55-627: Wandsworth High Street is the main shopping street in Wandsworth , London, England. It forms part of the London inner ring road, the South Circular Road ; it is also part of the westbound A3 (the eastbound carriageway follows a parallel road). The street runs west to east, with West Hill and East Hill forming the continuation at either end. The High Street was formerly dominated by the Ram Brewery ,
110-486: A considerable area of south-west London. The company's name evolved each time it merged with or took over neighbouring gas companies, but from 1936 it was the Wandsworth and District Gas Company . The company was nationalised in 1949 and became part of the South Eastern Gas Board . Wandsworth power station was built on The Causeway and supplied electricity to the district of Wandsworth from 1897 to 1964. It
165-633: A consignment of LNG from Lake Charles, Louisiana , US, to a new LNG terminal on Canvey Island , in the Thames estuary in Essex, England. A 212-mile (341 km) long high-pressure trunk pipeline was built from Canvey Island to Bradford. The pipeline and its branches provided Area Gas Boards with natural gas for use in reforming processes to make town gas. A large-scale LNG reception plant was commissioned on Canvey in 1964, which received LNG from Algeria in two dedicated tankers, each of 12,000 tonnes. The slow decline of
220-496: A feedstock to manufacture town gas. These facilities utilised the chemical reaction processes described above. The rise of oil as a feedstock to manufacture town gas is shown on the graph below. The peak usage in 1968/9 and subsequent decline coincides with the availability of North Sea gas which, over the next few years, displaced town gas as a primary fuel and led to the decline of oil as a feedstock for gas making, as shown. Oil-based town gas production, millions of therms By
275-406: A producer (generator), carburettor and a super heater connected in series with gas pipes and valves. During a make run, steam would be passed through the generator to make blue water gas. From the generator the hot water gas would pass into the top of the carburettor where light petroleum oils would be injected into the gas stream. The light oils would be thermocracked as they came in contact with
330-637: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Wandsworth Wandsworth Town ( / ˈ w ɒ n z w ər θ / ) is a district of south London , within the London Borough of Wandsworth 4.2 miles (6.8 km) southwest of Charing Cross . The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London . Wandsworth takes its name from the River Wandle , which enters
385-546: Is also known as Wandsworth Town . At the time of the Domesday Book (1086), the manor of Wandsworth was held partly by William, son of Ansculfy, and partly by St Wandrille's Abbey. Its Domesday assets were 12 hides , with 5 + 1 ⁄ 2 ploughs and 22 acres (89,000 m ) of meadow . It rendered £9. Since at least the early 16th century, Wandsworth has offered accommodation to consecutive waves of immigration, from Protestant Dutch metalworkers fleeing persecution in
440-481: Is demonstrated in this graph. Coal-based town gas production, millions of therms New technologies for manufacturing coal gas using oil, refinery tail gases, and light distillates were developed. Processes included the Lurgi Process , catalytic reforming , the catalytic rich gas process, steam reforming of rich gas, and the gas recycle hydrogenator process. The catalytic rich gas process used natural gas as
495-449: Is now a restored gasworks museum). The Portadown site has been cleared and is now the subject of a long-term experiment into the use of bacteria for the purpose of cleaning up contaminated industrial land. As well as requiring little processing before use, natural gas is non-toxic; the carbon monoxide (CO) in town gas made it extremely poisonous, accidental poisoning and suicide by gas being commonplace. Poisoning from natural gas appliances
550-439: Is on Garratt Lane. The library opened in 2009 and is located in the former court house, a listed building. The nearest railway stations are Wandsworth Town ; Wandsworth Common (one stop from Clapham Junction , and 12 minutes' train ride from London Victoria ); and Earlsfield , (one stop from Clapham Junction , and 12 minutes' train ride from London Waterloo ). Wandsworth Town is also served by Southfields tube station in
605-505: Is only due to incomplete combustion, which creates CO, and flue leaks to living accommodation. As with town gas, a small amount of foul-smelling substance ( mercaptan ) is added to the gas to indicate to the user that there is a leak or an unlit burner, the gas having no odour of its own. The organisation of the British gas industry adapted to these changes, first, by the Gas Act 1965 by empowering
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#1733085036562660-502: Is shown in the graph below. Until 1968 this was from supplies of LNG from Algeria, until North Sea gas was available from 1968. Natural gas available, millions of therms The exploitation of the North Sea gas reserves , entailing landing gas at Easington , Bacton and St Fergus made viable the building of a national distribution grid, of over 3,000 miles (4,800 km), consisting of two parallel and interconnected pipelines running
715-530: Is today generally referred to as a manufactured gas plant (MGP). In the early years of MGP operations, the goal of a utility gas works was to produce the greatest amount of illuminating gas. The illuminating power of a gas was related to amount of soot -forming hydrocarbons ("illuminants") dissolved in it. These hydrocarbons gave the gas flame its characteristic bright yellow color. Gas works would typically use oily bituminous coals as feedstock. These coals would give off large amounts of volatile hydrocarbons into
770-514: The Wandsworth Bridge . Wandsworth Common is set back from the river, at the top of East Hill, and is adjoined by an area known locally as "the Toast Rack" that has some of the most expensive townhouses in London, as well as the restaurant Chez Bruce , formerly Harveys , where chef Gordon Ramsay learned his trade, and for which co-owner Bruce Poole gained a Michelin star in 1999. Also in
825-512: The Southfields area of the Town. All Saints' is the original parish church of Wandsworth, dating back to the 13th century, although the present building is mostly of the 18th century. St Anne's and Holy Trinity churches were built in the 19th century to accommodate a growing population. Built in 1851, Wandsworth Prison is a Category B men's prison. It is the largest prison in London and one of
880-744: The Thames at Wandsworth. Wandsworth appears in Domesday Book of 1086 as Wandesorde and Wendelesorde . This means 'enclosure of (a man named) Waendel', whose name is also lent to the River Wandle. To distinguish it from the London Borough of Wandsworth, and historically from the Wandsworth District of the Metropolis and the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth , which all covered larger areas, it
935-545: The 1590s, Huguenots in the 17th century, to recent Eastern European members of the European Union . Between Wandsworth town centre and the river is the site of Young & Co's Ram Brewery . Shire horse -drawn brewery drays were still used to deliver beer to local pubs. Whilst brewing by Young's stopped in September 2006 when Young & Co merged its operations with Charles Wells of Bedford , brewing does continue on
990-399: The 1850s by Sir William Siemens . The incandescent fuel bed would be alternately blasted with air followed by steam. The air reactions during the blow cycle are exothermic, heating up the bed, while the steam reactions during the make cycle, are endothermic and cool down the bed. The products from the air cycle contain non-calorific nitrogen and are exhausted out the stack while the products of
1045-432: The 1860s. Gas oil (an early form of gasoline) was the flammable waste product from kerosene refining, made from the lightest and most volatile fractions (tops) of crude oil. In 1875 Thaddeus S. C. Lowe invented the carburetted water gas process. This process revolutionized the manufactured gas industry and was the standard technology until the end of manufactured gas era. A CWG generating set consisted of three elements;
1100-428: The 1960s, manufactured gas, compared with its main rival in the energy market, electricity, was considered "nasty, smelly, dirty and dangerous" (to quote market research of the time) and seemed doomed to lose market share still further, except for cooking where its controllability gave it marked advantages over both electricity and solid fuel. The development of more efficient gas fires assisted gas to resist competition in
1155-619: The Gas Council to acquire and supply gas to the twelve area gas boards . Then, the Gas Act 1972 formed the British Gas Corporation as a single commercial entity, embracing all the twelve area gas boards, allowing them to acquire, distribute and market gas and gas appliances to industrial commercial and domestic customers throughout the UK. In 1986, British Gas was privatised and the government no longer has any direct control over it. During
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#17330850365621210-484: The LNG plant on Canvey. The Fuel Policy White Paper of 1967 (Cmd. 3438) pointed the industry in the direction of building up the use of natural gas speedily to 'enable the country to benefit as soon as possible from the advantages of this new indigenous energy source'. As a result, there was a 'rush to gas' for use in peak load electricity generation and in low grade uses in industry. The growth in availability of natural gas
1265-571: The Royal Parks. The production process differs from other methods used to generate gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas , syngas , Dowson gas, and producer gas . These gases are made by partial combustion of a wide variety of feedstocks in some mixture of air, oxygen, or steam, to reduce the latter to hydrogen and carbon monoxide although some destructive distillation may also occur. Manufactured gas can be made by two processes: carbonization or gasification . Carbonization refers to
1320-660: The Royal Standard, the East Hill and the Alma. East Hill is an area of large Victorian houses bordered by the west side of Wandsworth Common. From 2007 to 2014 the area was used as the location for the BBC TV series Outnumbered . Wandsworth High Street is dominated by the regenerated Southside shopping centre , cinema and restaurant complex (formerly called the Arndale Centre ). Behind
1375-533: The Second World War as petroleum shortages forced Nazi Germany to develop the Fischer–Tropsch synthesis to produce synthetic fuel for aircraft and tanks. The by-products of coal gas manufacture included coke , coal tar , sulfur and ammonia and these were all useful products. Dyes, medicines such as sulfa drugs , saccharine , and dozens of organic compounds are made from coal tar. The coal used, and
1430-536: The area is the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building , which now contains flats, a theatre school and a restaurant. The Tonsleys/Old York Road is a residential area of old Wandsworth close to the river and town centre, so called because many of the street names have the word "Tonsley" included. It has a village feel with the Old York Road's cafes and shops at its heart. The area has three notable pubs:
1485-616: The coal gas, but would leave behind a crumbly, low-quality coke not suitable for metallurgical processes. Coal or coke oven gas typically had a calorific value between 10 and 20 megajoules per cubic metre (270 and 540 Btu/cu ft); with values around 20 MJ/m (540 Btu/cu ft) being typical. The advent of electric lighting forced utilities to search for other markets for manufactured gas. MGPs that once almost exclusively produced lighting gas shifted their efforts towards supplying gas for heating and cooking, and even refrigeration and cooling. Fuel gas for industrial use
1540-514: The development of natural gas supply and transmission—during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States and during the late 1960s and 1970s in the United Kingdom and Australia—almost all gas for fuel and lighting was manufactured from coal. Town gas was supplied to households via municipally owned piped distribution systems. Sometimes, this was called syn gas , in contrast to natural gas. At
1595-410: The devolatilization of an organic feedstock to yield gas and char . Gasification is the process of subjecting a feedstock to chemical reactions that produce gas. The first process used was the carbonization and partial pyrolysis of coal . The off gases liberated in the high-temperature carbonization ( coking ) of coal in coke ovens were collected, scrubbed and used as fuel. Depending on the goal of
1650-474: The era of North Sea gas , many of the original cast iron gas pipes installed in towns and cities for town gas were replaced by plastic . As reported in the DTI Energy Review 'Our Energy Challenge' January 2006 North Sea gas resources have been depleted at a faster rate than had been anticipated and gas supplies for the UK are being sought from remote sources, a strategy made possible by developments in
1705-430: The fuel gas by enriching it with CO and hydrogen (H 2 ) produced by water gas reactions. Producer gas has a very low calorific value of 3.7 to 5.6 MJ/m (99 to 150 Btu/cu ft); because the calorific gases CO/H 2 are diluted with much inert nitrogen (from air) and carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (from combustion) The problem of nitrogen dilution was overcome by the blue water gas (BWG) process, developed in
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1760-489: The gas-using equipment of almost thirteen million domestic, four hundred thousand commercial, and sixty thousand industrial customers were converted. Many dangerous appliances were discovered in this exercise and were taken out of service. The UK town gas industry ended in 1987 when operations ceased at the last town gas manufacturing plants in Northern Ireland (Belfast, Portadown and Carrickfergus; Carrickfergus gas works
1815-609: The industry produced) to marketing management (meeting the needs and desires of customers) and the lifting of an early moratorium preventing nationalised industries from using television advertising , saved the gas industry for long enough to provide a viable market for what was to come. In 1959 the Gas Council in Great Britain demonstrated that liquid natural gas (LNG) could be transported safely, efficiently and economically over long distances by sea. The Methane Pioneer shipped
1870-472: The largest in Europe, with a similar capacity to Liverpool Prison . Coal gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities. The original coal gas
1925-486: The length of the country. This became the National Transmission System . All gas equipment in Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland) was converted (by the fitting of different-sized burner jets to give the correct gas/air mixture) from town gas to natural gas (mainly methane ) over the period from 1967 to 1977 at a cost of about £100 million, including writing off redundant town gas manufacturing plants. All
1980-410: The market for room heating. Concurrently a new market for whole house central heating by hot water was being developed by the oil industry and the gas industry followed suit. Gas warm air heating found a market niche in new local authority housing where low installation costs gave it an advantage. These developments, the realignment of managerial thinking away from commercial management (selling what
2035-548: The oldest continuously operating brewery in the United Kingdom. Operating from 1533 to 2006, the brewery has now closed, and the site has been redeveloped as the "Ram Quarter". The original Ram Inn public house continues to operate, and from 2019 is again brewing beer on the site. Wandsworth High Street counts several listed buildings amongst its notable structures. These include: 51°27′25.74″N 0°11′39.78″W / 51.4571500°N 0.1943833°W / 51.4571500; -0.1943833 This London -related article
2090-437: The plant, the desired product was either a high quality coke for metallurgical use, with the gas being a side product, or the production of a high quality gas, with coke being the side product. Coke plants are typically associated with metallurgical facilities such as smelters or blast furnaces , while gas works typically served urban areas. A facility used to manufacture coal gas, carburetted water gas (CWG), and oil gas
2145-430: The production process included coal tars and ammonia , which were important raw materials (or "chemical feedstock ") for the dye and chemical industry with a wide range of artificial dyes being made from coal gas and coal tar. Facilities where the gas was produced were often known as a manufactured gas plant (MGP) or a gasworks . In the United Kingdom the discovery of large reserves of natural gas, or sea gas as it
2200-632: The shopping centre, and following the River Wandle upstream towards Earlsfield and further south to Wimbledon , is King George's Park . Wandsworth Museum previously occupied the former Victorian library in West Hill having been moved there in 2007. The museum closed in March 2015. The De Morgan Centre is currently situated in Wandsworth Museum and houses a collection of Victorian artwork. A green plaque to commemorate aviation pioneer Alliott Verdon Roe
2255-443: The site by a master brewer albeit in small amounts. A planning application to redevelop the site for residential and shopping/leisure "mixed use" was submitted in 2012 and approved in 2013. In 2019 it was announced that Sambrook's Brewery will continue to brew beer on the site moving from their brewhouse on York Road in 2020 with John Hatch (former master brewer of Youngs Brewery) taking an active role in tours. Wandsworth gas plant
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2310-473: The steam cycle are kept as blue water gas. This gas is composed almost entirely of CO and H 2 , and burns with a pale blue flame similar to natural gas. BWG has a calorific value of 11 MJ/m (300 BTU/cu ft). Blue water gas lacked illuminants; it would not burn with a luminous flame in a simple fishtail gas jet as existed prior to the invention of the gas mantle in the 1890s. Various attempts were made to enrich BWG with illuminants from gas oil in
2365-449: The technologies of pipelaying that enable the transmission of gas over land and under sea across and between continents . Natural gas is now a world commodity . Such sources of supply are exposed to all the risks of any import. Monty Python parodied the conversion from coal to North Sea gas, and the jumping through hoops some encountered, in their "New Cooker Sketch," as part of the episode that began its second series in 1970. Coal gas
2420-526: The time, a frequent method of committing suicide was the inhalation of gas from an unlit oven. With the head and upper body placed inside the appliance, the concentrated carbon monoxide would kill quickly. Sylvia Plath famously ended her life with this method. Originally created as a by-product of the coking process, its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the Industrial Revolution and urbanization . By-products from
2475-403: The town gas and by-products produced, by the major three gas companies of London are summarised in the table. Coke is used as a smokeless fuel and for the manufacture of water gas and producer gas . Coal tar was subjected to fractional distillation to recover various products, including Used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid Used in the manufacture of fertilisers Coal gas
2530-535: The town gas industry in the UK was driven by the discovery of natural gas by the drilling rig Sea Gem , on 17 September 1965, some forty miles off Grimsby , over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) below the seabed. Subsequently, the North Sea was found to have many substantial gas fields on both sides of the median line defining which nations should have rights over the reserves. In a pilot scheme customers on Canvey Island were converted from town gas to natural gas supplied from
2585-399: The white hot checkerwork fire bricks inside the carburettor. The hot enriched gas would then flow into the superheater, where the gas would be further cracked by more hot fire bricks. Following the Second World War the slow recovery of the British coal mining industry led to shortages of coal and high prices. The decline of coal as a feedstock for town gas production using carbonisation
2640-459: Was built in 1834 against the River Thames near Wandsworth Bridge . The undertaking became the Wandsworth and Putney Gaslight and Coke Company in 1854 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1856. Coal for making coal gas was brought by sea from North East England and unloaded on the Thames beside the gasworks. The firm grew by a series of mergers and takeovers so that by 1936 it served
2695-455: Was initially manufactured by independent companies but in the United Kingdom many of these later became municipal services . In 1948 there was a total of 1,062 gas undertakings. Both the private companies, about two-thirds of the total, and the municipal gas undertakings, about one-third, were nationalised under the Gas Act 1948 . Further restructuring took place under the Gas Act 1972 . For further details see British Gas plc . Apart from in
2750-544: Was known colloquially, in the Southern North Sea off the coasts of Norfolk and Yorkshire in 1965 led to the expensive conversion or replacement of most of Britain's gas cookers and gas heaters, from the late 1960s onwards, the process being completed by the late 1970s. Any residual gas lighting found in homes being converted was either capped off at the meter or, more usually, removed altogether. As of 2023, some gas street lighting still remains, mainly in central London and
2805-414: Was made using producer gas technology. Producer gas is made by blowing air through an incandescent fuel bed (commonly coke or coal ) in a gas producer. The reaction of fuel with insufficient air for total combustion produces carbon monoxide (CO); this reaction is exothermic and self-sustaining. It was discovered that adding steam to the input air of a gas producer would increase the calorific value of
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#17330850365622860-480: Was owned and operated by the County of London Electric Supply Company Limited until the nationalisation of the British electricity supply industry in 1948. The power station was decommissioned in 1964. There is an operational 132 kV national grid substation to the east of the River Wandle. The former wharf area of the river-front is now lined with new apartment blocks, with several bars and restaurants including near
2915-462: Was produced by the coal gasification reaction, and the burnable component consisted of a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in roughly equal quantities by volume. Thus, coal gas is highly toxic . Other compositions contain additional calorific gases such as methane , produced by the Fischer–Tropsch process , and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen . Prior to
2970-753: Was unveiled by Wandsworth Council and members of the Verdon-Roe family beside the A3 close to Wandsworth Fire Station on the site of Roe's first workshop in the stables of his brother's house at 47 West Hill. The underpass beneath the Wandsworth Bridge roundabout was the location for the scene in Stanley Kubrick 's A Clockwork Orange in which a tramp is attacked. There are several schools in Wandsworth including Shaftesbury Park Primary School. Wandsworth Town Library
3025-469: Was used to power several historic balloon ascents in the 19th century (see The Aeronauts ). In many ways, Germany took the lead in coal gas research and carbon chemistry. With the labours of August Wilhelm von Hofmann , the whole German chemical industry emerged. Using the coal gas waste as feedstock, researchers developed new processes and synthesized natural organic compounds such as Vitamin C and aspirin . The German economy relied on coal gas during
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