Silvertown

infobox UK place
country = England
map_type = Greater London
region= London
population=
official_name= Silvertown
latitude= 51.4966
longitude= 0.0393
constituency_westminster=
post_town= LONDON
dial_code= 020
os_grid_reference= TQ415795
postcode_area= E
postcode_district=E16
london_borough= Newham

Silvertown is an industrialised district in the London Borough of Newham, named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852, and now dominated by the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery. Another major local employer is the Loders and Nucoline plant at Cairn Mills, a traditional port oleo industry and formerly part of Unilever. This originally milled seeds but later concentrated on production of fats from palm kernel oil.

History

On 19 January 1917 parts of Silvertown were devastated by a massive TNT explosion at the Brunner-Mond munitions factory in what is known as the Silvertown explosion. Seventy-three people died and hundreds were injured in one of the largest explosions ever experienced in the British Isles.

It formed part of the County Borough of West Ham in Essex until 1965.

Regeneration

The area has been transformed since the 1970s by the construction of the Thames Barrier, an adjacent park, new housing areas and the London City Airport.

Access was much improved in 1999 with the completion of the Jubilee Line Extension from Green Park to Stratford and has been further enhanced through an extension of the Docklands Light Railway from Canning Town to King George V which opened on 2 December 2005. However, the old Silvertown railway station, near the Tate & Lyle works on the North London Line, was closed on 9 December 2006.

On 26 October 2007, Prince Richard, Duke of Gloucester visited Silvertown, to formally open the new Silvertown Ambulance Station on North Woolwich Road,

Popular Culture

Silvertown is featured in a ballad by Mark Knopfler titled ‘Silvertown Blues’ and describes the area as it once was before redevelopment.

Education

Transport

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.abandonedcommunities.co.uk/silvertown.html Abandoned communities ... Central Silvertown]
* [http://www.hidden-histories.org.uk/projects/stories-silvertown Stories from Silvertown - Eastside Community Heritage]

ee also

*Silvertown explosion