Orchard Place and Trinity Buoy Wharf: A Brief History

The Hope and Orchard

Throughout the middle ages Orchard Place was green and rural, remaining that way into the late 18th century.

Orchard House and its orchard, which took up most of the eastern branch, was owned by Mr Wright from 1743-1766.

Goodluck Hope took up much of the northern branch of the peninsula and belonged to the Manor of Stepney. It had a cooperage, a fishery, grazing meadows and a good sized house, called Handlebury. It was also known as Hanbury or Handle Hall and was demolished in 1804.

In 1810 Robert Wigram, who was an East India merchant who had helped to set up the East India Dock Company, in 1803, bought Goodluck Hope, calling it the Wigram Estate.

In 1815 the East India Company bought Orchard House, as the new East India Docks were just next door.

The first industry on Bow Creek was a copperas works. Bow Creek was ideal for this work as London Clay was full of iron pyrites, from which copperas could be extracted. Copperas, an iron sulphate, was used as an ingredient in sulphuric acid, as a fixative for wool and, up until the 19th century, it made the black of ink.

By the late 18th century competition from the north had grown too strong for copperas works in the south. This, along with other factors, saw the last of the copperas works close, early in the 19th century.

Mapping History

Between 1700 and 1820 Orchard Place was transformed from a semi-rural backwater to a busy centre of national importance for trade and industry. So many businesses sprang up, went bust or grew and moved that the maps of 19th century Orchard Place are different every decade.

The Age of Iron and Steam

In 1810 an iron bridge was built to provide a road linking East India Docks and Canning Town, but had to be torn down, in 1887, after a collier barge crashed into it.

In 1840 a railway was opened to link Orchard Place with the City, with trains leaving from Fenchurch Street and arriving at Blackwall station. This would become the London and Blackwall Railway that not only transported goods, but people who were taking trips to the seaside via a paddle steamer. These steamers went to Gravesend and Rosherville Gardens, Northfleet.

In 1862 the Great Eastern Railway was formed, running services to East Anglia. It's locomotives were built at Stratford, while the engine sheds were just up river from Orchard Place.

In 1902 the Midlands manufacturers, Baldwins Limited, brought the Blackwall Galvanised Iron Company to Orchard Place, where they had workshops for much of the 20th century. One of the directors was Stanley Baldwin, who would go on to become Prime Minister.

The Thames Plate Glass Company

The Thames Plate Glass Company, founded in 1835, was the only plate glass factory in the South of England, and was famed for the size of glass it produced and for the finish. No other glass company could match the size of glass produced here. Nearly half of its employees were women, as their 'superior delicacy of touch' allowed for better grinding and polishing of the glass.

Its glass was used for lenses, mirrors, theatre scenery and the Bow Creek Lighthouse, which still stands, and in which Michael Faraday experimented.

In 1862 Henry Dircks and John Pepper used Thames Plate Glass to create a theatrical optical illusion that would go on to be called 'Dr Pepper's Ghost'. So popular was this illusion that the company sold out of Ghost glass.

Well known for embracing the latest technologies, the Thames Plate Glass Company was the first to use the glass rollers designed by Sir Henry Bessemer.

In 1874, following competition from the North, and abroad, the company closed.

Taxi Call Lights

London, like every city and town, is full of street lamps, some of which are affixed to buildings, while others sit atop lampposts. 

While the majority of these are powered by electricity a small percentage are still powered by gas, like the one below..

However, unlike anywhere else that I know of, London also has taxi call lights. These call lights are usually attached to hotels, private residences and the occasional Government building, like the one below at the Palace of Westminster.

Garden Museum, Lambeth

In what was St Mary-at-Lambeth church resides the world's first Garden Museum.

John and Rosemary Nicholson, who were keen garden lovers, rediscovered the tombs of two 17th century Royal gardeners, John Tradescant the Elder and the Younger in the churchyard garden, in 1976. This same year the church, by now roofless and crumbling, was scheduled for demolition, so the Nicholsons set up the Tradescant Trust as a way of saving the tombs and the church buildings, with plans to open a museum to the history of gardening.

The Museum of Garden History opened in 1977, with much of its original collection being donated by friends and Londoners. When it opened it had wooden and earth floors, no heating or lighting and no drainage. As such the museum was unable to exhibit works of art or precious artefacts that needed to be securely displayed.

In the 1980s the Knot Garden, created and designed by Lady Salisbury, President of the Garden Museum, offering a place of quiet reflection, away from the hustle and bustle of London life.

In 1990 the Museum of Garden History looked to expand, not just its collection but also spaces within which to display it, so plans were drawn up that included a mezzanine level.

In 2002 the museum set a target to raise £600,000 to pay for a general overhaul of the facilities.

In 2008 Phase I of the refurbishment began, with the museum's interior being transformed to include exhibition, event and gallery spaces. On November 18 the Museum of Garden History reopened as the Garden Museum.

'Windrush & Commonwealth NHS Nurses and Midwives Statue' by Dr Jak Beula

At the entrance to the Whittington Hospital, on Magdala Avenue, there is a stylised mother and child statue.

It depicts a mother cradling her newborn baby, with the mother wearing a nurses' fob watch.

This unique statue was commissioned to commemorate the extraordinary efforts of the some 40,000 Windrush and Commonwealth NHS nurses and midwives, who came to the UK between 1948 and 1973 in order to help the newly created NHS.

The statue consists of 16 pieces of granite and is 2.1m in height, width and depth and cost £100,000.

It was unveiled on Friday September 10, 2021.

A worn brass plaque reads:

'The Windrush & Commonwealth NHS Nurses and Midwives Statue' was conceived and designed by Johnny Alexander Bebeula Dodd, aka Dr Jak Beula. 

He named the piece "NICU Suite 16" because of the 16 pieces of granite used to create the statue. 

It is dedicated to all Commonwealth National Health Service staff, notably Nurses and Midwives from Africa and the Caribbean, who have worked in the NHS since its foundation in 1948. 

The Nubian Jak Community Trust thanks Whittington Health NHS Trust and Islington Council for supporting this NHS Memorial. 

Special thanks to Islington BH365, Haringey Council, Ernst & young, Arsenal Football Club, Entain PLC, Havas Group, Aviva, Crowdfunder UK and the generous donations from nursing organisations and the general public for the successful delivery of this statue. May she be a source of inspiration to all NHS staff and provide light,  hope and pride to those who come into contact with this memorial.

Elsyng Spital Church Tower, City of London

Elsyng Spital Church Tower.

The City of London is full of churches. Some are still in use, while others are ruins. Some of these ruins have been turned into pocket gardens, where people can go to escape the bustle of the city. Others, like Elsyng Spital Church Tower, have been left as they are.

I like that places like this have been left, rather than bulldozed, now standing alongside the new office blocks which, no doubt, won't last as long.

This is all that remains of the tower of the church of the medieval hospital of Elsyng Spital. 

 

The entrance to the church was through the archway on the right.