The Gas Light and Coke Company (also known as the Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, and the Chartered Gas Light and Coke Company), was a company that made and supplied coal gas and coke. The headquarters of the company were located on Horseferry Road in Westminster, Middlesex. It is identified as the original company from which British Gas plc is descended.British Gas Academy

History

The company was founded by Frederick Albert Winsor, who was originally from Germany. Authorisation was given by Parliament in the (50 Geo. 3. c. clxiii), and the company was incorporated by royal charter on 30 April 1812 under the seal of King George III. It was the first company set up to supply London with (coal) gas, and operated the first gas works in the United Kingdom which was also the world's first public gas works.British Gas Academy – History It was governed by a "Court of Directors", which met for the first time on 24 June 1812. The original capitalisation was £1 million (about £70 million at 2018 prices), in 80,000 shares.Price index, HM Treasury

Offices were established at Pall Mall, with a wharf at Cannon Row. In 1818 the company established a tar works in Poplar and expanded their works at Brick Lane and Westminster. Under the company's chief engineer, Samuel Clegg (formerly of Boulton and Watt), a gas works was installed at the Royal Mint in 1817 and by 1819 nearly 290 miles of pipes had been laid in London, supplying 51,000 burners. Clegg also developed a practical gas meter.

In 1824 it purchased the Sandford Manor House estate in Fulham and the following year built it's first gas holder close by the following year with a second added soon afterwards in what became the Gas Works at Sands Lane, covering twenty eight acres.

Constituent companies

The company absorbed numerous smaller companies, including:

With the advent of electricity the company expanded into domestic services, with "lady demonstrators" employed to promote gas cooking. This home service eventually developed into a full advisory service on domestic gas use.

In 1948 the GLCC supplied an area of 547 square miles from Egham in Surrey, Pinner in North West London to Southend-on-Sea in Essex. It supplied a population of 4.5 million, and in 1948 had 21,250 employees and sold 276.7 million Therms (approximately 8 terawatt-hours or 29 petajoules) of gas. On 1 May 1949 the GLCC was nationalised under the Gas Act 1948 and became the major part of the new North Thames Gas Board, one of Britain's twelve regional area gas boards.

The GLCC's service valve covers can still be seen on the streets of London, dating from the period of its operation.

Gasworks The following thirteen gasworks were in operation when the GLCC was dissolved in 1949.

Beckton Beckton Gas Works were built in 1868 on East Ham Levels east of London. The site was named "Beckton" after the GLCC chairman, Simon Adams Beck. The vast not only gave the GLCC room for much more gas production than at Nine Elms, but was downriver of the Pool of London and so could be served by significantly larger colliers.

In 1872, five men were gaoled for 12months following a strike at the Beckton works in support of two workers sacked for requesting a pay rise. The sentence was subsequently reduced to four months. In 1889, men were laid off from Beckton, prompting the founding of the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourers,Gas Union history which subsequently became part of the General, Municipal, Boilermakers and Allied Trades Union (GMB Union). Engineer to the St Pancras works in 1903, and the Shoreditch works in 1905, and in 1906 he was appointed Resident Engineer of the Beckton works of the Gas Light and Coke Co. The Resident Engineer from 1906 was Joseph Newell Reeson who went on to undertake world first experiments with welded gas holder construction.

At the time of nationalisation in 1949, Beckton was the largest gas works in the world, capable of producing a total of of gas per day. The works subsequently closed in 1976.

Bow Common Bow Common gasworks was built by the Great Central Gas Consumers' Company in 1850 (Messrs. Peto and Betts had contracted to build the works for £106,000) the works was remote from its supply area in the City and the East End. By the late 1850s, the works had fallen into "ruinous disrepair". The Great Central was absorbed by the GLCC in 1870. The Bow Common works was entirely rebuilt by the GLCC in the early 1930s. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Brentford The Brentford Gas Company was established in 1820. Its gasworks at Brentford was therefore one of the oldest in the country. The company grew to supply Acton, Ealing, Hanwell, Southall, Heston, Twickenham and Barnes. It received legal powers in 1868 to build a new works at Southall on the Grand Union Canal as the Brentford site was said to be too cramped for development. Nevertheless, the Brentford site remained in use and was redesigned and rebuilt in 1935 with Intermittent Vertical Retorts after a study of the Pintsch-Otto plant in Germany; and a polygonal MAN waterless gasometer was built. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Bromley The Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company spent £300,000 on the works on Bow Creek at Bromley-by-Bow which was "obsolescent in design and not yet in sight of completion" in 1875. The company was amalgamated with the GLCC in 1876 but the Bromley works was still considered to be a "vast white elephant" because the coaling arrangements on Bow Creek were unsatisfactory. The plant was reconstructed in the 1890s. Productive capacity was per day in 1948. The site subsequently closed in 1976, however the Bromley-by-Bow gasholders remain as they were heritage listed in 1984.

Fulham

The Imperial Gas Company started construction of its works at Sands End in Fulham in 1824. Its ornately decorated number 2 gasholder is Georgian, completed in 1830 and reputed to be the oldest gasholder in the World. The Imperial Gasworks' neoclassical office building was completed in 1857 and a laboratory designed by the architect Sir Walter Tapper was added in 1927. All three structures are now Grade II listed buildings.

Coal was delivered by flatiron coastal colliers, which had a low-profile superstructure, hinged funnel and masts in order to pass under bridges upriver from the Pool of London. The GLCC had a new jetty built at Imperial Wharf in the 1920s. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Harrow and Stanmore The Harrow and Stanmore Gas Company operated the works at Harrow and Stanmore until the company was absorbed by the GLCC in 1924. The Stanmore gas works were located at the north side of the marsh on Marsh Lane. A waterless gasometer was installed in 1931, amidst an outcry about ruining the view from Harrow Hill, including from the headmaster of Harrow School. The holder was painted in undulating lines of green, lighter in tone as they went up the holder. Productive capacity of the works was per day in 1948. The gasometer was demolished in 1986.

Kensal Green Kensal Green gasworks was built by the Western Gas Light Company soon its incorporation in 1844. It supplied Cannel gas to St Pancras, St Marylebone, Bloomsbury, Hampstead, Paddington and Chelsea. Cannel gas was more expensive to produce but gave a better light than coal gas; however, the works were converted to produce coal gas in 1886. The Western company was absorbed by the GLCC in 1873. In 1889 inclined retorts were installed. The Kensal Green works were entirely rebuilt by the GLCC in the early 1930s. Productive capacity was per day in 1948. In 1954, the new No.3 retort house was opened.

Nine Elms Nine Elms Gas Works were built in 1858 by the London Gas Light Company, on the site of a former tidal mill on the south bank of the River Thames. The company was taken over by the GLCC in 1883. The works covered and once employed 800people. There was a major explosion at the works on 31 October 1865: the blast killed eleven workers and destroyed the northern gasometer (). The works were damaged in Second World War air raids.

Coal was delivered by flatiron coastal colliers. After the works were rebuilt, a new jetty and coal handling plant were added in 1952. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Nine Elms Gas Works closed in 1970 as a result of Britain's conversion to natural gas from the North Sea. The site has since been redeveloped for a Royal Mail depot and other commercial units.

Shoreditch The gasworks at Shoreditch was another venture by the Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company, constructed adjacent to the Regents Canal in 1822. By the 1840s, the works supplied gas to Tottenham and Edmonton. Shoreditch gasworks became part of the GLCC in 1876. In 1934, Shoreditch became a stand-by station for "use only in times of exceptional demand". Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Southall Southall Gas Works was completed in 1869 for the Brentford Gas Company. The GLCC took the company over in 1926 and had Southall's No. 5 gas holder built early in the 1930s. The holder is over tall and is still a major local landmark.

Coal was supplied to Southall works via the Grand Union Canal and the Great Western Railway. Like Beckton, Southall was a major supplier of road tar. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Southend-on-Sea The Southend-on-Sea and District Gas Company was established in 1854 and a gasworks was built to the east of the pier. The company absorbed the undertakings at Rochford (1920) and Leigh-on-Sea (1923), and was in turn absorbed by the GLCC in 1932. By this time the plant at Southend was obsolete and the works was entirely rebuilt. Coal was supplied to a dedicated pier. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Staines The Staines gasworks were originally built by the Staines and Egham District Gas and Coke Company on a site adjacent to the River Thames – although coal was delivered by road. The company was absorbed by the Brentford Company in 1915, which was itself absorbed by the GLCC in 1926. Although the works at Staines was considered to be small it was kept as it was able to meet local requirements at an extremity of the GLCC's grid. A polygonal MAN waterless gasometer was installed in the 1930s. Productive capacity was per day in 1948. A continuous catalytic reforming plant was in operation from 1966 to 1971.

Stratford The gasworks at Stratford was built by the West Ham Gas Company. It supplied a densely populated area east of London and provided a bulk gas supply to the Chigwell, Loughton and Woodford Gas Company. It was absorbed by the GLCC in 1912. Productive capacity was per day in 1948.

Closed gasworks The gasworks of the GLCC and its constituent companies that were closed before 1948 (date of closure) were as follows.

Transport

The company had a large and diverse transport fleet including ships, barges and railway wagons and locomotives to bring coal into the gasworks and take coke and by-products out, plus horse-drawn and later motorised transport for local delivery and maintenance.

Ships Stephenson Clarke and Associated Companies managed the GLCC's ships.

GLCC ships had brown upper works above hull level. The funnel was black with a broad silver band above two narrow silver or white bands, and the broad silver band was emblazoned with red pyramids. In fact, the narrow 'white bands' should be seen as really the silver background to two black bands representing a fire grate. The inverted triangles represented flames. The house flag was white with a red rising sun in the centre and the initials "G L C Co." in blue capitals distributed around the four corners., plate 43

SS Lanterna was a 1,685 GRT collier built in 1882 by the Tyne Iron Shipbuilding Co. of Willington Quay, Howdon, Tyneside. On 6 October 1916 a mine sank her in the North Sea off Cromer. All her crew survived.