Silvertown explosion
Date | 19 January 1917 |
---|---|
Time | 18:52 UTC |
Location | Silvertown, London |
Deaths | 73 |
Non-fatal injuries | More than 400 |
The Silvertown explosion occurred in
Operations
The factory was built in 1893 on the south side (
Another plant, at Gadbrook, was built in 1916 and was producing TNT at a higher rate than the Silvertown factory, away from populated areas, with more stringent safety standards. Both factories were in full production.[4]
Explosion
On 19 January, a fire broke out in the melt-pot room, and efforts to put it out were under way when approximately 50 long tons (50 t) of TNT ignited at 6:52 pm. The TNT plant was destroyed instantly, as were many nearby buildings, including the Silvertown Fire Station. Much of the TNT was in railway goods wagons awaiting transport.[4] Debris was strewn for miles around, with red-hot chunks of rubble causing fires. A gas holder was damaged on Greenwich Peninsula, creating a fireball from 200,000 cubic metres (7,100,000 cu ft) of gas; the holder was later repaired and remained until 1986. Several thousand pounds' worth of goods were also destroyed in nearby warehouses, estimated by the Port of London Authority to span 7 hectares (17 acres).[5][failed verification] The chancel and church hall of the local church, St Barnabas', were destroyed, only to be replaced in 1926.[6]
73 people were killed (69 immediately, and four later from their injuries), and more than 400 injured. Up to 70,000 properties were damaged, 900 nearby ones destroyed or unsalvageably damaged; the cost was put at either £250,000 or £2.5 million.[1][3][5] The comparatively low death toll for such a large blast was due to the time of day. The factories were largely empty of workers (there were fewer than forty in the TNT factory itself),[1] but it was too early for the upper floors of houses (which sustained the worst of the flying debris damage) to be heavily populated. Also, it occurred on a Friday, when fewer people were around the factory. However, several professional firemen and volunteers fighting the earlier fire were killed or seriously injured in the explosion.[4] For comparison, 8 long tons (8.1 t) of TNT exploded at the National Shell Filling Factory, and killed 137 people; an explosion at Split Rock, New York, in 1918 killed 50–52 people with 1–3 short tons (0.9–2.7 long tons; 0.9–2.7 t) of TNT.[citation needed]
Reportedly, the explosion also blew the glass out of windows in the Savoy Hotel and almost overturned a taxi in Pall Mall, London,[7] the fires could be seen in Maidstone and Guildford, and the blast was heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, including at Sandringham in Norfolk and along the Sussex coast.[3] Although the blast was heard at a great distance, it was not heard uniformly across the whole intermediate distance, owing to atmospheric effects caused by refraction of the sound waves.
Response
The emergency services immediately became involved in putting out the fires caused by the explosion, treating the wounded, and beginning to repair the damage caused. First-aid stations were set up in the streets to treat minor injuries. A
The clear-up was under the direction of Sir
The
On 20 June 1917, Andrea Angel, the plant's chief chemist, who was attending to the initial fire, was posthumously awarded the
The Silvertown explosion was not the final British munitions plant disaster of the First World War. The National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, in Nottingham, exploded on 1 July 1918, killing 137 and injuring 250.
The former TNT factory's grounds are, as of 2015[update], empty, not having been built upon since the explosion.
Popular culture
The Silvertown Explosion is dramatised in the LWT TV series
In Pat Mills's comic-strip, Charley's War, the hero, Charley Bourne, is wounded on the Somme and returns home to Silvertown to be confronted by the aftermath of the explosion. Several subsequent strips depict a Zeppelin raid on the munitions factories in the area and deal with the residents' fears of a repeat of the disaster.[citation needed]
In the Charlie Higson Young Bond novel Double or Die, Brunner Mond is one of the cryptic clues and reference is made to the explosion.[citation needed]
In A Study in Murder by Robert Ryan, the explosion blows in the windows of a hotel where Mrs. Gregson is dining, despite being located miles away from the factory.
Vera Brittain reports a curious effect of the explosion in her WWI autobiography, Testament of Youth: "Years afterwards a journalist friend told me that on the evening of this disaster she was working in her room in Bayswater when the drawn blind suddenly lifted without a sound, remained horizontal in the air for a moment or two, and then slowly dropped. There was no wind and she had heard no noise. She said it was the most terrifying experience that she had ever been through."[16]
See also
- List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions
References
- ^ a b c d "Silvertown Explosion". The Newham Story. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ Powell (edr), W R (1973). Victoria County History A history of the County of Essex. Vol. 6. pp. 76–89.
- ^ a b c d e f "London's biggest explosion". Port Cities. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ a b c "The Silvertown Explosion". Lalamy.demon.co.uk. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ a b "Silvertown Explosion 1917". 20thcenturylondon.org.uk. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ Powell, W R, ed. (1973), "West Ham: Churches", A History of the County of Essex, vol. 6, London: Victoria County History, pp. 114–123
- ^ a b "London's explosion was at Silvertown". The New York Times. 29 January 1917. Retrieved 25 September 2007.
- ^ "SILVERTOWN EXPLOSION". Hansard. Parliament. 19 May 1919. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "SILVERTOWN EXPLOSION (MESSRS. BRUNNER, M0ND,AND COMPANY)". Hansard. Parliament. 28 May 1919. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "SILVERTOWN EXPLOSION (RECONSTRUCTION)". Hansard. Parliament. 6 July 1917. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- ^ "No. 30145". The London Gazette. 22 June 1917. p. 6181.
- ^ John Price: Heroes of Postman's Park: Heroic Self-Sacrifice in Victorian London, The History Press, 2015, ISBN 978-0-7509-5643-7, p. 124ff.
- ^ "Carl's Cam: Works War Memorial, Silvertown, London E16". Carlscam.com. 19 January 1917. Retrieved 7 October 2011.
- "Silvertown, NE071, War Memorial, World War I, Silvertown Explosion Memorial". Archived from the original on 26 February 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2010. - ^ Planning – Planning Application Documents 14/02758/LBC | Relocation of the Silvertown War Memorial pa.newham.gov.uk, accessed 28 August 2020
- ^ "Upstairs, Downstairs – Season Four".
- ^ V. Brittain, Testament of Youth (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009), p. 277. First edition: 1933.
Bibliography
- Sainsbury, Frank (1977). "Largest Wartime Explosions: Silvertown, London, 19 January 1917". ISSN 0306-154X.
- Hill, Graham and Bloch, Howard (2003). The Silvertown Explosion: London 1917. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-3053-X.