Millwall Iron Works

The Millwall Iron Works, London, England, was a 19th-century industrial complex and series of companies, which developed from 1824. Formed from a series of small shipbuilding companies to address the need to build larger and larger ships, the holding company collapsed after the Panic of 1866 which greatly reduced shipbuilding in London. Subsequently, a recovery was made by a series of smaller companies, but by the later 19th century the location was too small for the building of ships on the scale then required. Most of its buildings, being near the apex of the peninsula, survived the Blitz and have been made into apartment blocks in a residential estate, Burrells Wharf. BackgroundBy the early 8th century, the Land of Promise estate was in Marshwall (now Millwall) on the north side of the River Thames east of London, was owned by St Martin's-in-the-Fields haberdasher Simon Lemon. Mastmaker Robert Todd then bought the estate, leaving it to his partner Thomas Todd and his wife's cousin Elizabeth, wife of mastmaker Charles Ferguson of Poplar. In 1824, industrialisation reached the area with the development of the chemical-processing works of the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company. 1835-1846: Millwall Iron WorksIn 1835 Scottish engineers William Fairbairn and David Napier bought the Land of Promise estate from Charles Augustus Ferguson, the start of making Millwall an important centre of iron shipbuilding.

The Millwall Iron Works, London, England, was a 19th-century industrial complex and series of companies, which developed from 1824. Formed from a series of small shipbuilding companies to address the need to build larger and larger ships, the holding company collapsed after the Panic of 1866 which greatly reduced shipbuilding in London. Subsequently, a recovery was made by a series of smaller companies, but by the later 19th century the location was too small for the building of ships on the scale then required. Most of its buildings, being near the apex of the peninsula, survived the Blitz and have been made into apartment blocks in a residential estate, Burrells Wharf. BackgroundBy the early 8th century, the Land of Promise estate was in Marshwall (now Millwall) on the north side of the River Thames east of London, was owned by St Martin's-in-the-Fields haberdasher Simon Lemon. Mastmaker Robert Todd then bought the estate, leaving it to his partner Thomas Todd and his wife's cousin Elizabeth, wife of mastmaker Charles Ferguson of Poplar. In 1824, industrialisation reached the area with the development of the chemical-processing works of the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company. 1835-1846: Millwall Iron WorksIn 1835 Scottish engineers William Fairbairn and David Napier bought the Land of Promise estate from Charles Augustus Ferguson, the start of making Millwall an important centre of iron shipbuilding.