Trinity Buoy Wharf | Buildings of TBW

The Buildings of Trinity Buoy Wharf

THE EXPERIMENTAL LIGHTHOUSE

Today Trinity Buoy Wharf is dominated by London's only Lighthouse. Its purpose was not the familiar one of maritime navigation but to experiment and develop lighting for the network of lighthouses and lightships maintained by Trinity House.

In fact there were two lighthouses here, as this early view from the Thames shows. The original one was built in 1854 and demolished in the late 1920's. This was the building used by the celebrated Michael Faraday, scientific adviser to Trinity House, to pioneer electric lighting for the South Foreland Lighthouse in Kent... more

THE CHAIN AND BUOY STORE

The handsome building adjoining the Experimental Lighthouse is the former Chain and Buoy Store, the largest surviving Victorian structure here. The group was designed by Sir James Douglass. It originally stored iron mooring chains for buoys and lightships, as well as large iron buoys.

The roof space has a specially strengthened floor, put in at the request of Michael Faraday to take the weight of his experimental equipment... more

THE SUPERINTENDENT'S HOUSE

Long since demolished, the imposing Victorian domestic building that once stood on the quay in front of the Chain and Buoy Store, in the area now used for car parking, was the House of the Superintendent, the senior officer on the site.

One Victorian superintendent was a Captain Reynolds, shown here in full Trinity House uniform amid one of the massive piles of chains used for mooring buoys and lightships.

CONTAINER CITY

Container City™ is one of Urban Space Management's latest projects, providing a highly versatile system of stylish but affordable accommodation for a range of uses – offices, studios, workshops, live–work, residential, educational, and even a pre-school nursery in Harlesden.

So far on site there is Container City 1 and 2 as well as the Riverside Building. The accommodation is built from recycled shipping containers arranged in modular groups. The walls are only 2mm thick but because they are corrugated they are immensely strong. Each 40 x 8 foot container weighs in at only four tonnes but is able to take up to ten times that in loading, and remains rigid when stacked... more

A RICH MIX

There is a rich mix of buildings old and new at Trinity Buoy Wharf. Behind "Container City" a long low brick range resembles at first sight a stable block typical of a stately home. This in fact was the Proving House (Building K), built by Douglass in 1875, its 120 foot length necessary for the testing of chains and cables. To the West of the 1836 Electricians' Building, abutting Orchard Place, is the Fitting Shop (Building L), built in the 1950's and typical of the period, with its big concrete mullioned windows and corrugated roofline. It and its contemporary to the South the Boiler Makers' House (Building H) remind one strongly of the style of public architecture made famous by the 1951 Festival of Britain.