The Isle Today
The south of the Isle is an important industrial area. Until 1982 it was home to a major oil refinery. Construction of this facility for BP took from 1948 to 1952, and it suffered flooding almost immediately when the North Sea flood of 1953 breached the sea wall. The site is now part-occupied by Thamesport, the UK's third largest container port. The remainder is allocated for industrial and warehousing use under the Thames Gateway project.
Next to the BP site is Grain Power Station, built in the 1970s, which burns oil. It was mothballed in 2003, but reopened in 2006 and as of 2006 provides up to three percent of the National Grid supply. There are plans to replace Grain power station when it reaches the end of its design life, by building a new, gas-fired power station alongside it.
Another major installation is a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) import facility. Segments of the Channel Tunnel were also manufactured in the area.
A suggestion in 2003 to site a new London international airport to lie west of the Isle on the Cliffe Marshes aroused a lot of local opposition, as well as from environmental groups such as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. It is still not completely written off, and in November 2011 Foster + Partners announced they were working on plans for a new 'Thames Hub' scheme that would combine Airport, Flood Protection and Energy Generation.
The Isle of Grain was the site of Grain Fort, built in the 1860s and used for coastal defence until the 1950s. The fort was almost completely demolished about 1960, leaving only the original earth rampart, complete with some tunnels running underground.
Grain Tower, about a quarter of a mile off-shore and accessible at low tide, originated about the same time as the main fort. Later additions, consisting of concrete emplacements and shelters, were added during the World Wars, and the tower was used as a boom control point. The boom was a chain supporting a huge net across the two rivers, preventing entry by German U-boats.
The Isle of Grain is the landing point for the Britned undersea power cable between Holland and the UK.
Read more about this topic: Isle Of Grain
Famous quotes containing the words isle and/or today:
“It is so rare to meet with a man outdoors who cherishes a worthy thought in his mind, which is independent of the labor of his hands. Behind every man’s busy-ness there should be a level of undisturbed serenity and industry, as within the reef encircling a coral isle there is always an expanse of still water, where the depositions are going on which will finally raise it above the surface.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If today there is a proper American “sphere of influence” it is this fragile sphere called earth upon which all men live and share a common fate—a sphere where our influence must be for peace and justice.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)