Surrey Consumers Gas Company
From London's Ghost Acres
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Operation
1854 to 1876
Located in
Description
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 Light and Coke Company. Under the South Metropolitan Gas Light and Coke 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 gas. Coal was largely mined in Britain but also shipped in from Russia, Germany, Sweden, and Norway. The coal was shipped in on a barge up the canal and then burned to create the gas, which was then purified and put into the gas holders until needed for consumer use. The process also created coke, tar, ammonia, and sulphur as by-products.
51.50281, -0.04843, 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