SilvertownExplosionMemorialInItsNewLocation

Silvertown War Memorial, also known as Silvertown Explosion Memorial, is a

war memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

Silvertown Silvertown is a district in the London Borough of Newham, in east London, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, Thames and was historically part of the parishes of West Ham and East Ham, Becontree Hundred, hundred of Becontr ...

, in

East London 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 f ...

. It serves as a memorial for the workers at the

Brunner Mond Brunner may refer to: Places * Brunner, New Zealand * Lake Brunner, New Zealand * Brunner Mine, New Zealand * Brunner, Houston, United States * Brunner (crater), lunar crater Other uses * Brunner (surname) * Brunner the Bounty Hunter, a character ...

chemical plant who were killed on active service during the First and Second World Wars, while also commemorating the people killed in the

Silvertown explosion The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in West Ham, Essex (now part of the London Borough of Newham, in Greater London) on Friday, 19 January 1917 at 6:52 pm. The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturing explos ...

on 17 January 1917. It became a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

in 1999. The Silvertown factory was owned by the Brunner Mond chemical business, a forerunner to ICI, and had been used for the manufacture of

caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alka ...

. The factory was mothballed before the war, and the government decided to use its spare industrial capacity for the purification of

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

, using a process that was acknowledged to be dangerous in a built-up residential area. At about 7pm on Friday 19 January 1917, after most of the workers had left for the night, an accidental fire spread and ignited over 50 tons of TNT, killing 73 people in and around the factory (69 immediately, and four later from their injuries), and injuring hundreds more; it also destroyed the factory and hundreds of local houses, and damaged thousands more. The memorial was erected in the 1920s by Brunner Mond on North Woolwich Road, beside their factory. It comprises a tapering limestone obelisk about high, with blocks bearing inscriptions topped by a slightly domed block, each face of which is carved with a wreath. The memorial originally stood on a circular stone plinth. One face of the memorial, to the east, was carved with the inscription "TO THE GLORIOUS / MEMORY OF THE / MEN FROM THESE / WORKS WHO FELL / IN THE GREAT WAR / 1914–1919", together with the names of 7 men. The west face had the inscription "AND TO THE MEMORY / OF THOSE WHO WHILST / SERVING THEIR COUNTRY / BY MAKING T.N.T. / PERISHED IN THE / EXPLOSION IN THESE / WORKS. JANUARY 19TH / 1917" with a further list of 18 names, including Andrea Angel, who was posthumously awarded the

Edward Medal The Edward Medal was a British civilian decoration which was instituted by royal warrant on 13 July 1907 to recognise acts of bravery of miners and quarrymen in endangering their lives to rescue their fellow workers. The medal was named in hono ...

. A further inscription on the south face reads "ALSO TO THE MEMORY OF THOSE WHO FELL IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1939 – 1945" with another 7 names. The north face remains blank. The site of the destroyed factory remained empty for nearly a century, but a neighbouring factory continued in operation until 1961. Both sites were cleared for a residential redevelopment in 2014, and construction of the

Royal Wharf Royal Wharf is a residential and commercial development in Newham, London located on the north bank of the River Thames. It is built on the former site of ''Minoco Wharf'' and is near the Thames Barrier, west of Thames Barrier Park, and close ...

development began in 2015. As part of the development, the memorial was removed from its original location near the road, at the entrance to the site, restored and re-erected in 2016 elsewhere on the site, closer to the River Thames. Relatives of those killed by the explosion attended a service beside the memorial to commemorate the centenary of the explosion on 17 January 2017.

References

Silvertown Explosion Memorial
Public Monuments and Sculpture Association
Silvertown Brunner Mond Memorial
War Memorials Online

Carl's Cam
Relocation of the Silvertown War Memorial at Royal Wharf
Newham Council

External links

Memorial in Silvertown, East London
Educational Image, Historic England {{coord, 51.4999, N, 0.0277, E, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Newham Grade II listed monuments and memorials World War I memorials in England World War II memorials in England Military memorials in London