Council Depot
COUNCIL DEPOT, WHITE HART ROAD
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1271530
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Council Depot
- Statutory Address:
- COUNCIL DEPOT, WHITE HART ROAD
Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1271530
- Date first listed:
- 22-Dec-2000
- List Entry Name:
- Council Depot
- Statutory Address 1:
- COUNCIL DEPOT, WHITE HART ROAD
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- COUNCIL DEPOT, WHITE HART ROAD
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- Greenwich (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 45490 78933
Details
TQ4578 WHITE HART ROAD 786/22/10132 Plumstead 22-DEC-2000 Council Depot
II
Former electricity generating station, subsequently council depot. 1903 by Mitchell and Sumner. Red brick with stone dressings, slate roof. Complex plan, with main hall flanked on one side by offices, with smaller halls on the other side served by ramp. Halls mainly with round-arched windows in stone surrouds with keystones; some flat-headed windows, also with keystones, and metal glazing bars. Pilasters to blind side walls with bands of stonework; glazed clerestory and single chimney to side. Large round stone arch over double doors in three-bay end walls, with gable window. Offices a symmetrical compostion of two storeys and attic, with tall stacks, pyramidal roof and high pointed dormers with stone mouldings. Five bay frontage with central door in Gibbs surround. Timber sash windows with small panes to upper sashes and keystones, those to ground floor linked by elaborate stone band. A similar baroque serves as a cornice. Stone corners. It is flanked by two-bay single-storey side wings, with flat roofs and similar corner decorations. These have round-arched tripartite windows.
Interiors. Main generating hall has tiled interior with blue and red tiled dado, white tiles above, and articulated by blind arcade and pilasters. Steel truss roof and clerestory. Full-width overhead travelling crane. Second hall has brick walls painted white under similar steel truss roof and clerestory; the third hall is thought to be an addition, is floored, and has been subdivided. Long ramp up to this third hall, with offices underneath, their windows of metal glazing under flat concrete heads.
Elaborate interiors to office block, with flat balustered timber stair, double doors in timber surround with decorative coloured glazing. Offices with timber doors in eared surrounds, and with fireplaces.
The large site was openend in 1903 as a combined refuse incinerator and electricity generating station, supplying street lighting and domestic interiors. Power generation ceased in 1923, incineration in 1965. Its architecture survives substantially intact, complete with its fine offices, and is a good example of an early power station, while the combined incineration use is novel. Save that the chimney has gone, this is a very well preserved power station for this early date.
Sources
The Industrial Archaeology of South East London, Goldsmith's College Industrial Archaeology Group, 1982.
Darrell Spurgeon, Discover Woolwich and its Environs, London, 19990
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 487648
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 08-Jul-2026 at 18:43:33.
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