Canning Town Walk (June 2007)
8 North Woolwich Road
An elevated section of the Docklands Light Railway runs along the south side of North Woolwich Road. Opened in 2006, it currently runs to King George V station in North Woolwich, but tunneling is in progress to take it under the Thames to Woolwich.
DLR under construction from Silvertown Way.
Turn left and walk east along North Woolwich Road; roughly 100 meters on is a site entrance which includes a monument to the Silvertown Explosion.
The Brunner Mond chemical works opened here at Crescent Wharf in West Silvertown in 1893, producing first soda and then caustic soda. But by 1914 the works was idle, and the government needed a factory to purify TNT. This was known to be extremely dangerous and a process that should be carried out in a remote area, and not in this highly populated area such as this. Dr FA Freeth, Brunner Mond’s head chemist later made his views about the process clear:
"It worked but was manifestly dangerous. At the end of every month we used to write to Silvertown to say that their plant would go up sooner or later." But the Government, at a safe distance in Whitehall, decided that the risk was worth taking. It was the people of Silvertown who were, largely unwittingly, taking it.
"Sooner or later" turned out to be Friday 19 January 1917 when a fire caused 50 tons of TNT to explode. They heard the bang in Cambridge and Guildford. Around 70,000 properties were damaged, costing £2.5 million. Over 70 people were killed (12 of the bodies were never found) and 400 injured. Because of war-time restrictions, it was 3 days before the news was in the papers.
This site is now under application for development as Minoco Wharf. In January 2005 the Mayor removed its safeguarded wharf status, which will allow more freedom in its development.
A little to the west is Peruvian wharf, which includes the site of the old guano works and Tate & Lyle's Plaistow wharf (Tate & Lyle have consolidated their activities at Thames Refinery to the east in Silvertown) The application to devvelop this site, which still has safeguarded wharf status, went to public enquiry and was refused in 2006. There are further applications, mainly for industrial use. The best views of these sites are from the DLR.
Continue along North Woolwich Road and walk up the steps immediately behind Barrier Point into Barrier Park.
Barrier Point residential development, architects Goddard Manton Partnership (they took some ideas from their earleir Pierhead Lock at West India Docks) is in two parts, the 'Seven Steps' garden apartments occupied in 2000, and the landmark tower completed in 2001. It provides 252 “concierged apartments” and attracted various awards, making it “the most decorated contemporary housing development” in Britain. It forms an impressive wall at right-angles to the Thames, with suitably maritime railings and decks, although these perhaps give it too much of a 1930s international modern feel. The tower, a shining white lighthouse, is a grand effect.
next: Barrier Park
