North Woolwich Station opened back in 1846, making it one of London’s oldest surviving stations. The Grade II listed building in East London was using steam trains when it opened and only moved over to diesel locomotives in 1963. It was originally built to serve Woolwich, on the south side of the river, as the…
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Pegwell Bay dates back to as far as Roman times and is thought to be the site of where Julius Caesar invaded Britain. In 2017 a fort dating back to 54BC was discovered, confirming this fact. Fast forward the centuries and in 1969 ‘Ramsgate International Hoverport’ was open for business, officially opened by the Duke…
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Many comprehensive histories of the mills have been written online, so here is just a very brief overview of their past, present, and future. The grain mills at Silvertown are perhaps one of the last substantial remnants of London’s docklands and a symbol of their decline in the light of the area’s very contrasting redevelopment….
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SM UB-122 was a World War One German submarine, or U-Boat, in the German Imperial Navy which was first commissioned in March 1918 after a year of construction. The 183ft warship was armed with 10 torpedoes and a 3.46 inch deck gun which would have been operated by the 31 men and 3 officers onboard….
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Garrison Point Fort is a rare two-tiered fort in Sheerness, built in the 1860’s over concerns of a French invasion. The fort was constructed in a prime location, providing the first line of defence for both the River Thames and the Medway, less than a mile away from Grain Tower Fort. In 1860 a report…
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Taken in 2017, we captured the start of demolition of dozens of houses as part of a multi-billion pound regeneration scheme of Canning Town and Custom House, with 10,000 homes set to be built on the site of these now demolished homes. The single storey buildings on Wouldham Road, Chedworth Close, Rathbone Street and Clarkson…
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‘The Essex & Colchester Hospital’ was opened in 1820, following a plan by the Colchester Archdeacon to open a hospital for the poor. Along with seven other men, a plot of land was purchased and one of the country’s first hospitals for the poor was opened. It was funded by subscriptions and gifts from wealthy…
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The refinery c.2014 (BTP) and 2016 (Slayaaaa) prior to the demolition of its many towers The refinery was built over Coryton village (Kynochtown) and Kynoch’s munitions factory (the site of which still remains just north of the refinery – see here). The explosives factory operated from the late 1890s up until 1919 serving through the…
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The artillery battery at Longues-sur-Mer was built as part of the Atlantic Wall coastal fortifications and was built by German Forces in the first half of 1944, being completed within just four months. Constructed on the Normandy clifftop some 60 metres above the sea level, it was built in one of the best positions to…
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The bunker was built in late 1940 as the South East Army Command Brigade Headquarters. It can be presumed that this was unlike most military installations on home ground in that it was not a defensive site for use by defensive forces; like the Home Guard or Territorial Army, but an actual command post for…
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