The Admiralty’s House in West Square

No.36 West Square once used to play a very important role in defending the realm and helping to maintain Britain’s command of the high seas. It was part of a chain of locations that enabled them to relay a message to the naval ports of Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth coast in Just 15 minutes

The construction of West Square was begun in 1791-2 and by 1795 No.36 was acquired by the Admiralty, becoming the headquarters of the shutter telegraph system, which sent visual signals using a form of semaphore.

This was one of a series of telegraph relay stations that stood on hills and high points between The Admiralty in London to Deal in Kent, that eventually connecting the other naval ports of Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth

At war with Revolutionary France

The system was set up during the French Revolutionary Wars when the Royal Navy stationed a fleet off Deal ready for operations across the Channel.

Before that, any long-range communication was via horseback, ships or similar and relied primarily on individuals transporting messages.

In 1794, the news of the famous telegraph inaugurated by Claude Chappe in France arrived in England; details of it had been found on a French prisoner of war and discussions were started to adopt such a system of communication. War with revolutionary France pointed to the need for rapid communication between London and the naval stations.

The British System

Subsequently, a handful of people patented systems – one such was a shutter-type machine, known as the ‘Murray Lettering Telegraph’ or Shutter Telegraph.

Lord George Murray (1761-1803), (later Bishop of St David’s) presented to the Admiralty a design which won their approval and for this, he was handsomely rewarded with the sum of £2,000.

Murray’s design consisted of a six-metre-high shutter frame with three pairs of panels, each about a metre square. Each swivelling panel could be pulled by ropes and flipped between edge-on or face-on, producing sixty-four combinations. Unlike the Chappe system, in which each setting corresponded to a coded message, Murray combinations corresponded to single letters and could spell out words (although some combinations denoted predetermined sentences such as “Defeat the French Navy immediately“.)

Station to station

Having decided on Murray’s system, the Admiralty had to consider where to apply it. On 25 September 1795, George Roebuck, a surveyor, was appointed to select sites for stations on lines to link London with Deal, Sheerness and Portsmouth.

He was to receive £215 for each of the stations, specified to consist of two small rooms, and to contain, in addition to the telegraph apparatus, a stove, an eight-guinea clock and two twelve-guinea telescopes.

The work started immediately and two lines were in operation before the end of 1796. This was a fine achievement given that it had no precedent.

From the roof at No.36, the Admiralty in Whitehall was clearly visible and proved to be a useful residence of the Superintendent of the Telegraph Lines ran from here to the naval ports of Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

London to Deal (15 site chain)

Admiralty (London), West Square Southwark, New Cross, Shooter’s Hill, Swanscombe, Gad’s Hill, Callum Hill, Beacon Hill (Faversham, branch point), Shottenden, Barham Downs, Betteshanger, Deal.

Pinging Messages back and forth

The average London-Portsmouth message took about fifteen minutes to get there. The preparatory signal could be sent from London to Deal or Portsmouth, and be acknowledged in two minutes; an early version of the “ping”. It is said that a similar ping from London to Plymouth and back took only three minutes. This really is rather impressive. The Deal and Portsmouth Lines were completed in 1796; a trial Portsmouth-Plymouth “ping” took 20 minutes.

The end of the Line

In 1812 the construction of the new Bethlehem Hospital (Bedlam), now the Imperial War Museum, obstructed the view from the house to the Admiralty, so it was proposed to move the telegraph into the dome of the new building. However, it was argued that the noise of the shutter system would terrify the insane inmates and permission was refused. Consequently, a high wooden tower was erected on the house, allowing the line of sight to be retained. The tower was demolished in the 1840s when the electric telegraph arrived. The top storey of number 36 is formed from the brick base of the lost wooden tower.

In 1816 the Shutter telegraph was replaced by a semaphore type invented by Sir Home Popham, trials had convinced the authorities that this system gave better visibility.

A Popham semaphore was a single fixed vertical 30-foot pole, with two movable 8-foot arms attached to the pole by horizontal pivots at their ends, one arm at the top of the pole, and the other arm at the middle of the pole. The signals of the Popham semaphore were found to be much more visible than those of the Murray shutter telegraph.

Over the years successive Superintendents made further changes to the house, adding the bow window at the front and extending it at the rear. The last Commander, Charles Jay was allowed to stay here when the telegraph closed and his descendants lived in the house until the early 20th century.

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