Henry Gill

Henry Gill around 1890

Henry Gill's grave in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery

Henry Gill (born March 10, 1824 in Rye , † June 17, 1893 in Berlin ) was an English engineer . As a waterworks director, he laid the foundations for Berlin's water supply.

Life

Henry Gill studied in Putney (now the London district London Borough of Wandsworth belonging) to the College of Engineers , the Civil Engineering . He found his first job after graduating with the Great Northern Railway . He made a name for himself above all by building difficult tunnels.

In December 1852 the city of Berlin signed a contract with the English entrepreneurs Sir Charles Fox and Thomas Russel Crampton to “supply the city of Berlin with running water”. The English were granted the privilege of supplying water for 25 years from July 1, 1856. Fox and Crampton then founded the Berlin Waterworks Company to implement it . Construction of the first Berlin waterworks on the Spree in front of the Stralauer Tor began in 1853 . The construction management was under the English engineer John Moore, to whom Henry Gill was a direct employee. On January 1, 1854, Gill was appointed operations manager of the waterworks and stayed permanently in Berlin. In 1866, 1868 and 1872 the waterworks under Gill was expanded, but could not keep up with the increasing demand. Of the approximately 910,000 inhabitants of Berlin, only about half were supplied with drinking water at the time. In order to accelerate the expansion, the municipality of Berlin decided in 1873 to take over the waterworks in its own administration.

Henry Gill was taken over into the city service and remained director of the city water company. A plot of land for a second waterworks was found at Tegeler See . According to Gill's designs, the Tegel waterworks were built from 1875 to 1877 and a second construction phase was added between 1883 and 1886. In addition to the technical drafts for the waterworks, Gill also provided the drafts for other structures that were needed for the water supply, such as intermediate pumping stations and water towers . But even with the Tegel plant, given the growth of the city of Berlin, the water supply could not be guaranteed for the entire population. This only succeeded with the construction of the third waterworks at Müggelsee , the Friedrichshagen waterworks , which was built from 1889 to 1893. However, Henry Gill did not live to see the commissioning, as he died shortly before.

Henry Gill was buried in Berlin in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery. His grave was dedicated to the city of Berlin from 1992 to 2017 .

buildings

The following buildings were erected under Gill's direction in Berlin.

Surname	Location	District	construction time	architect	Remarks	photo
Stralauer Thor waterworks			1853-1856, 1866-1868		not received
Elevated reservoir on the Windmühlenberg	( Location )	Prenzlauer Berg	1853-1856, 1858-1859		Monument protection
Tegel waterworks			1875-1877, 1882-1887		not received
Prenzlauer Berg water tower	Knaackstrasse 23 ( location )	Prenzlauer Berg	1875-1877		Monument protection
Intermediate pumping station in Charlottenburg	Spandauer Damm 148 ( location )	West end	1876-1877, 1885-1887		Monument protection
Tempelhofer Berg water tower	Kopischstr. 7 / fidicinstr. 37 ( location )	Kreuzberg	1887-1888	Hugo Hartung and Richard Schultze	Monument protection
Friedrichshagen waterworks	Müggelseedamm 301–310 ( location )	Friedrichshagen	1889-1893	Richard Schultze	Monument protection
Lichtenberg intermediate pumping station	Landsberger Allee 230 ( location )	Lichtenberg	1889-1893	Richard Schultze	Monument protection

Honors

On January 1, 1898, a new street in Berlin-Grunewald was named after Gill.

At the end of the 19th century, a bronze bust was erected on a stone plinth in memory of Henry Gill on the grounds of the Friedrichshagen waterworks. While the base was preserved, the bust is lost today. In 1987 a memorial plaque with a relief of Gills was attached to the base.

Since December 1, 1992, Gill's grave has been kept in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery as the honor grave of the city of Berlin.

literature

• Henry Gill † . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 13, No. 25 (June 24, 1893), p. 264.
• Henry Gill † . (PDF) In: Deutsche Bauzeitung , Volume 27, No. 50 (June 24, 1893), p. 312.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Henry Gill † . In: Zentralblatt der Bauverwaltung , Volume 13, No. 25 (June 24, 1893), p. 264.
2. ^ Hilmar Bärthel: Water for Berlin . Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-345-00633-2 , pp. 45ff
3. ↑ Gillstrasse . In: Street name dictionary of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (since 1960 Gillweg)
4. ↑ Honorary graves of the State of Berlin (PDF)