Greenwich Peninsula

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Greenwich Peninsula
Greenwich Peninsula shown within Greater London
OS grid reference	TQ392796
London borough	Greenwich
Ceremonial county	Greater London
Region	London
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LONDON
Postcode district	SE10
Dialling code	020
Police	Metropolitan
Fire	London
Ambulance	London
European Parliament	London
UK Parliament	Greenwich and Woolwich
London Assembly	Greenwich and Lewisham
List of places: UK • England • London

Coordinates: 51°29′53″N 0°00′23″E / 51.498131, 0.006317

The Greenwich Peninsula, sometimes known as Blackwall Point, is a tongue of land bounded on three sides by a loop of the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs and Silvertown. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton.

The peninsula lies within the London Borough of Greenwich. Formerly known as Greenwich Marshes^[1], it became known as East Greenwich as it developed in the 19th century, but is often now called North Greenwich due to the naming of the North Greenwich tube station. This should not be confused with North Greenwich on the Isle of Dogs, at the north side of a former ferry from Greenwich. Landmarks include The O₂ (previously the Millennium Dome) and the southern end of the Blackwall Tunnel, but the area is being substantially redeveloped.

[edit] History

The peninsula was drained by Dutch engineers in the 16th century, allowing it to be used as pasture land. In the 17th century, Blackwall Point (the northern tip of the peninsula, opposite Blackwall) gained notoriety as a location where pirates' corpses were hung in cages as a deterrent to other would-be pirates.

The peninsula glimpsed from Greenwich Park in 1973. The view is framed on left and right by the chimneys of Greenwich Power Station and Blackwall Point Power Station

The peninsula was steadily industrialised from the early 1800s onwards. Early industries included Henry Blakeley's Ordnance Works making heavy guns, with other sites making chemicals, submarine cables, iron boats, iron and steel.^[1] Henry Bessemer built a steel works in the early 1860s to supply the London shipbuilding industry, but this closed as a result of the fall in demand due to the financial crisis of 1866.^[2] Later came oil mills, shipbuilding (for example the 1870 clippers Blackadder and Hallowe'en built by Maudslay), boiler making, manufacture of Portland cement and linoleum (Bessemer's works became the Victoria linoleum works), and the South Metropolitan Gas company's huge East Greenwich Gasworks.^[3] Early in the 20th century came bronze manufacturers Delta Metals and works making asbestos and 'Molassine Meal' animal feed.^[4]

The west side of the peninsula from the Thames in 2001 - part of the glucose works.

For over 100 years the peninsula was dominated by the gasworks which primarily produced town gas, also known as coal gas. The gasworks grew to 240 acres (97 hectares), the largest in Europe, also producing coke, tar and chemicals as important secondary products.. The site had its own extensive railway system and a large jetty used to import coal and export coke. There were two huge gas holders, of 8.6 and 12.2 million ft³ (236,000m³ and 335,000m³). The larger holder, originally the largest in the world, was reduced to 8.9 million ft³ (245,000m³) following damage by the large Silvertown explosion in 1917, but was still the largest in England when damaged again by a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb in 1978. Originally manufacturing gas from coal, the plant began to manufacture gas from oil in the 1960s. Its peak production of 400 million ft³ per day (11.3 million m³) in the mid 1960s is believed to have been the largest of any single site in the world.^[5] The discovery of natural gas reserves in the North Sea soon rendered the complex obsolete.

On the eastern shore was Blackwall Point Power Station, an original station from the 1890s being replaced in the 1950s by a new station which ceased operation about 1981. A large area including the site of the Victoria linoleum works later became the Victoria Deep Water Terminal in 1966, handling container traffic.

At the southern end of the peninsula Enderby's Wharf was occupied by a succession of famous submarine cable companies from 1857 onwards, including Glass Elliot, W T Henley, Telcon, Submarine Cables Ltd, STC, Nortel and Alcatel.^[6]

The peninsula remained a very remote place from the main part of London until opening of the Blackwall Tunnel in 1897, and had no passenger railway or London Underground service until the opening of North Greenwich tube station on the Jubilee Line in 1999.

Closure of the gasworks, power station and other industries in the late 20th century left much of the Greenwich Peninsula a barren wasteland, much of it heavily contaminated.

Surviving industrial uses today on the western side of the peninsula, between the river and the A102 Blackwall Tunnel southern approach road include Alcatel, the Tunnel Refiners glucose plant (now part of Tate & Lyle), and two large marine aggregate terminals on the Delta Metals and Victoria Deep Water Terminal sites. One of the two gas holders also remains.

[edit] Redevelopment since early 1990s

The Millennium Dome, the largest single-roofed structure in the world

Public and private investment since the early 1990s has brought about some dramatic changes in the Peninsula's topography. In 1997 English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency, purchased 121 ha of disused land on the Peninsula. The agency's investment of over £225m has helped to enhance the transport network and create new homes, commercial space and community facilities as well as open up access to parkland along the river.

In addition to the construction of the Millennium Dome, the eastern side of the Peninsula has received an entirely new road infrastructure in anticipation of new developments. New riverside walkways, cycle paths and public artworks were also created. The first phase of Greenwich Millennium Village was and is an expanding extensive residential development, which also included the Millennium Primary School and medical centre, and a nature reserve and associated education centre. A Holiday Inn hotel was also built nearby, and Greenwich Yacht Club was relocated to a new site east of the Dome.

Despite being initially sparsely populated, the Peninsula has emerged as a hub for public transport in South East London. It is served by North Greenwich tube station, opened in 1999 as part of the Jubilee Line Extension project. The station is one of the largest on the London Underground network and is co-located with North Greenwich bus station, which acts as a hub for services in the South-East of the capital.

In 2004 outline planning permission was granted for further large-scale redevelopment of the site, including over 10,000 further homes, several million square feet of office space and the conversion of the Millennium Dome into an indoor arena, renamed The O₂. Just south of The O₂, a new public square has been constructed, adjacent to a large temporary building housing the David Beckham Academy football school. Slightly further south is the Pilot Inn public house, one of the oldest remaining buildings on the Peninsula.

[edit] Future development

The south of the peninsula is now being developed into housing (the latest phase in the construction of the Greenwich Millennium Village), and the Dome will be a London 2012 venue. The redevelopment is meant to be completed in a 28-year time period. While there is much debate about the prospects for commercial regeneration brought about by the reopening of the Dome, the new-found proximity of the Peninsula to Canary Wharf, Silvertown, as well as The City, and central London brought about by the Jubilee Line extension makes continued regeneration as a residential district a likely prospect.

[edit] References