Silvertown explosion The Silvertown explosion occurred in Silvertown in West Ham , Essex ( now part of the London Borough of Newham , in Greater London ) on Friday , 19 January 1917 at 6 . 52 pm . The blast occurred at a munitions factory that was manufacturing explosives for Britain ' s World War I military effort . Approximately 50 tons of trinitrotoluene ( TNT ) exploded , killing 73 people and injuring 400 more , as well as causing substantial damage in the local area . This was not the first , last , largest , or the most deadly explosion at a munitions facility in Britain during the war : an explosion at Faversham involving 200 tons of TNT killed 105 in 1916 , and the National Shell Filling Factory , Chilwell exploded in 1918 , killing 137 . Operations . The factory was built in 1893 on the south side ( River Thames side ) of North Woolwich Road ( now the A1020 , nearly opposite Mill Road ) by Brunner Mond , a forerunner of Imperial Chemical Industries , to produce soda crystal s and caustic soda . Production of caustic soda ceased in 1912 , which left part of the factory idle . Two years into the war , the Army was facing a crippling shell shortage . The War Office decided to use the factory ' s surplus capacity to purify TNT , a process more dangerous than manufacture itself , although the factory was in a highly populated area . Despite opposition from Brunner Mond , production of TNT began in September 1915 . The method used was invented by Brunner Mond chief scientist F . A . Freeth , who believed the process to be " manifestly very dangerous " . The plant continued to purify TNT at a rate of approximately 9 tons per day until it was destroyed by the explosion . Another plant , at Gadbrook , was built in 1916 and was producing TNT at a higher rate than the Silvertown factory , away from populated areas , with more stringent safety standards . The volume of explosives produced at this factory effectively subsumed the Silvertown plant ' s output , but both were nevertheless in full production . Explosion . On 19 January a fire broke out in the melt - pot room , and efforts to put it out were under way when approximately of TNT ignited at 6 : 52 pm . The TNT plant was destroyed instantly , as were many nearby buildings , including the Silvertown Fire Station . Much of the TNT was in railway goods wagon s awaiting transport . Debris was strewn for miles around , with red - hot chunks of rubble causing fires . A gasometer gasholder was damaged on Greenwich Peninsula , creating a fireball from of gas , the holder was later repaired and remained until 1986 . Several thousand pounds ' worth of goods were also destroyed in nearby warehouses , estimated by the Port of London Authority to span . Seventy - three people were killed ( sixty - nine immediately , and four later from their injuries ) , and more than 400 injured . Up to 70 , 000 properties were damaged , 900 nearby ones destroyed or unsalvageably damaged ; the cost was put at either £250 , 000 or £2 . 5 million . The comparatively low death toll for such a large blast was due to the time of day . The factories were largely empty of workers ( there were fewer than forty in the TNT factory itself ) , but it was too early for the upper floors of houses ( which sustained the worst of the flying debris damage ) to be heavily populated . Also , it occurred on a Friday , when fewer people were around the factory . However , several professional firemen and volunteers fighting the earlier fire were killed or seriously injured in the explosion . For comparison , 8 tons of TNT exploded at the National Shell Filling Factory , and killed 137 people ; an explosion at Split Rock , New York in 1918 killed 50 – 52 people with 1 – 3 tons of TNT . Reportedly , the explosion also blew the glass out of windows in the Savoy Hotel and almost overturned a taxi in Pall Mall , London , the fires could be seen in Maidstone and Guildford , and the blast was heard up to away , including Sandringham in Norfolk and along the Sussex coast . Although the blast was heard at a great distance , it was not heard uniformly across the whole intermediate distance , owing to atmospheric effects caused by refraction of the sound waves . Response . The emergency services immediately became involved in putting out the fires caused by the explosion , treating the wounded , and beginning to repair the damage caused . First - aid stations were set up in the streets to treat minor injuries . A Salvation Army rescue team was sent into the area under Catherine Bramwell - Booth , and the YMCA also rendered aid , including food and hot drinks . Thousands were left homeless , requiring temporary accommodation in schools , churches , and other similar places . 1 , 700 men were employed in the reconstruction task by February . ₤3m in aid was paid to those affected by the blast , equivalent to approximately ₤40m in 2007 , of which £1m was paid to local businesses and factories , including £185 , 000 to Brunner - Mond . The clear - up was under the direction of Sir Frank Baines , and a report in the " Manchester Guardian " of 12 February 1917 stated 750 to 1000 men were on site . Six hundred houses had been demolished by the explosion and 400 new ones were being built . Three hundred others had been repaired and many more re - slated . Henry Cavendish - Bentinck and Alfred Mond , son of the eponymous Ludwig of Brunner - Mond , debated in Parliament the living conditions of residents during the reconstruction ; conditions were said to be " gravely prejudicial to the public health " and " not fit for human habitation " . It was mooted that the residents should be relocated to a newly built garden city , rather than spending £1 . 3m rebuilding the present , dilapidated , area . John Joseph Jones , MP for Silvertown also maintained an interest in the disaster . The Ministry of Munitions announced the explosion in the following day ' s newspaper , and ordered an investigation led by Sir Ernley Blackwell , published on 24 February 1917 . A definite single cause of the explosion was not determined , invalidating early theories such as German sabotage or an air - raid , but it was found that the factory ' s site was inappropriate for the manufacture of TNT . Management and safety practices at the plant were also criticised : TNT was stored in unsafe containers , close to the plant and the risky production process . The report was not disclosed to the public until the 1950s . Other newspapers , including the New York Times , also reported the explosion . On 20 June 1917 , Andreas Angel , the plant ' s chief chemist , who was attending to the initial fire , was posthumously awarded the Edward Medal ( First Class ) as was George Wenbourne . Police Constable Edward George Brown Greenoff was posthumously awarded the King ' s Police Medal , and is commemorated with a plaque on the Memorial to Heroic Self Sacrifice in Postman ' s Park , in central London . The Silvertown explosion was not the final British munitions plant disaster of World War I . The National Shell Filling Factory , Chilwell , in Nottingham , exploded on 1 July 1918 , killing 137 and injuring 250 . The former TNT factory ' s grounds are , as of 2010 , empty , not having been built upon since the explosion . The other part of the factory remained open after being repaired , until finally closing in 1961 . This is also idle , as of 2007 . A memorial was commissioned by Brunner Mond in the 1920s inside the entrance to the factory location ; it also serves as a memorial to World War I and World War II . Popular culture . The Silvertown Explosion is dramatised in the LWT series , " Upstairs , Downstairs " ( Series 4 , Episode 9 , " Another Year " ) . Scullery maid Ruby Finch had left her employer , the Bellamy family at 165 Eaton Place , to work in a munitions factory for the war - effort . The explosion is not only heard at the home of her former employer in southwest London , but it literally rocks the house . The residents can see a great fire in the distance , " down the river somewhere . " Ruby makes her way back to the house and relates her account of being in the factory when the explosion occurred . She is in tremendous shock , and her face is covered in a sulphurous yellow residue . In Pat Mills ' s comic - strip " Charley ' s War " the hero , Charley Bourne , is wounded on the Somme and returns home to Silvertown to be confronted by the aftermath of the explosion . Several subsequent strips depict a Zeppelin raid on the munitions factories in the area , and deal with the residents ' fears of a repeat of the disaster .