Greenwich Peninsula
 
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Location of the Greenwich Peninsula in Greater London |
The Greenwich Peninsula is a headland that is surrounded on three sides by the Thames , between the Isle of Dogs and Silvertown . To the south is the rest of Greenwich , and to the southeast is Charlton .
The peninsula belongs to the Royal Borough of Greenwich . Formerly this area was called Greenwich Marshes or Bugsby's Marshes , then East Greenwich in the 19th century, today often also North Greenwich because of the underground station of the same name . This is not to be confused with North Greenwich on the Isle of Dogs , the northern landing point of an earlier Greenwich ferry. The northernmost point of the peninsula on the banks of the Thames is called Blackwall Point , which also led to the name Blackwall Peninsula , which was sometimes used for this peninsula in the late 20th century.
Landmarks include The O₂ (formerly Millennium Dome) and the southern end of the Blackwall Tunnel , but this site has undergone major changes.
history
The peninsula was drained by Dutch engineers in the 16th century so that it could be used as pasture. In the 17th century, Blackwall Point, across from Blackwall, became famous as the place where the bodies of pirates were hung in cages - as a deterrent to people who toyed with the idea of becoming pirates.
From the early 19th century, the peninsula was steadily industrialized. In 1857 a plan was presented to Parliament for a large dock to take up much of the peninsula and connect to Blackwall Reach to the west, Bugsby's Reach to the east, but it was never realized. The early industrial settlements included Henry Blakeley's Ordnance Works for large arms manufacture, chemical factories, manufacturers of submarine cables, shipyards, and iron and steel works. Henry Bessemer built a steel mill to supply the London shipbuilding industry in the early 1860s, but had to close it again due to lack of demand as a result of the financial crisis of 1866. Later came oil mills, shipbuilding (e.g. the Blackadder and Hallowe'en clippers built by Maudsley Shipyard in 1870 ), boiler construction, manufacturers of Portland cement and linoleum (Bessemer's steelworks later became the Victoria Linoleum Works ) and the huge gas works of the South Metropolitan Gas Co.
For over 100 years, the peninsula was dominated by the gas works, which mainly produced town gas - also known as coal gas. The gas works grew to an area of 970,000 m², making it the largest in Europe. It also made coke, tar, and chemicals as important by-products. The site had its own rail connection, which was connected to the main railway line near Charlton, and coal was unloaded and coke loaded at a large jetty. There were large gas boilers with a volume of 240,000 m³ and 345,000 m³. The larger gas boiler (previously the largest in the world) was reduced to a volume of 250,000 m³ after an explosion in 1917, but was still the largest in England until it was damaged again in 1978 by a bomb by the Provisional Irish Republican Army . The plant, which originally produced gas from coal, ran on oil from the 1960s. The peak production of 11.3 million m³ of gas per day in the mid-1960s is said to have been the largest in the world. The discovery of natural gas reserves in the North Sea soon made the gasworks superfluous.
On the east bank was the Blackwall Point power station ; the original coal-fired power plant from the 1890s was replaced by a new one in the 1950s, which ceased operations in 1981. A large area including the Victoria Linoleum Works became the Victoria Deep Water Terminal for container ships in 1966 .
At the southern end of the peninsula, Enderby's Wharf was the successor to the well-known submarine cable manufacturer from 1857, such as B. Glass Elliot , William T. Henley , Telcon , Submarine Cables Ltd. , STC , Nortel and Alcatel .
The peninsula was poorly accessible from central London until the opening of the Blackwall Tunnel in 1897 and had no public transport until the opening of North Greenwich Underground Station on the Julilee Line in 1999.
The closure of the gas works, the power station and other industries at the end of the 20th century left nothing but industrial wasteland on the Greenwich Peninsula, most of it heavily contaminated.
To date, some industrial operations have survived on the west side of the peninsula between the riverbank and the southern access road to the Blackwall Tunnel, such as: B. Alcatel, the tunnel refiners glucose plant (closed in September 2009) (part of Tate & Lyle until approx. 2008 ) and two large port facilities on the premises of Delta Metals and the Victoria Deep Water Terminal . One of the two gas boilers is also still standing.
New buildings since the early 1990s
Public and private investment projects have changed the topography of the Greenwich Peninsula significantly since the early 1990s. In 1997, English Partnerships , the British urban development company, bought 1.21 km² of unused land on the peninsula. A £ 225 million investment helped expand public transport, creating new housing, new commercial space and space for public facilities. This is how green areas were created along the river.
In addition to the Millennium Dome, new roads have also been built on the east side of the peninsula in anticipation of new development projects. New walks along the river, bike paths and art installations have also been created. The first two phases of the Greenwich Millennium Village resulted in sprawling residential development that also includes the Millennium Primary School , a medical center, a nature reserve and an attached training center. A Holiday Inn hotel was also built nearby and the Greenwich Yacht Club was given new premises on the east side of the Millennium Dome.
North Greenwich Underground Station on the Jubilee Line opened in 1999. It is one of London's largest underground stations and also has a bus terminal. The QEII pier has ferry services to other parts of London and is on the Thames east of the tube station.
In 2004, the zoning plan for the further redesign of the site was approved, which also includes 10,000 more residential buildings, several million square meters of commercial space and the conversion of the Millennium Dome into a sports hall called O 2 . Directly south of The O 2 , a new public square was built. A new campus for the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication has been under construction on the east side of this square since 2009 and is due to open in autumn 2010. In the southeast of the square, the six-storey building 14 Pier Walk houses the offices of the London Transport Company (TfL).
The David Beckham Academy football school is located south of this complex in a large makeshift building . And about 400 m further south is the Pub Pilot Inn, one of the oldest buildings on the Greenwich Peninsula.
Further development
The south of the peninsula is now being built with residential buildings (the final phase of the Greenwich Millennium Village) and The O 2 will be the venue for the 2012 Summer Olympics , the current David Beckham Academy building will be used as a training venue for the Games and then the makeshift building will be demolished to create space for new residential developments. The renovation should take a total of 28 years. The chances of economic recovery after the Millennium Dome reopens are dubious, but the Jubilee Line's improved access to the Greenwich Peninsula from Canary Wharf, Silvertown and central London has greatly improved the opportunities for new residential development.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b OS 1: 2500 map of 1867, reissued as West India Docks 1867 . The Godfrey Edition. Alan Godfrey Maps. Gateshead (1991). ISBN 0-85054-466-1
- ^ Simon Hughes (1993): Hansard parliamentary reports and John Austin-Walker (1994)
- ^ Mary Mills: Greenwich Marsh - The 300 Years Before the Dome . M. Wright, London 1999, ISBN 0-9535245-0-7 .
- ↑ Bessemer's autobiography, Chapter 21 (English) ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ OS 1: 2500 map of 1867, reissued as West India Docks & Greenwich Marshes 1894 . The Godfrey Edition, Alan Godfrey Maps, Gateshead 1991, ISBN 0-85054-444-0 .
- ^ RJM Carr (editor): Docklands . NELP / GLC, 1983, ISBN 0-7168-1611-3 .
- ↑ A. Green: 150 Years Of Industry & Enterprise At Enderby's Wharf (English)
- ↑ Information from the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication (English) ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ TfL begins move into new greener, cheaper Greenwich Peninsula offices (English)
Coordinates: 51 ° 29 ′ 53.3 " N , 0 ° 0 ′ 22.7" E