Topic: Thames bridge and buildings

[Frank]

Can anyone say which bridge this is, lower picture c.1910? (Possibly Southwark) Or address of the building.

Image link

(British Plate Glass warehouse)

[Della]

Hi Frank,

The address is: 1, Blackfriars Bridge, London, SE1 9UD (It is now a pub - Doggetts Pub)
This is where I got the info from: http://www.inse1.co.uk/issues/inSE1-50.pdf and then found the address.
Hope this is helpful.

[Frank]

Well done Della, you just proved that the British Plate Glass company is not the same as the Thames Plate Glass Works or a rename. So the Thames Plate Glass Works established in 1835 were not the only plate glass maker in London. Their warehouse was at Savoy Wharf, nearer Waterloo bridge.

Robert Swinburne 1804-86 was involved with Thames Plate Glass Company, set up to take over the works that were not used by 1876 when the company was formed. History records no further use as a glass works. Now site occupied by Pura Foods.

Intriguingly in the 1830's the US company Missouri-Illinois Mineral & Land Company used the Thames Plate Glass Works for testing sand deposits and that in Crystal City proved sufficiently good to set up a plate glass works. In 1872 American Plate Glass Company set up the Crystal City Works and around that time Thames Plate Glass Works closed down and the glass-workers disappeared with some thinking they went to the USA. Perhaps that would explain the sudden disappearance from London. Certainly worth further study!

(Data from Glass-Study sources)

[David E]

Interestingly, there was one common myth that the Thames Plate Glass Works was responsible for glazing the Crystal Palace in 1851, and a rumour it perpetuated, I believe.

[Frank]

There was some data on that somewhere, Chance provided most but Thames did certain bits....

[David E]

It is widely acknowledged that Chance manufactured the 950,000 square foot (heck, let's call it a million!) of plate glass to glaze the Crystal Palace, but I have no records for what Thames Plate contributed.

[Frank]

They won a prize medal at the Great Exhibition for a piece of plate glass "a large specimen of plate glass, the largest hitherto produced" (Class XXVI furniture)

They were also making insulators 1860/70 period

from http://www.geocities.com/swinburn.geo/notable.html

R. W. Swinburne and Co. commenced business in 1845. The South Shields works occupied the quadrangular space now enclosed by Ferry Street, Station Road, Coronation Street, the Mill Dam and the Tyne river. The firm was successful in dividing with Messrs. Chance of Birmingham, the enormous order for the rolled plate-glass required in the erection of the Crystal Palace in 1850.
...
Early in 1858 a great combination of plate glass-makers, controlling practically the whole output of the works in England, was formed. Mr. R. W. Swinburne was appointed Managing Director of the Syndicate.
...
Swinburne returned briefly to the plate glass industry in January 1874 as a director of the Thames Plate Glass Company (1874) Limited which was formed to take over the dormant Thames Plate Glass Works at Blackwall, however this was wound up in August 1876.

Still looking for the reference to the part played by Thames Plate Glass Works (Not company) in Crystal Palace, this is a reasonably comprehensive 'looking' report http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46545#s13

Here is a useful but WEIRD site, it downloads pages and displays locally  :huh: www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/glass.html

[Frank]

I got blocked from updating as it took a while so this is mostly a repeat of above with some edits additions....

They won a prize medal at the Great Exhibition for a piece of plate glass "a large specimen of plate glass, the largest hitherto produced" (Class XXVI furniture)

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20625/20625-0.txt

The Thames Plate Glass Company exhibit the largest plate of glass in the world; its dimensions are eighteen feet eight inches by ten feet. There is not a blemish on its brilliant surface, and it is as "true" as possible. It is placed in such a position that it reflects the whole length of the main avenue of the Crystal Palace, and the effect produced is superb.

They were also making insulators 1860/70 period

from http://www.geocities.com/swinburn.geo/notable.html

R. W. Swinburne and Co. commenced business in 1845. The South Shields works occupied the quadrangular space now enclosed by Ferry Street, Station Road, Coronation Street, the Mill Dam and the Tyne river. The firm was successful in dividing with Messrs. Chance of Birmingham, the enormous order for the rolled plate-glass required in the erection of the Crystal Palace in 1850.
...
Early in 1858 a great combination of plate glass-makers, controlling practically the whole output of the works in England, was formed. Mr. R. W. Swinburne was appointed Managing Director of the Syndicate.
...
Swinburne returned briefly to the plate glass industry in January 1874 as a director of the Thames Plate Glass Company (1874) Limited which was formed to take over the dormant Thames Plate Glass Works at Blackwall, however this was wound up in August 1876.

Still looking for the reference to the part played by Thames Plate Glass Works (Not company) in Crystal Palace, this is a reasonably comprehensive 'looking' report http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46545#s13

Here is a useful but WEIRD site, it downloads pages and displays locally   :huh:  www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/glass.html

... the largest plate of glass in the world; its dimensions are eighteen feet eight inches by ten feet

1851 (5.6x3 metres)

Elsewhere 1927.

There was in store stock one large piece of plate glass measuring 151 x 258 inches, one-fourth inch thick and weighing approximately 816 pounds. 21 feet 6 ins by 12 feet 7 inches

(6.5x3.8 metres)

[Frank]

In 1872 American Plate Glass Company set up the Crystal City Works and around that time Thames Plate Glass Works closed down and the glass-workers disappeared with some thinking they went to the USA. Perhaps that would explain the sudden disappearance from London.

According to the British heritage article, the workers did go to Illinois so it seems that as the UK company was in grave difficulty, moving to the USA was probably a wise move.

[Anne]

Here is a useful but WEIRD site, it downloads pages and displays locally  :huh: www.digitalpresence.com/histarch/glass.html

My guess is that this is a server which is not configured to handle html files, Frank. When you set up a webserver like Apache you have to specify which filetypes it should handle, and usually those would be htm and html, but if the server is set to only handle htm files then you'll see the same behaviour as here.