Corporation of London Coal Post, off Thames Street, Sunbury
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Corporation of London Coal Post, off Thames Street, Sunbury by Stefan Czapski as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Corporation of London Coal Post, off Thames Street, Sunbury
Image: © Stefan Czapski Taken: 3 Feb 2011
The Coal Duties Act of 1851 gave the Corporation of the City of London the power to tax coal and other goods entering the Metropolitan area. The boundary of the area - for this purpose - was marked by posts or other markers. This one stands within a few feet of the Thames shore at Sunbury. The site must once - I imagine - have been a wharf where coal was unloaded, with an official in attendance to record tonnages and collect the duty. For a further example, and links to sites documenting the history of these posts see Ian Capper's Image I knew of the existence of these posts only through Geograph - and was pleased to stumble upon this one, the first I'd seen.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
51.40628
Longitude
-0.404525