Poisoned Egnep

Penge is a ‘local version of Chernobyl’.

Not, I’m relieved to say, the area of south London which has been my home for about 12 years, but a description of a township in South Africa which has been scarred by decades of asbestos mining.

What began as a bit of fun, discovering that London's Penge has a namesake more than 8,100 miles away – with its own makeshift cable car across a river – became more tragic as it became clear generations of families have suffered from poisoning in the filthy trade.

I’ve tried to find out who named the place but have had no success yet. The area was mapped by a geologist called Hall (again, I'm still struggling to establish his first name) in 1907 and it was he who located the brown asbestos which became the area’s main industry.

Mining began in either 1910 or 1914 by two companies, one called Asbestos Mines of South Africa (AMOSA), from which the word Amosite – the trade name for brown asbestos – derives, and Egnep Limited – obviously Penge spelt backwards. It seems reasonable to assume whoever set up Egnep Ltd had strong links to our area.

By 1925, the companies were incorporated into the Cape Asbestos Company Limited where they proved to be hugely profitable over successive decades.

The chairman of Cape, an L Breitmeyer, visited in 1929 and was clearly stirred by what he saw. At the AGM in Holborn, according to The Times, he said:

£30,000 is the equivalent to about £1.8million in today's money.

In 1959, its annual report found that ‘the successful outcome of our exertions at Penge is clearly of great importance to the Group’.

Even in 1970, the Transvaal Consolidated Land company, to which Cape gradually sold off its asbestos mining interests, reported that its ‘main source of royalty income is the amosite asbestos deposit at Penge in the northern Transvaal, which is expected to provide a satisfactory income for many years’.

On September 30, 1981, The Times reported that South African mining company Gencor had offered to buy the asbestos interests of Transvaal Consolidated Land in a deal worth about £12million noting that TCL had earned about £1.5m from the Penge mines and another site.

The mine finally closed in 1992, 24 years after Cape’s notorious Barking factory in London sealed its doors due to the levels of asbestos disease suffered by its workers.

Regulations on working with asbestos began in Britain in 1931 but workers Penge, South Africa, did not see any benefits and were sometimes were exposed to ‘up to thirty times the legal limit’ of asbestos in Britain.

A site visit in 1949 by the Silicosis Medical Bureau reported that:

‘Exposures were crude and unchecked. I found young children... in large shipping bags, trampling down fluffy amosite asbestos which all day long came cascading down over their heads. They were kept stepping lively by a burly supervisor with a hefty whip’. 

Several of these children later developed asbestosis before the age of 12.

A 1999 story in The Guardian said that by 1960 South African surveys ‘showed a link between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, but circulation was restricted, seemingly with the connivance of the industry.

In 2007, Laurie Kazan-Allen, who has spent decades campaigning for those affected by asbestos poisoning noted:

'Before it was closed in 1992, the world's largest amosite asbestos mine had operated for over 90 years in Penge. When the mine was shut, thousands of local people occupied the mine's buildings and 250 houses previously inhabited by former workers'.

And she went on to quote Steven Donohue, the acting head of the Department of Community Health:

'Gross asbestos contamination is clearly not confined to the mine dumps. Penge is an ongoing environmental health disaster and should be deemed permanently uninhabitable... Asbestos waste is widespread around the village and is still detectable in water from the Olifants River, which flows past the village.'

But people still live there. Other forms of mining continue nearby and I'm very grateful to live in our lovely, friendly, neighbourhood, as, in comparison, its problems pale into insignificance.

Reward Offered!

A notice has been taped to trees and lamp posts around where I live in recent days, headlined with the familiar cry ’Reward Offered’. This time, though, it is not there in the hope that a helpful neighbour will successfully find a much-loved family dog or cat, or recover expensive lost valuables, or as a promise of some kind of get-rich-quick scam. This reward is offered for anyone who sells the leafleteer a home.

The advert reads:

’Reward offered!

Do you think of selling your property?

But without the hazzle (sic) that comes with the viewings?

Get a reward instead of paying the agent’s fees?

And take the kudos for helping a local family on the property ladder.

Then please contact us! We are a family of four, looking to buy a 2+ bedroom property in this area for up to £150,000. If the flat needs refurbishment it's not a problem!

We are first time buyers and have a mortgage pre-agreement, so transfer will be quick and easy.

As little “Thank You” we will pay for a lovely weekend away for two of you!’

A mobile phone number is then given below.

It's an endearing appeal, if somewhat naive. And it seems highly likely to be borne out of desperation. The posters have been placed in Penge, south east London, in zone four, which, despite notable improvements, has proved to be stubbornly resistant to mass gentrification. One presumes the desire to live in the area is due to work reasons, perhaps schools. Yet, £150,000 will buy very little.

A quick look on Rightmove shows there are just five properties going for under £150,000 in the SE20 area and all of them are one-bedroom only. A bit cramped for a family of four. In an ideal world, at least a three-bed house would be appropriate but property prices in Penge have, as in the rest of London, rocketed over the last 15 years.

Back in 1999, £116,000 would have enabled a family to buy a modest three-bedroom house in the area. By 2002, it was £159,000, and by 2006, £232,000. After the crash, prices stagnated somewhat but in the last 12 months have soared once more, with prices ranging from £360,000 and even breaching the £400,000 mark.

So, while the money this family has may no longer be enough to buy a decent property, perhaps it is enough to access ’affordable housing’?

Affordable housing covers a range of options (a definition can be found here) but while rental options are available there is not much to buy in the area. Affinity Sutton have two houses for sale but both are well clear of £200,000. There may well be other properties available but the choice is clearly not huge. A working couple would need a combined income of at least £50,000 to secure a decent mortgage, and that's assuming a reasonably hefty deposit. For all too many, buying an 'affordable' house is way beyond their means. Perhaps this is just the sort of family who might benefit from the coalition government's controversial Help to Buy scheme; though, judging by their tactics, they are perhaps unaware of any assistance it might be able to provide.

Completely unrelated to this tale, but by way of contrast, eight minutes on the train line towards London is Herne Hill. Obviously, it's a much smarter place, blessed - Thames Water floods permitting - with a plethora of decent shops, some lovely pubs and restaurants and a thriving community. A farmers' market has prospered in Herne Hill since launching a year or so ago; the one in Penge sadly only survived a few weeks.

Yet, Herne Hill is part of Brixton and still has problems. For several months it has the most obvious and active drugs dealing den I've ever seen in London and until recently while property prices were high, there was a level of accessibility.


Like Penge, however, in the last couple of years house prices have soared. And it's hard to sum this up better than with an advert which appeared at Winkworth estate agents towards the end of last year. Displaying a £799,500 property, equipped with five bedrooms, three shower rooms, three reception rooms and two kitchens (?!) it was described, with all the sincerity an estate agent can muster, as a family house apparently 'ideal for first time buyers':

Obviously not for our very hopeful first time buyers of Penge.