Always under Pressure: A History of North Thames Gas since 1949

231 Pages·1988·0.23 MB·English

by  Malcolm Falkus (auth.)

ALWAYS UNDER PRESSURE
AllVays under Pressure
A History of North Thames Gas since 1949
Malcolm Falkus
Professor of Economic History
University of New England, New South Wales
M
MACMILLAN
PRESS
© North Thames Gas 1988
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First published 1988
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typesetting by Footnote Graphics, Warminster, Wilts
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Falkus, Malcolm
Always under pressure: a history of North
Thames Gas since 1949.
1. North Thames Gas-History
I. Title
ISBN 978-0-333-46819-7 ISBN 978-1-349-10316-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-10316-4
Contents
List of Maps and Figures vi
~~ru~ ri
List of Illustrations ix
Preface xi
1 North Thames Gas: History and Tradition 1
2 The New Enterprise 21
3 The Struggle for Survival 46
4 New Technology and New Markets 61
5 The Canvey Experiment and the Beginnings of Conversion 89
6 The Conversion of Central London 123
7 Organisational Change and the Time of Troubles 132
8 A Headquarters at Last 164
9 The Staines Era: Renaissance and Reformation 173
Bibliographical Note 210
Appendix 211
I Chairmen and Deputy Chairmen of North Thames Gas Board/
Region 211
II North Thames Gas Board Part-time Board Members, 1949-72 211
III North Thames Gas Board as at 31 December 1972 212
IV Chairman's Management Committee from 1964
Index 214
List of Maps and Figures
1.1 Organisation of Divisions and Districts, 1949 5
2.1 Divisional structure and location of gasworks, 1960 32
4.1 From October 1964 Algerian methane reached eight Area
Boards through the specially laid 'methane grid' 77
5.1 Cards specially printed in Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi and
Gujarati, 1970 114
7.1 North Thames Gas Board organisational chart, 1960 133
7.2 Reorganisation, January 1971 153
9.1 Restructuring, 1986 190
vi
List of Tables
28
2.1 North Thames Gas, 1949
2.2 North Thames Gas Board- gas-making methods and
33
capacity at 1 May 1949
2.3 North Thames - gas-making stations and capacity at 1
33
May 1949 (m. cu ft gas/day)
40
2.4 Coal carbonised and coke and Cleanglow for sale
41
2.5 Gross income from sales, 1956-57
42
2.6 Throughput at Products Works, 1950-59
42
2.7 North Thames domestic tariffs at vesting day, 1949
3.1 Average cost of coal carbonised, 1949-59 (year ended 31
47
March)
48
3.2 North Thames: cost of gas, 1950-60 (d. per therm)
48
3.3 Quarterly gas tariffs (domestic), 1951-60 (d. per therm)
48
3.4 Average price of fuels, 1950-60
4.1 Gas capacity at North Thames, 1952-69, capacity (m. cu ft
67
gas/day) at 31 March
67
4.2 Gas feedstocks used by North Thames, 1960-69
68
4.3 North Thames personnel, 1956-71 (numbers at 31 March)
71
4.4 Cost of gas by various processes, 1964
76
4.5 North Sea gas discoveries, 1965-73
79
4.6 Domestic gas tariffs (credit quarterly), 1960-71
82
4.7 Appliance sales, 1954-71 (OOOs)
83
4.8 Growth in gas sales, 1950-71 (million therms)
85
4.9 Growth in gas sales, 1961-71
4.10 Relative costs of living-room heating by various methods,
87
1963-64
96
5.1 Appliances at Canvey
96
5.2 Age categories of appliances at Canvey, 1966 (%)
98
5.3 Canvey project timetable
106
5.4 Conversion schedule of Radiation Group (OOOs)
108
5.5 Major natural gas discoveries
5.6 National conversion programme, 1966-78 (OOOs
109
consumers converted)
112
5.7 Progress of conversion
118
5.8 Conversion costs by Unit, April-September 1971
129
6.1 Commercial establishments converted by CUll
138
7.1 North Thames Gas, revenue account, 1949-72
141
7.2 Interest charges and self-financing ratio, 1965-71
7.3 Cumulative advances from Ministry of Power and Gas
141
Council (up to 31 March)
vii
viii List of Tables
7.4 Complaints to Consultative Council, 1967-73 145
7.5 Complaints received at Chief Office, 1971-72 145
7.6 Outstanding disputes received at Billing Centres and
dealt with at District Offices (OOOs) 147
7.7 Outstanding correspondence at Billing Centres (OOOs) 147
7.8 Average delay between meter reading and despatch of
account (days) 148
7.9 Customers by Divisions, 31 March 1970 150
7.10 North Thames Gas capacity, 1 November 1970 (m. cu ft
gas/day) at oil gasification and gas reforming plants 161
9.1 British energy market, 1970-85 (million therms) 175
9.2 North Thames's ranking among Regions, 1951-86
(figures at 31 March) 177
9.3 British Gas's five-year plan forecasts (billion therms) 180
9.4 North Thames: growth of gas sales(% change) over five-
year periods 183
9.5 Total gas sales (million therms) 184
9.6 North Thames's maximum daily sendouts (million
therms) 184
9.7 Selected record sendouts (million therms) 185
9.8 Appliance sales, 1955-85 (OOOs) 185
9.9 Sales of central heating boilers (North Thames outlets) 185
9.10 Independent gas appliance retailers, North Thames
Region 186
9.11 Total employees 1976-86 (year ended 31 March) 189
9.12 Number of showrooms, 1949-87 193
9.13 Disconnections of credit customers, North Thames 201
9.14 Selected interruptible industrial sales, 1977-86 (million
therms) 203
9.15 Complaints to North Thames Gas Consultative and
Consumers' Councils, 1971-86 204
9.16 Complaints by letter, 1974-87 (year ended March 31)
206
List of Illustrations
1 Part of Beckton Gasworks in 1949 8
2 A group of boy employees at a subsidised holiday camp in
1953 10
3 Typical cookers 1900-47 19
4 A scene on the Chelsea Embankment 20
5 The chief office of the new North Thames Gas Board, c.
1950 22
6 Meeting of the Chairman and Chief Executives in the
Board Room, 1949 23
7 The gasholder at the Fulham Works in 1951 34
8 The m.v. Falconer Birks leaves the River Tyne to make her
final delivery of coal, 1970 35
9 View of the Brentford Works in 1951 36
10 Early morning scene in one of the Beckton loco sheds, c.
1953 38
11 The Chairman, Michael Milne-Watson, with the Duchess
of Kent in May 1952 39
12 The Vincent Street, Westminster, switchboard in 1949 44
13 A District Office, c. 1952 49
14 Inside a Beckton retort house, c. 1950 51
15 A range of new convector heaters, 1959 55
16 The Pound Lane Divisional Warehouse, 1951 57
17 Apprentices under instruction at Watson House, Fulham,
1951 59
18 Part of Romford reforming plant by night, 1969 63
19 Southall's revolutionary new catalytic hydrocarbon
reforming plant, 1963 65
20 The Methane Pioneer arrives at Canvey Island, 20 February
1959 74
21 The first connection on the ship-to-shore pipeline for the
Methane Pioneer, February 1959 75
22 Fulham Works during the 'arctic winter' of 1962-63 81
23 The first combined showroom and Heating Advisory
Centre 86
24 Aerial view of Canvey Island methane terminal, 1965 90
25 Canvey Island Conversion Unit, June 1966 100
26 Conversion brought an increased demand for domestic
meters 110
27 The first 'C Day', 29 Aprill968 111
ix
X List of Illustrations
28 CUll: the conversion unit at Nine Elms in 1973 124
29 Sir Michael Milne-Watson and George Cooper sign the
contract for the conversion of Central London, 1974 126
30 'C Day' at Buckingham Palace, 11 August 1975 130
31 Meeting of the Board at 30 Kensington Church Street,
March 1966 135
32 The last coal cargo arrives at Beckton Pier, 16 April1969 158
33 Apprentices at the newly-opened Training Centre in
Uxbridge, April 1969 154
34 Typical advertisements, c. 1960 162
35 The Executive Committee at the new Regional
Headquarters, Staines, January 1977 171
36 North Thames advertisement in the theatre programme for
Alan Bennett's The Old Country, 1977 174
37 A new showroom in Hammersmith Shopping Centre, 1979 194
38 Demolition of three chimneys at Beckton, 1984 98
39 The Chairman's Christmas message to staff, December
1972 205
40 Official opening of the Historical Museum,
Bromley-by-Bow, 1983 207