Royal Albert
Post to the south North Woolwich
Post to the east Cyprus and Gallions
Post to the west Silvertown
Albert Road
199 Kennard Street Community Centre and Health Centre. The health centre was added in 1990 and both redeveloped in 1996
74 Royal Albert. This pub closed in 2002 and became a private house. It dated from 1867 and was a Watney’s house.
76 North Woolwich Health Centre. Built in 1981 and designed by Aldington Craig & Collinge
Silvertown Methodist Chapel. 1871-1960
78 North Woolwich Learning Zone. Adult education centre which is a branch of Newham College of Education.
60 Sweetingham’s Cinema opened in 1912. It was later known as the Silvertown Picture Palace, and finally the Albert Cinema. It closed in 1938 and was later demolished.
39 Silvertown Constitutional Club. This was founded in 1892 and used by the local Conservative Party,
Bridge across the railway to Factory Road. This was a cast and wrought iron bridge made by Handyside and Co. There was a trellis and wooden stairs. It has now been replaced by a concrete structure.
Tram wire posts. These were still in use in the 1970s, adapted as lamp posts. They have now gone.
Beckton Railway, Gallions Branch
Beckton Railway, When the Royal Albert Dock was built, the London & St. Katharine Dock company built this railway in 1880 for passengers and parcels from the North Woolwich line to Gallions Reach, passing along the northern side of the Albert Dock. At first it was a single line between Albert Dock Junction to Central but this was later doubled and also there was them a double track to Gallions. They had second hand trains running every half hour. Central Station was converted into a halt from the 1st November 1933. In 1940 the line was bombed and was repaired for the storage of wagons but the passenger service was never reinstated. It was abandoned under the Port of London Act 1950 but was used for wagon storage at least until the mid 1960's. The Docklands Light Railway Beckton Extension closely follows the route.
Central (Royal Albert Dock) Station or Royal Albert Dock Central. This dated from 1880 and was built by the London and St.Katharine’s Dock Company. It could only be reached by a footpath from Savage Gardens along the west side of Beckton Park as it was midway along the dock with no road access. There was a mock Tudor upside building on the up side of the line was built in a mock Tudor and a wooden footbridge spanned the platforms to the east of the station building. It was closed in 1940 by which time it was owned by the Port of London Authority. The site today is immediately south of the DLR's Beckton Park Station beneath a roundabout on Royal Albert Way. There was a signal box east of the down platform
Camel Road
ASTA Community Hub. They have groups for children, young people, adults and the elderly ranging from sports to computer training.
Connaught Road
Tate Institute. This was built as a social centre for Tate workers with amenities such as a reading room and hot baths in 1887. It was sold to West Ham Council in 1933. Silvertown Library was on the top floor from 1938 to 1961 and then leased back by Tate and Lyle for a social centre. It is currently being converted into workshops and an art gallery.
Silvertown station. This opened in 1863 having been built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway becoming part of the North London Line in 1979. In 1885 the station was rebuilt with a new, gas lit, booking office and a foot bridge. The station was entered through a tunnel under the signal box. The station was again rebuilt in the late 1970s and in 1985 the line was electrified – all gas lit until the 1970s. In 1987 the name changed to ‘Silverton and London City Airport’. In 2006 the station closed with the line. It had previously been closed for a year in the 1990s while the Jubilee Line was built.
Crossrail
This current project has been renamed Elizabeth Line and is planned to open in 2018. This section is being built on the line of the old North Woolwich Railway which here ran eastwards from Silvertown Station between Factory and Royal Albert Roads. This is a major scheme which will bring main line trains from the Midlands through central London and on into Kent and Essex. There are no stations on this stretch.
Dockside Road
Royal Albert Station. This is on the Docklands Light Railway’s elevated section of the Beckton branch- although the line dips slightly before reaching the station. It lies between Prince Regent and Beckton Park stations and was opened in 1994. It has two side platforms.
Polo Group Sculpture by Huang Jian which was unveiled in 2012an shows two modern British polo players playing against Emperor Ming Huang and Lady Yang. A plaque reads: China is the birthplace of ancient polo which was popular among royal families during the Tang Dynasty. The U.K. gave birth to modern polo, which became an Olympic sport in 1908 and popular all over the world. In 2008, famous Chinese sculptress Huang Jian created for the Beijing Olympic Games “Emperor Ming of Tang and His Concubine Yang Yuhuan Playing Polo”, the only permanent large sculpture in the Beijing Olympic Park. Four years later, Huang created the sculpture of “2012 London Polo”, in which Chinese lovers of ancient polo and British lovers of modern polo travel through time and space to gather in the London Olympic Park for a friendly polo match. 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.K. and is also the year for the London Olympic Games. The sculpture symbolises the friendship and cultural exchange between the two countries.
1016 Travelodge
London Regatta Centre. This is a rowing and dragon boat racing centre. It is owned by the Royal Albert Dock Trust, and is home to London Youth Rowing, London Otters Rowing Club, University of East London Boat Club, Raging Dragons Dragon Boat Club, Thames Dragons, Wave Walkers Windy Pandas DBC and Typhoon Dragon Boat Club. It was opened in 2000 and was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects. It has a 2,000 metre course, with seven lanes plus a return lane. There is also a rowing tank and a boathouse.
Windy Pandas. This Dragon Boat Club was formed in 2008 as a charity crew,
Wave Walkers. London's first cancer survivors dragon boat team
Raging Dragons. This was formed in 2002 as a charity crew called Chinese Professionals, and later Dragonflies. In 2006 it was associated with Thames Dragons and their name changed to Thames Raging Dragons but in 2009 this arrangement ended when they were sponsored by Sun Lik beer. In 2010 they were the highest placed team in London.
Thames Dragon Boat Club, This was established in 1993 and has competitive, mixed, ladies and open crews
Building 1000. Dockside offices built 2004 and includes London Borough of Newham Social Services
1000 Cold Store Compressor House. This was built in 1914 as a refrigeration plant to service surrounding warehouses storing beef shipments from Argentina. Following restoration work it has been used as offices and more recently as exhibition space. As a compressor house it had a large water tank on the roof.
Docklands Light Railway
There are two Docklands Light Railway Lines in this square
Beckton Extension, This section of the line follows very closely the route of the old Gallions branch, but is carried on a new trackbed, and nothing of the earlier alignment can be seen. It opened in 1994 and is the longest of the railway's extensions. It runs for a little over five miles from Poplar through the Royal Docks area to a terminus at Beckton.
London City Airport Extension. This extension to the Docklands Light Railway opened in 2005. It leaves the existing DLR south of Canning Town station and runs on the south side of Silvertown Way and North Woolwich Road with a station for the airport in Hartmann Road. It was later extended to Woolwich in 2009.
Factory Road
S.W. Silver & Company were 18th Colonial and Army agents and outfitters based in the City, He is said to have set up a factory to make waterproof clothing, on a site which has never been identified in Greenwich. Later this was expanded to include insulated wires and cables. In 1852 a factory was set up in the area subsequently named Silvertown. In 1860 they acquired the patents of Charles Hancock, formerly of the West Ham Gutta Percha Co. As the result of this Silver set up the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.
The India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company was set up in 1864 and made a cable for the Submarine Telegraph Co, for Dover to Cap Gris Nez in the following year. Subsequently they made many more international cables and were partners in companies set up to manage them and promote them. They also owned specialist cable ships to lay them. They also continued to make rubber goods and item related to telegraphy and eventually withdrew from submarine cable work during the Great War. The company also supplied electric generating plant to towns and cities in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. In the 1890s they began producing bicycle tyres and later car tyres. They also had a factory in France and one in Burton on Trent. In 1933 they were taken over by the B.F. Goodrich Company of Ohio and in the 1950s this became BTR Industries Ltd. The Silvertown Works site was sold in the 1960s and was redeveloped as the Thameside Industrial Estate.
Albert Works. An iron works on a site adjacent to the Silvertown Works in the 1860s and 1870s and owned by Campbell Johnstone & Co. engineers and shipbuilders.. The company closed in 1876
Fernhill Street
22 Eastern Electric Laundry. This was an industrial laundry which closed in 1985.
Fernhill Street Baths and washhouse. There was also a clinic here run by the London County Council in the 1940s and 1950s. These baths may be the slipper baths built by the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1926, although the site appears to be in East Ham – then a County Borough in Essex and not eligible for London County Council services. The site does not appear to be large enough for a swimming pool. There is now housing on the site built in 1962 by the London County Council, which, presumably, replaced this washhouse.
242 Newham Catering and Cleaning Services. London Borough of Newham
George V Dock.
This square covers the west end of the dock only.
George V dock was begun in 1912 by the Port of London Authority, the King George V and is the last of the upstream enclosed docks to be built. Construction was completed in 1921. It could handle liners as large as RMS Mauretania. A unique feature was a line of dolphins – wooden posts – which lay along the south side and which were connected to the south quay by wooden bridges. These allowed lighters to pass on the quayside of moored vessels. It had three miles of quays with concrete-frame sheds, electric cranes and platform trucks and there were 5 railway lines available to the 14 warehouses. George V closed as a commercial dock in the 1980s but it was not decommissioned and is available for use with facilities for cranes, electrical power and water, quayside working areas, storage, security, and refuelling.
George V Dry Dock. This was the largest dry dock in London and opened in 1921. This is now the site of London City Airport
Pump House for the dry dock – this was north east of the dry dock itself and had two sets of electric motors driving pumps. It was flooded in 1979
Watersports Centre. King George V dock is reserved for power water sports.
Hartman Road
Hartman Road appears to have originally been an internal dock road running along the south side of the George V dock. It was accessed via a gate off the, since demolished, Silvertown viaduct. It now serves various airport facilities buildings and a vast car parking area.
London City Airport Station. This is on the Docklands Light Railway and opened in 2005. It lies between Pontoon Dock and George V stations and was originally built on what was called the King George V branch but is now the Woolwich Extension – since it now crosses the river to Woolwich. The station is elevated and fully enclosed and it has a direct covered connection with the adjacent airport terminal building. There is also, unusually for the DLR, a fully enclosed waiting room on the platform and a manned ticket office.
Kennard Street
Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society shop. This was their only shop north of the river and opened in 1905. It closed in the late 1970s.
St. Mary and St. Edward Roman Catholic junior mixed and infants school. This was originally in a site off Newland Street but this site was acquired by the Port of London authority in 1915 for King George V Dock. The school moved to Kennard Street and a new building was completed in 1917. The school is not there now and there is housing on the site
St Mary and St Edward Church. This Catholic Church is now sited on the corner of Grenadier Street and Albert Road (in the square to the south
London City Airport
London City Airport is an international airport in London which was developed by Mowlem in 1986–87 and is currently owned by a consortium of overseas investors. It is sited in the south west corner of the King George V dock with the terminal building, constructed by Seifert, above the two large dry docks – which apparently remain beneath and used for parking. It has a single runway sited on what was known as the Peninsular Road which ran between the George V and Royal Albert Docks and then housing transit sheds. The airport is the fifth-busiest airport in passengers and aircraft movements serving the London area. The airport was proposed in 1981 with planning permission granted following a planning enquiry it was opened in 1986 and there have been several extensions since. The first transatlantic flight was in 2009.
Albert Road
199 Kennard Street Community Centre and Health Centre. The health centre was added in 1990 and both redeveloped in 1996
74 Royal Albert. This pub closed in 2002 and became a private house. It dated from 1867 and was a Watney’s house.
76 North Woolwich Health Centre. Built in 1981 and designed by Aldington Craig & Collinge
Silvertown Methodist Chapel. 1871-1960
78 North Woolwich Learning Zone. Adult education centre which is a branch of Newham College of Education.
60 Sweetingham’s Cinema opened in 1912. It was later known as the Silvertown Picture Palace, and finally the Albert Cinema. It closed in 1938 and was later demolished.
39 Silvertown Constitutional Club. This was founded in 1892 and used by the local Conservative Party,
Bridge across the railway to Factory Road. This was a cast and wrought iron bridge made by Handyside and Co. There was a trellis and wooden stairs. It has now been replaced by a concrete structure.
Tram wire posts. These were still in use in the 1970s, adapted as lamp posts. They have now gone.
Beckton Railway, Gallions Branch
Beckton Railway, When the Royal Albert Dock was built, the London & St. Katharine Dock company built this railway in 1880 for passengers and parcels from the North Woolwich line to Gallions Reach, passing along the northern side of the Albert Dock. At first it was a single line between Albert Dock Junction to Central but this was later doubled and also there was them a double track to Gallions. They had second hand trains running every half hour. Central Station was converted into a halt from the 1st November 1933. In 1940 the line was bombed and was repaired for the storage of wagons but the passenger service was never reinstated. It was abandoned under the Port of London Act 1950 but was used for wagon storage at least until the mid 1960's. The Docklands Light Railway Beckton Extension closely follows the route.
Central (Royal Albert Dock) Station or Royal Albert Dock Central. This dated from 1880 and was built by the London and St.Katharine’s Dock Company. It could only be reached by a footpath from Savage Gardens along the west side of Beckton Park as it was midway along the dock with no road access. There was a mock Tudor upside building on the up side of the line was built in a mock Tudor and a wooden footbridge spanned the platforms to the east of the station building. It was closed in 1940 by which time it was owned by the Port of London Authority. The site today is immediately south of the DLR's Beckton Park Station beneath a roundabout on Royal Albert Way. There was a signal box east of the down platform
Camel Road
ASTA Community Hub. They have groups for children, young people, adults and the elderly ranging from sports to computer training.
Connaught Road
Tate Institute. This was built as a social centre for Tate workers with amenities such as a reading room and hot baths in 1887. It was sold to West Ham Council in 1933. Silvertown Library was on the top floor from 1938 to 1961 and then leased back by Tate and Lyle for a social centre. It is currently being converted into workshops and an art gallery.
Silvertown station. This opened in 1863 having been built by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway becoming part of the North London Line in 1979. In 1885 the station was rebuilt with a new, gas lit, booking office and a foot bridge. The station was entered through a tunnel under the signal box. The station was again rebuilt in the late 1970s and in 1985 the line was electrified – all gas lit until the 1970s. In 1987 the name changed to ‘Silverton and London City Airport’. In 2006 the station closed with the line. It had previously been closed for a year in the 1990s while the Jubilee Line was built.
Crossrail
This current project has been renamed Elizabeth Line and is planned to open in 2018. This section is being built on the line of the old North Woolwich Railway which here ran eastwards from Silvertown Station between Factory and Royal Albert Roads. This is a major scheme which will bring main line trains from the Midlands through central London and on into Kent and Essex. There are no stations on this stretch.
Dockside Road
Royal Albert Station. This is on the Docklands Light Railway’s elevated section of the Beckton branch- although the line dips slightly before reaching the station. It lies between Prince Regent and Beckton Park stations and was opened in 1994. It has two side platforms.
Polo Group Sculpture by Huang Jian which was unveiled in 2012an shows two modern British polo players playing against Emperor Ming Huang and Lady Yang. A plaque reads: China is the birthplace of ancient polo which was popular among royal families during the Tang Dynasty. The U.K. gave birth to modern polo, which became an Olympic sport in 1908 and popular all over the world. In 2008, famous Chinese sculptress Huang Jian created for the Beijing Olympic Games “Emperor Ming of Tang and His Concubine Yang Yuhuan Playing Polo”, the only permanent large sculpture in the Beijing Olympic Park. Four years later, Huang created the sculpture of “2012 London Polo”, in which Chinese lovers of ancient polo and British lovers of modern polo travel through time and space to gather in the London Olympic Park for a friendly polo match. 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the U.K. and is also the year for the London Olympic Games. The sculpture symbolises the friendship and cultural exchange between the two countries.
1016 Travelodge
London Regatta Centre. This is a rowing and dragon boat racing centre. It is owned by the Royal Albert Dock Trust, and is home to London Youth Rowing, London Otters Rowing Club, University of East London Boat Club, Raging Dragons Dragon Boat Club, Thames Dragons, Wave Walkers Windy Pandas DBC and Typhoon Dragon Boat Club. It was opened in 2000 and was designed by Ian Ritchie Architects. It has a 2,000 metre course, with seven lanes plus a return lane. There is also a rowing tank and a boathouse.
Windy Pandas. This Dragon Boat Club was formed in 2008 as a charity crew,
Wave Walkers. London's first cancer survivors dragon boat team
Raging Dragons. This was formed in 2002 as a charity crew called Chinese Professionals, and later Dragonflies. In 2006 it was associated with Thames Dragons and their name changed to Thames Raging Dragons but in 2009 this arrangement ended when they were sponsored by Sun Lik beer. In 2010 they were the highest placed team in London.
Thames Dragon Boat Club, This was established in 1993 and has competitive, mixed, ladies and open crews
Building 1000. Dockside offices built 2004 and includes London Borough of Newham Social Services
1000 Cold Store Compressor House. This was built in 1914 as a refrigeration plant to service surrounding warehouses storing beef shipments from Argentina. Following restoration work it has been used as offices and more recently as exhibition space. As a compressor house it had a large water tank on the roof.
Docklands Light Railway
There are two Docklands Light Railway Lines in this square
Beckton Extension, This section of the line follows very closely the route of the old Gallions branch, but is carried on a new trackbed, and nothing of the earlier alignment can be seen. It opened in 1994 and is the longest of the railway's extensions. It runs for a little over five miles from Poplar through the Royal Docks area to a terminus at Beckton.
London City Airport Extension. This extension to the Docklands Light Railway opened in 2005. It leaves the existing DLR south of Canning Town station and runs on the south side of Silvertown Way and North Woolwich Road with a station for the airport in Hartmann Road. It was later extended to Woolwich in 2009.
Factory Road
S.W. Silver & Company were 18th Colonial and Army agents and outfitters based in the City, He is said to have set up a factory to make waterproof clothing, on a site which has never been identified in Greenwich. Later this was expanded to include insulated wires and cables. In 1852 a factory was set up in the area subsequently named Silvertown. In 1860 they acquired the patents of Charles Hancock, formerly of the West Ham Gutta Percha Co. As the result of this Silver set up the India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company.
The India Rubber, Gutta Percha and Telegraph Works Company was set up in 1864 and made a cable for the Submarine Telegraph Co, for Dover to Cap Gris Nez in the following year. Subsequently they made many more international cables and were partners in companies set up to manage them and promote them. They also owned specialist cable ships to lay them. They also continued to make rubber goods and item related to telegraphy and eventually withdrew from submarine cable work during the Great War. The company also supplied electric generating plant to towns and cities in the United Kingdom and on the Continent. In the 1890s they began producing bicycle tyres and later car tyres. They also had a factory in France and one in Burton on Trent. In 1933 they were taken over by the B.F. Goodrich Company of Ohio and in the 1950s this became BTR Industries Ltd. The Silvertown Works site was sold in the 1960s and was redeveloped as the Thameside Industrial Estate.
Albert Works. An iron works on a site adjacent to the Silvertown Works in the 1860s and 1870s and owned by Campbell Johnstone & Co. engineers and shipbuilders.. The company closed in 1876
Fernhill Street
22 Eastern Electric Laundry. This was an industrial laundry which closed in 1985.
Fernhill Street Baths and washhouse. There was also a clinic here run by the London County Council in the 1940s and 1950s. These baths may be the slipper baths built by the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1926, although the site appears to be in East Ham – then a County Borough in Essex and not eligible for London County Council services. The site does not appear to be large enough for a swimming pool. There is now housing on the site built in 1962 by the London County Council, which, presumably, replaced this washhouse.
242 Newham Catering and Cleaning Services. London Borough of Newham
George V Dock.
This square covers the west end of the dock only.
George V dock was begun in 1912 by the Port of London Authority, the King George V and is the last of the upstream enclosed docks to be built. Construction was completed in 1921. It could handle liners as large as RMS Mauretania. A unique feature was a line of dolphins – wooden posts – which lay along the south side and which were connected to the south quay by wooden bridges. These allowed lighters to pass on the quayside of moored vessels. It had three miles of quays with concrete-frame sheds, electric cranes and platform trucks and there were 5 railway lines available to the 14 warehouses. George V closed as a commercial dock in the 1980s but it was not decommissioned and is available for use with facilities for cranes, electrical power and water, quayside working areas, storage, security, and refuelling.
George V Dry Dock. This was the largest dry dock in London and opened in 1921. This is now the site of London City Airport
Pump House for the dry dock – this was north east of the dry dock itself and had two sets of electric motors driving pumps. It was flooded in 1979
Watersports Centre. King George V dock is reserved for power water sports.
Hartman Road
Hartman Road appears to have originally been an internal dock road running along the south side of the George V dock. It was accessed via a gate off the, since demolished, Silvertown viaduct. It now serves various airport facilities buildings and a vast car parking area.
London City Airport Station. This is on the Docklands Light Railway and opened in 2005. It lies between Pontoon Dock and George V stations and was originally built on what was called the King George V branch but is now the Woolwich Extension – since it now crosses the river to Woolwich. The station is elevated and fully enclosed and it has a direct covered connection with the adjacent airport terminal building. There is also, unusually for the DLR, a fully enclosed waiting room on the platform and a manned ticket office.
Kennard Street
Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society shop. This was their only shop north of the river and opened in 1905. It closed in the late 1970s.
St. Mary and St. Edward Roman Catholic junior mixed and infants school. This was originally in a site off Newland Street but this site was acquired by the Port of London authority in 1915 for King George V Dock. The school moved to Kennard Street and a new building was completed in 1917. The school is not there now and there is housing on the site
St Mary and St Edward Church. This Catholic Church is now sited on the corner of Grenadier Street and Albert Road (in the square to the south
London City Airport
London City Airport is an international airport in London which was developed by Mowlem in 1986–87 and is currently owned by a consortium of overseas investors. It is sited in the south west corner of the King George V dock with the terminal building, constructed by Seifert, above the two large dry docks – which apparently remain beneath and used for parking. It has a single runway sited on what was known as the Peninsular Road which ran between the George V and Royal Albert Docks and then housing transit sheds. The airport is the fifth-busiest airport in passengers and aircraft movements serving the London area. The airport was proposed in 1981 with planning permission granted following a planning enquiry it was opened in 1986 and there have been several extensions since. The first transatlantic flight was in 2009.
Lascars Avenue
Central Buffet. 1883 by Vigars and Wagstaffe,
Dock Managers Office. Vigars and Wagstaffe,
Manwood Street
Dunedin House. Built in 1963 by the London County Council on the site of the Fernhill Street baths. It has 20 floors.
Newland Street
St. Mary and St. Edward Roman Catholic junior mixed and infants’ school. This school was originally on the corner with Bailey Street but in 1915 was moved to Kennard Street.
North Woolwich Railway
North Woolwich Railway. This was opened by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway under George Parker Bidder. It opened as a single freight line from Thames Wharf near Bow Creek to what is now North Woolwich and was intended to transport coal. In 1847 a passenger service began from North Woolwich. There was later a connection to Stratford and the line was taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway (later the Great Eastern). After the Second World War passenger numbers began to drop and it was used for freight only after 1969. In 1979 it reopened as part of the North London Lines with through trains to Richmond. It was closed again in 2006 and the line through this square is now being rebuilt for Crossrail.
Parker Road
Drew Road Primary School. Originally this was a West Ham Board School opened in 1895. It is now housed in a new purpose-built two-storey building since 2003 when the original building was demolished for the Docklands Light Railway
Railways
The railways which run through the area are listed separately. They are:
The old Gallions Branch railway with a station at Central. In this square this is covered by the Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway Beckton Extension with stations at Royal Albert and Beckton Park. This was the Gallions Railway line
The North Woolwich Railway with a station at Silvertown. This is being rebuilt as Crossrail
Crossrail, now called Elizabeth Line. Under construction on the route of the old North Woolwich Line
Docklands Light Railway. Woolwich extension. With a station at London City Airport
Silvertown Tramway. Remains of original line of North Woolwich railway used for freight.
Dock railways on both Royal Albert and George V doc all. Now defunct.
Royal Albert Dock
Royal Albert Dock. This square covers a central slice of this large dock. The entrance area is in the square to the east; the passage to the Victoria Dock is in the square to the west.
The Royal Albert Dock was built in 1875-80 and covers 85 acres of water. It was built for the London and St Katharine Company with Alexander Rendel as engineer, and it opened in 1880. It was intended as a ship canal running to the older Victoria Dock, with a quay along it where ships could berth. There was electric light using arc lamps, from the start. To the west of the north quay, is an uninterrupted straight line of quay walls for over a mile. There were no warehouses but instead there were transit sheds and designed so that one shed would serve one berth. Cold stores were later added for the frozen meat trade. Most buildings were cleared in the 1980s.
Quay Walls. These were 40 ft high with a technically efficient stepped face and projecting toe at the base. They were built of Portland cement concrete.
Sheds. These were built in 1882 as twin-span structures made by Westwood, Baillie & Co. with wrought-iron trusses on cast-iron columns and corrugated-iron sheet cladding. They were linked by covered areas into six groups. They represent a change in dock warehousing from long-term storage to transit areas.
Dry docks at the western end of the dock, which, with the King George V dry dock, made up the largest area of ship repair in the port. These are now under the London City Airport buildings. They were thought to have been built in the 1880s. By the 1980-s the smaller was not used except for a floating dock built in 1942.
Sheds 25 and 27. These were converted for use as fully mechanized berths serving the New Zealand export trade.
Sheds 29, 31, and 33 three transit sheds. In 1920 they were replaced with ' two brick-built sheds 29 and 33, sheds, with a continuous upper floor for a cold sorting floor for meat; but later used as a cold store at 16°F for 198,000 carcasses. Sorting of meat was later done on the quay to cut down the number of times it was handled.
Manwood Street
Dunedin House. Built in 1963 by the London County Council on the site of the Fernhill Street baths. It has 20 floors.
Newland Street
St. Mary and St. Edward Roman Catholic junior mixed and infants’ school. This school was originally on the corner with Bailey Street but in 1915 was moved to Kennard Street.
North Woolwich Railway
North Woolwich Railway. This was opened by the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway under George Parker Bidder. It opened as a single freight line from Thames Wharf near Bow Creek to what is now North Woolwich and was intended to transport coal. In 1847 a passenger service began from North Woolwich. There was later a connection to Stratford and the line was taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway (later the Great Eastern). After the Second World War passenger numbers began to drop and it was used for freight only after 1969. In 1979 it reopened as part of the North London Lines with through trains to Richmond. It was closed again in 2006 and the line through this square is now being rebuilt for Crossrail.
Parker Road
Drew Road Primary School. Originally this was a West Ham Board School opened in 1895. It is now housed in a new purpose-built two-storey building since 2003 when the original building was demolished for the Docklands Light Railway
Railways
The railways which run through the area are listed separately. They are:
The old Gallions Branch railway with a station at Central. In this square this is covered by the Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway Beckton Extension with stations at Royal Albert and Beckton Park. This was the Gallions Railway line
The North Woolwich Railway with a station at Silvertown. This is being rebuilt as Crossrail
Crossrail, now called Elizabeth Line. Under construction on the route of the old North Woolwich Line
Docklands Light Railway. Woolwich extension. With a station at London City Airport
Silvertown Tramway. Remains of original line of North Woolwich railway used for freight.
Dock railways on both Royal Albert and George V doc all. Now defunct.
Royal Albert Dock
Royal Albert Dock. This square covers a central slice of this large dock. The entrance area is in the square to the east; the passage to the Victoria Dock is in the square to the west.
The Royal Albert Dock was built in 1875-80 and covers 85 acres of water. It was built for the London and St Katharine Company with Alexander Rendel as engineer, and it opened in 1880. It was intended as a ship canal running to the older Victoria Dock, with a quay along it where ships could berth. There was electric light using arc lamps, from the start. To the west of the north quay, is an uninterrupted straight line of quay walls for over a mile. There were no warehouses but instead there were transit sheds and designed so that one shed would serve one berth. Cold stores were later added for the frozen meat trade. Most buildings were cleared in the 1980s.
Quay Walls. These were 40 ft high with a technically efficient stepped face and projecting toe at the base. They were built of Portland cement concrete.
Sheds. These were built in 1882 as twin-span structures made by Westwood, Baillie & Co. with wrought-iron trusses on cast-iron columns and corrugated-iron sheet cladding. They were linked by covered areas into six groups. They represent a change in dock warehousing from long-term storage to transit areas.
Dry docks at the western end of the dock, which, with the King George V dry dock, made up the largest area of ship repair in the port. These are now under the London City Airport buildings. They were thought to have been built in the 1880s. By the 1980-s the smaller was not used except for a floating dock built in 1942.
Sheds 25 and 27. These were converted for use as fully mechanized berths serving the New Zealand export trade.
Sheds 29, 31, and 33 three transit sheds. In 1920 they were replaced with ' two brick-built sheds 29 and 33, sheds, with a continuous upper floor for a cold sorting floor for meat; but later used as a cold store at 16°F for 198,000 carcasses. Sorting of meat was later done on the quay to cut down the number of times it was handled.
Royal Albert and Victoria cut
This is a historic drainage infrastructure running along the north boundary of the Royal Albert Dock. It eventually discharged into the Thames. It was a surface feature with timber clad sloping walls.
Royal Albert Way
This is the A1020 running parallel with the north quay of the Albert Dock. It was built under the London Docklands Development Corporation with two roundabouts which have DLR stations in the middle which were designed to provide access to future development. However they have not been used as thought and they act as chicanes.
Docklands Light Railway. This runs parallel to and beneath the road. After Royal Albert Station the tracks descend to run in the middle of Royal Albert Dock Spine Road, and then take a further dip as they approach the station at Beckton Park.
Beckton Park Station. This opened in 1994 and lies between Cyprus and Royal Albert Stations on the Docklands Light Railway. It is sited beneath a roundabout. The road rises slightly whilst the railway dips slightly as they approach the station. It is thus situated in a cutting, under the centre of the elevated roundabout. There is pedestrian access at surface level under the elevated roadways and arched over the railway
Silvertown Tramway
When the Victoria Dock was built the North Woolwich line was diverted to the north. The old line was left in place and used for freight, being called The Woolwich Abandoned Line, or the Silvertown Tramway. This lies largely in squares to the west but a small portion of it lay adjacent south west of Silvertown Station joining the main line to the east of the station.
Sources
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Bloch. Newham Dockland
Bygone Kent
Carr. Dockland
Cinema Theatres Association. Newsletter
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Clunn. The Face of London
Connor. Branch Lines around North Woolwich
Crouch. Silvertown
Curwen. Old Plaistow
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GLC Docklands History Survey
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Ianvisits. Web site
Loadman & James. The Hancocks of Marlborough
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Lost Pubs. Web site
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Pevsner and Cherry, Essex
Phillips. London Docklands Guide.
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SABRE. Web site
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Spurgeon. Discover Woolwich,
Stewart. Gas Works in the North Thames Area
Tate and Lyle. Tate and Lyle
Wikipedia. As appropriate.
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