salvage vessel, used as a floating coal berth and known locally as 'The Derrick'. A second Derrick was built in 1865 as did another Atlas. In 1893 Atlas III was built in Newcastle and remained in use until 1902. The barge works here was set up in 1873. Cory Environmental operate their lighterage business from here. There are two dry docks servicing their tug fleet which is made up of six vessels regularly engaged in the transportation of waste. They include twin screw tug Regain, the first lighterage tug to be built for use on the Thames in 30 years.
Durham Wharf. This was Alfred Manchester's building works site in 1896. He originally had a donkey business but moved on to haulage. The side had previously been the Lee District Board of Works depot. Manchester's steam wagons were ex-ammunition lorries and they transported tar for South Metropolitan Gas Co, In the 1940s there were new storage tanks for bulk liquids but they could not compete as companies got their own fleets of lorries and they went into liquidation in 1981.
Charlton Wharf. Site used by Flower and Everett, dredging contractors and mud shoot specialists. They were also at Angerstein Wharf.
Anchor and Hope. The pub probably dates from as early as the 16th.. It was owned by the Lord of the Manor and in 1874 leased by Red Lion Brewery, St. John Street. It was rebuilt in 1889 for local workers. It has its own jetty and causeway. In 1938 it became a Charrington’s house. It is a basic riverside pub with a food view of the Thames Barrier snd really nice food.
Ayles Ropewalk. This was a ropewalk and tar kettleshop opened in 1850 and closed in 1908. It ran parallel to the riverside walk in an area now covered by the Sainsbury depot.
Anchor and Hope Stairs.
Castle Ship breakers. One of this firms works was sited here in the 1860s as an Admiralty approved ship breaking yard. It was at the end of the road on the foreshore. Henry Castle and Sons were a ship-breaking company which had begun in 1838 in Rotherhithe, and moved to Millbank and later tto Charlton. Small sheds were built here in 1875 to be replaced with Hennebique-system reinforced-concrete structures in 1912–14. However, except for cranes, the wharf was kept open for the laying out of old timbers, including ornamental figureheads which decorated the gateway at Millbank. Many famous old warships were broken here. The site was said to have one of the largest stocks of timber on the river and teak was supplied to the Arsenal. It was also used to make garden furniture including for the grounds of Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Other timbers were sawn up and sold as logs for fuel. It is said the timber for the Liberty Store in Regent Street came from here. Copper was also salvaged. The last ship demolished was old Arethusa. The works closed in the mid 1930s. Recent archaeological investigation on the site has identified many timbers here – piles of which still lie around the area.
Vaisey’s Wharf. Now the site of houses built out into the river. Thought to have timbers from broken battleships in the foundations
West Parkside
Road built as part of the Millennium Exhibition infrastructure in 2000
Meadows nursery. Temporary horticultural scheme on land eventually to be developed with housing
Southern Park. Part of the Greenwich Millennium Village amenities.
Sources
Archaeology Data Service. Web site
Bygone Kent
Carr, Dockland,
Goldsmiths. South East London Industrial Archaeology
Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarians journal
Greenwich Chamber of Commerce Journal
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich Festival brochure
Port of London magazine
Smith. History of Charlton
Docklands History Survey
Southern Railway Magazine
Spurgeon. Discover Greenwich and Charlton
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