Congreve’s rocket factory
In the early 1800s, before the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks was built, this site was home to a 14-acre rocket factory. It was built by William Congreve an artillery officer, scientist and inventor.
Inspired by an Indian design, Congreve designed a military rocket which was much more advanced than existing gunpowder rockets. His rockets were used to great effect at Leipzig in 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. They were also used when the British attacked Fort McHenry near Baltimore in 1814, earning a reference in the US national anthem the “Star Spangled Banner’:
“Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air…”
Image credit:
Sir William Congreve, 2nd Bt by James Lonsdale, circa 1812 © National Portrait Gallery, London
From the Collection of
