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26
Borough are to be found in the vicinity of the River Thames which
forms the northern boundary. Chief among the concerns employing
large numbers of workers are:—
Cablemakers, telecommunications and shipbuilding and repair
works; automobile construction, electrical and mechanical engineers;
manufacturers of fire engines; manufactures 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 oxygen 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.
Recent efforts by the Government to encourage rationalisation
of industry and manufacturing processes throughout the country
have met with varying degrees of success. Locally, however, considerable
anxiety has grown and great concern expressed in the
Borough at the probably economic and social consequences of
severe staff reductions in. or the closure of, a number of large
industrial premises in the area. Elimination or contraction of firms
such as A.E.I., U.G.B., Johnson & Phillips, S.E.G.B. (gas processing),
Stone-Wallwork, General Steam Navigation, etc., make
long-term planning of industry and the establishment of viable
residential areas in the Borough (as in the case of "Thamesmead")
hazardous undertakings.
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