Silvertown explosion facts for kids
The Millennium Mills following the explosion
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| Date | 19 January 1917 |
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| Time | 18:52 UTC |
| Location | Silvertown, London |
| Deaths | 73 |
| Non-fatal injuries | More than 400 |
The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in West Ham, Essex (now part of the London Borough of Newham, in Greater London) on Friday, 19 January 1917 at 6:52 pm. The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturing explosives for Britain's First World War military effort. Approximately 50 long tons (50 tonnes) of trinitrotoluene (TNT) exploded, killing 73 people and injuring 400 more, as well as causing substantial damage in the local area. This was not the first, last, largest, or the most deadly explosion at a munitions facility in Britain during the war; an explosion at Faversham involving 200 long tons (200 tonnes) of TNT killed 105 in 1916, and the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, exploded in 1918, killing 137.
Contents
Operations
The factory was built in 1893 on the south side (River Thames side) of North Woolwich Road (now the A1020, nearly opposite Mill Road) by Brunner Mond, a forerunner of Imperial Chemical Industries, to produce soda crystals and caustic soda. Production of caustic soda ceased in 1912, which left part of the factory idle. Two years into the war, the Army was facing a crippling shell shortage. The War Office decided to use the factory's surplus capacity to purify TNT, a process more dangerous than manufacture itself, although the factory was in a highly populated area. Despite opposition from Brunner Mond, production of TNT began in September 1915. The method used was invented by Brunner Mond's chief scientist F. A. Freeth, who believed the process to be "manifestly very dangerous". The plant continued to purify TNT at a rate of approximately 9 long tons (10 tonnes) per day until it was destroyed by the explosion.
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.
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. 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). The chancel and church hall of the local church, St Barnabas', were destroyed, only to be replaced in 1926.
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. 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), 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. 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.
Reportedly, the explosion also blew the glass out of windows in the Savoy Hotel and almost overturned a taxi in Pall Mall, London, 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. 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.
Popular culture
The Silvertown Explosion is dramatised in the LWT TV series Upstairs, Downstairs (series 4, episode 9, "Another Year"). Scullery maid Ruby Finch had left her employer, the Bellamy family at 165 Eaton Place, to work in a munitions factory for the war effort. The explosion is not only heard at the home of her former employer in Belgravia, but it literally rocks the house. The residents can see a great fire in the distance, "down the river somewhere". Ruby makes her way back to the house and relates her account of being in the factory when the explosion occurred. She is in deep shock and her face is covered in a sulphurous yellow residue.
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.
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.
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.
See also
- List of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions
