East Greenwich Gas Works

[1][2] The start of work on the site was complicated by proposals to build a dock system on the peninsula, similar to that on the Isle of Dogs across the river.

[3] The works was built under the auspices of the South Metropolitan Gas Company's chairman George Livesey.

Before construction could begin many tons of clinker and heavy rubbish were dumped in order to build up the marshy ground.

[3] The gas works eventually occupied most of the east and centre of the peninsula, stretching for around 2 kilometres (1.2 miles) from Blackwall Point, southeast towards New Charlton and covering some 240 acres (0.97 km2).

[3] In 1889 (during a time of labour unrest including the 1889 dock strike) under the leadership of Will Thorne the workforce resigned en masse in an attempt to prevent a profit-sharing scheme with anti-strike clauses.

A striking pre-cast concrete shed at Phoenix Wharf for storage of ammonium sulphate with a parabolic roof was used as a site for film shoots in the 1990s.

Redevelopment began in the early 1990s with the construction of North Greenwich tube station as part of the Jubilee Line Extension.

Two small sections of the plant's coaling jetty are preserved as part of North Greenwich Pier, one acting as the base for Anthony Gormley's sculpture Quantum Cloud.