Angerstein Wharf is an industrial area and location of a marine

construction aggregate Construction aggregate, or simply aggregate, is a broad category of coarse- to medium-grained particulate material used in construction. Traditionally, it includes natural materials such as sand, gravel, crushed stone. As with other types of ag ...

and an associated

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mi ...

facility and

freight station A goods station (also known as a goods yard or goods depot) or freight station is, in the widest sense, a railway station where, either exclusively or predominantly, goods (or freight), such as merchandise, parcels, and manufactured items, are lo ...

in the

Port of London The Port of London is that part of the River Thames in England lying between Teddington Lock and the defined boundary (since 1968, a line drawn from Foulness Point in Essex via Gunfleet Old Lighthouse to Warden Point in Kent) with the North Se ...

, operated by the

Cemex CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V., known as Cemex, is a Mexican multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than ...

company, located on the south bank of the Bugsby's Reach of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in both

Greenwich Greenwich ( , , ) is an List of areas of London, area in south-east London, England, within the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Greater London, east-south-east of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime hi ...

and

Charlton Charlton may refer to: People * Charlton (surname) * Charlton (given name) Places Australia * Charlton, Queensland * Charlton, Victoria * Division of Charlton, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wales ...

, within the

Royal Borough of Greenwich The Royal Borough of Greenwich (, , or ) is a London borough in southeast Greater London, England. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolita ...

. It has

safeguarded wharf Safeguarded wharves are those wharves in London which have been given special status by the Mayor of London and the Port of London Authority (PLA) which ensures they are retained as working wharves and are protected from redevelopment into non ...

status.

History

The wharf was named after

John Julius Angerstein John Julius Angerstein (1735 – 22 January 1823) was a Russian-born British businessman and art collector who worked an underwriter for Lloyd's of London. It was the prospect that his collection of paintings was about to be sold by his es ...

(1732–1823), a local land owner who made his fortune in the East Indian trade as well as having West Indian business links, including a third share in a slave plantation in Grenada. His art collection was bought in 1824 to form the nucleus of the

National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current dire ...

. He built a long railway line from the line that runs from to . When originally built, the railway junction faced Blackheath but the junction now faces Charlton station. The branch was leased to the South Eastern Railway from 30 October 1852 to 1898 when they bought it outright. The company established its signal works at the location although according to an 1895 map the route towards Blackheath had been disconnected. This area is referred to as the Angerstein Triangle but the date of the signal works closing is unknown (believed to be in the early 1980s). When opened the wharf had a river frontage of and could accommodate ships of up to 1,500 tons.

Associated industries

Between 1820 and 1930 dredging contractors Flowers and Everett operated on the site and operated a narrow gauge system with three locomotives. The steel firm Redpath Dorman Long operated a steel fabrication plant on the site between 1903 and 1978. Another steel company - the Greenwich Metal Works - operated on the site between 1913 and 1976. Both companies operated privately owned shunting locomotives. Between 1919 and 1967 a large glass bottling factory operated by the United Glass Bottle Manufacturers was based on the site. Adjacent to the branch was the London County Council's central tram repair depot (opened 1909) which was served by a siding off the branch. Another mile and a half siding served the South Metropolitan Gasworks, whilst a privately run firm called Christies supplied railway sleepers and had an extensive internal rail network on their site. By 1925 some 30,000 tons of sleepers and significant numbers of telegraph poles were being produced from this site. There was also a general goods facility dealing with manure, steel, rails, fertilisers, coal, coke, stone, flour, sand, slates, timber and petrol. In 1886 the South Metropolitan Gas Company opened the East Greenwich Works. Coal Gas production ceased in 1968 and the chemical by-products plant closed eight years later. This site is now (in 2014) occupied by the

Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East (London sub region), South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millen ...

. The site had its own fleet of standard gauge locomotives as well as a small narrow gauge railway. The 1969 Railway Control Diagram showed a line along the wharf served by wagon turntables as well as the following companies having sidings on the site: * A-A Oil (Anglo-American?) * Shell-Mex and B.P. * C A Harveys * Christies * Renwick Wilton's * London Transport Executive * South Eastern Gas Board Siding There were two engine sheds shown on the diagram (for BP and A-A) suggesting these companies had their own shunting locomotives on the site. From the overbridge belonging to the Greenwich railway line, the line was equipped with an overhead electrical supply rather than the standard third rail supply. This was for safety reasons and locomotives of

British Rail Class 71 The British Rail Class 71 is an electric locomotive that was used on the Southern Region of British Railways. Unlike Southern Region electro-diesel locomotives (such as classes 73 and 74) they could not operate away from the electrified (750 ...

were equipped to use this.

Passenger traffic

Passenger trains were limited to enthusiast specials and photographic evidence of one run on 29 March 1958 can be found in Fig 65 of 'Charing Cross to Dartford' by Vic Mitchell and Keith Smith. On 10 January 1987 'The Blue Circular' railtour traversed the line formed of a Class 202 DEMU. The 'Orange Pippin' railtour of 30 August 2003 was worked by two class 66 locomotives.

Later history

During the 1970s the Angerstein Wharf site was used as a railhead to receive large stone boulders from Caldon Low (Staffordshire) in connection with the building of the

Thames Barrier The Thames Barrier is a retractable barrier system built to protect the floodplain of most of Greater London from exceptionally high tides and storm surges moving up from the North Sea. It has been operational since 1982. When needed, it is c ...

.Modern Railways magazine May 2012 Interview With Keith Winder Page 92 Between 1963 and 1987 the Thames Metal Company operated a scrap yard on the site and this site was then taken over by Day Aggregates in 1993 and is the location of the current facility.

Current use

Since 1990 the site has been used almost exclusively used for loading and unloading of sea-dredged aggregates; as of 2014, the operator was

Aggregate Industries Aggregate Industries UK Limited, a member of the Holcim Group, is a company based in the United Kingdom with headquarters at Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire. Aggregate Industries manufactures and supplies a range of heavy building materi ...

. The

Thames Path The Thames Path is a National Trail following the River Thames from one of its sources near Kemble, Gloucestershire, Kemble in Gloucestershire to the Woolwich foot tunnel, south east London. It is about long. A path was first proposed in 1948 ...

passes by Angerstein Wharf, with several

conveyors A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to a belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor b ...

passing over it, and dust of cement and sand covering part of it. File:Aggregate train from Angerstein Wharf - geograph.org.uk - 513188.jpg, Aggregates train from the wharf, 2007 File:Angerstein Wharf 2 Charlton.jpg,

Conveyors A conveyor belt is the carrying medium of a belt conveyor system (often shortened to a belt conveyor). A belt conveyor system consists of two or more pulleys (sometimes referred to as drums), with a closed loop of carrying medium—the conveyor b ...

handling cargoes of bulk aggregate, 2010 File:2018 Charlton Riverside 17.jpg,

, 2018 File:2018 Charlton Riverside 22.jpg, Silos, 2018 File:2018 Charlton Riverside 15.jpg,

at Angerstein Wharf, 2018

References

External links

Press release

Press release
* {{oscoor gbx, TQ404791 Ports and harbours of the Thames Estuary Port of London Wharves in the United Kingdom Charlton, London