On the border of the river between Albert Bridge and Watney's Distillery are several wharfs and factories. Ribbon Factory of Cornell, Lyell and Webster; the Glove Factory of Fownes & Co.; Garton, Hill & Co.'s Sugar Refinery now in course of erection; Orlando Jones & Co.'s Rice Starch Manufactory; Denny's (Creek) Flour Mills;[1] Price's Patent Candle Company's Factory; B. Freeman & Co.'s Varnish and Color Works; T. Whiffin's Chemical Manufactory; Nash and Miller, Barge Builders; A. B. Cox, Barge and Boat Builder; Watney's Malt Houses.
[1] A pair of 4-ft. stones will grind four bushels per hour.
On the site where now stands Fownes & Co.'s Glove Factory, formerly used as a silk factory, was Bonwell and Waymouth's Distillery. This firm furnished a Corps of (Battersea) Volunteers, of which the late Mr. George Chadwin was an ensign. Mr. Jonathan Browne, who used to preach at the Old Baptist Meeting House, York Road, was the grandfather of Mr. George Jonathan Chadwin, of Lombard Road, who was Vestry Clerk for 29 years in conjunction with his father.
T. Gaines, a celebrated Horticulturist and Florist, resided in an ancient mansion that stood in Surrey Lane, thought by some to have been a private residence of Queen Elizabeth. The house has been pulled down.
J. Tow kept a Private Mad House in High Street, It is now occupied by Austin & Co., Dyers.
It is supposed by some that there was in olden time a Foundry in Battersea for casting shot, etc., for the Tower of London.
THE PATENT PLUMBAGO CRUCIBLE COMPANY'S WORKS, which are the largest crucible works in the world, cover a large space of ground and have a river frontage. The principal elevation in Church Road is a conspicuous feature in the neighbourhood. It is Italian in character freely treated and somewhat Continental in design. The clock tower rises about 100 feet high, in which is an illuminated clock that may be seen at a considerable distance. A portion of the basement of this elegant structure is appropriated to the private office of the manager and clerks' offices where every quality of plumbago is represented by specimens from all the most celebrated mines, particularly those of Ceylon, Germany, Spain, Siberia, Canada, Finland and Borrowdale. The other departments are the stores, grinding room, mixing room, potters' room, drying room, the clay department, store room, etc. Crucibles for melting and refining metals have been used ever since man threw aside his hatchet and bone-chisel for bronze. For scientific research the crucible has occupied an important place. It was constantly used by the first alchemists and has truly been styled the cradle of experimental chemistry. The word crucible from the Latin crux-crucis recalls the alchemical practice of marking the vessel with the protective sign of the cross. Crucibles of different shapes and sizes are extensively employed by the refiner of gold and silver, the brass founder, melters of copper, zinc and malleable iron, the manufacture of cast steel, the assayer and the practical chemist. For ordinary metallurgical operations clay crucibles are extensively employed. At the International Exhibition of 1862 the only prize medal for crucibles was awarded to the Company and another prize medal for blackleads. The Company's crucibles are now used exclusively by the English, Australian and Indian Mints; the Royal Arsenals of Woolwich, Brest, and Toulon, etc., etc., and have been adopted by most of the large engineers, brass founders and refiners in this country and abroad. Their great superiority consists in their capability of melting on an average forty pourings of the most difficult metals, and a still greater number of those of an ordinary character, some of them having actually reached the extraordinary number of 96 meltings. These crucibles never crack, become heated much more rapidly than any other description, and require only one annealing, may be used any number of times without further trouble, change of temperature (they may be plunged while cold into a furnace nearly white hot without cracking) having no effect on them. The Patent Plumbago Crucible Company are the greatest consumers of the Ceylon Graphite brought to the United Kingdom. The total quantity of Graphite exports from Ceylon in 1862 was 40,195 cwt., of which 34,730 cwt. was shipped to Great Britain.
This Company are at present carrying out very extensive improvements on the river side along the front of their premises in the construction of a river wall built of Portland Cement Concrete, the foundations of which are carried down four feet below Trinity Low Water Mark, which have been done without the aid of a coffer-dam. These works when completed will reclaim a very valuable frontage of the river. The total length of wall and camp-shedding together with the adjoining property of Messrs. May and Baker's Chemical Works will be about 500 feet.
These improvements if extended westward towards the Parish Church will be the means of doing away with the unsightly mud banks which now exist, there is no doubt then a clean foreshore will be accomplished similar to the south side lower down the river where more extensive embankment works have been constructed. Behind a portion of the wall which the Plumbago Company are constructing will be some extensive cellars, which will be covered over with a concrete floor carried on wrought iron girders and supported by cast iron columns, and on the top of this floor will be a tram seven feet wide for the use of a heavy steam crane, and when completed will be able to unload goods out of barges alongside and deliver the same into the second floor of the present warehouse.
These works have been constructed from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. W. H. Thomas, C.E., of 15 Parliament Street, Westminster, Engineer to the Patent Plumbago Crucible Company, and now being carried out by Messrs. B. Cook & Co., of Phœnix Wharf, Church Road Battersea, Mr. Maples acting as Clerk of the Works.