Tunnel Refineries silos, built around 1970 were demolished in March 2010 by the then owners Syral. The works had a long and complex history since Tunnel Refineries came onto what was then a derelict former soap works in 1934, was for many years known as Amylum, and was in 200 taken over by Tate and Lyle and bought in 2007 by Syral, who closed the plant in September 2009 with the loss of 150 jobs.
 
The factory was set up to produce glucose syrup from starch, when the Belgian company Callebaut Freres et Lejeune decided to produce glucose syrup in the UK. The silos held maize, brought by ships from the USA, Holland, Belgium or France, but largely went out of use as imported maize became more expensive was replaced by wheat from Suffolk.
 
The flock of birds clearly indicates that they were still in use when I took this picture, and there was often too a coating of grains on the footpath. It may have been me walking along the path that made them rise, but what makes this picture is that single bird high above the others and apparently in vertical ascent, and the monumental scale of the concrete silos. I think I have sometimes printed it cropped slight at the top to remove the top of the left silo, which might then extend for ever.
 
More about the Tunnel Refineries site on the Greenwich Industrial History blog..