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Phoenix Gas Company

From London's Ghost Acres

The Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Company was formed in 1824. The Bankside gas works (built in 1814 as the first gas works south of the Thames) were purchased from the South London Gas Company that same year (The National Archives). By 1827, Phoenix Gas Company had acquired gas works on Thames Street in Greenwich (Aslet, 255). The gas works at Vauxhall were purchased from the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Company in 1847, and were expanded in 1864. In 1880 The Phoenix Gas Company was taken over by the South Metropolitan Gas Company (The National Archives).

Gas works were used to produce and store flammable coal gas. Coal was mined in Britain and then shipped on a barge up rivers or on trains to the gas works. There it was burned to create the gas, which was then purified and put into the gas holders until needed for consumer use to light streets and buildings. The process also created coke, tar, ammonia, and sulphur as by-products.

51.48597, -0.12541 Vauxhall Gas Works

51.48268, -0.01703 Thames Street Gas Works

51.50773, -0.10026 Bankside Gas Works

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/c884d77b-6c01-4c1b-98d1-92ffb0120e5d

http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/The_Engineer_1925/05/01 page 496

https://books.google.ca/books?id=HMJfV7Fhak8C&lpg=PA255&dq=phoenix%20gas%20greenwich&pg=PA255#v=onepage&q=phoenix&f=false The Story of Greenwich by Clive Aslet


Operation

1824 to 1880


Located in

London