Beckton Gas Works

Beckton Gas Works was a major London gas works built to manufacture coal gas and other products including coke from coal. It has been variously described as 'the largest such plant in the world' Winchester C (Ed), "Handling 2,000,000 tons of coal", Wonders of World Engineering P309-313, The Amalgamated Press, 1937] [Cite newspaper The Times |articlename=Industries along the Riverside|author=Special Correspondent |section=news |day_of_week=Mon |date=Mar 16 1959 |page_number=xi |issue=54410 |column=A ] and 'the largest gas works in Europe' [Carr R.J.M (Ed),"Dockland: An illustrated historical survey of life and work in east London", NELP/GLC, 1986, ISBN 0-7168-1611-3 ] . It operated from 1870 to 1969, with an associated by-products works that operated from 1879 to 1970. The works was located on East Ham Level, on the north bank of the Thames at Gallions Reach, to the west of Barking Creek.

History

The plant was opened in 1870 by the Gas Light and Coke Company (GLCC). The name Beckton was given to the plant and the surrounding area of east London in honour of the company's governor Simon Adams Beck. It came eventually to manufacture gas for most of London north of the Thames, with numerous smaller works being closed. Its counterpart south of the river was the South Metropolitan or East Greenwich gas works on the Greenwich Peninsula.

Following nationalisation in 1949 the plant was owned by the North Thames Gas Board. After closure the residual site passed to British Gas and Transco.

The discovery of natural gas in the North Sea meant that manufactured gas became uncompetitive. The Beckton works closed between 1969 and 1970, when the last trainload left the associated chemical works.

The works lay within the London Docklands area and parts were redeveloped by the London Docklands Development Corporation. The once huge site has been bisected by many roads including the A1020 Royal Docks Road. Today a small area of waste tip and some gas holders remain, separated by a mile or so of redevelopment. Parts of the site are occupied by an industrial estate and the Beckton Retail Park and Gallions Reach Shopping Park. A Docklands Light Railway depot has been built on part of the site to the south of the gas holders.

Location

The works covered a convert|550|acre|km2|1 site to the south of the Northern Outfall Sewer, between Woolwich Manor Way and the Thames. The company had considered several sites for the works. The site to the west of Barking Creek was selected as it was possible to build deep water piers in the Thames, enabling direct unloading from steam colliers bringing coal from mines in the North-East of England.Clifford,T., notes to "Old Ordnance Survey Maps: Beckton 1914", The Godfrey Edition, Alan Godfrey Maps, 2000, Gateshead, ISBN 1-84151-216-8] There were two piers, for importing coal and exporting by-products. In the 1930s an annual average of a million tons of coal mainly from Durham was unloaded at the main pier, with a further 750,000 tons transhipped to barges for other works. The GLCC had a fleet of seventeen colliers ranging from 1200 to 2800 tons, and also chartered larger ships as needed. At this time the plant had a coal storage capacity of 250,000 tons.

The plant had an extensive internal railway system of between 42 and convert|70|mi|km|0. The Beckton Railway provided a link to the national network at Custom House, used for passenger traffic to the works and for transport of by-products such as coal tar. This was leased and operated by the GER from 1874. There were no intermediate stations between Custom House station and Beckton railway station, which was at the entrance to the works. The line closed to passengers following bomb damage in 1940, the freight line finally closing in February 1971. [Jackson A.A, "London's Local Railways", David & Charles, 1978, ISBN 0-7153-7479-6] Part of the route has since been used for the Docklands Light Railway between Beckton DLR station and the Royal Docks Road. Virtually no trace of the old gasworks now exists in 2008.

Beckton Products Works

Following the invention of coal gas early in the 19th century, it was discovered than numerous organic and inorganic chemicals could be obtained when purifying the gas. Processes began to be developed to recover these, and a major branch of the British chemical industry – the coal tar and ammonia by-products industry – came into existence. cite web |url=http://www.glias.org.uk/Chemicals_from_Coal/INDEX.HTM | author=Townsend C.A.| title='Chemicals from Coal: A history of Beckton Products Works' | publisher=Greater London Industrial Archaeological Society | date=2003 |accessdate=2007-12-30 ] By 1876 a nearby company, Burt, Boulton and Haywood of Silvertown, was distilling each year 12 million gallons of coal tar to manufacture ingredients for disinfectants, insecticides and dyes. Sulphur from the gas works was the raw material for local manufacturers of sulphuric acid needed by other nearby companies producing products such as fertilizers. [ [http://www.citiesofscience.co.uk/go/London/ContentPlace_1960.html Hunt A, Cities of Science] ] Subsequently the GLCC decided that it would carry out the processing of by-products itself, rather than sell them to independent chemical companies. A purpose-built chemical works, Beckton Products Works, was constructed in 1879. It was the largest tar and ammonia by-products works in the UK, possibly in the world. Besides millions of gallons of road tar, products included phenol, the cresols and xylenols, naphthalene, pyridine bases, creosote, benzene, toluene, xylene, solvent naphtha, ammonium sulphate and ammonia solution, sulphuric acid, picolines, quinoline, quinaldine, acenaphthene, anthracene and dicyclopentadiene. Since the Products works was dependent on by-products of gas manufacture it could not long survive the introduction of natural gas. The last train carrying chemical products, a load of pitch, left the works on 1 June 1970.

Beckton Alps

The toxic spoil heaps from the works are known ironically as Beckton Alps. Originally covering an extensive area to the west of the works, they have been landscaped and much reduced in size. From 1989 to 2001 a dry ski slope was operated on the small remaining section (Gbmapping|TQ431820), though the nickname pre-dates this. The site is the highest point in Newham, and a 'grade II' borough site of wildlife interest. [ [http://www.london.gov.uk/wildweb/PublicSiteViewFull.do?pictureno=1&siteid=7591 "Beckton Alps listing"] (London Wildweb) accessed 3 March 2008] It is said to be the highest artificial hill in London. [ [http://www.citiesofscience.co.uk/go/London/ContentPlace_1960.html "The highest artificial hill in London"] (Cities of Science) accessed 3 March 2008]

A proposed £35 M replacement the "SnowWorld" indoor centre to be built on the site has run into financial problems. [ [http://www.snowboardclub.co.uk/news-beckton.html "Cresney's plans for Beckton"] (London SnowWorld News) accessed 3 March 2008]

Beckton Gas Works as a film location

The Gas works, Products works and Alps were used as a location for TV and cinema filming on a number of occasions. In the 1960s comedy films and TV programmes, such as Michael Bentine’s "It's a Square World" were shot here. The mounds of chemical waste were used to portray mountaineering scenes. In 1975 the film "Brannigan" starring John Wayne used the location. The opening sequence of the 1981 James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only" was filmed here. The scenes involved Roger Moore as James Bond attempting to regain control of a helicopter operated by remote control by his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld. In 1986 the film used the gas works as a location for a weapon testing ground.

In the final hour or so of "Full Metal Jacket", Stanley Kubrick's 1987 movie portraying the Vietnam War, Matthew Modine (Private Joker), Adam Baldwin (Animal Mother) and their platoon go into Huế, a Vietnamese city, to clear it of Viet Cong and snipers. Kubrick had the whole gasworks selectively demolished and then the art department dressed the 'set' with latticework and appropriate advertising hoardings to make it believable. At one point the soldiers enter a building to flush out a sniper. This building was one several, located between the central buildings of the old gas works and about 200 yards from the river Thames. The final scene sees the soldiers marching off into the (London) sunset against the silhouettes of the burning old gas works' smoke stacks and buildings, singing the Mickey Mouse march music. In the film a period of several days takes place in the protagonist's lives as they travel through the industrial quarters of Huế city; in reality the action took place within a square mile.

The Gas Works was used as the main background scene for the Oasis video: D'You Know What I Mean?, as it shows the band members playing on a concrete slab within the Gas Works facility.

References

External links

* [http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server.php?show=ConNarrative.65&chapterId=1553 "Powering the City"] (Port Cities: London}