All you ever wanted to know about how we got our power across Greenwich and Woolwich

 I am a great admirer of Mary Mills and her work which over the years has revealed the industrial archaeology of where I grew up.

Entitled “Power Generation Sites in Greenwich and Woolwich”* it is her most recent book and explores all aspects of how power was supplied across the borough and beyond.

Here can be found descriptions of the many and varied sources of power from wind, water and tidal mills along with coal, gas and electrical power.

And includes “'Woolwich's 'Secret City' - the Royal Arsenal - along with the oldest power station, as we would understand it, in the world, the largest installation for town gas storage ever and one of the first to generate power from domestic waste. 

This is a non-technical work aimed at the general reader and all those interested in how our world today developed”.

Starting in the Middle Ages the book moves through to the 21st century with the Optic Cloak at the Greenwich Energy Centre on the Peninsula and the innovative South East London Community Energy which “is a non-for-profit social enterprise. Formed by residents of Greenwich and Lewisham who want to play an active role in shaping the energy future of South East London …. taking action to combat climate change through generating renewable energy and tackle fuel poverty”.

It is one of those books which you can walk, with the locations of each site clearly outlined and speculation on those that have long gone as to what they might have looked like.  To this she has added plenty of old and contemporary images of the sites, supported by maps, and is fully referenced.

Amongst the images are the iconic Woolwich Tramshed fondly remembered by generations as the go to place for entertainment and the stunning cover to the story of Deptford Power Station.

And as an Eltham lad I couldn’t miss out our own Gas Works on a corner of Eltham Green and the failed attempt to build an earlier works behind Eltham High Street.

Added to which there is the intriguing suggestion of mills at Mottingham Lane, and at Horn Park Farm and “a mill or a series of mills at Lee in the Kidbrooke Parish area”.

All of which is fascinating and come with heaps of pictures of gasholders which I have to confess are another of those objects that fascinate me but are now very much an endangered “species”.

“Power Generation Sites in Greenwich and Woolwich” is priced at £15 and is available from Amazon and is the sixth publication by the author.**

Location Greenwich & Woolwich

Pictures; cover & illustration of Deptford Power Station from the book,and memories of a different use for the Tramshed, the badge circa 1970s, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

*Power Generation Sites in Greenwich and Woolwich by Dr MARY, 2026,  2026ISBN 979-81992-4195-3

**Greenwich Peninsula Greenwich Marsh A History of a Heartland, The Greenwich Riverside Upper Watergate to Angerstein, The Industries of Deptford Creek, The Early East London Gas Industry and George Livesey, A Biography

Passing an old landmark

Now I can’t remember what prompted me to take to the river or who I was with.

I am guessing it will have been one of my sisters, and we may just have been filling in a few hours.

But I am glad I did, because back 39 years ago I took a lot of pictures from the boat which are all that is left of much of what we saw.

Location; the Thames

Picture; on the River, 1979 from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Stepping out in the Woolwich foot tunnel in 1916

I can’t say I enjoy using the foot tunnels under the Thames.

There would have been a time when walking under the river using the Woolwich or Greenwich tunnel was an adventure.

But then I was only 10 and like the Underground these days if there is a surface alternative I will take it.

It may mean using a bus on a congested road in the rush hour but I prefer it.

Looking back I am surprised I was so nonchalant at the illuminated sign at Rotherhithe warning of “MEN WORKING ON THE PUMPS” and thinking what that meant for the short journey to Wapping.

And the same unease resurfaced when I read that the refurbishment of both the Woolwich and Greenwich tunnels included work to reduce leakage, improve drainage as well as installing new lifts, CCTV communication facilities and signage.

Of course the tunnels are quite safe but at 67 I shall continue to use the ferry or take the longer route and cross by bridge up river.

That said this 1916 image of the Woolwich foot tunnel from the collection of Kristine Bedford perfectly captures how I remember the place.

The tunnel was “built by Walter Scott and Middleton, opened on 26 October 1912 [and offered] a free 24/7 alternative to the ferry crossing, which was periodically suspended during bad weather.”*

Now whenever I used it I was pretty much on my own and that long walk with the echoing sound of my own feet, the light and the stone pavement stretching out for nearly a third of a mile was always an experience.

Added to which there was that slow incline down and the then the slight rise which indicated that the journey was nearing its end.

Once upon a time just before six in the morning and at the end of the day it would have been a much busier place, particularly when the ferry was not running, but this empty scene is how I remember it and given my disinclination to wander underground it will remain a memory.

Picture; Woolwich Foot Tunnel circa 1916, courtesy of Kristina Bedford

*Woolwich Through Time, Kristina Bedford, 2014, Amberley Publishing,

When you never quite lose that love of the River

Now I miss the river, which given that I never lived that far away from it is not surprising. 

In the park, 1907

Like many I saw its transformation from working waterway to a river bordered by new developments that seemed to reach to the sky.

I don’t have a rosy nostalgic view of the Thames.  For those who worked on and lived by it, the river was a hard and at times capricious companion.

But sitting on the concrete wall across the road from the Cutty Sark pub on a warm summer’s evening was magic.

As dusk turned to night the conversations around us were interrupted by the occasional banging together of the moored barges caught in the wake of a passing pleasure craft.

And over the water you could just catch the noise of a party going on with snatches of music which were lost as the vessel disappeared into the dark.

Looking out across the river, 1907

Even now that smell of ozone takes me right back to games on the beech outside the Tower of London in the shadow of Tower Bridge and that stretch of sand in front of the Naval College.

These combine with more grown up ones of sitting watching the traffic in the dinner hour during the time I worked for Glenvilles Food near the tunnel.

Leaving me only to remember the moment, me, Jimmy O’Donnell and John Cox sank in the oozy, oily Thames mud, just beyond the steps that led down from the foot tunnel at Greenwich.

It was sometime around 1959 and we had the long walk home and the thought of the difficult set of explanations needed to cover the ruined shoes and socks.  To my eternal shame I blamed the other two, something which got me off the hook but which the passage of time has never let me apologise for.

So that just leaves me to comment on the picture dated 1907.  We are in the gardens by the river on the noth side.

Location; the River Thames

Picture; the Embankment, North Woolwich Gardens, circa 1907 courtesy of Kritina Bedford from her book Woolwich Through Time, 2014

Sweet Thames Flow Softly*

The Thames Flows Down is another of those wonderful children's books written in the 1950s.

It was the companion to  A Valley Grows Up by Edward Osmond.*

The Thames Flows Down was  written by Laurie Osmond and  illustrated by Edmund and tells  the story of the River Thames from its small beginnings to the point when it flowed into the sea.

It is a  mix of history and geography, with the added bonus that it was written in the 1950s and perfectly captures the river and London at a point in time now long gone.

This is my river, that working waterway, when there were still warehouses on the south side facing the Tower of London, and when the docks still provided serious work for many families.

As a child I remember it all and even in the 1960s have memories of barges gently banging together on the tide beside the Cutty Sark pub on long summer evenings.

All of which may seem romantic tosh but it is about the Thames and its impact on those who lived along its banks and relied on it for work long before it became a mere backdrop for luxury flats and flash office blocks.

So I will close with the final words taken from Laurie’s book which pretty much sums up the flow of that river beside which I was born at Lambeth on the south side of the river  which was home for my  first 19 years.

“Back in the quiet reaches of the Upper Valley the Thames still pours steadily seaward through tranquil meadows, where owls are screeching and night jars churr in the trees.  Otters hunt and play, vixen steals for her cubs.

Over the pulsing heart of London an orange glow stains the sky.  The dark, running water is bright with reflections from the City’s embankments, yellow lamplight from bridges pierces the blackness of the tide-race round the piers.  

A police patrol boat slides silently upstream.  A light over Westminster tells that Parliament is still sitting, and along the wharves cranes still work for ships that must make the punctual tides.”

Back in the 1980s I wrote to Mrs Osmond seeking permission to use some of the illustrations from the books in history lessons and she kindly granted permission.

Sadly both books are out of print but maybe one day the O.U.P., will republish both books.  I hope so.

Pictures; from The Thames Flows Down, Laurie Osmond

The Thames Flows Down, Laurie Osmond, O.U.P., 1957

*Sweet Thames Flow Softly* by Ewan Mccoll, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmn5pOxb2iM

**A Valley Grows Up http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/A%20Valley%20Grows%20Up

Pictures; from The Thames Flows Down, Laurie Osmond

Lost on the River …..inviting suggestions

This is St Mary’s Church in Rotherhithe in the summer of 1979, although until a few minutes ago I had no idea of its name or location.

St Mary's, Rotherhithe, 1979

I will have been home on holiday and as I did back then I regularly took days out in town wandering the city looking for photo opportunities.

On this particular day I wasted the return rail ticket to Well Hall and on a whim took one of those tourist pleasure trips to Greenwich from where I wandered over to Blackheath and caught the bus back to Eltham.

But enough of the travel detail, it is the picture which caught my interest and set me off on a detective hunt.

St Mary's, Rotherhithe, 2023

Back then I was not very good at recording where I took the pictures, and the passage of 46 years had done nothing to locate the place or the church.

So, after a few fruitless attempts at asking various online sites for suggestions of London churches by the River I happened on repeating the journey.

Given that Manchester is now home, the trip was by Google Maps starting out by London Bridge and by degree arriving at Greenwich.

I assumed it was a Wren church and would be on the north side of the water, but no it was Rotherhithe.

The distinctive spire is still visible from the River, and the surrounding buildings look unchanged.

St Mary's from St Mary's Street, 2018

That said on a closer ramble around St Mary’s Street and Rotherhithe Street, the said buildings have gone the way of so many water side warehouses and are now apartments, but the Church looks good.

My Wikipedia tells me that “It was rebuilt in 1714–15, to a design by John James, a major architect of his day (and an associate of Sir Christopher Wren). 

As money was short, the tower was not finished until 1747, when Lancelot Dowbiggin, a City joiner and surveyor, completed it, perhaps to his own design, following the general plan of James.

Since then, the external appearance of the church has remained almost unchanged. It is set in a narrow street close to the Thames, surrounded by former warehouses and facing the charity school house which was built in 1703.

In 1760, Birmingham industrialist Matthew Boulton wed his second wife, Anne, here. The two had journeyed far from home to evade ecclesiastical difficulties; she was his first wife's sister, and the marriage was forbidden by canon law, but not void if no one objected when the banns were read.

In 1838, when the well-known ship Temeraire was broken up, some of her timbers were used to build a communion table and two bishop's chairs in the Rotherhithe church”.

To which I can add that it replaced an earlier medieval church which in turn stood on a building dating back to the Romans.

And brings me almost home, because it was Mathew Boulton that other half of the Boulton and Watt partnership which powered the Industrial Revolution.

A partnership which transformed my adopted city of Manchester into the "shock city of the Industrial Revolution" ** and offered up that wonderful observation recorded by James Boswell that  Mathew Boulton sold "what all the world desire~ to have-POWER,"***

Mystery spot, 1979

So, there you have it a mystery solved just leaving me to wonder about other pictures along the journey I took all those decades ago.

Location; the River

Pictures; St Mary’s Rotherhithe and unknown building, 1970 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and St Mary's from the River by Michal, 2023, and from Rotherhithe Street, 2018, courtesy of Google Maps

*St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church,_Rotherhithe

*Briggs, Asa, Victorian Cities, 1963

** "1 sell here. Sir. what all the world desire~ to have-POWER," Mathew Boulton to James Boswell, 1776

Crossing the Thames at Woolwich on the Will Crooks

This is one of the old ferries which plied the crossing taking thousands to work and not a few just to see north Woolwich.

The crossing is still one of those things I like to do although it is usually just for the pleasure of travelling across the water.

This was the Will Crooks built in 1933 and replaced thirty years later by the current fleet.

Now this is not going to be the story of the ferry, that is easily available, instead it will just be a short reflection on how much I enjoy using it.

At one time it was something you did just because it was free, and offered up the opportunity to watch a busy river at work.

No one seemed to mind that I went backwards and forwards often not even bothering to get off.

It didn’t matter that the rain might drive in across the water and that the wind could cut through even the warmest of clothes.

But I grew up, had more important things to do and only rarely even bothered to clock its existence as I waited for buses at the stop almost opposite the terminal.

And then one disastrous day travelling back from Kent and missing the M25 I realized were heading for Eltham, past our old house at Well Hall and it just made perfect sense to carry on over Shooters Hill and fall down into Woolwich and make the river crossing by the ferry.

I had forgotten the long queues but the short journey with its views across the Thames were well worth it.

I rather wish I could have done the trip on the old Will Crooks if only to have experienced crossing under steam.

Picture; courtesy of Kristina Bedford from her book Woolwich Through Time, 2014 and from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Thnking of the River Thames

I was born in Lambeth by the Thames and have never lost my love of the river.

During the nineteen years I grew up in London I was never far away from it and now after fifty three years of living in the North it still exerts a power over me.

So much so that recently as we headed back to Manchester from Kent we chose to travel through Eltham to make the river crossing at Woolwich.

Now Woolwich Ferry is perhaps not as grand as Westminster Bridge but as we stood there surveying the broad sweep of the Thames I was reminded of Wordsworth poem written in 1802 and so for no other reason than I like it I have decided to quote it in full.

"Earth hath not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:
This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields, and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!"

*William Wordsworth, "Composed upon Westminster Bridge, Sept. 3, 1803", from Poems, Volume I, published 1807

Pictures; from The Thames Flows Down, Laurie Osmond

On the Thames in the summer of 1978

I have never lost my love of the river.

We never lived far from the Thames and of course trips to town took you either under it or more likely over it, and once we moved to Eltham there was always the ferry.

So this picture taken by my friend Jean in 1978 is quite special.

I am not sure exactly where she took it from, and over the years people have suggested a variety of locations.

Now I fully admit to be an old fashioned romantic but I do try and avoid the trap of nostalgia.

The river could be a grey, cold and at times dangerous place, both if you lived close by or made a living from working the ships, tending the barges or in the warehouses that stretched along its shoreline.

But that said Jean’s picture perfectly captures the place I remember and for that more than deserves to be here on the blog.

Location; The River

 Picture; from the collection of Jean Gammons

Stories of Woolwich and the River Thames ........... you never quite knew about

Now I have just gone off and ordered the book, Ferries of the Lower Thames by Joan Tucker on the recommendations of my old friend Tricia.

In fourteen chapters it covers the story of our river from Staines down to Yanlet Creek.

Now Staines I knew but Yanlet Creek I had to look up and discovered it is 54 km as the crow flies from London Bridge and was the formal limit of the jurisdiction of the City of London, and yes Staines marks the other boundary.

So that explains the fourteen chapters of which for many of us it will be the two covering the Isle of Dogs, Greenwich and Woolwich which will of real interest.

And Tricia picked out a fascinating description of the ferries and Tommy Tucker who was a captain on one of the ferries.

He will always be linked to the writer Edith Nesbit who lived at Well Hall.  It is a story I have written about in the past and will go back to.

Suffice to say at the time and even now the relationship was the subject of some poor comments on the part of people who misunderstood the couple and their politics.

Both were in the Woolwich Labour Party which over half a century later I joined aged 16 in 1966 and for the details having read the blog stories I suggest you go to Tricia's choice of a good read for January.

Picture; cover of Ferries of the Lower Thames by Joan Tucker, 2013 Amberley Publishing

Location; London

*Ferries of the Lower Thames, by Joan Tucker, 2013 Amberley Publishing,

**Edith Nesbit