ARCHITECTURE

Images of Sugarhouses ... Links and Sources

Notes on Architects ...   * James Blake (1849-1919) ... A Scot, an engineer, the son of the owner of Blake, Barclay & Co sugar machinery manufacturers, James Blake arrived in Liverpool in 1875 as Tate's Foreman Engineer at the Love Lane refinery. Soon after, Henry Tate purchased a derilict shipyard in Silvertown and sent Blake to report on it's use for the possible expansion of the business. Tate agreed with Blake's findings and told him to go and build a refinery within the year. It took 9 months and began production in 1878. "But there is no doubt that he did an excellent job of Thames Refinery and can be regarded as its architect." Reluctantly at first, James Blake continued at Thames Refinery for many years, becoming Chief Engineer, and a shareholder and director. (Sugar and All That, by Antony Hugill, 1978) (Image © McLean Museum & Art Gallery, Greenock)   * James Craig (1744-1795) ... Born in Edinburgh, Craig claimed the winning design for the layout of the New Town of his home city, but although it was not built true to his plans, he had considerable input into the working out of the detail. He was also employed as a town planner in Glasgow, where the layout of streets in Blythswood and Meadowflatt appear to have been his, but not the architectural detail. (Colvin)   * Charles Dyson (c1800-1868) ... Born c1800 Tottenham, Mdx (son of Charles & Elizabeth Dyson, All Hallows Tottenham. Sally, his sister, bpt 1796) (census and PRs) 1823-4 Land surveyor Waltham Cross, Essex (Pigot's Dir) 1841 Surveyor age 38 unmarried The Grove, Stratford, Essex (census) 1851 Surveyor age 49 unmarried The Grove, Stratford (census) 1855 Architect & Surveyor, Stratford Grove (PO Dir) 1861 Architect & Surveyor age 60 unmarried The Grove, Stratford (census) 1863 Architect & Surveyor, Stratford Grove (White's Dir) 1868 His death 3 Aug age 68 at his home in The Grove, Stratford. Will proved 29 Aug, under £18,000, executors a Hotel Keeper and a Brewery Executive. Buried All Hallows Tottenham (probate index and PR) Works ... c1851 Well St / 27 Wellclose Sq, Whitechapel. Plans for additions to Sugarhouse for John Wagener. (above) [John Wagener lived at Langtons Hall, Hornchurch, Essex (Lewis)] 1851 78 Leman Street, Whitechapel. Sugarhouse for Charles & John Bowman. (above) [John Bowman lived just 7 doors from Dyson in The Grove, Stratford, Essex (Lewis and census)] 1862 Devon's Rd, Bromley St Leonard, Mdx. Plans for 9 acres of dwellings for the working classes. (London Evening Standard)   * Joseph Michael Gandy (1771-1843) ... A promising youngster, who then travelled in Italy having to return in a hurry in 1797 owing to his sponsor's bankuptcy and the advances of Napoleon's armies. He practised on his own, but initially found little work in either Liverpool or London, and with a large family finances were often difficult. Especially noted for his independent approach to architectural aesthetics. (Colvin)   * J & R Houston ... (Nothing yet) Description of Lyle's refinery at Silvertown in The Grocer, 5 May 1883, copy published in The Plaistow Story, by Oliver Lyle, 1960, along with many early photographs.   * Walter Robert Kinipple (1832-1901) ... Born 1832 St Anne Limehouse, London, s/o George Topliff Kinipple, shipwright & Elizabeth Sarah his wife (PRs) Married 1858 Billericay, Essex (GRO) 1859> at least four children (PRs) 1858-65 living in Limehouse (Electoral Regs) 1861 age 28, civil engineer & surveyor, 13 Paynton Ter, Limehouse (census) 1865 elected to Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE records) 1871 age 38, civil engineer, 55 Esplanade, Greenock (census) 1875 office at 17 West Blackhall St, Greenock (Val Rolls) 1875 house at 107 Eldon St, Greenock (Val Rolls) 1878-88 house in Westminster (Electoral Regs) 1881 age 48, civil engineer, Eldon St, Greenock (census) 1883 death of wife Sarah at Greenock (Death Index) 1889- 98 at 11 Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park, London (Electoral Regs) 1891 age 58, civil engineer, 11 Gloucester Terrace, Regent's Park (census) 1901 age 68, retired civil engineer, 51 The Drive, Hove, Sussex (census) Died 1901 aged 69 Hove, Sussex. Probate 1902 granted to son and two daughters. £18,881. (Dundee Evening Telegraph and probate) Works ... Pre-1865 considerable work regarding the piers and tidal docks at Greenwich, and various graving docks along the Thames. (ICE records) <1870> Engineer to the Greenock Harbour Trust, and designs for, and construction of, the James Watt Dock and the Garvel Graving Dock at Greenock. (Obit, Dundee Evening Telegraph) 1884-6 (probably) - James Watt Dock Sugar Warehouses, Greenock (Buildings at Risk Reg Scotland)   * James Lansdown (1796-1838) ... Involved with works around Regent's Park, close to were he lived. Shortly before he died he designed offices for Phoenix Fire Insurance Co in Lombard Street. (Colvin)   * Thomas Leverton (1743-1824) ... The great London sugar houses of the 18th and early to mid-19th centuries intrigue architectural historians as only two have been ascribed to an architect - a Charles Dyson of The Grove, Stratford, Essex, about whom very little is known. Dyson operated in the middle of the 19th century and designed the vast sugar house which stood in an expansive yard on the east side of Leman Street behind No. 78, as well as an extension to a sugar house on Well Street behind the west side of Wellclose Square, St Geo East. [see above] Undoubtedly these buildings would have been designed by an architect, as surely no proprietor would have built anew without the advice and design from such a man, especially bearing in mind that at this time architects also acted as structural engineers, and these huge structures were both architecture and engineering. Also, the larger examples usually took up whole blocks and were often accompanied by the necessary auxiliary buildings - counting houses, stores, warehouses, scum houses and the like, even sometimes the owner's dwelling - all things that required the skills of an architect. The name of Thomas Leverton is a tantalising prospect as a second candidate for the design of one or more of these structures. We know a fair bit about Leverton but there is an air of mystery surrounding the full extent of his work. Not only were many of his buildings demolished early on, but there has always been a feeling that some of his output was not recorded, hence he falls behind other, perhaps lesser, architects in the records. Undoubtedly he was a talented man - he designed Woodhall Park at Watton, Hertfordshire, dating from the late 1770s; and one of the great terraced houses of London - No. 1 Bedford Square, Bloomsbury (1778-82) - was also his work, as were the interiors of at least three other houses in the Square. More pertinent to us here is the fact that he was the first Surveyor to the Phoenix Fire Office - for 29 years from their founding in 1782. The Phoenix was set up by the sugar house owners as they were finding it very difficult to obtain adequate insurance for both their premises and the great amount of merchandise that they warehoused on site. As Surveyor, Leverton designed their offices in Lombard Street in the City (circa 1787, demolished) and their Fire Engine House on Cockspur Street, Charing Cross (1794, demolished). We know that in 1803 he exhibited a design at the Royal Academy for the 'elevation of a Sugar House now building at New York, North America' - not bad for a man who probably never visited that country. We also know from the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography that 'he also erected large premises for sugar-boilers in London and New York'. More pertinent to the sugar industry in London, we know that Leverton designed Plaistow Lodge, Bromley, Kent (1780) for Peter Thellusson, an immensely successful banker, trader, merchant and speculator of French/Swiss Huguenot origin. Thellusson, a Director of the Bank of England, also had a stake in several sugar houses in London. In addition, in the mid-1790s, Leverton almost certainly designed a house for Matthew Whiting, a Director of the Phoenix, which survives as 2 Butcher Row, Ratcliffe. Whiting owned a sugar house on Broad Street, Ratcliffe (present day The Highway) which was destroyed in the great Ratcliffe fire of 1794. In 1795, Leverton and seven of the Directors of the Phoenix, including Matthew Whiting, were Governors of the London Hospital at Whitechapel. Clearly, therefore, Leverton occupied a space within a circle of privilege in the capital and would undoubtedly have been 'the man to talk to' for any sugar house proprietor looking to build new premises. Whilst no signed drawing or conclusive document has yet come to light showing that he did in fact design a sugar house in London, he is a prime candidate. Hopefully, before too long, a sugar house or two can be added to his canon. (Written for this page by Andrew Byrne) [Portriat of Thomas Leverton, Phoenix Surveyor, by John Russell RA - Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance, Vol 1, by Clive Trebilcock, p.116.]   * Duncan Stewart & Co, Glasgow ... Sugar machinery manufacturers established in 1840 by Peter Stewart in Anderston, Glasgow. Joined by his son Duncan, and in 1864 moved to larger premises at London Road Ironworks in Bridgeton. Became a limited company in 1891, liquidated in both 1902 and 1920s, restructured, etc, acquired by Booker Bros 1956. 1871 Introduced hydraulic pressure cylinders for sugar cane mills. 1880 Developed new markets for sugar refining equipment aropund the world. 1888 The section drawing (above) gives a general idea of a sugar refinery, as designed by Duncan Stewart & Co, Glasgow, to turn out centrifugal sugars. 1910 Supplied complete sugar processing plant to Ciego de Aula, Cuba. 1920s Included plant for refining sugar beet. (Glasgow University Archives UGD052/1/2/8) (Grace's Guide to British Industrial History)