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Surrey Consumers Gas Company

From London's Ghost Acres

The Surrey Consumer Gas Company was founded in 1849 and incorporated in 1854. The Rotherhithe Gas Works were built in 1851. In 1855 the company purchased the works of the Deptford Gas Light and Coke Company. In 1876 the Surrey Gas Consumer Company was taken over by the South Metropolitan Gas Company. Under the South Metropolitan Gas Company, the works at Rotherhithe were “extended to 6.5 acres including a frontage to the Lower Pool. After the Second World War, the capacity of the works rose to 9.6 million cubic feet per day” (Burland 120).

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.


51.50281, -0.04843 and 51.50046, -0.050175 Rotherhithe Gas Works

51.47795, -0.02052 Deptford Gas Works

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/555e7faa-75c2-4385-8687-a5033f2d9633

https://books.google.ca/books?id=xCxxAwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT156&ots=3PCNv1SOWH&dq=surrey%20branch%20gas%20works&pg=PT156#v=onepage&q=surrey%20branch%20gas%20works&f=false

https://books.google.ca/books?id=UgcHBtYPYy0C&lpg=PA120&ots=R0j-DluCSM&dq=rotherhithe%20gas%20works&pg=PA120#v=onepage&q&f=false


Operation

1854 to 1876


Located in

London