The Snapping Bishop

Not seen this chap before I think, its not easy to tell Is it. Hes visited a few times this year already, spotted occasionally through the heavy undergrowth that is my garden …. Its usually just a quick passing visit as the grass hasn’t been dry enough for sitting let alone a quick bit of napping.

Just a young chap this one, I’m guessing a foxy teenager buy the look his handsome face. Hes not particularly as nervous as I’d usually expect of a fox, possibly hes spotted and smelt me a few times and I’ve just never noticed him watching …

After my first few shots got his attention he slowly got to his feet and started casually investigated my hiding place, It wasn’t many more frames later before he decided enough was enough and that big glass eye and loud shutter got the better of him causing him to suddenly scarper.

Earlier fox blogs can be found here, or via the links on the right hand side of all SnappingBishop blogs.

Photographic Piece: Title. Forbidden News.

Found plastered to one of the walls within the main loading bay.

Millennium Mills.

There is a building, standing resolute, almost benign to the passing of time; it’s huge, and I mean big. A twelve story warehouse at its highest, and three times the width, originally used to mill flour and make food stuffs. Large parts of its massive structure date back to 1933 and smaller parts go back another forty years. It now stands slowly decaying, overlooking the Royal Victoria Dock, just across from the new Expo exhibition center and next to the London City Airport, all within easy view of the rapid developments making up the skyscrapers of the London Docklands. (Just to the left off the shot below)

It’s been empty since 1992, which seems a shame since its name clearly deserves the whole hundred year working period, but thats when these London docks and the trade shipping this far down river started to declined rapidly from the 80’s onwards. Spillers then moved production to Tilbury Docks, further east, making similar use of the river, rail and road networks as it had done with the Royal Docks as they once were. The Old Mill still dominates a huge area of land including a restored ship-to-grain-silo building (labled the ‘D’ silo) which can be seen standing brightly painted white behind the Mills to the south.
Googlemap Link

Now, I’ve wandered around a few times but I can’t find a way up onto the upper floors (well, not a safe way anyway). All the windows, floors , ledges, stairs, shafts and holes are blocked and boarded. This place has been “wandered” many times before and you’ll find many London folk have documented their efforts on various websites and blogs. I tend to wander alone, so falling a couple of floors through excessive clambering helps halt my single-minded stupidity. However if any of you reading this would like an accomplice for a try, please do give me a shout and I’ll get the chalk out.

Spillers Millennium Millsl was built in West Ham nearby around and at 1900, owned initially by Vernon & Sons, but later purchased Spillers who also bought up various other silos owned by Vernon & Sons. Initially there where four of this type, thankfully D silo still remains intact.

Photographic Piece: Title Caged Piano.

Tall blue steel gates hide the unused tug and yard from prying eyes, I’ve often looked through the slots on the hinge side and wondered who and why the yard seemed to be abandoned in an area of London that has been swamped with redevelopment over recent years.

The Isle of Dogs, … not a name that conjures up images of a skyscrapers and glass for me, more like a gritty street name formed from the word of the people that worked the old docks. I used to think of the area as an island for industry when I first moved to London many years ago, and really, thats exactly what the area had been, small collections of terraced houses fill its curving river banks from one side to the other, (Its a ‘u’ shaped area made by the river) with the remains of a shipping industry and huge water filled docks dominating its interior . Now however, the Isle of dogs is the home of the London Docklands new developments such as Canary wharf, and Canada Square, the whole area has been modernised along side this new growth, huge sky scrapers now dominate all views, the docks have been polished and cleaned and many old mechanical ruins have been restored as monuments to the areas origins. Arty lighting everywhere gives the whole area a modern panoramic feel, classic tree lined walk ways divide large stretches of open water containing all varieties of mored boats. Concrete and steel buildings mixed with the repeated architecture of tinted glass buildings line most of the new roads, and over all, I find its quite a wonderland for 21st century architectural photography…

… I’m saving those shots for another post, In the mean time if you ever find those blue gates or wander along the Thames beach at low tide you may very well wander upon this little nugget of a frozen time, and like me, you’d probably ponder on its owner. “What is going to happen to that tug, is it destined to decay slowly year after year, a boat like that has some value”, your thinking, “If I could just bump into the owner”, you fantasize , “I’d make an offer, you never know your luck” … But of course there is no owner, no trace to help me find him, the registry land addresses do little to help. The local pub gives me a name, boasts about him visiting the pub and tells me hes a master of the ivories and occasionally fills the air with the sounds of his piano. I ‘ve sent a couple of letters and hope to hear from him, but as yet I’ve had no reply.

So, the only hint I have of finding him it seems is to wait for the sound of a piano, a well played piano, dusty and stained yes, but reasonably in tune according to my amateur ear. Its defiantly been used from time to time, its keys are dusted and its lid left up, a chair in a corner shouts out “I’m only still around because of that instrument” and although hits hidden in an old shed, which is hidden in and old boat yard, next to an old rusty tug, behind high spiked fences and barbed wire, but still amongst one of the most modern and extensively developed places on the planet. Yet it still sits proudly and quietly, waiting for its ivories to be tickled again, somehow waiting in certain knowledge that one day soon, its owner will return and the old songs will be sung again.

…. Its a thin hope, but its better than no hope at all… Maybe you’ll hear it and not me.

It’s an odd spot North Woolwich…

With my back to the Thames and old pier I’ll try and describe it too you: on my far left there’s the Thames ferry terminal pier curving around into the Thames and deeper water, Its car park on my immediate left, at the moment, off peak, just empty rows divided by miscellaneous cones. Within that oval area you’ll find the fine Victorian domed entrance to one of the Thames foot tunnels, standing oddly alone amongst the swathes of lanes and bus stops. Then there’s the North Woolwich museum across the road in front of me, with its own bit of short rail track and working steam train going off to the left behind the car park. To my right and in front of me the footings and remains of a public house and an attached club bar place which overlooks the river, all lays in ruins, graffiti covers the walls everywhere you look, and although great efforts have been made by the local council to keep the place inaccessible, over the years, nothing has stopped the local youth from doing their thing… Behind this boarded monument to free speech, disposable barbecues and spray paint you’ll find a small and pretty park, sitting very low measured against my position it travels eastwards alongside a grass covered hill which is actually the river banks huge buttressed walls.

Ive dug these shots out but in fact I’m yet to find the clear shots that I have showing the whole Pier. I remember standing on the ferry shooting them so the’re here somewhere…. so for now just the first set. I’ll stick a link here to a new blog when I find and/or publish a newer set on a fresh blog.

Photograph Piece Shot that day: Title. MillenniumLock

This was taken just a short wander west along the same bank as the caisson, looking across at the Millennium Dome.

The 1806 caisson dry dock gate on the Thames at Bow Creek.

Well, 1806 is a date, possibly the wrong date, in fact; it may well have been constructed many years earlier. Suggestions go back to 1779 because thats when this dock (one of four, all now gone) were originally built.

As you can tell I’m awestruck by this odd construction, the simplicity of design providing such a useful but difficult function grabbed my imagination and my love of engineering…

So I started digging. The main problem with trying to track down a date for this caisson is that it may not be the original gate! One of the useful aspects of using a floating caisson is that you can float it for use elsewhere so this caisson may well have come from any one of the hundreds of dry docks around at that time… or not… and have been adapted to fit this dry dock, a very common practice at the time.

A caisson, in case your wondering, can be described as a self-supported water tight structure designed to be used in or under water. Often used as a workspace for men building underwater, a temporary or permanent support, or like this one, a simple floating vessel that could be sunk and re-floated and used to dam a dry dock. (further description at Wiki)

This marvel of engineering as I like to call it, is an open top type, and can be found on the Thames near the outlet for Bow creek. If you open the link you can clearly see the curve of it via a Google map overview. (Link Googlemaps)

This caisson was refurbished around 1860 with wrought iron at the nearby Thames Iron works ( The origins of the West Ham United football team. Link to a WHU Stadium photograph in my gallery.) Its renovation is described in the London 1865 survey as ‘new and as having been fitted at the entrance within a few years.’ The same source describes the shape and size of the dry dock behind the caisson as being 272ft long, 55ft wide and 20ft deep, with timber lined sides and similar base with a curved brick head completing the other end of the dock.

Caissons used for gates like this were cunningly fabricated underneath to seal the entrance against leaking and provide a reliable way to secure the gate against further movement caused by the huge weight of a tidal Thames pushing to and fro from one side.

A ridge would be attached to the caisson running underneath, from left to right. Correspondingly a mirror of the ridge made as trough would be cast into the entrance’s brickwork, possibly using fresh clay as well, and again along the base and both sides. At full tide, the dock full of water, and a suitable ship fully moored within the dock, the empty caisson would be floated into position at the entrance. As it was filled with water via huge inlets direct from the Thames (you can see the one remaining inlet in the top shot), the caisson would sink down, guided by the ridge and trough until eventually once fully filled, it sat slotted and sealed into the entrance. Once filled the dock could be emptied naturally as the river flowed out on the next low tide via the two large outlets at the base of the caisson.

Article References.

British History Online Other leads for the history of this caisson including a photograph taken in 1986.

Trinity Buoy Wharf Historical Interest, River Access, Lighthouse.

Orchard Place, Bow Creek. (British History) Location, Ownership, Local History.

I Also found this great image of a Caisson being constructed as a working space for the Blackwall Tunnel nearby. From Tower Hamlets Council Archives. Small pdf Here Its very quick to load.

Interesting source - www.bruzelius.info’ ‘Quotation’ - In 1835-6, the well-known firm of Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare commenced iron shipbuilding on the Thames, which they carried on for many years in Bow Creek, the site of the present Thames Iron Works, and at a later period were followed by Messrs. David Napier, Samuda Bros., M. and H. L. Wigram, Miller and Ravenhill, Robinsons and Russell (afterwards the well-known firm of J. Scott Russell and Co., who built the “Great Eastern,” and whose premises included those formerly occupied by Messrs. Fairbairn and Napier), Joyce, Dudgeons, Rennie, and others.

This story and its links to The Thames Iron Works is to be continued…

[Read more →]

Photograph piece: Title. SnailsPace

Situated on the Greenway trail this Sewage pump is a fraction of remains from the now empty Waterworks Building.

Like many buildings for new and cutting edge equipment, the Victorians knew a thing or two about grandeur. This building certainly outdoes its seemingly mundane task of pumping liquid by exuberantly pronouncing its importance with wonderful Gothic details and displays of seamless stonework mixed with the superb finesse of Victorian brickwork. It’s really quite a wonder from any angle, and although I’ve been lucky enough to tour the insides a little, cameras were not allowed due to its use at that time. I intend to get access again next year, so watch this space…

A beautiful building, part of Joseph Bazalgette’s enormous undertaking to build The Northern Outfall Sewer system, which took sewage from all over London to Beckton. Built around the 1860s, it’s situated in plentiful grounds full of mature trees, surrounded by various ancillary equipment buildings at its rear. It’s not easy to spot from the road, is not open to the public, and sits quietly behind tall brick walls, untouched and unused; its working role has long since been superseded by a new stainless steel pumping station nearby.

Nicknamed ‘The Cathedral of Sewage’ in its time, it contained eight steam driven beam engines and was used to lift low level sewage up into the main outfall. (Googlemap Link)

This blog is to be continued…. (Part of the Greenway series)

A connected article list will appear here as and when those blogs are researched and written..