Nathaniel John Fenner was an
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
merchant who owned a wharf in
Millwall
Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...
on the
Isle of Dogs
The Isle of Dogs is a large peninsula bounded on three sides by a large meander in the River Thames in East London, England, which includes the Cubitt Town, Millwall and Canary Wharf districts. The area was historically part of the Manor, Ham ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in the nineteenth century. Along with
Robert Fairlie
Robert Francis Fairlie (either March 1831 or 5 April 1830, in Glasgow – 31 July 1885, in London) was a Scottish-born railway engineer.
Early life
Fairlie was born in Glasgow, the son of T. Archibald Fairlie (an engineer) and Margaret Fairlie ...
he came up with idea of developing the
Millwall Docks
Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs.
History
The scheme was developed speculatively by a partnership of John Kelk and John Aird & Co.'The Millwall Docks: The docks', in Sur ...
.
He first asked Fairlie to draw up a plan to develop the empty land behind his wharf.
In 1856 with Henry James Fenner, Nathaniel had taken out a lease on a plot of undeveloped land which had previously been used as a garden and paddock, in Southern Millwall. Here they erected a two-storey wharehouse.
Having experienced difficulty when attempting to land cargoes at low tide, Fenner hit on the idea of an enclosed non-tidal docks for wharfingers created by building a 'canal' across the Isle of Dogs provided with entrance basins at each end and a central arm which would extend north towards the
East and West India Dock Company
East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth.
Etymology
As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...
's Timber Pond.
Following the insolvency of the
Millwall Iron Works, Ship Building & Graving Docks Company, the Fenner's took over the Nast House, which that company had previously occupied. From 1877 they used this premises for storing barrels of petroleum. They converted the Mast House, and erected brick internal walls. Also they sank a large pit where the Mast Pond had been, where they stored more barrels of petroleum.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fenner, Nathaniel
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing
19th-century English businesspeople
Port of London