[Footnote 1: On Battersea Park Embankment, near where the Albert Bridge
now spans the river, lies like some ancient ruin the beautiful Portico
of Burlington House. It was when removed from Piccadilly in 1868 to
have been re-erected in the Park.]
The park was opened March 28th, 1858.
In 1862 the Royal Agricultural Society of England held their Annual
Show in Battersea Park.
Recently some beautiful villas in Queen Anne's style have been built in
Albert road.
Opposite the Western gate a site has been chosen for the erection of a
Chapel-of-Ease to St. Mary's.
At the angle facing the South-western gate two stately mansions have
recently been erected contiguous to each other, called Lancaster Tower
and Strathedon House.
The two Circular Engine sheds, about 90 yards in diameter, belonging
to the London, Brighton and South-Coast Railway Company, adjacent to
the East-end of the Park, Victoria Road, built about seven years since,
show a marked difference to the small wooden shed they erected some
eighteen years ago when they had convenience for only four engines.
The present sheds are very soundly built, and can accommodate 56
engines which work from the end of the line, there being 63 engines
at work when there is no extra traffic, which is not very often the
case. The locomotive staff numbers upwards of 300 hands, the major
part being drivers, firemen, and cleaners, who muster 200. They have
every facility for doing work required in a prompt manner. There is an
engine-hoist which will lift an engine of forty or more tons in a very
short time. The break-down van stands in one of the sheds ready at a
moment's notice for any casualty that might happen. This is fitted up
with hydraulic apparatus and every appliance for getting engines and
other vehicles on the line quickly. The method of coaling engines is
very good. Half-ton trolleys are loaded out of the trucks of coal,
which can be moved with ease by one man on the iron-plated coal stage,
from which it is shot on the tender of the engine; so that one man can
in a few minutes put one or two tons of coal on a tender. Three hundred
tons of coal are kept in stock, and the weekly consumption is about
five hundred tons. The sheds are remarkably clean, being constantly
whitewashed, and the engines, which are kept clean and fresh painted,
to use a figurative expression, are perfect pictures. The passenger
engines are a light brown color and the goods engines are a dark green.
The offices attached to the sheds are at the entrance in one of the
railway arches, and suit in every way the requirements of the place,
and when inside one would hardly think it was only a railway arch.
Other arches have been fitted up as work-shops for the mechanics, and
another arch is entirely appropriated for the stores. Also an arch has
been utilized so as to form a comfortable mess-room for enginemen and
firemen, with cooking apparatus, lockers, and lavatory; adjoining which
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