Catalogue description COMMERCIAL GAS COMPANY

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Commercial Gas Company

• Gas industry

The Commercial Gas Company was founded in 1837 and gained statutory powers by AoP in 1847. Gas manufacture began in 1839 at Harford St. in Stepney, on the Regents Canal. The works were enlarged in 1885 and CWG plant installed in 1897. Gas manufacture ceased in 1946 but the site continued as a holder station. The company also built a works at Poplar in 1878, at Leven Street on the opposite side of the River Lea from the Imperial's Bromley-by-Bow works. In 1850 the Commercial GC took over the Poplar Gas Light Co. which had works in Poplar, Back Lane (Later King St.), built in 1821. From 1840 to 1849 these works were operated on a commission basis by F.J. Evans. When the Commercial GC bought the works in 1849, they closed it down and removed it in 1852. The Poplar GLC also had a small works at West Ferry Road in Millwall to supply the Isle of Dogs, built in 1841, it was closed by the Commercial GC in 1855.

The Commercial GC absorbed the British Gas Light Co.'s works at Stepney in School house Lane, in 1852. Built in 1825, the works was closed and the site sold by the Commercial GC in 1855. The BGLC had another works in Bow, off Bow Road which it had purchased together with its supply district from the Imperial GLCC in 1829. The Commercial GC also purchased this works and continued to operate the works untill 1856 when it was dismantled, one holder was sold to Crystal Palace and the other to Tottenham.

In 1855 the company came to an agreement with the West Ham GC to sell its mains etc within the Parish of West Ham to them and to split the area of supply in which they overlapped, the West Ham company restricting itself to Essex and the Commercial company to Middlesex.

In 1875 the Commercial GC bought the Ratcliffe Gas Light and Coke Co. whose original works was in Shadwell at Sun Tavern fields. The works was built in 1817 but the site was disected by the Railway in 1837, when the southern part of the site continued as a holder station while the manufacture was transferred to Wapping, which the Ratcliffe GLC had bought in 1835. The Commercial continued to operate the Wapping works untill 1935 when as a result of a fire it was closed.

The eventual area of supply of the Commercial Gas Company covered 7 square miles in Poplar, Stepney, parts of Bethnal Green and Essex.

In 1949 the Commercial Gas Company vested in the NTGB.

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