Following a campaign led by Richard and Trish, Sutton Council have named a previously un-named road in our Ward just south of Sutton station after a distinguished local inventor and engineer who once lived there.
On March 31 the two Councillors, with local residents and Sutton Council officers, supervised the erection of the street sign.
The road is a turning off the Brighton Road that separates Raeburn House from the new Subsea7 offices, under construction, and is now named Berridge Close.
This is to remember Harold Berridge (1872-1949), a celebrated engineer who lived in a house on the site now occupied by the Subsea7 offices, from the 1920s through to 1949. Berridge was an engineer who travelled the world and contributed to many important civil engineering projects worldwide, including the building of tunnels under the river Hudson in New York in 1902 and the development of the port of Aden – in modern day Yemen – in the ensuing decade. He settled in Sutton in the 1920’s to work on housing development for the London County Council. He is noted in civil engineering circles as the inventor of equipment for the testing of concrete, based on principles which are still relevant to modern day equipment used for this purpose.
Trish said “We favour naming roads after celebrated local people and think it is appropriate to name this road after an interesting and distinguished man who once lived here, and made a significant contribution to civil engineering.”
Harold Berridge was born in 1872 and went to the City of London school. After serving a pupilage in civil engineering from 1890 to 1893 he became the resident engineer at Poole Harbour in 1893.
After working as an engineer for companies including John Mowlem & Co. and the City and South London Railway in the period to 1898, he became Assistant Superintendent supervising the approaches to the Hudson Tunnel, in New York, in 1902, before becoming Chief Engineer to the Aden Port Trust in 1904. He was involved in work in Aden through to 1924, after which he worked on housing development schemes for the London County Council through to 1931. During his time in Aden he was awarded the OBE.
The Times of 20 June 1949 reports his death, on 17 June 1949, at 8 Worcester Gardens, Sutton, Surrey. Worcester Gardens stood on the site now occupied by the Subsea7 building in Brighton Road, and was a turning off the Brighton Road. Berridge lived in a Victorian house in Worcester Gardens.
Berridge is remembered for his patents relating to principles and equipment for the testing of concrete, including one dating from 1925 under the title “Contractible and expansible supporting means suitable for use in the construction of pipes, tunnels, bridges and other bodies or structures.” In 1932 he submitted an important patent entitled ”Apparatus for Testing the Strength of Materials.” His equipment for the testing of concrete was based on principles which are still relevant to modern day equipment used for this purpose.