The equipment at Enderby Wharf, London SE10, was installed to a load cable from the factory and then directly on to the cable ships that then laid the TAT-1 cable.
The cable then went into service in September 1956 between Oban in Scotland and Clarenville, Newfoundland.
“This was the first time that ordinary people on either side of the Atlantic had been able to make phone calls to family, friends and business associates,” said Alan Burkitt-Gray, a telecoms and technology journalist who previously worked for Capacity until last April.
Burkitt-Gray has submitted the proposal to Historic England, the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England’s historic environment.
“Today, we can use WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype and other apps to talk to people and message them around the world without a thought, but this, 68 years ago, was revolutionary.”
The Greenwich factory, which still exists and is making subsea equipment had been making subsea cables for a century when it helped to make TAT-1.
It made the first cross-Channel telegraph cable in 1851 and then, in 1856-66, the first successful telegraph cables to cross the Atlantic. However, they only carried written messages – not phone calls, which came into operation later.
“With a history of 170 years, this site, more than anywhere else in this country, is responsible for our present-day connected world,” said Burkitt-Gray, who is a committee member of the Greenwich Industrial History Society, which campaigns to recognise the technological, industrial and business history of that corner of south-east London.
The aim, Burkitt-Gray says, is to persuade Historic England to recommend that the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, the Rt Hon Lucy Frazer KC MP, agrees to list the structure at Enderby Wharf.
According to Historic England, “Listing is the term given to the practice of listing buildings, scheduling monuments, registering parks, gardens and battlefields, and protecting wreck sites. Listing allows us to highlight what is significant about a building or site and helps to make sure that any future changes to it do not result in the loss of its significance.”
The winding gear at Enderby Wharf was last used to load cable on to cable ships in 1978, when cable manufacturers moved fist to Southampton then to Calais. The owner, Alcatel, refurbished it for the Millennium in 2000.
The Grade II listed building has a rich history dating back to the time of Samuel Enderby, a renowned shipping owner. The jetty is located just a mile away, across the river, from the launch ramp of the SS Great Eastern. This passenger ship, engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was used to lay submarine cables produced by the Enderby factory's cable-making company, Telegraph Construction and Maintenance (Telcon).
The Great Eastern launch site is now scheduled as an ancient monument because of its importance.
“These three locations – Enderby House, the SS Great Eastern launch ramp, and the winding gear – create a trio of sites that show the importance of this part of the River Thames to the development of international telecommunications – something that is not replicated anywhere in England or anywhere else in the world,” Burkitt-Gray said.
