Mid-60s pile driver near Tamar [c.1964-c.1966]

Submitted by David on Mon, 11/21/2016 - 12:37

Current condition

Demolished / No longer exists

Date completed

1 Jan 1964

(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)

Date closed / demolished

31 Dec 1966

(Day, Month, & Year are approximate.)

Marker position is approximate.

~~Does anyone know what this was?~~ Now identified as a pile driver.

Phil spotted it first:

I'm going to up the ante and show you this picture from the 1965 French film "Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine". Is that the Naval dockyard chimney in the background? If so, then you need to set the demolition date a bit later. The film was released in 1965 but I'mnot sure when it was shot - possibly 1964 or 1965.

I thought it was the Naval Dockyard's chimney too, but Herostratus says it's different:

I think it is a different chimney to the original. For whatever reason they temporarily re-erected a chimney near to the original for a few years, perhaps to burn waste as they demolished the rest of the barracks

This 1963 Picture - no chimney of any sort. The aerial photos from February of that year also show no chimney.

This 1965 Picture a chimney exists once again.

I have multiple other photos that confirm no chimney after 1960 with another appearing the middle of the 1960s. It cant have lasted more than a couple of years at that site became the junction of Harcourt Road and Cotton Tree Drive

Looking again I agree they're different. The later structure was thinner, and in a slightly different location. Can anyone confirm what it was used for?

Photos that show this Place

1965

See more photos of this place

Comments

Chimney

Yes, a nice find.. after looking at the pictures the later chimney seems smaller. I guess it would've been fabricated from metal? But now I'm curious about its purpose...temporary incinerator or perhaps some some of smelter? Would the height have been dictated by regulations covering roadside emissions or perhaps it was involved in some particularly toxic process? I'm just wondering why a temporary chimney would need to be that high...

Looking at the 1965 photo

Looking at the 1965 photo again the 'chimney' is right in the middle of the road where the Harcourt Road flyover was built. I wonder if the chimney is actually a machine for driving piles into the ground for the foundations. Modern machines for that purpose look similar.

Te other possibility is that the whole area got tarmaced for carparks in the mid/late 60's so the chimney could be used in the production of tarmac. However its location seems to suggest foundation work fro the flyover.