Crossrail passing Tate & Lyle

Image: © Marathon Taken: 20 Jan 2016

This view is from the footbridge at the former Silvertown station and looks along the route of the former North London Line which is being transformed with the construction of Crossrail. The next station in this direction will be at Woolwich after Crossrail has passed under the River Thames. Silvertown station was opened by the Great Eastern Railway on 19th June 1863. When the Royal Albert Dock was built in 1880, the railway was diverted through a tunnel under the cut between the Victoria Dock and the Royal Albert Dock. Silvertown station was rebuilt in 1885 and 1979, but the station which was then on the North London Line, was closed with the rest of the line between Stratford and North Woolwich on 9th December 2006. The station was demolished in 2012. For a much fuller history and a chronological series of photographs of the station of and from this same footbridge see http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/s/silvertown/ On the right is Tate & Lyle Thames Refinery. Henry Tate & Sons moved to Silvertown in 1878 where they built their Thames Refinery and Abram Lyle & Sons built their works in 1881 at Plaistow Wharf, further towards Canning Town, mainly for the production of golden syrup. The companies merged in 1921 to form Tate & Lyle. Thames Refinery at Silvertown is the largest sugar refinery in the EU and one of the largest in the world, with a capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum. See also http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4799283 Connaught Road is on the left here and Factory Road beyond the railings on the right.

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