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Cablemakers, telecommunications and shipbuilding and repair
works; automobile, construction, electrical and mechanical engineers;
manufacturers of fire engines; manufacturers of tools, gauges,
scientific instruments, tin boxes and containers, paints and lacquers,
glass bottles, ropes, ships' propellers, cement and road surface
materials; works for the recovery of metal and for the production
of castings and for extruded non-ferrous metals and alloys and
for the manufacture of oxgyen and rare gases; printers, both letterpress
and newspapers; furniture makers, joiners and shopfitters;
electric welders and galvanisers and sheet metal workers; producers
of water softening and conditioning chemicals and horticultural
products; works for the manufacture of wireless, aero, vehicle and
typewriter accessories. Besides the usual electricity generating
stations and gas works, there are cement and stone works, cold meat
stores, coal wharves and the inevitable lighterage companies.
The numbers actually employed vary from a few hundred to
several thousands at the larger factories.
SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY
Geological formations occurring in the London Borough of
Greenwich are of two groups, namely, the "superficial deposits"
and the "solid formations". These are given below, seriatim, in
descending order and while this holds good for the area as a whole,
the complete sequence is not always met with for superficial
deposits may be non-existent, local arching of strata and subsequent
denudation of the higher parts may have brought to the surface
lower members of the succession and, in other cases, a stratum of
the sequence may be entirely absent. Where maximum and minimum
depths are stated, this implies a true variation of the thickness
of the beds in question and, with the exception of the superficial
deposits, is not to be ascribed to thinning due to erosion.
Superficial deposits in the Borough are distributed over the
surface of the "solid formations" and may be considered as being
of (a) "made" ground, (b) alluvium, and (c) gravel, the latter
deposit being of the Pleistocene or "drift" series. At some places
these deposits fill deep hollows in the surface of the "solid"
attaining a maximum thickness of about 70 feet and at others
are arranged as banks. More usually they form spreads of comparatively
uniform thickness, or remain caps to the higher ground.
Situated below these are the "solid" Eocene formations of Claygate,
London, Blackheath and Woolwich & Reading beds followed
by that of Thanet Sand. Underlying the whole Eocene strata is the
Chalk or Cretaceous formation.