George Livesey became Chairman of the South Metropolitan Gas Light and Coke Company in 1881

Mary Mills will be talking about George Livesey, the subject of her new book, in the May talk to Greenwich Industrial History Society.

Mary, who has spent nearly five decades – since she was a student in 1977 – researching the gas industry, will be talking via Zoom on Tuesday 13 May 2025. This is a free talk, starting at 19:15 for 19:30 UK time. See below for how to register.

Livesey, who did everything differently to the way he was supposed to, was brought up in the Old Kent Road gas works and became boss there in the 1870s. He was to change the whole basis of gas industry pricing by linking profits to prices – upsetting his own employers for a start.

And that was just the beginning. He changed the industry while talking about partnership – and was also a south London grassroots campaigner for temperance. He built a company that supplied cheap gas to thousands of working-class homes from the biggest gasholders in the world. And he built a library in Peckham, which became a museum, but sadly has been closed since 2008.

He was a gas engineer, but he was also a gasworks manager and politician.

“This was someone extraordinary,” says Mary, whose book is available for £15 from Amazon, and from the same source for only £10 without illustrations.

HOW TO REGISTER FOR THIS FREE TALK

You can book a place now by emailing greenwichindustrial@gmail.com with the subject line “GIHS George Livesey talk” and we will send you Zoom log-in details just before the talk starts.

We gather electronically at 19:15 UK time (not earlier) on Tuesday 13 May, and Mary will start speaking at 19:30. You’ll be able to ask questions via the chat function.