STRATFORD WORKS

[kudu]

According to "Great Eastern Engine Sheds" Vol 1 (Hawkins & Reeve) the original loco shed at Stratford was a 16-road polygonal roundhouse, built "around 1840". (There is an undated photo of it on p11.) It was located near the station in what became the Old Works area along the east side of the line to Temple Mills.

Does anyone know how long the building lasted? As a running shed it must have been used until about 1871, when a new shed was opened on a different site, presumably somewhere near the Jubilee shed. But what happened to the roundhouse?

The 1914 OS map (reproduced by Alan Godfrey Maps) still shows the polygon, seemingly attached to a rectangular building on its northern side, alongside the running lines. But the plan dated as circa 1940 "GE Engine Sheds" pp 24-25) labels a rectangular building on the site as a "Store (Former Roundhouse)", implying something at least of the building had survived. (By the way, on the plan there are a couple of howlers on the labelling of the running lines - you can't believe everything you read, even in a Hawkins & Reeve volume.)

I can remember visiting Loco Erecting Shop nearby (not to be confused with the larger, newer Erecting Shop north of the Jubilee shed) though we wouldn't have also gone to a mere "Store", however remarkable the building.

Can any historians out there confirm something of the original building really did survive into the post-war years?

Kudu

[AndyRush]

The original building appears to have been demolished in 1949 after having been used as a a store for many years. I believe that it was a drawings archive in late GER days, although I am sure that there are people in the Great Eastern Railway Society who could give you chapter and verse (Lyn Brooks and John Watling for instance)

A photo can be found here:
http://www.newhamstory.com/node/1605

Regards

Andy

[kudu]

That's most helpful. Thanks, Andy.

I'm doing a bit of work on roundhouses at the moment - not sure what the end-product will be.

Kudu

[AndyRush]

Further to my last, I've found the drawings that we catalogued/copied at Waterloo a while back.

If you find the SEAX (Essex Records Office) site on Google and put Stratford Polygon in the search box, you should end up with reference to 4 drawings

HTH

Andy

[hq1hitchin]

Is the Plan Arch at Waterloo still going then, Andy? A hidden gem of London, tucked far away from public gaze, but what treasures they used to keep.

[AndyRush]

Is the Plan Arch at Waterloo still going then, Andy? A hidden gem of London, tucked far away from public gaze, but what treasures they used to keep.

I'm afraid not - it closed last year when all the plans were removed (along with those from the other Network Rail archives at Gillingham, Swindon, Birmingham, York Hudson House and Glasgow) to a building specially converted for the purpose at Clifton in York. At present there is no public access - but we live in hope !

In any case (he said selfishly), we had either originals or copies of all the interesting East Anglian stuff out before the closure. Unfortunately a lot is still in store awaiting cataloguing for the Essex Record Office due to the almost simultaneous closure of the North Woolwich Station Museum, where we used to do all the clerical work.

Regards

Andy