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I have the contact details for the Film Officers of the boroughs where the locations I want to photograph are located. The locations are:
- Abbey Mills Pumping Station in Newham : Abbey Lane, Stratford, London E15 2RW
- Crossness Pumping Station in Bexley: The Old Works
Crossness S.T.W., Belvedere Road, Abbey Wood, London SE2 9AQ - Ladywell Baths, Ladywell, Lewisham
I have composed a letter to send to this different locations. I will also try to get them trough the phone and see if I can get any closer to access the locations. The letter goes as follows:
Dear ………..
I would like to introduce myself, my name is Esmeralda Munoz-Torrero and I am student at Camberwell School of Arts, currently studying an MA in Digital Art.
I was kindly given your email address by the Film Officer for City of London, and believe that you are the best person to contact with regard to acquiring access to Crossness Pumping Station. (The Old Works, Crossness S.T.W. , Belvedere Road, Abbey Wood, London SE2 9AQ)
In my project I am attempting to capture through photography some of what remains from the functional architecture of the industrial era. I am documenting buildings, constructions and machines whose development followed a historical thread and also represented the various technical achievements of their time.
Because of this I am therefore writing to you to ask for your help in gaining permission to take photographs inside Crossness Pumping Station. It seems to be a perfect environment and an ideal space for me to capture some truly interesting work for my MA project.
I would like to assure you that this is purely for artistic purposes and not commercial in any way.
If you would like to see the progress of my project and some examples of my work, then you can view my academic blog at http://esmuto.wordpress.com.
Could you please reply to me and let me know if this is acceptable. Naturally I would be bringing photographic equipment with me, such as camera and tripod.
Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Yours truly,
Esmeralda
Discussing what I am doing at the moment with Andy and telling him about the prospect of photographing the Low Hall Pump House he suggested to have a look at the Ladywell Baths in Lewisham. They opened in 1885 and they are now in a state of disrepair. I have found some information about them that I include at the end of this blog’s entry, and I shall investigate what is the best way to approach the council and gain permission to photograph the site. Other 2 places that I’ll attempt to visit and get information from will be The Markfield Beam Engine House and Kew Bridge Steam Museum.
Another point that we discuss it was about the prototype for the final show. It would be interesting to consider showing the images of the interiors portraying a larger statement. Having a way of situating them in relation with the exterior world giving them a stronger sense of enclosure and age. One way of doing this could be to have a projection of the exterior world on top of them. A good representation of the exterior world could be something from nature as opposed to the man-made referents of the photographs, maybe the sky or water…
One thing to consider if I use a masked projection is the light that the projector will inflict on my prints, if they are situated underneath. My initial idea was to print them using a traditional enlarger in fiber coated paper which allows deep tonality, but now I think that the best solution for them to be viewed correctly under a projection will be to display them as film positives in light boxes or as a plan B on LCD screen.
Ladywell Baths (Grade II)
The foundation stone of the baths was laid in May 1884 by Mr. T. W. Williams, Chairman of the Baths Commissioners. The baths were completed a year later, and opened on 25 April 1885, having cost £9000 to build. The architects were Wilson, Son & Aldwinckle of 2 East India Avenue, Leadenhall Street. These architects were also responsible for the Forest Hill Baths which opened in May 1885, a week after Ladywell. Thomas Aldwinckle (1845-1920) lived in Dacres Road from the mid-1880s for about twenty years. In addition to the pools, Aldwinkle also designed Louise House, the Boy’s Industrial Home in Perry Rise (demolished a few years ago) and the Brook Hospital and Water Tower at Shooters Hill.
The Ladywell baths were declared to be ‘an ornament to the neighbourhood’ by the reporter from the Kentish Mercury, and called beautiful by Viscount Lewisham M.P. when he formally opened them. The building contained two swimming baths, each 90ft by 30ft, lined with white glazed brick, which sloped in depth form 3ft 6in at one end to 5ft 6in at the other. In the first class bath, the ceiling was of pitched pine with a skylight, and had a gallery running along three sides with dressing rooms under. All the doors connected with this bath opened outwards. There were also 28 private or ‘slipper’ baths. At the time they were built, the baths were, with the exception of Paddington, the largest in London.
The conical roof of the tower of the baths was removed in the winter of 1907/08, as the Baths Committee did not feel that it justified the spending of £60 for its repair. They said that it fulfilled ‘no useful purpose and its claims to be of an ornamental character are…more than doubtful’. The tower itself ‘is built over a deep artesian well which was sunk to supply the new demand for water’. The coping stones of the original Ladywell (which was situated close to the station) were uncovered in the 19th century during works to the railway bridge and in 1896 were apparently incorporated into a fountain which stood in the grounds of the Ladywell Baths.
New swimming baths were built in Lewisham in 1965, as the old building was considered too expensive to run (Lewisham Borough News, 14 Dec. 1965). At the time, it was thought that the old building would be used ‘as a social centre of some kind, although at present, no firm ideas have been put forward. It is highly probable that the main hall will be used for an indoor cricket school or bowling alley, but nothing is certain yet’. The rear pool building was demolished in the spring of 2006 following a fire.
On the 25th of May I visited Tilbury, which is a renowned town for its docks. I thought I was going to find more structures from the 19th century but the site had been renovated in the 1960s.
A bit about Tilbury Dock history:
Tilbury Dock was built by the East and West India Docks Company in 1833, it’s situated more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) downriver from London.
The docks benefited from the connection with the London, Tilbury and Southend railway line, allowing rapid distribution of goods to the capital and the rest of the country.
The Tilbury Docks opened for business just as steam vessels began to take over the shipping trade. The location of the dock system on the Thames and the size of the basins meant that Tilbury was a very attractive dock to use. Although for decades after their opening, they were relatively underused.
When the Tilbury Docks first opened, in 1886, it traded in a number of goods, including madeira brought in by the West Africa Line; casks of sausage skins packed in brine and India chutney. Materials such as bales of jute and packaged timber and wood pulp also passed through the docks.
During the 1930s grain ships of 50,000 tons were regularly unloading at Tilbury. There were also the usual lighters and barges, ready to transfer the goods into the city.
In contrast to other docks in London, the luxury liner trade used Tilbury Docks. Passengers embarked and disembarked at Tilbury, making use of the good rail links and staying at the local hotels. During the war, Tilbury was used to convert the liners into armed merchant cruisers.
During the 20th century, Tilbury Docks became well known for their grain trade.
Towards the end of the 1960s, Tilbury Docks underwent a £30 million program of improvements. The grain terminal, which opened in 1969, was one of the fastest discharging installations in the world, at 2000 tons per hour. The grain silo on land had a 100,000 ton capacity and there were adjacent private flour mills ready to process the grain.
The 1960s improvements also enabled the large ocean-going cellular container ships to dock and be turned around in 36 hours. These refits enabled the docks to continue in business significantly longer than other dock systems in London.
Joseph Bazalgette (1819-1891) was appointed as a chief engineer to London’s Metropolitan board of works in the mid 19th century (1856).
In the mid 19th century London saw a major expansion of urban population. This created a new problem; London’s ancient sewer system wasn’t ready for the amount of waste that the city produced, particularly from the new fashion of water closets. In 1858 a hot summer made the situation worse and created the ‘Great Stink of London’. The Thames was little more than an open sewer. The city was in trouble, suffering recurring epidemics of cholera.
Joseph Bazalgette was asked to find a solution to these problems and he created a new sewerage system which was 85 miles long. The new sewer system intercepted the old foul waters and diverted them down stream into the Thames. This system involved three major pumping stations, at Abbey Mills (in the Lea Valley), at Deptford, and at Crossness on the Erith marshes.
I would like, if possible, to get permission to visit these pumping stations to view this architecture through the lenses of my camera and explore the intricacies of these buildings. I would like to capture these spaces, experimenting with long exposures. And some of these stations still have the steam engines inside, which would make for involving subject matter.
For the Deptford Creek pumping station I will contact the Greenwich Industrial History Society and see if they can help. The Crossness pumping station has been closed for renovation and will not open till April. I have a contact number which I will use to try to get special permission to photograph the station. I haven’t located a contact number for the Abbey Mills pumping station yet – I only have one for a film location company as this space has already been used for filming – but I will try to find out a means of contact, most probably through Thames Water.
I took a boat trip down the Thames from Greenwich towards the Thames barrier, seeking out architectural and other structures of an industrial nature. Some vestiges from the industrial era where still around, a few buildings and artifacts along the riverside. Most of them were now disused. Unfortunately a lot of pre-existing structures had been knocked down and the land upon which they had stood now redeveloped. I took some pictures of that which I found. I quite liked the feeling of desolation I encountered around the area. It was a bit like being in no-mans land; austere industrial shapes set against the cold afternoon sky. On the walk back I talked to a caretaker and managed to get a phone number for the generation manager of Greenwich Power Station which is next to the Maritime Museum. I plan to contact him to get permission to photograph the building. So all and all it was quite a successful trip.
I have added some more of my images to My Photographs page on the Deptford docks section. I am also going to frame these images and submit them for the ‘FEEDBACK’ show at the ‘House Gallery’. In this show we (MA Digital Arts alumni/ae) intend to put work that will be relevant to our final show. I guess it is a little early in my project but nonetheless it will be very interesting to get feedback on my work.
As a reference to austere industrial shapes I shall mention the work of the Bechers, in their work they photographed and cataloged a vast amount of industrial buildings that were in danger of being demolished as they were no longer used for their function. Their work was very methodical, it was a life time assignment, a tribute to all anonymous industrial architecture.
I visited the Lower Lea Valley. There is a network of electric pylons that is situated in this networked industrial valley. I found a bit of writing about the history the area and the transmission network.
The Lower Lea Valley has been a local centre for industry since the Middle Ages, when water mills were concentrated along the Bow Back Rivers. The canalisation of the rivers and the drainage of the marshes in the 19th and early 20th centuries, coupled with cheap rents, the arrival of the railways and strict laws against undertaking noxious industries in the city, attracted manufacturing to the Lower Lea Valley. In recent years, the railway marshalling yards have closed, as have many of the factories. The larger manufacturing companies moved even further east, replaced by trading estates, and in Hackney Wick, an artists’ community forced out of eastern central London by high rents.
(…)So it is helpful to think about electricity pylons and the transmission network in the Lower Lea Valley as being situated within the framework of a networked industrial landscape, a
composition of discrete sites bound together by political and economic intention, and by use (Worth 2005), integrated with other electricity supply networks (the basis on which the
National Grid, established in stages in 1927-35 as a series of connected regional transmission networks, was set up). The transmission network is part of a larger national and international network of power stations, fed by coal, gas and nuclear fission, providing electricity to homes and industry across the United Kingdom and Europe, linking disparate
places and fuel extraction industries across a networked industrial landscape, and with other networks in the Lower Lea Valley, such as the railways, waterways and roads.
When the electricity pylons in the Lower Lea Valley were constructed in the early 1950s, there were few regulations governing their placement in the landscape. The route taken by
the transmission network was governed by reasons of economy and common sense. The most economical way to construct an overhead power line is in a straight line; less steel is
therefore used in the manufacture of conductors (the cables which carry the electrical current) and pylons (the deviation towers, which are constructed where a power line changes
direction; these have a larger footprint to counter the stress placed on the structure, and use a greater quantity of steel). The first overhead power line in the Lower Lea Valley initially
passed solely along the railway lines and marshalling yards, and crossed areas occupied by factories. It avoided town centre of Stratford and the open ground of Hackney Marshes,
which had been drained and opened to the public in 1893 as a recreation ground.
Emma Dwyer,World Archaeological Congress, Dublin, July 2008
Method and the Machine: theorising an archaeological approach to technical processes
Museum of London Archaeology Service
