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Thorney Tales (17) Westminster Coke and Gas Company

In Great Peter Street, a stone’s throw from The Thorney Island Society’s archive up St Ann’s Lane, there is a plaque commemorating the site of the gasworks of the world’s first public supply of gas from coal.

This is only part of the story though. There were actually two huge gas holding tanks next to the company’s head office and the whole complex stretched from Great Peter Street to Horseferry Road. The Gas Light and Coke Company expanded rapidly eventually to become the company we know today as British Gas.

It was all due to a German called Frederick Winsor (née Winzler) using disputed French patents. On 4th June 1807 his carbonising furnace in Pall Mall dispatched gas along small pipes to illuminate gaslights in the nearby Carlton House, the home of the Prince Regent and a new industry was born.

There had been instances of individual factories or houses using gas as a source of energy but these were one-offs. The kudos for creating widespread public lighting from a single central source must be given to Frederick Winsor.

In May 1808 he issued a prospectus to raise money which gives a clear idea of his project, “providing streets, squares, and houses with gaseous lights, by means of conducting tubes underground from distant furnaces, on the principles as houses are now supplied with water“.

The gaslights in Pall Mall burned brightly until recently when they were replaced as part of 'improvements' to the neighbourhood. But there are thousands of working gaslights in central London. The nearest ones are in and around St James’s Park.

Winsor died in Paris where he also worked and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery but he is remembered by Winsor Terrace near Beckton Gas Works in east London as well as the gas lights that still light up parts of central London to this day.

Thorney Tales (17) Westminster Coke and Gas Company

Spring-Summer 2019 Newsletter

Illuminated River

We have been consulted about this interesting new project, the Illuminated River. The idea is to enliven all 15 bridges between Albert Bridge and Tower Bridge at night with a lighting scheme that celebrates each particular bridge’s characteristics. Because LED lights will be used the total energy consumption will be less than the current lighting schemes and will also be less intrusive to the wildlife in the river, which depends on natural darkness.

If you want to read more about the project, and watch an animated visualisation go to: https://illuminatedriver.london/project#about-project

Dolphin Square Redevelopment

Residents of Pimlico are very concerned by the threat to Dolphin Square from a development that plans to make significant alterations to the buildings and threatens the garden. They would welcome support in fighting this proposal - initially by signing their petition at Change.org:

https://www.change.org/p/westminster-city-council-save-dolphin-square-and-its-beautiful-listed-grade-ii-gardens

The issue is of Westminster-wide concern because the increased density proposed, in what is already a high density development, is setting a dangerous precedent.

Townsend House, Greycoat Place

UPDATE !

February 2019 Whilst we are still sorry to see the demise of the present Edwardian building, we think the new version, without the metallic upper floor, is a big improvement on the first submission last February 2018. Read our full response on the Planning page.

January 2019 This application has been backwards and forwards to WCC with various changes over the past year. The current proposals for the latest planning application were unveiled at a public exhibition on site on Thursday, 17th January.

6th February 2018 We are sad that this attractive brick-built building is to be demolished; it is surprising and unfortunate that none of the surrounding conservation areas cover this small area, which includes the nearby Grade 2 listed Greycoat Hospital School.

Autumn-Winter 2018 Newsletter

CLICK IMAGE BELOW TO VIEW:

AGM 2018

The Society's AGM was held on 13th November 2018 at the Grange Rochester Hotel. The meeting was pleased to welcome Ptolemy Dean, architect of the new Weston Tower leading to the Queen's Jubilee Galleries and 19th Surveryor of the Fabric of Westminster Abbey, who gave an excellent talk with slides on the background, design and construction of the tower and explained some of the future plans and challenges facing the Abbey in order to improve the overall visitor experience, ticket hall, security check and storage areas.

Please click below to view:

Annual Report

Financial Statements

Centenary of Armistice Cenotaph Service and Exhibition in St James's Park

Remembrance Day, 11th November, started at 11am with two minutes silence marked by the firing of guns from the King’s Troop on Horse Guards Parade followed by a service at the Cenotaph. TTIS Vice President, The Right Revd Dame Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London led the service of remembrance which was attended by the President of Germany for the first time.

St James’s Park has made a special contribution this year by hosting the “Fields of Battle, Lands of Peace” exhibition with superb images of the sites of battlefields by photographer Michael St Maur Sheil. It demonstrates the “healing power” of the land and minds over the raw memory of war. The exhibition continues until 19th November.

Centenary of Armistice Exhibition in St James's Park

Relocation of Emmeline Pankhurst statue from Victoria Tower Gardens

UPDATE! The application for the removal of the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst from Victoria Tower Gardens was withdrawn following a very large number of objections and considerable press coverage.

This statue was commissioned by the women who worked with her and its position next to Parliament is symbolic of her significance in British history. It is planned that after she is relocated to Regents University in Regents Park, a larger statue of her be placed in Canning Green, at the back of Parliament Square, but we are still not happy and do not want to lose this particular statue in its current position. Read our objection letter on our Planning page and CLICK HERE to leave your own comment on WCC's website.

Relocation of Emmeline Pankhurst statue from Victoria Tower Gardens

Visit to The Queen's Jubilee Galleries, Westminster Abbey - September 2018

More than 30 members enjoyed a delightful visit to the new Queen’s Jubilee Galleries (or Triforium) in Westminster Abbey. We have already reviewed the opening in June but this took nothing away from a remarkable experience. We were welcomed in the Chapter House by Tony Trowles, Head of the Abbey Collection. He described the work of Ptolemy Dean Architect and exhibition designers MUMA that made the new external access tower and exhibition space possible. He thanked the Society for their valuable contributions at design and planning stages in 2014.

The new spiral glass staircase did not disappoint with stunning close up views of the Chapter House windows, rows of gargoyles and beyond to the Houses of Parliament. The materials and craftsmanship in the construction and finish was of the highest quality befitting the Abbey and shards of medieval stained glass, found by cleaners under the floor, had been incorporated into the new glass panes. Once in the Triforium the space is calm and gently lit behind huge carved leaded arch windows. We walked on the wooden floor put in by Sir Christopher Wren who, we have recently learned, appointed a woman, Elizabeth Gregory to be head carpenter there to finish his work, circa 1700.

The views down onto the Abbey floor are magnificent and it is easy to imagine it as a popular viewing gallery at many coronations and funerals. 16 metres below, a perfect view of the normally inaccessible Henry V Chantry Chapel and Poets Corner.

The Galleries show over 300 objects belonging to the Abbey and collected over centuries. Including, several carved wooden royal funeral effigies including of Henry VII and also Nelson, an early Roman sarcophagus (which had been re-used down the centuries), ancient illuminated books and documents including what was known as the Westminster Domesday Book of the 1300s which was compiled by the monks as a record of major grants and the travelling filing chest of Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, who inherited the vast House of Lancaster and was a very shrewd businesswoman who kept a very close eye on the management of the estates.

Our thanks to the Dean and Chapter for putting this special visit into place. For those who missed it, you will have to pay £22 entrance fee to get into the Abbey and another £5 to visit the Galleries but armed with a (free) Westminster residents card and a secondary proof of identity such as a driving licence, you can get into the Abbey for free, then just pay £5 and also you do not have to queue !

Photographs with the kind permission of Westminster Abbey.