Place Name
Simon Adams Beck (1803 – 1883) was the governor of the Gas, Light and Coke Company, which in 1870 established its London base in what is now Beckton. The gas industrialist and lawyer, was originally from Condover, in Shropshire. The Victorians had discovered how to turn coal into gas and used the by-products in a variety of ways, what Beck’s company did differently was to use those products itself. The gas works closed down in 1969.
