History
The Livesey Memorial Hall was built in the north-west corner of the South Suburban Gas Company’s principal site at Bell Green, which in 1911 employed 380 men. Much of the building work was carried out by the Gas Company itself. Sir George Thomas Livesey (1834-1908, knighted in 1902), whom the hall commemorates, was a director of the company for 30 years; an engineer, industrialist and philanthropist described as ‘the outstanding gas industry engineer of his generation’ (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography), he initiated many technical improvements in the design of gas holders. Livesey was the builder of the Greenwich Gas Works (1883) and was a pioneer of co-partnership (profit-sharing) within the industry. Minutes recording the decision to commemorate Livesey through the erection of a recreation room for the employees note the suitability of the memorial, ‘Bearing in mind the very great interest which was always taken by Sir George in all matters affecting the well-being of the employees’. The hall, described as comprising ‘a library, an extensive billiard room, spacious concert hall and well equipped stage and dressing rooms’, became the focus of the gaswork’s recreational facilities; a bowling green and tennis courts were also provided in the same part of the site, for the use of the employees. The bowling green survives to the north of the hall, enclosed to the west by the hall’s listed boundary wall (LE 1253121); a pavilion, not shown on the 1936 map though possibly moved from another location, also survives. The listed war memorial (LE 1253111), erected to the west of the hall in 1920, commemorates those employees of the South Suburban Gas Company who lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars.
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 02/11/2018
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
Legacy System number:
436244
Legacy System:
LBS
End of official list entry
