466 Scientific Industries. 



When we consider that the land bordering on the banks of the 

 Thames over this reach was largely low-lying marsh land, necessi- 

 tating embankments in places to prevent inundation, with a scanty 

 population even well into the nineteenth century, and now has 

 developed into an industrial district of fast growing importance, 

 with potentialities of no mean order, it must be felt by all that 

 nothing but honour is due to those pioneers of industry who, by 

 their business acumen and their inventive genius, have raised the 

 district to its present pre-eminent position. 



At places there are found traces of Roman reclamation work in 

 embankments which they raised against the inroads of the Thames, 

 and, like all the engineering work of the Romans, this was done well. 

 We may thus look on them as the pioneers of scientific industries in the 

 district. It should be noted that the sites chosen for the early 

 settlements, afterwards the villages of Greenwich, Woolwich, and 

 Erith, were on the high land, between the alluvial marshes, where 

 the solid strata jut on to the river. 



Deptford, Greenwich, S. Woolwich, and Dartford were formerly 

 the only places of any importance on this reach of the river, Dept- 

 ford and S. Woolwich largely taking their positions as industrial 

 centres, because within them were located the Royal Dockyards 

 and the Royal Arsenal. At. Deptford also were marine engine 

 works, which in the early days of steam propulsion were pre- 

 eminent. No doubt the growth of industries near the banks of the 

 Thames was retarded by the unhealthiness of the marsh land, as 

 fever and ague natural to such land were rife. But the expansion 

 of London and the need of larger areas for factories than could well 

 be got in the city compelled its occupation. The building of rail- 

 ways and proper roadways in the district was a great incentive to 

 progress, and proper drainage with improved sanitation eliminated 

 the pestilential element. 



The railway from London Bridge to Greenwich, built in 1838, was 

 not extended to South Woolwich until 1849, because of the large 

 amount of tunnelling required and consequent expense involved, 

 and a rival route to North Woolwich was opened in 1847, steam 

 ferries being built to connect it with South Woolwich, so as to tap 

 its traffic. From this time onward the industrial development of 

 North and South Woolwich was phenomenally rapid, even though 

 the extension of the South Eastern Railway to S. Woolwich in 1849 

 deprived the North Woolwich Railway of a large part of its traffic 

 for a time. The opening of the Victoria Docks in 1855, rendered 

 commercially possible by their vicinity to the North Woolwich Rail- 

 way, which was now extended by a loop line to the north of the 

 Docks, gave a further impetus to the development of scientific 

 industries in the immediate neighbourhood, as it converted the 



