Bacon's Atlas of London & suburbs, c.1912 : Sheet 13 eastern section : Barking, Beckton and Woolwich
A page from the wonderfully detailed Bacon's Atlas of London & Suburbs, this being dated from c1912 by one of the 'special maps' bound in at the front of the atlas. The bulk of London is covered in a series of map sheets at 4" to the mile and is very detailed giving a clear indication of the pre-WW1 city, in its full Victorian and Edwardian splendour but before the massive inter-war expansion into 'Metroland' and similar suburbs.
Bacon's was formed by one George Washington Bacon (1830–1922), an American who set up business in London producing atlases and maps of the capital in about 1870 after a series of business failures. G. W. Bacon & Co. Ltd. prospered and in c1900 were acquired by the Scottish publishers and cartographers W. & A.K. Johnston of whom they became a subsidiary.
This is sheet 13 of the "Four-Inch" scale maps and they show the eastern Docklands with, north of the River Thames, Beckton including the massive Gas Works of the London Gaslight & Coke Company, and south of the River the edges of Woolwich Arsenal and the marshlands to the east. Here, north of the River, despite the massive Gas Works and Sewage Outfall much of the area was still desolate open marshland with the isolated hamlets of Rippleside and Creekmouth. The line of the long tramway down to Beckton from Barking is shown.
South of the River, away from the buildings of the Royal Arsenal, are ranges and explosive magazines stretching across Plumstead Marsh towards Crossness and what would become the site of Thamesmead. An isolated Police Quarters possibly helped 'guard' the sites.
Bacon's Atlas of London & suburbs, c.1912 : Sheet 13 eastern section : Barking, Beckton and Woolwich
A page from the wonderfully detailed Bacon's Atlas of London & Suburbs, this being dated from c1912 by one of the 'special maps' bound in at the front of the atlas. The bulk of London is covered in a series of map sheets at 4" to the mile and is very detailed giving a clear indication of the pre-WW1 city, in its full Victorian and Edwardian splendour but before the massive inter-war expansion into 'Metroland' and similar suburbs.
Bacon's was formed by one George Washington Bacon (1830–1922), an American who set up business in London producing atlases and maps of the capital in about 1870 after a series of business failures. G. W. Bacon & Co. Ltd. prospered and in c1900 were acquired by the Scottish publishers and cartographers W. & A.K. Johnston of whom they became a subsidiary.
This is sheet 13 of the "Four-Inch" scale maps and they show the eastern Docklands with, north of the River Thames, Beckton including the massive Gas Works of the London Gaslight & Coke Company, and south of the River the edges of Woolwich Arsenal and the marshlands to the east. Here, north of the River, despite the massive Gas Works and Sewage Outfall much of the area was still desolate open marshland with the isolated hamlets of Rippleside and Creekmouth. The line of the long tramway down to Beckton from Barking is shown.
South of the River, away from the buildings of the Royal Arsenal, are ranges and explosive magazines stretching across Plumstead Marsh towards Crossness and what would become the site of Thamesmead. An isolated Police Quarters possibly helped 'guard' the sites.