this post has not been edited or checked
↧
Westcombe Park
The Avenue (not on AZ)
Is a fine avenue of trees from Old Dover Rd to Shooters Hill Rd. South Eastern Railway passes below. Part has been enclosed and there is only a footpath left (Booth)
2-storey, six or seven rooms. Carpenter etc. Have girls in to clean up. Rents 15/6. (Booth)
Batley Park
Used to be Sheepgate Lane. Meeting another lane going northwards along the Westcombe boundary and Coombe Farm to Woolwich road, called Sheepgate Lane, Coombe Farm Lane, or Angerstein's Lane. Area where drovers put their sheep. Batley was a Blackheath corn merchant. 1950 for Greenwich Borough Council gold jubilee.
Westcombe Terrace. Good 5-storey shops face the green. (Booth)
Bedford Place (Not on AZ)
2-storey houses with small bay windows. Carmen, sweeps, etc. 2-storey cottages on east side. Very narrow roadway. Labouring people, dressmaker. (Booth)
Birches
1970 town houses in a cul-de-sac was formerly "The Firs' estate. Initially a private house it subsequently housed the St.Joseph's High School for Girls (1914 -37) and from 1937 until demolished in 1969, the local Battalion of the Territorial Army, now reduced to a small wooden hut for a company of Army Cadets.
Bowater Place.
Part of Bowater Estate
Blackheath and Charlton Cottage Hospital. The Cottage Home was a four-bed home opened in 1880 in Bowater Place. Moved to Shooters Hill Road.
St John's working men's club
Bramhope Estate.
Bought from Drapers Co. three houses - flats built in 1936. Greenwich borough council. All ex councillors’ names: Jackson, Kelly, Matthews, Norris, Turner, and Harold Gibbons.
Bramshot Road
Area of Eastcombe Estate
Charlton United Reformed Church. formerly the Charlton Congregational Church erected in 1909. The Charlton Congregationalists held their first services in 1902 and along with their sister parishes linked with the Presbyterian Churches to constitute the United Reformed Church in 1972.
Broadbridge Close
Annexe to Morden College 1952 .a cosy group of brick old people'' flats for Morden College, by the College Surveyor, Percy W. Reed, 1951, but in the style of thirty years earlier.
Calydon Road
Charlton Fire Station. London County Council, 1906. Fire station for 11 men & families. Flats opened by Lygan, Chairman of Fire Brigades Committee. One of the first stations to have a motorised unit - Merryweather equipment. Closed in 1920. Leased to motor firm & the flats used for homeless families.
Tills Motor Repairs
80 Poplar Cottage Charlton, brick back nineteenth century. The only rural survival a sweet weather boarded cottage
103 Kingsbury Lodge is a white stuccoed early c 19 villa.
129 doorstep steel plate GP/CP boundary marker
Rectory Field Blackheath football club forecourt trust stone for 1851 perambulation of Greenwich, Blackheath Rugby Club
145 Highcombe. 1825. Presbytery of Our Lady of Grace, the RC Church House bought by the Oblate sisters in 1984 and then sold to the Augustinian Fathers of the Assumption. At one time home of Peter Barlow.
St Clair Villas. Modern 2-storey houses. All keep servants. (Booth)
2-storey cottages, five rooms. Small gardens in front. Mostly two families. Coachman, gardener, insurance agent. (Booth)
5-storey houses, some detached. All keep one or two servants.
East Combe became Crown property following the Dissolution of Monasteries in 1537. By Royal Assent it was leased to persons in favour and subsequently to Capt.Saunderson Captain of the vessel which brought King William of Orange to the English throne who instructed the first East Combe House to be erected in 1710. In 1833, John Angerstein purchased the estate and in due course sold portions for house building. Estate built by Norwich Union 02/10 Eastcombe/Wyndcliffe etc
Board School takes all the south side. Insurance agents etc.
Six rooms, one bay.
Heathway
Old coach houses
Highcombe Road
St.Austin’s RC Secondary School for Boys. Opened in 1957. The land, originally the High Combe estate, was purchased by the Oblate Sisters in 1903 but later sold to the Augustian Fathers of the Assumption. The rear of High Combe House, now the R.C.Presbytery can be clearly seen at the south end of the playing field. It is expected that under the 1980 Education Act, St.Austin's became an enlargement of St.Joseph's Academy, Lee and further, the use of the Highcombe premises was discontinued in 1991.
Kirkside
St.George, 1891 by Newman & Newman. Tall urban red brick church in the Brooks manner standing on a steep slope; lancets, with a little tracery in the clerestory. No tower. Small apsidal sanctuary added later in place of the intended chancel.
Langton Way
In the former vicarage garden, facing housing for the elderly and disabled by Trevor Dannatt & Partners, 1975-7, with splayed wings building up to three storeys, and many canted windows to catch the sun.
4A, by Peter Bell & Richard McCormack, 1975, is an especially well designed single-storey house, with garage neatly included, on a grid plan, with interlocking indoor and outdoor spaces.
Mews for big houses
Lizban Street
13-36
Named after excavation in 1873
90 Woodlands. Built for Angerstein with nucleus of National Gallery pictures here. John Julius Angerstein and Woodlands. LBG 1974. Had been a Convent. Gibson 1774. Elegant mosaic on the step beneath the columned portal. The mosaic has existed since 1774 when John Julius Angerstein ordered the building of the house. Angerstein had married and built Woodlands as a healthy retreat from his Pall Mall house. He installed a central heating system with hot air flues. The house was guest to many a royal visitor including George and Princess Caroline. Other visitors included Dr Samuel Johnson and his friend Sir Thomas Lawrence whose portrait of Angerstein hangs in the National Gallery. House became home to Woodlands Art Gallery on the ground floor and Greenwich Local History Library on the first floor. Once an excellent villa, built in 1774 by G. Gibson jun. for J. J. Angerstein, whose picture collection formed the first purchase for the proposed National Gallery. Much altered, but the stuccoed five-bay front is original, with graceful frieze and medallion in Liardet's patent stucco bow-windows added in the early c 19. Wing demolished c. 1876 for the road; wing largely replaced by convent buildings of the 1930s, fronts refaced in Portland stone probably in the late c19. The entrance was formerly in the front; the portico is now blocked. Interior much altered, but the former hall retains its neo-classical ceiling and door cases.
Grounds. much reduced, they once included a lake, an icehouse, and a large heated conservatory. Nevertheless they retain almost 100 species of wild flowers and trees. Shrubberies and grass.
Grotto, gone
Kidbrooke House built for the Little Sisters of the Assumption
Ladies School'. )
Old Dover Road
Roman Road thought to have gone down Old Dover Road, across Park to meet the Ravensbourne mouth road name is not an old one, parish boundary
Blackheath Bluecoat School Transformed into a 1,000-pupil comprehensive with additions by Stillman & Eastwick-Field, 1972-4. Linked two-storey pavilions grouped around paved courtyards, on a domestic scale.
Railway tunnel
Estate 1976, London County Council housing
Holywell Close. A pleasant composition of 1974-5, pitched roofs irregularly grouped, an early example of revival of the vernacular mode by the G.L.C. job architect John Hopkinson
Sherington Road School on site of East Combe House erected in 1710. Later occupants included John Campbell, Lord Lyon of Scotland and Lt.Gen. Wm.Congreve 1 before purchased in 1805 by an import merchant David Hunter. He demolished the old house and erected a new East Combe House nearby. Which later became the seat of the Dowager, Countess of Buckinghamshire. East Combe House was demolished in 1904 and Sherington Road Elementary School and Charlton Central School built. Until recently two schools existed at Sherington Road. - Sherington Elementary School for Infants & Juniors, and Charlton Central School for Senior Boys & Girls. The latter educated children who had passed their eleven-plus exams, but could not be accommodated at the local Grammar Schools. The Central system was a 1910/11 scheme in education with a curriculum somewhere between that of technical and grammar.
Siebert Road
Motorway Tunnel
129-131 a small and attractive pair of 1843.
133-139, stuccoed pairs of 1842.
134 an impressive villa of 1862 with a strong porch.
141-155 an elegant terrace of bow fronted brick houses of 1846, with deep eaves and round-headed dormers in distinctively shaped roofs. An unusual rhythm of rounded bays beneath deep eaves.
157-163 a terrace of village style cottages of 1840, with a continuous wooden loggia.
Arnold House. A residential home of 1983 in a pleasant vernacular style. It incorporates the dispensary of the old Charlton and Blackheath Cottage Hospital. This small appealing mock Tudor building of 1904 with its quatrefoil panels and oriel window has been nicely integrated. The adjacent surgery is also in a sympathetic style.
Blackheath and Charlton Cottage Hospital. In 1889, new building opened for this hospital, which began as the Cottage Home. Previously in Bowater Place. During the 1880s the capacity had been increased by the adaptation of two small houses in Old Dover Road, thus providing ten beds in all. The new building was opened on Shooters Hill Road in May 1889, on the site opposite where the Baptist Church now stands. The inaugural ceremony was performed by Her Royal Highness Princess Christian of Schleswig- Holstein, and the reporter listed the very august body who attended the occasion. The only disappointment was for the officers and men of the 2nd Volunteer Battalion, the Royal West Kent Regiment, who marched up punctually to mount a guard of honour in time for the advertised start of 3.00 pm, only to find that the Royal Party was already in place. As a cottage hospital, it continued to provide a local, friendly, "small is beautiful" service to the community, where local G.Ps often operated on their patients. The 30 beds and the operating theatre were equipped for major surgery, which nowadays would be handled by a general hospital. After damage by enemy action in October 1940 the building was used as a First Aid Post, and by the Council as an Ambulance Post and Nursery School. In 1948 it was offered to the British Hospital for Mothers and Babies in Woolwich but it was subsequently used as offices by the Woolwich Hospital Group, and largely demolished in 1980. The smaller dispensary block has been retained.
Blackheath and Charlton Baptist Chapel 1905 by S. S. Dottridge & W. J. Walford. In the free late Gothic typical of this date; corner tower with battered buttresses. Another chapel-church which dates its origins from before the re-establishment of the Kidbrooke parish church at St James's. This church was founded in 1863 in Sunfields Chapel in Sunfields Place. This building had a non-conformist tradition and was rented, until a new chapel was built in 1869 by the Baptists on the south side of Shooters Hill Road where Belgrave Court now stands. However, the chapel was felt inadequate to accommodate its flourishing congregation and the present Blackheath and Charlton Baptist Church was built on the corner of Marlborough Lane. Its foundation stone shows the date 4 May 1905, and the opening ceremony was performed in November that year.
Belgrave Court. A new chapel was built in 1869 by the Baptists on the south side of Shooters Hill Road. It was rectangular in shape, with a ridge roof, and a lobby inside the doors, under a balcony which was a later addition both for the choir and to increase the capacity of the chapel. The "Shooters Hill Road Baptist Chapel" was built on land leased from the earl of St Germans, and in the 1920s the freehold was also purchased. However, the chapel was felt inadequate to accommodate its flourishing congregation and the present Blackheath and Charlton Baptist Church was built The church retained its building in Kidbrooke for Sunday School and Youth Work until it was demolished in 1970 and the site was sold for a housing development.
Milestone
Sun in the Sands. A pub of 1842, with a modern ground floor, on the site of an older pub
Turnpike trust
Station Crescent
Westcombe Park Station. Opened 1st May 1879 because of planned development in the area. Between Charlton and Maze Hill on South Eastern Trains
Formerly called Beaconsfield terrace.
St George's Road (not in AZ)
Area all heath in 1830s and belonged to the Angerstein. Enclosed illegally and St John's Church built in 1853 and built on Stratheden Road started. Called St John's Road and finished in 1890. A mid Victorian suburb now truncated by the Rochester Way underpass. The church is on an island site
St John, 1852-3 by Arthur Ashpitel. Perpendicular, Kentish rag, with a good spire, prominently sited on an island in the centre of the Victorian suburb of Blackheath. Later c 19 furnishings: Reredos and screen by H. S. Rogers; stained glass by Heaton, Butler &' Bayne
2/4 1862
Victorian wall pillar box
1/25 1864
6/8 1869
27 1857
28 1869
30-32
31
33/35
34-48
37-47
50 Vicarage to St John's then the Library 1874
Church Hall
52-56
58
Livery Stable in mews
Stratheden Road
Milestone
11-21 1870
12-20
Sun Field
Shooters Hill Road area mainly developed in the 1840s as part of Sun Field, an area which also embraces the rebuilt Sun in the Sands
Sunfields Place
Was originally Bedford Place
Tallis Grove
Vanbrugh Fields
Vanburgh Park
Vicarage Avenue
The wide pedestrian way formed is due to the shallow depth of the railway tunnel between Blackheath and Charlton at this point.
Church Hall 1896 with plaque to Elsie Marshall
Like the local street names Eastcombe Avenue and Westcombe HilL preserves the name of the old manor of Cumbe 1044,1226, shown on Bowen's map ofc.1762 as divided into East Combe and West Combe, from Old English cumb 'valley'.
Westcombe Hill
Called Angerstein's Lane. Footpath over a stile at the end of Westcombe Park Road to go to Woodlands and field on site of Vanbrugh Park and Vanbrugh Park Road
58 Sofnol and Turfsoil soda lime.
↧
Charlton
this post has not been checked or edited
Beacham Close
London Borough of Greenwich sheltered flats
Begbie Road
1 Kidbrook Boundary goes from Shooters Hill Road to here.
Harvey Sports Ground. Kidbrook parish boundary goes from 1 Begbie Road to about 26 Eastbrook Road.
Canberra Road
8a
Charlton
The centre of Charlton should correctly be called The Village. It is in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Cerletone’ - 'village held by villeins' - and recorded as a score of 'free village'. So The Village gave allegiance only to the king. The manor was pulled down to make way for Charlton House which, with the church and the pub look onto the village green. The old centre is at the meeting of Charlton Road and Charlton Church Lane.
Charlton Church Lane
Warren named when a 17th century landowner and fur dealer having lost all his warehouse stock in the Great Fire of London 1666 tried unsuccessfully to restart his business by breeding conies. The area was later excavated for chalk and sand and when exhausted became a refuse dump. . Owned by Harvey’s for a while.
Coutts House. Large housing complex named to honour Greenwich Borough Councillor Mrs M.Coutts erected on a site previously known as the Warren. Built on the Continental 'raft system' - a concrete platform to prevent subsidence. 1976. Built with great difficulty. Less appealing stack of concrete boxes of c. 1970, building up to an eight-storey centre. Demolished 2004.
Cattle Trough and Drinking Fountain
On the west side is a quarry hollow with old wooden house occupied by a postman at the bottom. Beyond this is a row of 2-storey houses built on the edge of an old sand pit, known as the Warren. . A large house here and, between Nadine Road and Wellington Road, a row of shops. On east side near the Church are some Almshouses occupied by old "Dutch or other foreigners". Then 3-storey houses. Architect and others keeping servants. Near the railway station, shops on both sides, the east side being modern 3-storey houses. (Booth)
Charlton Estate
Homes fit for Heroes designed by Alfred Roberts for Greenwich Council 1920-21. Small scale rough cast and tiled. L.C.C tradition, plain but well designed. Straightforward pantiled and roughcast cottage housing
Charlton House,
Charlton House. Community Centre. Built by Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Henry Prince of Wales, c. 1607-12. Later owners were Sir William Ducie, Sir William Langhorne, East India merchant, after 1680, and in the c19 the Maryon Wilson family, for whom Norman Shaw restored the house in 1877-8. Acquired by the Borough in 1925. Charlton House is the only Jacobean mansion of the first order remaining in London. It is E-shaped with four symmetrical bay-windows at the ends of the wings and two towers in the centres of the wings, which frame the building. It has three storeys above cellars, and is built of red brick with stone dressings.. the door surround and the bay-window above have exuberant and undisciplined ornament. the position of the Hall is as revolutionary – it two-storeyed, at right angles to front and back, and runs right across the building. Inside is an elaborately carved staircase, with a square open well with Victorian plasterwork. On the second floor saloon has an original plaster ceiling and a marble fireplace with carved figures of Venus and Vulcan and In the bay-window c 17 heraldic glass with the Ducie arms. On the second floor the wing is taken up by the long gallery, with a plaster ceiling and replacement panelling and more heraldic glass with the Ducie arms. the White Drawing Room has a stone fireplace with caryatids, and relief scenes showing Perseus and Pegasus; Triumph of Christ and Triumph of Death. the fireplace in the adjacent bed room has a scene is derived from an engraving by Abraham de Bruyn. On the first floor, the Ducie Room has a fireplace of the 1660s. On the ground floor a the former library, has a wooden Jacobean fireplace and the dining room, with another stone fireplace.. One room was a chapel. There are stories of mysterious bad luck and ill omens there - is it all to do with the Priory of Sion? In the First World War there was a gas chamber for testing gas masks and a demonstration room to make a room bombproof. A tunnel leads from the house across the road. John Thorpe, who also built Holland House, is considered to have been the architect, though its plainness have often led to an Inigo Jones, who lived nearby in Cherry Orchard House. The house and position of Lord of The Manor passed through several hands – one was William Langhorne who had been British Governor of Madras. At 84 he married a 17 year old girl but died heirless., the property was inherited by the wife of Sir Thomas Spencer Wilson whose daughter, Jane married Spencer Perceval wholived in the house and has the distinction of being the first Prime Minister of Britain to be assassinated in the House of Commons. The house passed to their son, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson and remained in the family for the next century and in 1870, provided a games room and bedrooms to the design of Norman Shaw. In the 1914-1918 War it was used as a military hospital, officers in the house, and troops were under canvas in the grounds. Sir Spencer Maryon-Wilson sold the estate to the council in 1925.
Ha Ha. In front of the house lies a ha-ha, designed to keep farm animals out while maintaining the view. The grass area between the ha-ha and the house, once the village green, is the location for the famous Charlton Horn Fair, dating from the 16th century. It was revived in recent years following a long break, imposed during the 19th century due to unseemly behaviour.
Norman Shaw extension 1877 was Library
Quadrangle
Stables.Two-storeyed buildings once part of the spacious stables - now the local rent office and art workshops, and the initials on the gable ends. A.N. (Adam Newton) and W.L. (William Langhorn), 17th century owners of Charlton House, Park and Estate. Contemporary, now arranged on two sides of a quadrangle. Remanagements under Sir William Langhorne are easily discernible.
Gateway.Before the House is a large green at the centre of which are columns supporting an arched neo-classical mock gate. It’s too narrow for a coach and horses to pass through. The arch marked the original perimeter of the house grounds but the owners gradually encroached to take over the green. Plastered, with Corinthian columns and a c 18 cresting.
Summer House. Its beautiful saddle-back roofed summerhouse has been made into a public lavatory. Though it is unlikely that Inigo Jones had any hand in the design of Charlton House, the elegant, tall summer-house in the north-west corner of the grounds, with its brick-relieved pilasters and concave saddleback roof, has all his confidence and mastery of proportion. It is truly delightful little building, built around 1630, whose incredible misuse as a public convenience will be to the eternal shame of the Borough Council. c. 1630, brick, square, with Tuscan pilasters, and a concave roof. There is no documentary confirmation of the traditional attribution to Inigo Jones; but the complete absence of Jacobean frills at evidently such an early date makes it quite justifiable. Nicholas Stone would also be a possibility
Lawns. Closely mown grassland with a rare clover.
Mulberry tree. Introduced into Britain in 1548, the first mulberry trees (Moms niya) were planted at Syon Park, London. In 1608 James I recommended the cultivation of silkworms and offered packets of mulberry seeds to all who would sow them. As a result, mulberry trees became increasingly popular and Loudon said that "there is scarcely an old garden or gentlemen's seat throughout the country, which can be traced back to the 17th century, in which a mulberry tree is not to be found." Unfortunately, the King was promoting black mulberry, when silkworms actually feed on white mulberry (Moms Alba). An old plaque by this tree says "The first Mulberry in England planted in the year 1608 by Order of James I." Although in fact this was not the first mulberry tree planted in England, it was probably the first planted after the "Order" from King James since it stands in the grounds of Charlton House, in Greenwich, London. The house was built by Adam Newton, tutor to King James's eldest son Prince Henry. It is probable that Newton planted the tree at the start of the King's mulberry promotion. This mulberry is certainly one of the oldest known to be still growing.
Charlton House gardens, lodge in Marlborough Lane demolished. Gardens laid out in 1938. Railings came from the Bellot memorial. In gardens at the rear, there is a Roman stone chest, horse chestnuts, holm oak, and yew. Squirrels tits, finches, and jays. The gardens today cover a very small part of the former grounds which stretched to Woolwich Common. They included what is now Charlton Park and the Cemetery. Traces of the former kitchen and floral gardens remain. The rear and front of the house have plenty of ancient plane trees
Charlton Park
Greenwich Borough Council bought land from Maryon-Wilson in 1925; 108 acres. Arch dates from 182l. The London County Council bought 47 acres in 1926 from Greenwich Borough Council & built sports facilities. In 1942 Holidays at Home scheme there. From the rear of the house one can look over to Charlton Park. The park’s tall 17th century brick walls testify that it was once part of the mansion's grounds. A large open space with a children's play area.
London County Council athletic tracks Greenwich 1990,
Ha ha
Walls
Charlton Park Lane
St.Mary's gardens site of old bull pit. St.Mary's church was built on it.
Charlton Park Road
Walls
Charlton Road
Main road to Greenwich. Following the narrow path it has followed for centuries, though a main road today, it still twists and turns its way through the village.
Going toward the village the north side is detached residences with grounds, whilst the south east of Marlborough Lane is taken by Charlton House and Park (Booth)
Cherry Orchard
Greenwich Borough Council houses bought in 1930s. Allotments until 1945 & POW built sewers, etc. Flats built in 1947. At the back of the site Orlit 1952. The earliest part of Fairlawn completed in 1947 Borough Engineer's Department. Later seven-storey block by T. P. Bennett & Son
Perry Grove built by London County Council in 1964. Stirling and Gowan. An old people's home, an inward looking retreat on a compact horseshoe plan, with the Louis-Kahn-inspired castellated roof-line which became popular in the 1960s.
Combe Lodge.
A cluster of privately built 1953 town houses
East Mascalls.
Greenwich Borough Council land bought in 1930s. Houses built in 1937.
Elliscombe Road
These houses were erected in 1887 by 'Mad Jack’ Ellis a local builder and for many years a leading exponent of the Charlton Ratepayers Association.
TV 1900s House
109 The Valley. Modern public house "The Valley' with a name connected to Charlton Athletic Football Club at 'The Valley'. the first landlord was Harold Hobbis a former international footballer for the club in its heyday.
8double-fronted house was for many years the HQ and Home for the Blackheath & Charlton District Nursing Services.
Elliscombe Mount, Greenwich Borough Council 1953
2-storey with gardens in front. Tiled entrances. Some keep servants, all comfortable. (Booth)
Fairfield Grove
4 acre site. Old fair site. Greenwich Borough Council 1921; Estate was all parish land. 1921 first housing built and furnished by Cuffs and RACS. First council houses built in the Greenwich area. Erected in 1919, they had the attention of the Guild of Master Builders of the area. What the people gained in housing they lost in recreation for the grounds on which the houses stood were the traditional grounds of the Horn Fair which centred on Charlton House.
St. Peter's church site. Flats built in 1957. Sheltered housing built in 1980 London Borough of Greenwich.
9-11
23
25-29
31-33
35-37
39 Charlton
St.Luke's Almshouses with tree trunk supports. . For the poor. Such buildings have existed on the site since the 1690s but these were rebuilt in 1706 with money left by William Langhorne to build a school on the top floor. Painted in lemon, the properties have wonderful twisting oak props installed in 1839 supporting the arcade.
23-39 1823
Near the Church is the Vicarage and two detached houses and then, going southward, 2-storey and 5-storey houses. Mostly keep servants. Some almshouses. (Booth).
Fletching Road.
Takes its name from the parish of Fletching, East Sussex where the Maryon Wilsons owned a number of minor manors and many members of the family are buried.
New properties behind the shops.
A large council estate with the usual regular grid of walk-up flats of the 1940S onwards, enlivened by a few daring details such as inset curved concrete balconies.
Old Dutch Almshouses site. 1980. Housing. ,
Grenada Road
Guild Road
Guild of Master Builders built houses on the site.
Hornfair Estate
Bought from the Maryon-Wilsons in the 1890s. Built with a London County Council loan & paid for facilities by selling some land to private developers. Farmland was bought by Greenwich Borough Council and London County Council from Maryon Wilson’s in 1925/6
Hornfair
Hornfair Field
Bought by London County Council in 1920 & used as open fields 1990
Lido opened in 1939
Pets' cemetery. London County Council bought from Maryon Wilson and in 1958, there was also the Blue Cross Kennels.
Indus Road
Inigo Jones Road
Indicates their close association with James 1st and Charlton House,
Kashmir Road
Kenya Road
Mascalls Court,
1947 Greenwich Borough Council bought war damaged property, built 1949
Marlborough Lane
Is a regular country lane. Fields on both sides and on the west the drive to a large house - Cherry Orchard. (Booth)
Meridian Road,
Marks an association with Greenwich and General Wolfe
Bullpit a hollow dip probably used for the 16th century pastime of bull baiting. In 1960/1 the ground was levelled and St. Mary's Church erected, as a daughter church to St. Luke’s. Within a decade the church showed severe signs of structural damage due to subsidence. It was considered unsafe, closed in 1974 and subsequently demolished. Eight years later the ground was rendered safe and three-storeyed maisonettes erected.
Montcalm Road,
Marks an association with Greenwich and General Wolfe
Mulberry Close,
Old herb garden Private flats, 1977
Nadine Street.
2-storey villas. Rustic style: red- and black-tiled roofs. A few keep girls Ladies nurse. (Booth)
Nigeria Road
Nine Fields
Fields in the Kid Brooke area. Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus
Prince Henry Road,
Indicates their close association with James 1st and Charlton House,
Rectory Field Crescent
Shooters Hill Road,
Northern boundary of Kid Brooke Parish along the line of clay to the Blackheath Park Area south of Shooters Hill. The corner was the site of Arnold's Farm and the Kid Brooke boundary bellies out to take it in. Boundary follows the road from St.German's Place along the front garden walls of 2-30. Then goes inside the garden walls up as far as Eastbrook Road and goes on the to the north east corner of Minnie Bennett House.
Arnold House, old people, Dispensary building, part of Blackheath & Charlton Cottage Hospital, 1899, 1878 four beds, open in Bowater Place 1880, 30 beds & operating theatre, bombed, four houses & office by the Woolwich Hospital Group .
Baptist Chapel. Been in Sunfields since 1863. Built 1869 but on the site of Belgrave just down the road. Rebuilt on present site in 1905.
Belgrave site was Baptist Chapel. Kept for Sunday School and sold for housing in 1970.
Phone box
20 last of the tea caddy houses. Worn boundary stone by the front entrance. To the east of the house was a drain taking water from the main road to the Upper Kid brook and the course of the drain – the boundary between two fields is marked by a line of trees
39-41
43-61, 1846
48 marks the point at which the old Kidbrook Lane turned off
157-163 1840
176 Mr. Bartlett's chemist shop was said to be the first shop in Kidbrook in 1932
134 1862
Brook Public House. Gone. One bar was called Nine Fields after fields in the area. Source of the Mid Kid Brook round the back of here somewhere. Built 1908-1896 and called the Earl of Moira. It lay in that portion of Charlton Parish immediately south of Shooters Hill Road,
230 back garden wall is start of the large southern portion of the Kidbrook boundary. Goes along the line of the Mid Kid Brook stream which runs roughly parallel to the Shooters Hill Road about 25 yards south of it. Up as far as Well Hall Road Corner.
Fox under the Hill. There to rest the horses. It lay in that portion of Charlton Parish immediately south of Shooters Hill Road,
Springfield
Land bought by Greenwich Borough Council in 1930s, 1948 with a loan from London County Council. Built in 1951/52. Dramatic, natural spring in the field that had to be stemmed before construction work could begin in 1949. Each House of this large Greenwich Borough Council complex has a named association with previous Lords of the Charlton Manor - Bayeaux - Bishop Odo of Bayeaux ; Downe & Ducie – Sir Wm.Ducie created Vise.Downe ; Erskine - Sir John Erskine Games - Wm.Langhorn Games ; Langhorne - Sir Wm.Langhorn, Mar - Earl of Mar (Sir J.Erskine) ; Priory - Priory of Bermondsey and Wilson - Sir Thos. Wilson 6th Bt. who married into the Maryon family, owners of the Manor & Estates.
St.Alfege Road,
Sutlej Road,
The Village
1 Robert Martin's House, 1881. Next to the church. Three old cottages next to the church have been pulled down to make way for his new house with its large front door and wrought iron weather vane to proclaim his success. Tall four-storey tower which must still have a fantastic view
3, 5, 7 three shops built around 1881. Then a fruiterer, a fishmonger and a Cabinet Maker. Buildings retain much of their character in the moulded console brackets which support the awnings and the original arched windows which are left in numbers five and seven. The use of two different coloured bricks is characteristic of later Victorian buildings.
9 has been a chemist's shop for over a hundred years
15- 17 look more recent than the others because of their new bricks and modern window frames at the windows are the same size and shape as those next door. Walk round the back and you find that the bricks match those of the ad- joining shops, so it is just the front that has been refaced
George Tavern
18 Charlton Cycle Works
20
46 -52 terrace of four houses, 1897 and took the place of an earlier row of three houses that were still standing in 1881. Built for families of higher class than shopkeepers. Built with a tradesman's en- trance in the basement where the local shops would have delivered their goods. The kitchen was also in the basement and the servants slept at the top of the house in the cold and draughty attics.
46 coal hole on the ground and at the original railings leading up to the front door.
22 White Swan, 1889. The pub is on the site of a much older inn which dates back at least as far as the 18th and in the 1880's, Mr. Turner here was still providing accommodation as well as food and drink and had a family from the Royal Artillery lodging with him. The present building is 1889 and designed by the same architect as the Assembly Rooms. Incorporates pleasant window designs.
Ideal meeting place
Former bakery being built during the late 1600s. This is the oldest building on this side of the road and was already in use as a baker's by the 1850's. It is a typical cottage type shop with its low roof and unevenly spaced windows. The entrance to the yard, paved with irregular cobbles would have led to stables for many of the shop keepers would have had horses and carts for deliveries
l8 -14 built towards the end of the century. They are more spacious than the older shops and were expensively built with attention to detail apparent in the tile hung fronts and arched windows.
Two tandoori curry houses in the village, which would have been officers' houses in the 1800s. Elaborate Victorian iron work adorns the facades.
29
33
35
43 1835
Park Cottage
Post war row of shops on site of Lee Board of Works Office, flats built Greenwich Borough Council 1952. Board of Works established in 1855 and was primarily concerned with establishing standards of Public Health at a time when cholera was rife and living conditions in town were overcrowded and insanitary. It was the forerunner of the London County Council, established in 1888 which later became the G.L.C.
Earle House, Greenwich Borough Council 1954, old National Schoolroom site, 1977/80 London Borough of Greenwich
90 Invicta Manufacturing Co., dentists, Palatine Dental Manufacturing Co. Bronze foundry etc., 80 staff, Fletching Road site, was a very big business, moved to 16 Warren Lane & now out of business
6 Bugle Horn. dates back to the 1700s. stuccoed. 18th century pub with Saloon and Lounge Bars, so named because it was the farthest point that the Woolwich Barracks bugle could be heard. The pub is the oldest building in the village and is situated next to Charlton House. Hunting photographs and horns decorate the walls.
1-5 replaced eighteenth century cottages
Tamsetts Builders,
Drinking fountain and war memorial. Plus a granite cattle trough inscribed: 'ERECTED BY SIR SPENCER MARYON WILSON, 11th BART AND THE INHABITANTS OF CHARLTON TO COMMEMORATE THE CORONATION OF KING EDWARD VII, 1902'. The drinking fountain, is made of red granite and stands on a plinth within a half-timbered shelter with shingles. In the 1980s an uninsured car crashed into it completely demolished it. The village mounted a successful fund-raising campaign to restore it.
The cage and stocks for punishing petty criminals stood on the green but were moved to a spot near the site of the trough.
St.Luke’s. In its humble pre-classical c 17 character a most attractive church. Rebuilt c. 1630, with money left by Sir Adam Newton of Charlton House. Some years ago while treating the building for dry rot, workmen fell through the floor onto coffins in the crypt. It's not sure whether the workmen returned but their shock was history's gain as local historians were able to view remnants of the old church it was re-built in the 1630's by the trustees of Sir Adam Newton after he had died and had bequeathed the money. The aisle followed in 1639. New chancel and organ chamber 1840 and 1873Its exterior is built entirely of brick without stone to dress the edges, cornice, or even the surround of the bell openings. Compare the pilasters on either side of the porch with those on the Garden House by the entrance to Charlton House. The church is of brick, with even the elementary tracery of the bell-openings and the crenellations of the tower top of the same material. The window tracery of nave and chapel is Decorated – very correct for the c17. But the porch has a typical early c17 Dutch gable, and archways set against rustications. Whitewashed interior of lowly proportions. Originally built with one nave; the northern aisle was added at the end of the 17th century. The main arches have simple, pure curves in the Wren tradition, but everywhere additions have been made. The present chancel is a 20th century afterthought, though its panelled wagon roof is a copy of the original in what is now the nave. Nave is separated from the aisle by two round arches and one square pier with four slim attached shafts at the corners. Capitals are not medieval at all; nor are they classical. Window of the old chancel also of two bays looks as if it might be of the preceding c15 building. Wagon roof in the chancel c 7, in the nave reconstructed in 1925. Font Stone, c17, handsome baluster stem and shallow round bowl draperies and shells with a painted carved oak cover. Pulpit of c. 1630. Polygonal, eared scrolly panels and the arms of Sir David Cunningham one of the trustees for the rebuilding. Sounding-board in the tower. Door to the porch handsome early c 17, a fan radiating from a cherub's head. Stained Glass window by C. F. Blakeman replacing one of 1639 by Is Oliver destroyed in the Second World War. . The windows were an early attempt at Gothic revival, though all the old stained glass was blown out during the last war. One original window, however, remains on the north side, containing some beautiful heraldic shields of the 17th century. One window with c17 heraldic glass. . The modest, humble exterior with its low entrance porch contrasts curiously with the cluttered, rag-bag interior, whose profusion of monuments seems to vie with Westminster Abbey! Monuments Edward Wilkins master-cook to Queen Elizabeth, 11568. Handsome tall with strap work cartouche. Lady Newton, wife of the builder of Charlton House, f 1630. Noble black and white aedle with broken segmental pediment: by Nicholas Stone under influence of Inigo Jones. Countess of Ardmagh f 1700 similar type but with the broken pediment curved the inscription on a feigned drapery, and with standing allegory outside the columns. Brigadier Michael Richards, Survey General of the Ordnance, 1721, a very late example of free-standing man in armour as a funeral monument. Probably by Guelfi. Elizabeth Thompson 1759, with frontal. General Morrison 1799, with the usual female figure over an urn: by Regnart. Spencer Perceval, the Prime Minister, assassinated in 1812. Very simple, with an excellent sculpture. A fine head by Chantrey. Many minor tablets. Beside the entrance is Nicholas Stone's monument to Sir Adam Newton and his wife, Lady Katherine, very simple, almost severe in black and white marble monuments. There used to be a private door for the owners of Charlton House. For all except those in the Squire's pew, however, the church must have been extremely inconvenient for worship, obstructed by heavy pillars and extended by additions in all directions. Also buried here is William Langhorne. The church was maintained with support from the owners of the manor. Many officers of the Woolwich Artillery are buried at the church. Sarcophagi vie with the large gravestones for prominence.
Churchyard. Against the wall is the grave of Sarah, Michael and Charles Bance who all died before 1850. Their son William is described as a gardener in the census of 1851; he is married with six children and his wife is a bookseller. Sundial replica of 1934, same location as original, 1630 Adam Newton money
Assembly Rooms. built in the 1800s to celebrate the marriage of the eldest son of the Maryon-Wilsons and later given to the people. Used for meetings and local entertainments. Its Dutch echo those of the stable block in Charlton Park for Stuart and Jacobean styles of architecture were very fashionable at this time. They were designed by. J. Rowland, and the foundation stone was laid by Sir Spencer Maryon Wilson. Tall single-storey building in redbrick and terra-cotta, ornamental Dutch-type gable on front to red-tiled roof. Projecting entrance porch. Later ornamental gateway to side in red brick wall with stone dressings. Inscription in stone pediment over gates reads '1897' flanking an armorial shield.
Archway went to the army Drill Hall built in the 1870s. Above the arch is the date it was built; 1897, and the Maryon Wilson coat of arms
To the south east is the Deer Park. On south side facing Fairfield Road are two new 5-storey houses. Going west through the Village, the great diversity of the buildings is conspicuous. Between Fairfield Road and Lansdowne Road are small old houses and quaint shops. Working people, comfortable. . Remainder of street to the Church is a medley of quaint old gabled shops side by side with modern shops with large plate glass windows and a few private houses. Place is in a transitional condition. (Booth)
Past the Church, a red-brick building with square tower
Thornhill Estate
Part of Stonefield Farm bought by London County Council in 1927. Thornhill was a barony. Built in the early 30s. Point blocks of c. 1960, picturesquely grouped on a slope among trees, in the Roehampton manner.
Victoria Way
The large mid-Victorian houses, some of unusual design in this road were erected to attract Army officers and their families stationed at nearby Woolwich. Hence the royal and military associations of their road
111
112/125 1850
127-133
139/157 1850, Victorian houses for army officers.
Harold Gibbons House Greenwich Borough Council 1950/51
FlatsGreenwich Borough Council erected in 1936 bearing the names Capella, Collington, Duncan, Felma & Laurel Houses. They have association with condemned properties in Greenwich demolished under a vigorous slum-clearance scheme.
Large detached and semi-detached houses with gardens and trees in front. Heavy-looking buildings. People keep two or three servants. Road is deteriorating. Behind the west side of Victoria Road is a Mews. Five stables with rooms over. Coachmen probably but no carriages can be seen. Flowers in window boxes. (Booth)
Warren Walk
17th fur dealer having lost stock in Great Fire tried to start rabbit business
↧
↧
Woolwich Common
this post has not been checked or edited
Unigate Dairy Depot a reminder that the area was once dairy farmland; the depot replacing the original milking sheds.
Charlton Cemetery. this is on what was once on Maryon-Wilson waste land. It was purchased in 1855 by the local Burial Board from Sir Thomas M.Wilson. The high scale of charges to non-parishioners originally made by the Board had the effect of attracting wealthy Blackheath and Woolwich families and they left some handsome monuments. The Chapels - one Anglican, the other Non- conformist, are in Kentish ragstone with Bath stone dressings. The rear wall marks the boundary of Charlton parish. Memorials: a canopy over an effigy of Jemima Ayley 1860; memorial to General Orde Wingate of the 'Chindits', killed during the Burma campaign 1944; a tomb within a railed enclosure to Samuel Phillips 1893, founder of Johnson & Phillips, with the inscription 'Write me as one who loved his fellow men'; Thomas Murphy 1932, owner of the former Charlton greyhound track, with three conspicuous columns and two greyhounds.;Turkish graves.
Drinking fountain. Dark grey granite, circular drinking bowl raised on a column rising from hexagonal granite plinth. Inscribed: 'PRESENTED BY THE METROPOLITAN DRINKING FOUNTAIN AND CATTLE TROUGH ASSOCIATION.' Erected in 1901 at the junction of Charlton Way and Duke Humphrey Road, it was removed here in 1977 for protection from vandalism and with commemorative a plaque recording the change.
Charlton Common
The Common was first used for housing military families after the Napoleonic Wars and then for stabling cavalry of the Royal Horse Artillery.
Charlton Park Lane
Queen Elizabeth Hospital. The hospital was originally the Military Hospital, the foundation stone of which was laid in November 1972 by the Queen Mother and opened six years later, stands on land that was once Charlton Common.
Meridian Sports originally Stonefield Farm. 17 acre sports ground and two-storeyed pavilion. Developed in 1921 by Messrs Siemens Bros.Ltd. A large local electrical concern later acquired by the General Electric Co. When the works closed down in 1968, the G.E.C. offered the sports ground for a peppercorn rent to a consortium of sports clubs provided they maintained it.
K6. The sole surviving example in the Woolwich area of the K6 type of red cast-iron telephone kiosk, designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in 1935. This type is distinguishable from the earlier K2 by its narrow rectangular panes of glass.
Charlton Park Road
Charlton Park School, started by Mary Bridges Adams first at Bostall Woods and then Shrewsbury Park, delicate school and a strong outdoor element 1990,
Charlton Park Terrace
GBC 1953/54.
Engineer Road
Gildersome Street.
)
Ha Ha Road
Ha Ha. A ha-ha is a sunken lane, ditch or wall, and here the sunken wall lies to the left of the footpath. Built originally to prevent cattle fromwanderingover military land when most of the area was still common land. . The north side of the ha-ha is brick the whole length of 600 metres (excepting breaks for road access). Originally constructed between 1777 and 1804, it separates the Barrack Field from Woolwich Common
Telephone box
Drinking Fountain
Inigo Jones Road,
Association with James I
Jackson Street.
Manor Street (Not on az)
Milward Street (not on az)
These streets are tenanted chiefly by soldiers and their wives and families. The majority are kept by army pensioners who let off to the regiment that happen to be stationed at Woolwich. (Booth)
Repository Road
Repository Gatehouse. A building of c1806 with a classical pedimented portico, converted to a private house.
Gateposts 19th century of the Royal Military Repository, now flanking the beginning the road.
The Royal Military Repository was set up in 1779. The grounds extending north to Hillreach were enclosed in 1805-06, and much of the present wall between Repository Road and Maryon Road survives from that time.
Repository Wood. Ministry of Defence and Royal Artillery training ground. It was the eastern flank of Hanging Wood. There is a lake, two ponds, grass and waste. Flowers and things and dense woodland - birch, sycamofre, oak and sweet chestnut. Nice plants in the pond and ducks, coots, but it is part of an assault course..
Army Medical Stores; In The southern part of the wood handsome Edwardian building which was originally the a group of large late 19th century storage buildings- and one building, basically mid 19th century though much altered, with a series of exterior iron columns used to support the roof of adjoining buildings since demolished.
Rotunda Close
Shrapnel Park
more pleasing staff accommodation for the military hospital. Terraces of white concrete blockwork around courtyards, one tall block of flats,
Squire House, 1911 neo-Georgian
Stadium Road
Queen Elizabeth Hospital Was the Military Hospital. 1972 Foundation stone laid by Queen Mother. Best building in Woolwich. This attractive modern complex, consisting of wards linked by low-lying white blocks designed by the celebrated partnership of Powell & Moya, replaced the Royal Herbert Hospital as a military hospital in 1978. It came into National Health Service use at the end of 1995. The entrance is across a low bridge over an ornamental pool with fountains on either side. The staff accommodation and a social club are in separate blocks to the south. Replaced three former army hospitals. Built on an industrial system evolved by the Oxford Regional Hospital Board; exposed concrete structure with dark panels. Not specially attractive, but less overwhelming than many contemporary hospitals of this size because entirely of two storeys. Many internal courtyards.
Woolwich Stadium occupied a site opposite the Hospital from 1920 to c1975. The outline of the stadium can be readily detected
Gun Park Block
Repository gatehouse
Telephone Box
Woolwich Common
Woolwich Common. The Common originally extended as far as Charlton but was gradually encroached upon by the army. In 1774 The Royal Academy started to take over the land when they built in Academy Road and in 1802 it was purchased by the Ordnance Board for use as a drill ground; they also bought rights over Barracks Field and Repository Ground. Charlton Vestry got nothing for opposition. A shanty town full of cholera grew up and Lady Maryon Wilson replaced it with huts. There were barracks and a hospital on the Common. It is still controlled by the Ministry of Defence and is 'closed' for one day a year. In 1928 there was a big row and the Ministry of Defence had to promise to leave the Common alone. It lies half way down a five-foot drop from the Blackheath Beds to the London clay - pebbles can seen indicating this drop and the vegetation changes too. It is an old river terrace going down to Woolwich. It is now semi wild land with neutral grassland and flowers. An old filter bed in the south east corner has been colonised by reeds. At the northern end is a low bank and which goes down onto the hard turf on sand and gravel which is the original land surface before infilling. There are wet hollows. The old stadium site supports colourful wasteland flora. There is acid grassland on the north boundary. The north part is sometimes used for fairs and circuses while the south part is wild with rough grass, scrubland and thorn thickets. It is managed as a meadow with butterflies and grasshoppers.
Atomic weapons research establishment. Signals experimental station 1916. Wireless, telephonic communication between aeroplanes. Stadium site MOD.
Site of General Gordon's house, 53, Charlton Way, demolished early 1972.
↧
Eltham
this post has not been checked or edited
Allenwood Road
Hutments built in the First World War.
Arbroath Road
Cakehill Lane went north from here, curving round the foot of the cemetery hill, before going towards Hill Farm and Shooters Hill Road by the present gate to the old Naval College sports ground.
Hut which was used as a church before St. Barnabas was built. It was then used as a church hall until the mid-1930s.
Hutments built in the First World War.
Boundary post once stood at the north side,
Arsenal Road
One of a series of road names on the Progress Estate with connections to the workplace of the munitions workers for whom it was built.
Bournbrook Road
Southern boundary of Middle Farm
Broad Walk
The Lower Kid Brook follows the road but then turns south towards the Rochester Way at its junction with Wendover Road.
Craigton Road
The Earliest bit of the Corbett estate to be developed
44 Birthplace of Bob Hope
Downman Road
The picturesque groups on either side of the junction with Well Hall Road.
Dunvegan Road
Built by Corbett in 1909
Earlshall Road
Earliest bit of the Corbett estate to be developed
Grangehill Road
Gordon School. 1904 by T.J. Bailey, for the London School Board. A late three-decker school, with giant arches, steep open pediment, and yellow terracotta trim. Huts survive which were put up in 1913 to provide temporary classroom accommodation for children from the Progress Estate.
Hutments provided here in the First World War
Shops at the Junction with Rochester Way. These were the successors of various huts. Became Pat’s Corner and the last hut only went in 1965.
Greenvale Road
Earliest bit of Corbett estate to be developed
Kidbrook Lane
Tiny scrap still left – the rest of the road exists but under different names. This was the main road through Kidbrook which ran northwest / south east. Described as the royal carriage route between Eltham and Greenwich palaces.
Lovelace Green
Large village green fringed by houses. The footpath leads into Well Hall Road
Phineas Pett Road
Road name with connections to Woolwich Dockyard
Progress Estate
'Garden suburb'estate of 1,200 houses, greens, trees, curving roads and footpaths, and array of house styles. It was a government development built during the First World War to house munitions workers. It was conceived, planned, and built in less than a year. Design was by the Office of Works under the, Frank Baines, a former pupil of C. R. Ashbee, and it was intended as a showpiece solution to emergency housing problems created by the war following the low-density principles established by Raymond Unwin.Originally known the Well Hall Estate, it was renamed Progress Estate when it was bought by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1925. The houses are now owned by a Housing Association, though some are private. In the 1920s Rochester Way was built slicing it in two. It is a virtuoso re-creation of the 'old English village'. Tiles supplied by Halls.
Railway Line
Line runs around the Well Hall Estate on a dangerous kink. The line should have run north but the owner of Well Hall, Sir Henry Page-Turner Barron forced Parliamentary consent for Well Hall Station.
Rochester Way
Developed in the 1880s and was then called Woodville Road. From Brook Lane to Well Hall it follows the line of Kidbrook Lane. The arterial road was opened in 1928.
A dip at Briset Road is where the Lower Kidbrook emerges after skirting the Samuel Montague Sports Ground.
Dip where Mid Kidbrook crossed north of Dursley Road.
Chandlers Farm was east of the road and consisted of two fields of market gardens owned by the Drapers' Company
St.Barnabas. It was originally the chapel of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich built 1859; by Sir George Gilbert Scott and in 1933 bodily removed and re- erected, brick by brick on its present site. It was gutted by bombs in the Second World War. The interior is by Thomas Ford in 1957,
447 Howerd Club. Small club at the rear of St Barnabas church hall. Founded by a former vicar, the pub takes its name from Frankie Howerd, the comedian, who was born locally.
Ross Way
Sinuously curving, with raised pavement;
Sandby Green
An enclosed and intimate green, with a footpath leading under a house into Whinyates Road. Named for Paul Sandby who worked at the Royal Military Academy
Sowerby Close
Tower Blocks
Swimming Pool
Well Hall Road
Semi-circular terrace facing a green
Well Hall can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, and a complete list of owners exists dating from 1253. In the early 16th William Roper, who had married Sir Thomas More's daughter Margaret in 1521, built a Well Hall on the site of an earlier moated house of which nothing remains. In 1733 it was bought by Sir Gregory Page, to add to his Wricklemarsh estate. He demolished the Tudor house and built a new mansion on the east side of the moat. 1899 - 1922 this was the home of Edith Nesbit and her husband Hubert Bland. This house was damaged by fire in 1926, and the site was bought by the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1930 to become the gardens of Well Hall Pleasaunce. The house was demolished, and a surviving Tudor building, now known as the Tudor Bam.
Tudor Barn. Its original purpose is unknown, but it was not a barn. It was inhabited because there are original chimneys and two fireplaces. The windows follow the original pattern. At ground level are several blind windows originally decorated with coloured plaster. It has an Oak timbered roof. William Roper’s monogram is beneath the southeast corbel and a coat of arms on the north front has the date 1568, but the building is probably earlier. In the west wall is a small stained glass window showing Thomas More and his daughter Margaret Roper, designed after Holbein's portrait by Margaret Cowell 1949, restored by Susan Ashworth 1992. It was converted to an art gallery and restaurant. The art gallery closed in 1991
Moat. With Tudor brick banks. An extension to it runs along the west side of the Tudor Barn.
Stone-arched bridge. There is also a modern wooden bridge over the moat to the west.
Well Hall Pleasaunce. Noted for its spring bulbs. Sections of the original Tudor garden walls to the south remain. The Park entrance gates have the old ‘WBC’ badge. It was Laid out in 1936 with the medieval moat, a scented garden for the blind, fishpond and a bowling green, plus woodland lawns and gardens, a waterfall; a winding stream and fountain. In the east wall are niches for braziers, used to keep the frost off delicate fruits or which may have been bee-boles. There is a wild area on the western side.
RACS store. Reading room and library in 1906
Coronet Cinema. A former Odeon cinema of 1936 by Andrew Mather with art deco features. There was a projecting glass staircase tower and the circular canopy over the entrance. The interior of the foyer was also circular, with a circular wooden ticket box and the word Odeon in green and red mosaic set into the floor.
The Martyrs Church. Roman Catholic Church, dedicated to St John Fisher and St Thomas More. A brick church, by O'Hanlon Hughes 1936. The functional interior has embodies two pioneering structural features, - the aisle roofs are unsupported by pillars, and the main lighting is by a series of circular windows in the nave and aisle roofs. On either side of the sanctuary are stone bas-relief statues of the two martyrs by Lindsay Clarke. In a small chapel is a stained glass window by David Whalley 1988.
Hutments built here in the First World War
Whinyates Road
Delightful junction with Dickson Road
↧
Shooters Hill
this post has not been checked or edited
Academy Road
Royal Military Academy. The Royal Military Academy Regimental Museum Sandhurst . It is a large battlemented complex in Tudor style overlooking Woolwich Common. It has a front built c. 1720 ft which is long, symmetrical, and consists of a centre block with two side blocks. The centre block, had four corner turrets crowned by cupolas in imitation of the White Tower
Chapel. Plain red brick Academy Chapel of 1902, with a splendid stained glass west window by Christopher Whall 1920; in 1945 it became the Royal Garrison Church of St Michael & All Angels. On the ground in front is a great stone First World War memorial laid by the Woolwich & District branch of the Old Contemptibles Association. The church was built for £8,000. At this time it was simply brick work. When the base at Addiscombe was closed parts of their chapel, including the wooden choirs, were transferred to the Academy. Consequently, the decorations include items from the East India Company and the Royal Ordnance Corps. The stained glass window with St George, St Andrew and St David flanking Christ in the apse comes from there. In the reredos Christ blesses Doubting Thomas. The church had no organ and the current organ was introduced much later. Where it stands today was once a gallery for the soldier staff of the base. An old Toc H lamp is on display, one of the five Toc H lamps used on the front line during the 1914-1918 war, and presented to the church by Edward, Prince of Wales in 1926. The church was also intended as a campo santo for memorials to graduates from the Academy who died in service and the walls are covered with brass or copper plate commemorations to the cadets who never survived. Regimental pendants and others commemorating battles hang on the wall. "Some of these cadets were lucky to see three or four weeks after they left the Academy," said the Verger. Kitchener was at the Academy and is commemorated in the nave, which has a hammerbeam oak roof, giving the appearance of an upturned ship's keel. The only memento of the 1939-1945 war is a reef to Royal Artillery officers killed in action at the Battle of Kohima against Japan. The magnificent stained glass window opposite the apse was created by Christopher Whall in 1920. If you stand back and look carefully you can see that the window portrays the very first artillery band in uniform and gunners with their cannons who fought during the Napoleonic, Crimean and 1914-1918 wars. Badges of the Royal Engineers and the Royal Artillery, General Bogard, as well as French and Belgian soldiers are included. The Archangel Gabriel and St Michael are accompanied by cherubs.
War Department boundary marker at the corner of Ha-Ha Road and Academy Road.
Married Officers' Quarters by the Austin-Smith Salmon Lord Partnership, 1969.
Gates Three sets of wrought-iron
Barnfield Place. (Not on AZ)
Lotus Nursery Garden at south end. (Booth)
Barnfield Road
71 Royal Oak
Belmont Place.
Brent Road.
Steep hill running up to south.
Brinklow Crescent
Bronze Age barrow. One of four or five originally. A round barrow. This prehistoric burial mound is the sole survivor of several on Shooters Hill, the others having been destroyed in building works in the 1930s.
Brookhill Row.
Bushmoor Crescent
Shrewsbury House. Foundation stone in the museum. Charles Earl of Shrewsbury laid in 1789. House leased to Princess Charlotte, age three. Tutor Dr. Watson. 1851 boarding school and London County Council home. Open to the public by Woolwich Borough Council, 1934. Houses built by Laing. Winsor and gasometers. A large building of 1923 in classical style, near the site of an older house with the same name. Note the large front porch on Ionic columns, and to the rear a curved porch also with Ionic columns. It is now used as a community centre.
Shrewsbury Park Estate. House 1923. Bought by LCC who sold the southern end of the park to F.T.Halse, local builder. An attractively laid out 'garden suburb' style estate with several greens, built in the grounds of Shrewsbury House in the 1930s
Shrewsbury Park. An extensive park with a wooded area and wildlife sanctuary, its lower slopes giving excellent views over Plumstead, Thamesmead and the Thames. It was once part of the grounds of Shrewsbury House, which were purchased by the London County Council in 1928
Cantwell Road.
Cumberland Place.
Delvan Street (not on az)
Dicey Street (not on az)
In a valley, runs steeply uphill at both north and south ends.
Edge Hill
In an elevated position overlooking Plumstead Common Road. Developed in the 1860s; some houses have fine ornamental features.
Eglinton Hill
100
133
Eglinton Road
Eglinton School 169-2
Genesta Road
Victorian wall letter box
85/91A c 20 terrace of four houses worth a glance: by Lubetkin and Pilichowski, 1934-5. The projecting window frames and curved concrete balconies are typical of Lubetkin's work. The living rooms are on the first floor, approached by spiral staircases. Britain’s only terrace of Modern Movement.
Graydon Street. (Not on AZ)
Hanover Road (not on az)
2-storey runs over crest of steep hill to the north,
Hanover Terrace (not on az)
Herbert Road
Herbert Estate
Co-op Reading room and library, 1902
106 Vicarage
89/133 Herbert Terrace
St.Joseph's, RC
47 Lord Herbert
51
War Department boundary marker. At the junction of Herbert Road andRed Lion Lane disappeared when the "Academy" estate wasbuilt there in 1987.
James Street (not on az)
John's Place (not on az)
Keemor Street (not on az)
Nightingale Place
Was Nightingale Lane
Runs downhill to the north and has a dip into a deep valley on its east side.
Old tollhouse on east side by Belmont Place. 2-storey,
A Gospel Hall on west side.
Hables Cottages.
Nightingale Vale,
Valley of the medicinal steam on Shooters Hill
Woolwich Common Estate. Built 1975 on the site of the Barrack Tavern and regency housing - Including 1 Kemp Place which was the birthplace of General Gordon. The jagged, restless and tiered frontage of this large estate built 1968-82 overlooks Woolwich Common and Nightingale Place; it is a complex incorporating several architectural styles. The tiered terraces are 1980-82. A dramatically sloping site, a demonstration of changing ideals from the 1960s to the 1970s. The earlier, lower blocks are of 1967-70, V. H. Hards. The more recent phases, R. L. Dickinson, include a variety of buildings: stepped-back terraces facing the common, 1975-82, in the style that Darbourne & Darke made popular in the late 1960s; further terraces with monopitch roofs, running with a jerky rhythm down the hill; and a yellow brick shopping parade with a community hall at one end, a pleasant building with day centre below and an upper clerestory-lit hall approached by a generous staircase. Completed 1979.
Nightingale Heights The tall block c1969, - attractively restored and refurbished in 1994, with an elegantly curved roof which is the boiler house for a new central heating system. This centrepiece is one of the twenty-four-storey towers of industrialized construction 1968-71.
Long Walk. 1979. Long Walk includes a long terrace stepped up to a tall tower as it climbs the hillside, and incorporates a winding pedestrian walkway at an upper level
Woolwich Common cavern. 40' deep and 30' across opened up in November 1979. The road gave way after a cement lorry had passed the spot. At the surface, the hole was only 6' to 8' in diameter but widened to 30' lower down. 'Experts think the collapse could have been caused by an underground stream.""
Nithdale Road
a hilly waste over the Plumstead marshes. Bricks made from the foundations dug for the houses
Ordnance Road.
Paget Road.
Plumstead
Plumstead Common Road
Foxhill Centre A pleasant small red brick building with a Dutch gable' octagonal cupola and much fine ornamental detail. Appearance is spoiled by modern tile-cladding on the upper floor,
Foxhill Junior School 1881, one storeyed, with cupola, Dutch gable, and terracotta ornament.
26/28 Plumstead Common Road, a pair probably of the 1830s; no 26 is stuccoed and has an ornamental fanlight.
63/65 Plumstead Common Road, a brick pair of the 1840s. No 63 is well preserved, no 65 spoiled by later alterations.
71/81 form a unified sequence of cubic houses, with rusticated and stuccoed ground floors. Attractive, of the mid 19th century
83/89 are two tall pairs with pedimented windows and projecting porches. Attractive, of the mid 19th century.
Plume of Feathers, early c 18 altered.
Runs uphill steeply to the east. Old road, improves eastwards near the Common. Into Plumstead Common Road.
Portland Place (not on az)
Princes Road (not on az)
At the south end is a brick- built column that looks as though meant for a Jubilee clock but it is only an escape for sewer gas. Poor (Booth)
Ripon Road
All Saints 1956 by T. F. Ford, replacing a bombed church begun in 1873. Brick, with a small tower with octagonal top; Greek cross plan; primly eclectic details. Mural by Hans Feibusch
1860s 2-storey. Some servants. Opposite is All Saints Church (Rev Morris). J (Booth)
Ritter Street
Rocket Row (not on az)
Westdale road.
Whitworth Road.
Woolwich Common Estate 1970
Nightingale Heights
Long Walk
↧
↧
Shooters Hill
this post has not been checked or edited
Academy Road
Academy Orchard. Planted in 1990s over a reservoir. Old hedge and bank with a rare vetch.
Castle Wood
Castle Wood. An area of woodland, in part forming a dense pattern of tall trees. Its dominant features are Severndroog Castle and a large rose garden, which is on the site of Castlewood House (built 1870, now demolished). The house and its grounds were acquired by the London County Council in 1922 as the result of a campaign, and added to the public park already existing around Severndroog Castle. From the terrace above the garden there is a fine view over Eltham towards the North Downs.
Rose Cottage To the east of the terrace a highly ornamented house of the 1870s with rustic porch and great Dutch gables, formerly the lodge for Castlewood House.
Reservoir - In 1914 Metropolitan Board of Works bought the area and built a small reservoir in the woods to the westof Severndroog Castle. On the west side of the Wood is a grassed area. 1920
Rose garden with giant redwood tree, looking incongruous
Castlewood House, demolished by London County Council
Clarke’s soft water plant was on the green flat area on the right. This is thesite of a former plant, which was supposed by most peopleto be a reservoir. In fact it was used to supply theRoyal Herbert Hospital with soft water. Without being too scientific, "hardness” in waterdescribes its inability to form lather with soap. It isdue to compounds of calcium and magnesium, which enter thewater from certain types of ground through which the waterflows. The effects of these, apart from difficultlathering, can be damaging and even dangerous in hot watersystems, boilers, etc. A large institution such as ahospital must therefore have a "soft" water supply.In this case the plant used Clark's process, in whichcertain of the compounds mentioned are dealt with byadding controlled quantities of lime. The actual buildingwas removed in the 1930s
Severndroog Castlebuilt as a Memorial to William James. He died at his daughter's wedding and his widow built the tower. Originally had armour from the siege in it. The Royal Engineers used it for an observation post while making early OS maps. eccentric, triangular. In darkness or poor light, the tower takes on a rather menacing appearance, and provided a perfect location for the sinister 2001 movie,Mr In-Between. A tall triangular battlemented tower by Richard Jupp 1784, an extraordinary folly with Gothic arches and windows, surrounded by the trees of Castle Wood. The inscription on the stone plaque on the side facing south-west is transcribed on a tablet in a more legible position on the side facing north. It was built by the widow of Commodore Sir William James to celebrate his naval exploits, in particular his capture in 1755 of the island fortress of Severndroog (no longer existing) off the Malabar Coast of India. At that time the Castle was just to the north of the grounds of the James mansion of Park Farm Place, Eltham. In 1869 the Castle became part of the grounds of Castlewood House, which was built on the wooded slopes below. The Castle and the area around it were sold to the London County Council c 1900 to become a public park. From one of the turrets there are some of the finest views anywhere in London, unrestricted in all directions except to the north-east. The main room on the first floor has a fine ornamental plaster ceiling. Listed Grade II* but at one time considered to be at risk.
Cleanthus Road
Ancient wall in the grounds of the flats. There are two possibilities. TheManor House, originally called the Shrubbery, could havehad some off-site structures. Or the wall is afragment of part of the old "Bull" complex. Entrance tothe Manor House was from Cleanthus Road, which was athrough road until the present site was laid out. From the gate could be seen a pair oflarge urns and a figure in the form of a harp whichlooked somewhat like a small ship's figurehead.
Constitution Hill
Reservoir 1890. 300,000 gall. 320' OD Kent Water Co.
Craigholm
Cut that was made in 1980
Vicarage firsthouse
Donaldson Road
Called after the Chief Superintendent of OrdnanceFactories from 1903 to 1916, Sir F. Donaldson, KCB. Hewas drowned in the latter year when HMS Hampshire, whichwas also carrying Lord Kitchener, struck a mine on theway to Russia. Marks the western extremity of Broomhalland was formed to lead into the Wimpey estate.
Eaglesfield Road
Does this have a connection with Lidgebird's eagles on his crest
Eaglesfield School, buildings of 1925 the science extensions of 1961-2 are a prominent landmark. Shuttered concrete and brick, with the tough detailing typical of the L.C.C.'s work of the time. Has become used as a sixth form and further education college.
Flats in the Eaglesfield fire station1912 vaguely arts and crafts. A handsome building of 1912 Note the oriel windows and the impressive skyline with closely packed dormers. Fire Brigade Branch of the L C C Architect's Department. typical of their best designs. 1912, probably by C.-C. Winmill. Romantic roof-line with high pitched gables and tall chimneys- facade with oriel windows. Has become housing.
Eaglesfield Wood. in the school grounds. This is a wood on a steep slope with a pond, mature trees, newts, tipping rough, clearings with brambles, birds, etc..
Eaglesfield Recreation Ground. Highest point on shooters hill. Children’s playground on the site of the Lily Pond - 14ft higher than the cross on St. Paul’s. Embraces the actual summit of the hill. There are sensational views towards the east over Erith, Bexleyheath and Bexley.
Lowood. A large house in stuccoed concrete of 1874; since 1925 it has been the clubhouse of the Shooters Hill Golf Club. The east front has three distinctive gables.
Hill End
Site of Lidgebird family’s brickfields in Plumstead. Built Broom Hall in 1733 demolished in the 1930s. Workmens cottages called Old Granary. High Sheriff of Kent and two eagles on the crest – having made a fortune from supplying brick to the Arsenal.
Jackwood
Jack Wood. Name Probably from the word jack in the sense 'smaller in size' - that is, relative to Oxleas Wood. The wood has a wide variety of trees - Oak, birch, hornbeam, guelder rose, midland thorn, buckthorn, wild cherry and service. A streams runs through the wood and beside grows remote sedge, tufted hairgrass and yellow pimpernel. Another rarity to be found is butcher's broom, a member of the lily family. Several people sighted an escaped puma.
Site of Nightingale Hall built by Sir John Shaw in the 1780s. The lease expired in 1811 and a house called Wood Lodge was built there, and called ‘Crown’ in 1916. Jackwood House built 1862-3 and became the home of Ned Goodwin and Maxine Elliott. It was visited by Edward VII and Beerbolm Tree. The walled garden and the grounds were open to the public. There is a wrought iron gate with a coronet and letter ‘P’ for James Palisted Wilde QC, Lord Penzance who lived there. This house was demolished in 1927 and the site was taken over by the London County Council who opened the grounds when the leases expired. They built the cafe and toilets. The north part of the woodland is dominated by the ornamental terrace and gardens of Jackwood House - including a fountain of 1873 with a lion's head. To the west of the terrace is an enclosed ornamental garden. The site of the house is an area of flower-beds east of the terrace.
House late 19th century to the north of this site. Rather fanciful – it was the staff quarters.
The Lodge a late 19th century house which was the lodge for Jackwood House, is on Crown Woods Lane by the entrance into Jackwood.
Hillwood House. Parks Department London County Council.
Red Lion Lane
This was the original road from Shooters Hill to Woolwich. The southern part is a tree-lined village-type street, with considerable atmosphere. The west side consists mainly of varied mid 19th century cottages.
126 of c 1840
Red Lion Place
Original Road from Shooters Hill to Woolwich. An enclave of houses c1886.
6 Red Lion, A pub of 1902, replacing a much older building. It is attractive externally and internally. Note the grotesque figure on top of the corner gable. The pub is at the centre of Red Lion Place,
Post Office. Shooters Hill Post Office next door to the Red Lion from 1640s till 1971
Boundary marker. This used to be seen on the west side of Red Lion Lane opposite the entranceto Eaglesfield School, though in late 1988 the owner ofno. 12 put up a fence enclosing it
Back of Red Lion Pumping Station and a pump
8 Eagle
80 behind it was a medicinal well magnesium sulphate, Nathaniel Grew and Epsom salts Moult Brothers made Epsom Salts from the water, did not succeeds as a spa because the military were interested in it, 1884 still there with a sapper in charge
120, 1840
Shooters Hill
Isolated mass of London clay covered with sand and gravel, rainwater comes out as springs. Syncline ENE/WSW. has preserved a great thickness of the tertiary cover overlying the chalk and Shooters Hill rising to 424 ft is composed largely of a remnant of Tertiary London clay. British trackway to early burials then Roman Road. Hills steam wagon at 16 mph at Shooters Hill. 8 mph. General Steam Carriage Co. Gibbet. Top taken off it in 1817 by the Turnpike Trust.
157/159 old site of Bull. Corner of Cleanthus Road - at the eastern extremity of the old "Bull" Hotel as it was in its heyday, a much larger establishment than the present pub and situated to the east of it; houses now occupy this part of the site. At one time it was used for banqueting by officers of The Royal Artillery before they had their own mess. It is recorded that in 1783 the officers entertained General Williams there after his return from the siege of Gibraltar
Stepped stone block. On the pavement by the kerbside there is a truly venerable relic - a horse-mounting block. The stone was part of the facilities of the "Bull" in the days when customers travelled on horseback. It disappeared from local knowledge in the 1870s, to make a dramatic reappearance in 1926 in Bexleyheath, where, it transpired, it had arrived as the result of a drunken prank. Once discovered, it was installed once more as near as possible to the place it occupied formerly, as shown in a sketch of the "Bull" made in 1857. During the preparation of the stone for its restoration with substantial foundations to prevent any future pranks it was stated that the age of the block is200 to 300 years. In fact, upperlimit of the possible age of the block is no less than astaggering 700 years. Back wrong way up. White stone block at the back could be a hinge support. It is in front of the site of The Bull, a large and well-known tavern demolished in 1881. The block was re-erected here in 1929.
162 Holbrook House. 1780, enlarged 1838. Dr. Remington lived there and became nursery of GLC Parks Dept.. A villa c1838, which may incorporate some late 18th century structure; it was enlarged in 1862. It is the sole survivor of a number of 19th century villas which were formerly near the crown of the road.
red brick house built in 1784 by Dr.Gore at the back of the Red Lion and insured and then burnt it. He was hanged. General Grant lived there
30 A deep well with 50 ft of brickwork and a boring to 300 ft, believed not to have been filled in lying under the roadway. unchecked rumour included in the report of Greenwich Committee on underground cavities
49/57 interesting group.
53, a house c1835 with a modern shop front,
55
57 Prospect Cottage, a house c1816 with 'Gothick' windows. Dr. Watson 1747 experiment with electrical condensers for wireless signals Member of the Royal Society passed electricity through 9,000 ft of earth water on the Thames and through 10,000 ft or wire at Shooters Hill, Princess Charlotte's tutor
Gateway leads to the aerials used by the Port of LondonAuthority for river traffic control.
Castlewood Day Hospital. . Splendid foundation stone of the Cottage Hospital. Properly called the Woolwich and Plumstead Cottage Hospital, and having 14 beds, it was built on land leased by the War Department. Patients were admitted in 1890. The opening ceremony was performed by the Viscountess Wolseley in 1890, her husband having been called away to Dublin to take over command of the forces in Ireland. In 1928 the hospital affairs were absorbed by the new War Memorial Hospital, and the building was used as accommodation for nurses of that establishment. The Cottage Hospital later worked as a Day Centre. There was also a brass plate. It was in the main hall but was subsequently missing. It was an acknowledgement of the debt owed to William Woodford. It recorded that Mr. Woodford initiatedthe idea of the Hospital, gave £500 towards it, and workedassiduously to bring it into being. He was HonorarySecretary for 22 years. An unusual vernacular building of 1889, with a tile-hung upper floor and attractive decorative features. Note the foundation stone by the entrance.
Ancient wall to the left of the PLA gate thepart beyond having been replaced by a modern version.The OS map for 1869 shows the ancient wall, while the1897 map shows this wall plus an extension rearwards. Amap of 1930 shows thecorner site as the "Old Granary" and the wall appears tohave been the division between this and Broomhall.The Old Granary was formed from three 18thcentury cottages and disappeared about the same time asBroom Hall. There is no evidence that grain was everstored there and the place was renamed Hollyhurst formany years before its destruction.
Bench mark. On the corner wallof the last house before Donaldson Road, acement or concrete patch on the wall bench mark of 385.6 feet at this point.
Broom Hall.This was built in 1733 byjohn Lidgbird, a notable local landowner and lasted until1932, when it was demolished by Wates Ltd. to build thesemi-detached villas between the wall and ShrewsburyLane. The evidence for the 1733 date is curious. Theshutters of the dining room were acquired by ColonelBagnold. The date was on the shutters, executed in cloutnails, with the initials I.L. above. The Colonelinterpreted the initials as J.L., for John Lidgbird.Broom Hall name may be derived from theprofusion of the plant genesta, commonly called broom,which grew abundantly hereabouts.
Bull Hotel. Used to be much bigger, and to the east. On the corner of Shrewsbury Lane isthe name stone over the corner door of the "Bull,” whichis now bricked up. The stone carries the date ofthe present building, 1881, and the alleged date of theoriginal "Bull,” 1749. The roof of the building hasbeen renewed in recent years, and roof ornaments in theform of sunflowers, probably of iron, were discarded, inspite of the building's listed status. In the reargarden is a white stone block of uncertain origin, which may have been a hinge support foran outer gate on to the highway. Landmann 1785 dinner at Bull Tavern. Once had Assembly Rooms and was very much bigger. Unused rooms became Wickham House Academy, a private school.
Castle House Lodge.A mid 19th century house, originally the lodge for Castle House (built 1823, now demolished), whose site is now in the grounds of the Woolwich Memorial Hospital
Catherine Wheel in 1778 demolished and replaced with Hazelwood House. Opposite The Bull.
Christ Church School. dates from 1857, having had itsbeginnings in a private house in Red Lion Lane. It hasbeen extended since, and plans are under way for a furtherexpansion at the rear. The 1963 extension, to the west,has the following legend on its front:CHRIST CHURCH SCHOOLBuilt 1857Enlarged 1963M.V.WOOD E.W.HANCOCKHeadmistress Vicar. The windows of the original building were altered at thetime of the enlargement. To the east is Christ Church School. Old village school .
Christ Church. On land to replace Wickham House when demolished. A small Victorian Gothic church of 1856, the east end added in 1869. The exterior is unexceptional, but the interior is interesting, with the atmosphere of a village church. Fine east end stained glass window of 1869 and a series of unusual roof shields. In 1900 Temple Moore added a coloured chancel screen, two large figures of winged angels in the chancel, and the decorated cornices. 1855-6 by Tress & Chambers. Small.
Campbell House. Where the pavement isseveral feet above the road surface. In this bank, are thesteps from the pavement to the road surface, whichserved the occupants of two large semi-detached houses, which existed until the Second World War? They werecalled Campbell House and The Limes. Large stone balls surmounted the entrance gate pillars. The houses, of five storeys, were built in1779 by John Burton on ground leased by Henry Lidgbird. It is just possible that they were intended as oneresidence, and it is invariably the Campbell House namethat figures in articles about them. The earlier name wasShooters Hill House, the new name coming in about 1860. Local worthies who resided at Campbell House includeSir John Campbell Bt. of Airde, Major-GeneralSir W. Campbell Bt., the Reverend T. B. Wilson, whileVicar of Christ Church, and A. F. Hogg, when Principal ofWoolwich Polytechnic. The present LCC structure retainsthe Campbell name.
Gibbet – by the site of the police station at the crossroads, another site used was in the Golf Course and stump of a third was in a house by Lower Eaglesfield.
Golden Lion.halfway down the London side of the hill. The Golden Lion was the badge of the Lion of Flanders
Well. Hamlet round the Red Lion in eighteenth century and near Christ Church school was 'the dipping well' and a pump filled in in 1863 when Kent Water Works laid on a pipe, In 1904 supply still intermittent.
Telegraph. Memorial Hospital. Built on what was thenknown as the Telegraph Field. This name commemorates theAdmiralty Telegraph, which operated on the site from1796 to 1816. Telegraph tower. Semaphore station, Sent messages to Swanscombe from Telegraph Hill
Memorial Hospital. Major C. E. S. Phillips, owner of Castle House on the south face of the hill, offered the site for the War Memorial Hospital, the deal being concluded at £2,500 in 1919. At the opening ceremony of the Hospital, carried out in November 1927 by the Duke and Duchess of York, Major and Mrs. Phillips presented the Association with £2,500, making, in effect, a gift of the land. The foundation stone of the hospital next to the main entrance commemorates the ceremony undertaken by Field Marshal His Royal Highness Arthur Duke of Connaught KG on July 7th 1925. Hall of Remembrance inside. A modest classical building of 1927 set in large grounds including woodland similar to the adjoining Castle Wood. Just beyond the vestibule is the Hall of Remembrance, a small marble rotunda. Note the enamelled roundel of The Good Samaritan by Gilbert Bayes, and stained glass windows of St Joan and St George.
Memorial Hospital Grounds. There is, in a remote part of the hospital grounds, amysterious group of stones so massive that theycould have come only from a major building. They lie ona centre line through the hospital plan, about twentyyards from the boundary with Stoney Alley. The mapsshow no such building on the spot. They are laid out insome order, and it appears that they must have beentransported from nearby. The most likely place would beCastle House, for the ground on which the Hospital wasbuilt, as stated above, was in the ownership of Majorand Mrs. Phillips of that house.
Milestone. On the bank grassy bank in front of Christ Church, This was once on the north side of the road, but in 1903 a steamroller hit it. It lay disregarded in two pieces, but due to the vigilance of the Reverend T. B. Wilson, the Vicar of Christ Church, the pieces were rescued and repaired with rivets by Mr. Joseph Randall. Mr. Randall lived at Summer Court on the east side of the hill and was a partner in the company of Kirke & Randall, building contractors and civil engineers, whose works were at Warren Lane in Woolwich. Colonel Bagnold asserts that the “7-Miles to Dartford"plate was completely destroyed. The stone was re-erectedalongside the path leading to the church door, but latermoved to its present position. One side was fitted withan iron plate bearing details of losses at Ypres in Franceduring the fearful First World War battles there. It islikely that the “8-Miles to London Bridge" plate was alsorenewed, but by the late 1970s both mileage plates haddisappeared. The stone also carries a bench mark. It is an 18th century milestone converted to a First World War memorial. It reads: '130 miles to Ypres, in defending the salient our casualties were 90,000 killed, 70,500 missing, and 410,000 wounded'.
Milestone of 1968 on the original site on the northside of the road in front of Prospect Cottage. Concrete but Its plates also haddisappeared, one theory being that they were removedduring the Second World War to make life difficult for anyinvaders! In 1974 attempts were made to have replacement platesmade and fitted. After one or two false starts, the taskwas eventually undertaken by the Borough Engineer,Mr. C. A. Toogood, finance being provided by the GLC. replicas of 19th century iron plates reading '8 miles to London Bridge' and 7 miles to Dartford', which used to be on the Ypres milestone
Parish boundary marker. Ordnance Terrace. The boundary between Plumstead and Woolwich parishesgoes off to the right just beyond the "Red Lion" publichouse at an angle of about 45 degrees, but turns north and runs down to Woolwich Town. The changes of direction ofthe boundary indicated on the 1869 OS map were shown bythree stones. One was outside one of the houses ofOrdnance Terrace. Labeled "BS,” that is boundarystone. At one time it wasnowhere to be seen; but the western end of OrdnanceTerrace underwent an upheaval in the late 1970s. Thestone was discovered in the rear garden of one of thehouses, probably No.32, rescued by two local enthusiasts,and spirited away for its own safety.
Parish boundary marker. The boundary between Plumstead and Woolwich parishesgoes off to the right just beyond the "Red Lion" publichouse at an angle of about 45 degrees, but turns north and runs down to Woolwich Town. The changes of direction ofthe boundary indicated on the 1869 OS map were shown bythree stones. One stood at the junction of thealley that joins the "Red Lion" forecourt to Red LionLane. Labeled "BS,” that is boundarystone. It had a even narrow escape. In1976 the stone was smashed by builders working on the RedLion Lane flanking wall of No.31, Shooters Hill. A local enthusiast collected all the fragments thatcould be found, and conveyed the remains to his own workshop. Hours ofpatient study of the three-dimensional jigsaw puzzleresulted in a solution and a reasonable repair. The WPletters, while still discernible, had to be deepened, butthe PP side needed no treatment, having been shelteredfrom the weather by the wall mentioned above. In 1978 the "Red Lion" public houseunderwent a major refit after the departure of landlordMonty Banks and the chance was taken of restoring thestone to public gaze by installing it in the house. Redecoration took place again in 1984, when the stone wasmoved outside to stand in the corner porch. However,after this careful preservation work the stone went missing again. Fortunately the Engineers' Department of GreenwichBorough Council provided a new boundary stone andinstalled it in Red Lion Lane about 60 yards north of theoriginal site.
Parish boundary marker. The boundary between Plumstead and Woolwich parishesgoes off to the right just beyond the "Red Lion" publichouse at an angle of about 45 degrees, but turns north and runs down to Woolwich Town. The changes of direction ofthe boundary indicated on the 1869 OS map were shown bythree stones. The third appeared behind the site on which theCottage Hospital was built. , And the last as "BP marked BO" - BP for boundarypost and BO for Board of Ordnance. In the case of thethird marker, the OS map for 1897 said "WD BP No. 12",although the caption remained "BS" for the other two. Thechange from Board of Ordnance to War Department occurredin 1855, the Crimean War having shown the need for a newlooks in military affairs. The site is no longer accessible. It would be at the rear of either 2 Red Lion Lane or2 Academy Place. Outside the entrance to the Cottage Hospital is to beseen an iron post marked BO, which does notappear on the 1869 map. This could be the marker, transplanted when the Hospital wasbuilt.
Raised pavement. Indicates the original level and contour of the Dover Road before the gradients were eased by the New Cross Turnpike Trust in the late 18th century.
Replacement plates fitted in 1977
Seat on the wayside seat with tiled canopy. This is a memorial to Samuel Edmund Phillips, who died in 1893. He was the father of the Major Phillips who gave the land for the Memorial Hospital. At one time he lived in Holbrook, but moved to Castle House in 1884. With Mr. Walter Johnson he founded the well-known firm of Johnson and Phillips, which specialised in the manufacture of submarine cables and associated equipment. In 1985 theseat was reduced to a pile of rubble by a heavy vehicle,but has since been restored by the local council. In itsoriginal form it included a drinking fountain, and thereis a modern version of this on the eastern side. The topbeam of the structure carries the legend:In Memoriam Samuel Edmund Phillips. BornApril 9th 1848. Died July 22nd 1893. "Write me as onewho loves his fellow men.” which is also on his tomb in Charlton Cemetery. c1895 has a nice lych-gate style roof.
Water Pumping Station by the Royal Herbert hospital, Steam engines to repump water to the hill from the Brookmill works,
Wall on the south side similar in height to the raised pavement and built ofrandom stones. Until 1980 or thereabouts, this was theboundary of the vicarage of Christ Church. In 1780 acottage stood upon the site, occupied by Richard Holtam. It was demolished in 1840 and replaced by another, whichwas called Bankside. It was sublet in 1872 toMr. Bartleet, who renamed it Severndroog, an obviousreference to the nearby castle of that name. He securedthe freehold from the Crown Commissioners. In the 1920s, the Parish of Christ Church found itselfunable toappoint a married man owing to the lack of a vicarage. Provision of a parsonage housewas planned, a design produced and money raised against anestimated cost of £2,800. In 1929, Mr. Bartleet died andthe cottage "Severndroog" became available. It was boughtby the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1930 for £2,000. This was reduced to £1,270 by selling part of the site toMajor Phillips of Castle House. The Reverend P. Read, thefirst occupant, took over in 1931. Mr. Bartleet was, by account, a man of parts. Aprolific collector and experimenter, in his greenhouses,in horticulture, he exhibited as a member of the RoseSociety. He loved music and took great interest in ChristChurch and its school. Colonel Bagnold said: "Were heable to return to us there can be little doubt but that hewould be much pleased to find that the home which he lovedis occupied as a vicarage."
Cross in theChurch grounds, behind the milestone. This is a granitememorial to the fallen of the Great War of 1914-1918. Thedesign and erection were carried out by Mr. ReginaldHoare, of Messrs Hoare & Sons. graceful
Shooters Hill Water Pumping Station by the Royal Herbert Hospital. Steam engines to repump water to the hill from the Brookmill works
Water tower built in 1909 and top level is 488 ft. on site of a house called Woodcot which had a big pond in front used for skating. Steel tank 75ft high and 25ft diameter. Water pumped from wells in Orpington and also goes to the Academy Road reservoir. Gravity to pumping station in Well Hall Road. Grade II listed. 17. A heavy fortress-like tower a prominent landmark which pinpoints Shooters Hill from very many miles around. It was built to bring water to residents at the top of the hill; the water is forced up to the tower from a reservoir under Castle Wood by a pumping station next to the Welcome Inn
1-2 Woodcot Cottages
Wickham Cottage Rev. Dillon school and assembly rooms, became part of pub Demolished and new pub built further down,
Shrewsbury Lane,
Winding lane, 1844. Over the gorse to the river. 1826 straightened and became dividing line between Dallins and Hacksons
40 Elmhurst Cottage, 1975, replica of its predecessor. A weather-boarded cottage
91
Stoney Alley
Short flight of stone steps leading to the back fence of a modern corner residence of the Kenilworth estate. Crown Woods Lane formerly reached the road at this point, but was diverted to do so further east, leaving a building plot on this corner. Three cottages were built, two as a semi-detached pair. In 1877, after several changes of ownership, the semi-detached cottages were bought by one owner who formed them into a single dwelling called "Forest Cottage,” and later simply "The Cottage.” The steps we are looking at served this Cottage, which lasted until recent times, when it, with the third cottage which had become a noted house called Forest Lodge, was replaced by the present mock Georgian layout We may date the formation of theAlley between 1749 and1805. The southern part of the path serves as the boundary between Jackwood and Castle Wood, and in this area are several very tall sweet chestnut trees. Became a Narrow alley between two pleasure gardens, was a gravel pit, white quartz pebbles
Warren Wood
House. Built in 1864 by Lord Penzance’s brother. Col Bagnold and Enid lived there now Lewisham Children’s home
↧
Eltham Park
this post has not been edited or checked
A2 Relief Road
1885-88. 244 house demolished and 8 acres of open space gone. Green Link Bridge across the two bits of Eltham Park.
Corbett Estate
Grid of streets with Scottish names round the station. Thomas Jackson's estate bought by Jamieson and sold to Corbett. Lib MP for Glasgow. Land bought in 1895 by Corbett. No alcohol. Corbett built his poshest houses within easy walking distance of the railway but out of sight of it. Cheaper houses either nearer the railway or on the far edge of the estate.
dene hole. 1878, a shaft and chamber discovered. In order to remedy the water supply, workmen discovered that water ran into a disused brick shaft with a brick crown. The shaft was 100 yards from a houseand was 140 ft. deep widening into a chamber in .chalk, which was 40 ft. by 50 ft. and 9 ft high. It had a flat roof in a band of flint, and was supported by three pillars of chalk in the centre. The shaft was lined as far as the chalk. There were eight courses of brickwork in the chalk lining. The whole of the lining rested on a plate of wood on a ledge.
two Roman burial urns also found which were smashed by accident.
Crookston Road
1a s
Shop was on the site of a hut stayed there and used as a shop until 1958
Used for hutments
Dairsie Road
Used for hutments
Drumbeck Road
Used for hutments
Earlshall Road
Used for hutments
Elibank Road
One hut at least still used as garden shed
Used for hutments
Eltham Park Gardens
Corbett c. 1909
Eltham Park Station,
Eltham Park Station. 1st July 1908 by the South East and Chatham Railway. Opened as ‘Shooters Hill and Eltham Park’. The line had been proposed by landowners along the route and the station was part of a law suit between Corbett, the developer, and the owner of land. Substantial and capacious, brick booking office, footbridge with shops in the original building. Very impressive with covered walkways and platforms on a gradient.. Designed by Alfred William Blomfield and laid out by Jackson, 1849-84, civil engineer of Bexley Railway. On the east side of Westmount Road but street buildings converted to shops after the booking office had been moved onto the footbridge.. In 1927 it was renamed ‘Eltham Park’. closed 3/85. Some street level buildings survive and are listed.
Shooters Hill sub station alongside
Park House stood opposite the station
Eltham Warren
Golf Course: Gravel path lane and nature study centre. Warren source of spring water for palace and moat and lots of springs. Gravel pits of 1740s. Grassland etc. foxes and rabbits. Drainage ditch across the golf course ancient derelict hedges around. Round very good.
Eltham Park North
Bought by London County Council 1929 after pressure from WBC. North part bought in 1930 to conserve the old Long Pond Walk. Woodlands, and a special atmosphere,particularly around the Long Pond. Surrounded on three sides by Shepherdleas Woods. The grassland is managed as meadow.
Long Pond. Lots of frogs and water birds. This is an ancient long pond, probably dug 1800-1830 and used as a boating lake in mid-19th. It is attractive,with its overhanging trees. .
Children’s play area, a putting green and tennis courts.
Roman remains
Denehole
Eltham Park South
Eltham Park. This very large area of open space is divided by the railway lineand the Rochester Way Relief Road, which run alongside each other in a deep cutting.Eltham Park South was acquired by the LondonCounty Council in 1902, as public open space. An early open space in the area. ).Has a large grassed area with sports facilities
Open air swimming pool opened 1924. Closed and derelict
Greenvale Road
Used for hutments
Railline
Blackheath to Falconwood is a green corridor with cuttings and embankments with sycamore and oak woodland. Hawthorn and bramble providing habitat for birds and animals.
Rochester Way
Deansfield. Old playing field surrounded by Shepherdleas Wood. Rough grassland with scrub and young trees.
Shepherdleas Wood
Shepherdleas Wood. part of the ancient forest that covers Shooters Hill and it forms part of Eltham Park. Many of the trees were damaged by the storm of 1987. Acquired 1934. There are fine views. It was acquired by the London County Council at the same time as Oxleas Wood and had similar characteristics to it. it is designated a site of special scientific interest, and is classified as ancient woodland, though there have been many changes. The dominant tree is oak, and there are also sweet chestnut, blackthorn, aspen, hazel, birch, ash, wild cherry, as well as the rarer wild service tree. There is a wide variety of shrubs, wild herbs and other wild plants in denseundergrowth. there is a fine display of bluebells in the late spring, particularly on thewestern side..There is a good network of footpaths through the woods.
Westmount Road
92/98 Station Parade. Shops in what was originally Eltham Park Station. 96 was the booking office. The station was originally built by the firm ofSir Arthur Blomfield & Son in 1908 to serve the Eltham Park Estate, already at that time well advanced in construction. It was quite splendid, with covered walkways down ramps to the canopied platforms. It was originally called Shooters Hill & Eltham Park Station, and was renamedEltham Park in 1927. It was closed in 1985 and replaced by Eltham Station. The remains (which can be viewed from Glenlea Road across the Rochester WayRelief Road) consist of the platforms and, behind the shops, a short and derelictsection of the wooden covered walkway. The original station building is now 92/98Westmount Road, having between the wars become a parade of shops; 96 with itsdistinctive upper part was the original entrance and booking office.
285 Co-op Bungalow branch opened 1917. In three huts. Closed when the new shop opened in Well Hall
Three sculpted vent pipes?
↧
Plumstead Common
this post has not been edited or checked
Admaston Road
Churbim and Seraphim St. Michael's Church
Blendon Terrace
Wooded ravinewhich was part of the grounds of Brambleberry House. Now a designated Site of Local Importance and is managed as a nature reserve by Plumstead Common Environment Group. The name is most appropriate, since the site remains an important breeding ground and home to many species of birds. Also known as Bird's Nest Hollow, also known as The Dip. Approximately 1.25 hectares in area. After the demolition of St Margaret's Church in 1970 it gradually became an unofficial dumping ground. Designated a nature conservation area in 1992, and in 2004 it was granted official status as a Site of Local Importance. It is aptly named, in view of the huge crop of blackberries the nature reserve hedgerow produces each year. Secondary woodland covers the majority of the site: sycamore which is being gradually thinned and coppiced, and ash, with a number of trees, occasional planes, sessile and English oak, horse chestnut and silver birch. The shrub layer is dense in places, with frequent holly, hawthorn, hazel, elder, English elm and, at the northern end, yew. A legacy of a least part of the site's history as a garden is the single mulberry tree which remains near the northern perimeter. Clumps of snowdrops can be seen at the southern end in early spring and bluebells once more cover the eastern slopes in April-May. The reserve is a haven for bird life and in the open grassland areas different species of butterfly can be seen.
Puddingstone boulders. A rock studded pit. At the heart of the dip are the puddingstone boulders which were deposited during the Ice Age and look like Christmas puddings.
Bramblebury Road
Burwash Road
Chestnut Rise
18-22
Dothill Allotments,
allotments with flowers, scrub, birds and a nature reserve. Entry is through large wooden gates. This is a wooded embankment on the slopes of Shooters Hill, bordered by a housing estate with views across the Thames. in 1987 it was licensed to the London Wildlife Trust as a nature reserve. The grassy upper part of the slope has brambles spilling down towards the damper, area with dense cver. A natural spring feeds a stream, itself feeding a pond surrounded by soft rush, hairy willow herb, sweet grass and common reed. There are remains of ancient woodland in oak, ash, birch and wild service trees. A hawthorn hedge has been planted along the western edge. There is a population of frogs and birds - blackcaps, willow warblers and tits.
Ennis Road.
New houses on west side, gardens to large house on east.
Garland Road/Dothill Road
Access road to abattoir
Hargor Road. (Not on AZ)
Hinstock Road.
Islam Road
Kirk Lane
Macoma Road.
North of Shooters Hill
Complex geology. Plateau of Blackheath and Woolwich Beds
Old Mill Cottages (not on az)
Old Mill Road
1 The Old Mill pub. Mill of 1636 was blown down in 1763. The present one 1764 by James Groom who also got a licence, closed 1847 and the sails removed. It has been used by the pub ever since. Grade II listed. Pub is Victorian. Lemon coloured has been a public house since the time of Charles II. It is part of the 18th century Old Windmill, a smoke mill used until the 1850s. In 1848 the mill ceased to grind wheat and turned to selling alcohol.
St.Mark with St. Margaret. St Margarets was a Victorian church, built in 1858, dominated the area with its substantial tower. By 1965 it was felt in the diocese that there were too many churches locally and that they were too costly to maintain. St Margaret's had structural problems and in spite of its local popularity, with its 'village green' setting, the decision was taken to close in 1966 and combine with St Mark's in Old Mill Road. The vicarage in Vicarage Park became once again a private house. The church and neighbouring Victorian mansion, Powis Lodge, were demolished in 1970. St Mark's too was demolished and a new purpose built church, St Mark with St Margaret, was built on the Old Mill Road site. All that remains of the church is the altar, the tubular bells and stained glass high up on the left in the entrance lobby of St Mark with St Margaret
Plumstead Manor School.. Built on a site formerly occupied by cottages, this is an impressive building from 1914—a tall 21/a-storey red brick building in the classical manner with a brick front facing Plumstead Common. it sustained bomb damage during the 2ndWorld War but was restored . A comprehensive for 1,400 girls. It was originally built as Plumstead County Secondary. Behind is a sports hall, plus a sequence of additions by Powell & Moya, 1970-3. These buildings, are compact yet not cramped, grouped round a variety of courtyards, and linked by a spine corridor.. The school has the Old Mill s its logo. It was opened as an eight form comprehensive school in 1967, amalgamating three school - King's Warren grammar school on Old Mill Road, Waverley School on Ancona Road and Church Manorway in Plumstead. Ancona Road School, as Waverley School had been originally known, was was an elementary school, as also was Church Manorway. Plumstead County School for Girls, had became known as King's Warren, and had been opened following the 1902 Education Act. The building of 1913, had contained every facility for a 'liberal education' for girls and forms the front part of the Plumstead Manor School.
9 Prince Albert A well patronised pub
15 cellars of the old mill, used for grain storage, are under the house.
Palmerston Road
Parkdale Road
Pendrell Street.
Plum Lane
Plumcroft School
10-20 Shrewsbury Villas
22-32
Two covered reservoirs of Kent Water Co., 1890s, 850,000 gall at above OD, Plumstead pumping station, 1890 one well and one engine, 63 hp, cottage for the man in charge, 3 reservoirs of each 2m gall, originally reservoirs for Dr.Clarke's process for softening chalk water in 1858, apparatus softened water with cream of lime, but chalk precipitate choked it, 1861 Plumstead Woolwich and Charlton Pure Water Co. auctioned in 1861
10-32
Madeira Villas. Mid 19th
Clay Farm House.
Plumstead Common Road
1-4 Heath Villas
44 Lord Bloomfield
101 with sides glazed. 2-storey, one window right extension.
57 Fox and Hounds
71-81
83-89
102 Unity Cottages 1848
86-100
84
106-108.Two detached 2-storey houses with slate roofs.
106 yellow stock brick with a parapet roof and overhanging eaves and a painted front to the road
108 19th house
110 arly 19th villa with alterations. 2-storeys and basement. Low pitched roof with eaves soffit. Multicoloured stock brick
110b
111 Prince of WalesThe Arsenal Football Club, as it is known today, was originally formed as Dial Square Football Club, after Dial Square in the Royal Arsenal, at a meeting held in October 1886 at the Prince of Wales Public House on Plumstead Common.
196-212 'The Links' Clock Tower Built in 1904/5. A prominent local land mark. rising from and forming part of the doors of the RACS supermarket. First floor central section in red brick; side with pebbledash render. Second floors have mock Tudor half-timber with rendered panels. Oriel window to first and second floor of central section Most of right hand at first floor level is missing. Steeply sloping tiled roof to ornate clock tower with pyramidal roof topped by weather vane. Co-op terrace Mock Tudor style with ornate clock tower and weather vane. Rhine castle style. The Links refers to uneven ground leading up to Shrewsbury Park. Name of a large house once on the site.
Belle Vue Cottage – fine portico early 19th
Ebeneezer Terrace 1848
Globe Court is on the site of the Globe Cinema locally called The Picture Palace and demolished 1955.
'Prince of Wales' P.H. Late 19th Century building in Dutch style, 2-storeys and attic. Red brick with .white stone dressings. On both fronts the curved gable at right has a round window with four keystones. High pitched, slated roof.
Star. Collection of old photographs of the area.
The Dip – the area approaching Blendon Terrace. Also called The Hollow
Trinity Methodist Church Polygonal church with prominent corona
Modern almshouses at south east corner of Heavitree Road and Park Road. .
Plumstead Common
The name comes from fruit trees which were grown locally. Inned by monks from Lesnes, who owned the area, and before that the high ground was where the church was on a headland. Chalk workings and abandoned gravel diggings. The ownership later passed to Queens College, Oxford. It was used by the War Office who said they had a right to exercise troops on it - Landmann walking there in the late 18th went to the battery, which was there. There were later riots and protests by the Metropolitan Board of Works, led by John de Morgan. This led to the Metropolitan Board of Works Plumstead Common Act of 1878. The War Office were allowed to use 72 acres. The Metropolitan Board of Works gave some land to the LSB and a school was built. Later the London County Council bought the rights from Queen's College, for £9,000 and then in 1884 bought Sots Hole with a dust shoot and two cottages on it – a horse and cart fell into them in 1858. The Rights of the Woolwich Board of Health were extinguished by £500. Queen's College developed site next to Old Mill Road and bought the Parratt from British Land Co, 1887. A Roman coffin and skeleton found was sent to Maidstone Museum in 1890. The Arsenal Football Club’s first match under the name Royal Arsenal Football Club took place here against Erith on the 8th January 1887.
It is sand and shingle on the Blackheath beds. The common is made up of acid grassland on the sandy upland with gorse and broom. There is oak and birch and bluebells.
Reservoir
First World War Memorial - 'To the Glorious Memory of our fallen comrades of the 8th London Howitzer Brigade RFA TF who gave their lives in the Great War of 1914 to 1918'. Sited near where the bandstand once was.
Memorial to George Webb
Bowling Green with its Pavilion within a civic area with rose beds, spring bulbs and shrubs and hedges. There also used once to be a putting green.
Tennis Courts adjacent to the bowling green.
Boulders near the entrance to the Adventure Playground. In 1883 noted and it was guessed they were part of a ‘bluff headland’.
Adventure Playground– on the site of an Edwardian bandstand where the RA band played in summer. In 1970s replaced by the playground. Terraced seating or you could sit on the pudding stones.
Bandstand– was the old one from Southwark Park put there in the 1880s.
Laid out in inferior lawn tennis courts. Belongs to LCC. The ground rises rapidly to Plumstead Common with sudden dips east and west. Soil gravel and chalk with bits of clay on the high ground.
Shrewsbury Park
Estate of Shrewsbury Housewith old woodland. At the golf course boundary are London County Council boundary markers.
The Oaks. Grassy gully with flat bottom and steep sides, trees, lots of children swing down the slope.
High Grove. A small area of ancient woodland with oak, birch, ash and sycamore. There is also wild service and maple.
Boundary marker "stones" may be seen elsewhere in thearea, notably along the fence which separates ShrewsburyPark from Shooters Hill golf course and at the end ofWinn's Common.
Shrewsbury House. Now a community centre.
St John's Road,
Ending abruptly in a miniature precipe at the west end,
St Margaret's Grove
St.Margaret's School– Victorian School and now a C. of E. Primary School. A plaque says: ‘Plumstead Central Schools erected by Grant of £1000 from the War Department. The voluntary contributions of 3807 parishioners and a further grant from the Committee of Council on Education Rev. W.Acworth Vicar. John Cooke, William May Churchwardens”. This is a modest village school of 1856, with a steep roof and a tower with small metal steeple. Inside there is a memorial of St.Margaret's church in a stained glass window set in a box. It shows St Margaret praying, with the words "Lord lettest now thy servant depart in peace'' underneath it.
Azile Everitt House site of St Margaret's Church, became parish church in 1864. St Margarets, was a Victorian church, built in 1858, dominated the area with its substantial tower. By 1965 it was felt in the diocese that there were too many churches locally and that they were too costly to maintain. St Margaret's had structural problems and in spite of its local popularity, with its 'village green' setting, the decision was taken to close in 1966 and combine with St Mark's in Old Mill Road. The church and neighbouring Victorian mansion, Powis Lodge, were demolished in 1970. St Mark's too was demolished and a new purpose built church, St Mark with St Margaret, was built on the Old Mill Road site. For reasons, which seem hard to justify now, and in spite of vigorous opposition from residents and members of the Plumstead Society, predecessors of Plumstead Common Environment Group, Greenwich Council erected a huge twelve storey block of flats, Azile Everitt House, on the site of St Margaret's in 1976/7. It is this block, totally out of scale with neighbouring housing, which now dominates. All that remains of the church is the altar, the tubular bells and stained glass high up on the left in the entrance lobby of St Mark with St Margaret, and another stained glass window, set in a box in the school.
The vicarage in Vicarage Park became once again a private house.
Plumstead Common Balloon Site. run from a commandeered house towards the south end of the terrace. The balloon site was on the Common immediately across the road. A crew was made up to man the site twenty four hours at a time. The cooks occupied another house further down to the left. The balloon site itself consisted of a perimeter wire supported at intervals by stakes to which the tail of the balloon was tethered by a pulley. The main cable of the balloon was fixed to a pulley in the centre. When the wind veered the tail pulley had to be moved to the appropriate section of the perimeter wire. If the wind became very strong the balloon was tethered to the ground by ropes from the rigging to concrete blocks. The main cable was led along the ground and onto a whim on the winch operated by a petrol engine on a trailer. There was also a stack of bottles of hydrogen with which the balloon was filled. The gas pressure was checked daily and topped up as necessary."
The Shree Kutch Satang Swaminarayan Temple. This building, which is adjacent to St Margaret's Church of England Primary School and was previously used as a Territorial Army drill hall and rifle range, became a Temple in August 1988. Its opening was marked by a large procession from Woolwich, along Plumstead Common Road and Blendon Terrace. Festivals take place in August each year and at Diwali in late October. The building was completely re-designed for its changed use and is an attractive feature today
Tilice Road. (Not on AZ)
Tormount Street.
Vambery Road
Vernham Road
Waverley Crescent
19
53-57 Plumstead almshouses. Instituted by Colonel E Hughes MP Trustees Robert Low, Esq., Thomas Nelson Moors Esq., Frances Alfred White, Henry Frederick Driver Esq. This stone was laid by Thomas Nelson Moors Esq. 4 July 1896 A.H.Kersey Architect Builder J.B.Sandford & Co.
The Lodge. Corner of St.John's Terrace. Fine Victorian building a distinctive landmark on the common.
The Stables which adjoins The Lodge is actually sited inside the fenced Council Yard.
The Ship on the corner of Wernbrook Street. In the 1990s called ‘Commoners Rest’ for a while
Waverley Road
2 Rose Inn
10
48
Wall of Kent Waterworks
Wernbrook Road,
Wrottesley Road
1
2-4
7
↧
Shooters Hill Woodlands
This post has not been edited or checked
Clothworkers wood
Site of Falconhurst. Built by Lord Penzance’s uncle. Then called Falconwood. Lord Truro lived there could have been illegitimate son of George IV; Falconwood used as a hotel and then London County Council and park. The wood is now part of Woodlands Farm.
The wood consists of oak, ash, silver birch and sycamore.
Oxleas Wood
Oxleas Wood. A large area of surviving ancient woodland; it is among the oldest tracts of woodland in the London area. The woods are dense but interspersed with glades. The London County Council acquired it in 1934; and previously it has formed part of the grounds of Falconwood House, built in the 1860s, and now demolished. The glades date from the 1860s as does a stone-lined drinking pool for pheasants in the south-east comer of the woods. There is a good network of footpaths and bridleways. The woods were coppiced until the Second World War. On the woodland floor are bluebell, yellow pimpernel, wood sage, hedge woundwort, wood anemone, wood violet, yellow archangel, common cow wheat and butchers broom, penduculate oak, wild cherry, wild service, funghi including fly agaric. Also found is the rare green hunting spider. It is on the Kent boundary, and there are two boundary markers one in cast iron and upright. As also it is the London County Council boundary there is a flat plate for the Woolwich boundary. It is edged by the Roman road between London and Dover and various modern alternatives. From the 12th to the 14th the woods were managed as coppice for the royal manor of Eltham. Crown ownership ended in 1679 when they were granted to Sir John Shaw and for the next 200 years they were managed under leaseholds. The War Office took them over in 1871 and the LCC in 1930, which opened the woods to the public in 1934 and reintroduced coppicing in 1983. The woods were under threat from proposals to build the East London River Crossing. They are protected by being designated as an SSSI. The damp environment feeds ditches and streams—one of which crosses Oxleas Wood and supports rushes, sedges and tall brome. A wide range of plants is associated with a wet flush in the edge of Oxleas with numerous fungi and lichens. Birds include the rare wood warbler, nuthatches, tree creepers, woodcock and woodpeckers. Woodmice, bank voles and short-tailed vole as well as foxes have been recorded. The name "Oxleas" derives from the Saxon, meaning a pasture for Oxen.
Cafe near the entrance from Crown Woods Lane. Excellent views
Shepherdleas Wood,
LCC bought it with Oxleas.
Shooters Hill
Made of London clay. Why it there? Many flints to be seen about the place. All water works. White quartz pebbles. All the Welling side is sandstone and a very large heavy flints. On the North is gravel and shallow pits. All of this is a drift from the Weald, which had prevented the hill from being washed away. Does it mean Shaw as a hill. New Cross turnpike tried to clean it up. Greenwich/Bexley boundary is granite strip across the pavement on the north side of the road. Roman Road, Watling Street, highwaymen and a gibbet. Scheme to turn it into a cemetery. Shooters Hill follows the route of the ancient Watling Street and forms the northern boundary of Oxleas Wood. It has been an important road into London for over 2,000 years and was once a notorious haunt for highwaymen. The fact that the highwaymen would have carried pistols lies behind the most popular explanation as to how the hill got its name. The robbers would hide in Oxleas Wood waiting for their prey, and the bodies of captured highwaymen were left hanging in gibbets as a deterrent to others. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys recorded a journey he made in 1661: "Mrs Anne and I rode under the man that hangs upon Shooters Hill and a filthy sight it was to see how his flesh is shrunk to the bones". Shooters Hill was still hazardous well into the nineteenth century, and it was there that Charles Dickens set the opening chapter of his novel 'A Tale of Two Cities', in which the Dover mail coach gets stuck in the mud on Shooters Hill. This scene dramatically captures the fear and dread travellers would have felt when passing Oxleas Woods in the days of the highwaymen.
Anchor in Hope, there since at least 1837. An attractive mid 19th century brick pub, with a steeply pitched roof, looking more like a villa in its somewhat isolated location.
Horse trough - which was outside "We Anchor inHope""There was a small beer shop at the foot of ShootersHill with a notice on the front wall which offered extrahorses 'to help you up the hill', from the top of whichthe animals were returned for re-use. Tired animalsrefreshed themselves here while their drivers, no doubt, didlikewise in the ale house.” The horse trough is no longer there, of course, butreaders can observe it by travelling to Eltham Green. There it is and has been since 1932, on the corner ofEltham Green Road, opposite the "Yorkshire Grey".
176 Derby Villasa multi-gabled, very Gothic building of 1861.
Short column of cast iron, - at the eastern border of theLondon Borough of Greenwich, where Oxleas Wood ends, andthe houses begin. Just inside the woods is an upright column boundarymarker - semi-circular witha rounded top from the London County Council. It bears a legend. It has a flat back facing east, so this seemsto be the meeting point of two boundaries - east west andnorth south. The modern boundary between Woolwich andthe London Borough of Bexley is a fewfeet east of this LCC marker. Eighteen inches high and ten incheswide.
Granite strip across the pavement on the north side of the road.
Boundary marker at the eastern border of theLondon Borough of Greenwich, where Oxleas Wood ends, andthe houses begin. Just inside the woods is a boundarymarker - cast iron flat plate, halfsubmerged in the ground It states:BOROUGH OF WOOLWICH1903THE BOUNDARY IS36 FEET N.OF THIS PLATEThe lettered side of the plate is roughly parallel tothe road, no doubt on an east-west plane. Themeasurement takes us to the centre of the carriageway,and Ordnance Survey maps of that time show the boundarybetween Woolwich and Eltham following the centre line ofthe road. This may be a puzzle to somereaders, because it marks the boundary between Woolwichand Eltham, which by 1903 were in the same Borough.
Milestone in Prince of Wales Drive, 6 miles from London, plates renewed 1977
Shooters Hill Golf Course.
Claygate beds outgrown, dry acid grassland, scrub. Foxes. There are fragments of ancient woodland in the roughs. Ground flora includes yellow archangel, bluebells and medick.
Club Founded 1903
Lowood Club House. Stuccoed concrete 1874.
Woodlands Farm.
Last working farm in London, which was called Bullock Farm, Baldock Farm, Clock Farm or Clock House Farm. It became the RACS pig farm. Records indicate that it was created out of dense woodland known as Bushy Lees Wood. There is evidence that some woodland was cleared in the Middle Ages and this small-scale clearance might account for the complex field shapes. The boundaries which remained can be seen from the shape of the farm's perimeter boundary and the oldest hedges have been recorded as being approximately 600 years old. The road through the farm goes to the abattoir access. The1720 Plumstead plan shows no buildings here but the Rocque map of 1741 indicates a farm as does the Ordnance Survey of 1844 and 1869 with a farm and a house called "Woodlands.” By 1897 there was a second house. Use of the farm for pigs to be sold in RACS Co-op butchers' shops followed theFirst World War. Several acres ofbarley were grown and the farm became known as the ‘Co-op Farm’. Originally 122 acres, the farm is now about 82 acres. The outbuildings included a large barn with a clock, stables and cottages. Behind the barn were a cow-house, pig yard, chaff house and a brick cart lodge. Local action in 1994 resulted in the formation of the Woodlands Farm Alliance, which led to the creation of the Woodlands Farm Trust in 1995, which with grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Bridge House Estates Trust. There is wych elm, elder oak, hawthorn, osier, crack willow, crab apple, white bryony, greenfinches, carrion crow, wood pigeon. There are hedges with wild service. A stream runs through an area of willow carr.
The Abattoir was built in 1937 by RACS on the northern area of the farm adjacent to Cloth Workers Wood. Operation ceased around 1985. The CWS applied twice for planning permission to build housing on the cleared abattoir site. The 1962Ordnance Survey shows a cattle shed near this junctionand in fact beef was at one time produced, although theanimals later came from elsewhere
Woodlands house. 1886 over the front porch. There since 1869, rebuilt 1890s. Surrounded by the farm, a large and attractive house of 1886, with tiled upper floor and gables.
House further west is probably the original Farm. A substantial house with farm buildings, which was probably the original, but it isthe 1886 house, which is called ‘Woodlands’ today, with thename on a gate close by.
↧
↧
Plumstead Marsh
This post has not been edited or checked
Abbey Wood
Tram depot. 1910. For electric trams. Enlarged and closed 1952.
Belmarsh Prison
Belmarsh Prison, built 1987-91. On either side of the central brick entrance section, the perimeter wall with its overhanging 'beak' extends for over a kilometre.
Crown Court. A post-modernist building of 1993. The two wings are set at an oblique angle to the great central entrance, with its glazed canopy. The building is linked to the prison by an underground tunnel
Belmarsh Ditches.. a series of old grazing marshes with reeds and willow herbs and other marshy plants, some of them rare. Water voles live here.
Eastgate wall?
Nathan way;
Cory dyeworks
Plumstead Marshes:
Test track for experimental work on post office railway in 1914 Open ditches, swamps and malaria,
Southern Outfall Sewer and Ridgeway path. 1856 sewer.
Sidings laid from North Kent Line in the Arsenal and called Marsh Sidings. Marshalling yards. Line over the sewer embankment
Ridgeway
One of the few landmarks that preceded the new buildings; the barrier of the raised sewer bank leading to Crossness Sewage Works. On top is a green walkway with rough grassland and wildlife.
↧
Plumstead Rockclffe
This post has not been edited or checked
Alabama Street`
Over a waste of rutted land to a new street.
Bassant Road.
A deep dip between the south and north ends.
Bleak Hill,
This has steep slopes of oak and birch woodland, including sessile oaks, birches, ash and alders with holly, aspen and goat willow shrubs. There is hedge mustard, which exudes a strong smell of garlic. Also here are bluebells, cow parsley, rosebay and willow herb.
Holly Cottage
A steep cliff on either side
Bleak Hill Lane
Bleak Hill Meadow. – Wonderful sight in summer. Was once a car breakers yard.
Heathfield Terrace – name is on an 1870 map.
Duncroft
8-14 hit by a flying bomb which killed or injured 21 residents
42-44. V2 attack 26 February 1945. Direct hit. Another serious incident in the vicinity of Shooters Hill. 13 killed, 87 injured.
40-50 V2 attack 26 February 1945 demolished. Blasted again with another fifteen houses down and 300 damaged thereabouts. Fatalities included PC William Edmonds and his wife, Ethel.
46 V2 attack 26 February 1945 A fireman returning from duty found his home in ruins and was silently led away by a local priest when all hope was given up for his wife, son and parents-in-law buried under the rubble. It seems that these were Mrs Helen Lush, her 11-year-old son, Donald, and Mr and Mrs Ludlow. 9.10 am
Edison Grove
41 Glenmore Arms
Flaxton Road.
Francis Street. (Not on AZ)
Gipsy vans
Heathfield Terrace.
King's Highway
Woolwich Cemetery. Divided into an eastern and a western cemetery. Herb rich grassland with many grasses and wild flowers. Princess Alice memorial
Alma
Brick Kilns. clay is dug for brick tiles - mathematical tiles? - and coarse pottery. In the same field with the clay pits and on the north side/of them a shaft is sunk 120 feet to the surface of the subjacent chalk, which has been extracted to the further depth of 24 feet, being the object for which the shaft is made .
Runs downhill to the east with the Common rising abruptly to a flat table land on the north side and dipping steeply on the south side to a narrow vale occupied by strawberry gardens,
Nyanza Road
Rockcliffe Gardens
A park which lies between the two parts of the cemetery. Dense shrubberies amd a pond.
Collapse on September 1937 in a children's playground, leaving a crater measuring 80ft x 60ft x 30ft deep. More collapses followed in 1938 and Woolwich Borough Council employed consultants to carry out a series of bores to see what was there.
Southland Road.
active brickfield.
St Mary Road (not on AZ)
Sutcliffe Road.
Mission Hall at northwest end
Swingate Lane
The Slade
A small ravine, which overlooks the Thames and though at first looks flat has great dips. It is a combe cut by river Wogebourne with a pond, fringed by poplars, and the dried river valley with its steep sides has by trees stretched down to the plain below. A stepped path goes through Great Bartlett Woods to houses on the valley bottom. Winns Cottages and a Warehouse were there once and an Old Mill which fell down. ‘Slade’ means ‘the slide’ or ‘slip’.
Greenslade School
Barrow in the gravel behind the Slade, probably natural hillock used for artillery practice
Plume of Feathers
35 Woodman. Pub. Old established pub – does the name mirror the clientele?
38 The People's Hall now Slade Evangelical Church. Renamed 1999.
Timbercroft Lane
Church of the Ascension. Begun 1903 by A. E. Habershon. Ends 1911. Brick with terracotta; polychrome interior.
Who'd a Thought It. Flying pig sign
Edward VII Terrace because built in 1902
Coronation Terrace because built in 1902
Wesley Hall Methodist Church
Timbercroft Schools. Built by Wallis of Maidstone 1906. Erwood antiquarian taught there.
Orchards and market gardens with foremen's or farmers' houses.
old beerhouse.
Winns Common
Plumstead Common's easterly end which is known as Winn's Common. It is a pasture flanked by small terraced cottages named after the tenant of the old workhouse. There are supposed to have been Ancient Britons there and there are Roman relics, barrows and things. There is woodland of birch, holly, oak, beech and false acacia. The soil is very poor with pebbles of the Blackheath beds just below the surface.
Fairy rings.
Boundary markers. London County Council.
Playing fields.
Bronze Age burial mound on the central part of Winn's it is believed. Later the centre was used for horse and gun carriage practice.
Puddlestone rock boulders
Bowman’s Hollow. Was it where archery was practiced?
A sandy gravelly waste on which only the military are allowed to ride or drive, used by artillery as an exercise ground
Tormount Road
↧
Welling
This post has not been edited or checked
Bellegrove Road
Welling Methodist Church
Dryden Road
Open Space Safeguarded for ELRIC. Upgraded by Task Force
East Wickham Open Space
Small strip in Greenwich. Nettles and butterflies.
Keats Road
Area of transition from grassland and woodland and willow carr, Stream on the old London County Council boundary
Shoulder of Mutton Green
Old East Wickham Village Green. Metropolitan Board of Works 1877 following attempts by Queen's College Oxford to close it
Wickham Street
St.Mary not bad in its way. Building like this epitomises all the mid-worth architecture should be, wall painting
↧
Welling
this post has not been edited or checked
Cavendish Avenue
Darwin Road
Huxley Road
Maxwell Road
Sutherland Road
The Green
Tyndall Road
Westmoreland Road
↧
↧
Dulwich
this post has not been edited or checked
Bassand Street?
1895 artist with picture in Dulwich gallery
Bawdale Road.
Beauval Road
1894 local family Glamis of Camberwell. Lords of Beauvale Dulwich
Tillings have built stables behind the east side
Blackwater Street.
A large steam laundry has been built on the north side near Lordship Lane
Boxall Road
Called after Robert Boxall, landlord of the Greyhound, who built cottages Boxall Row
Calton Avenue
Cottan family owned manor after dissolution. Was Green Lane, was Church lane, and was old path across to St.Giles before Dulwich church built
1 Gallery Bookshop
St.Barnabas. made on Newcastle scale and freedom. Sandstone, violet and vermilion, opened in 1894, and became the parish church. A red brick 19th century structure with a high lofty roof and very fine tower that is perpendicular in style and ornately carved. By W. H. Wood of Oliver, Leeson & Wood of Newcastle. The big square tower was added in 1908. The church is of very red brick with Perpendicular tracery of North English character. Interior with tall octagonal piers without capitals and no division between nave and chancel. Lean-to aisle roofs and small clerestory windows. Much woodwork of 1895 done by parishioners under the supervision of F. E. Day. Stained glass window by E. B. Powell, 1922, quite good.
Lord Haw Haw on his soap box
Corner with Court Lane cottage, 1814 Manor House or Hall Court
Chesterfield Grove
Built by E.J.Bailey who came from Derbyshire and used road names derived from places there.
College Road
1 the site of James Allen's Girls' School, and later residence of Alfred Janes, artist and friend of Dylan Thomas.
Old College gates, ‘for which Sycamore Lodge was demolished in the late 19th century’
Stella Lodge. Immediately past the gates. The only freehold home in mostly leasehold Dulwich never acquired by the Estate. In the mid 19th home of Sir W.T.Douglass who built the Eddystone Lighthouse and various other harbour and sea based constructions.
Howletts Mead home of Sir Noel Hutton, Chairman of the Estates Governors. Flowering ash or Manna ash in the front garden – very rare. Also a yellow flowering horse chestnut.
Oakfield, home of R. Low, chairman of the Dulwich Society, 1790. Oriental Plane tree in the garden, scaly bark and pendulous fruit balls.
Colwell Road
Mission Hall converted into a shirt-dressing establishment.
Court Lane
101, 1760, has canted bay-windows; then in irregular group with a six-bay centre of 1759-60.
103 an addition with a door with a broad fanlight; a more substantial wing built in 1794, projecting forward, with Ionic porch.
142 garden at former home of Anne Shelton (the "Forces' Favourite"), hacking on to trees and rhododendrons of Dulwich Park. Urban garden planted from 1994 featuring rose garden, mixed border with roses, central lawn with fruit trees, vegetable bed, all on a circular theme.
16 1841 nineteenth century villa
53 plainer c 18 altered 1938, also of three storeys, brown brick with red dressings;
57 larger houses, set back from the road, yellow brick, built in 1793;
61-67,post-Second-World-War neo- Georgian
93-95, a clever neo-Georgian pastiche of 1934.
97 is of 1796, tall, five windows wide, with ground-floor windows within arches, and ionic door case.
Ash Cottage
C 20 Tudor, as is most of the west side. Around this nucleus larger detached houses
Cottage of 1814,
Dulwich Court, where Alleyn lived from 1608, has long since vanished. Whether it was merged into Court Farm or became a village house is not known
Old Burial Ground. With iron gates from the early 18thby G.Bamber in 1728. Alleyn gave the site to the village in 1616 because the village had no church or graveyard of its own and it was used until 1898. It includes Dulwich's 35 victims of the 1665 Great Plague. The last person buried there was Betsey Goodman, father of the landlord of the Crown. Also buried here are Warren Hastings' solicitor and builder of Casino House, Richard Shaw; ‘Old Bridgett’, Queen of the Gypsies, Bridget 1768; John Eggleton, a 'player' whose wife was the original Lucy in the Beggar's Opera; Anthony Boheme, 'the famous tragedian'; . Samuel Matthews, the 'Dulwich Hermit'; Mathematician Thomas Jones, fellow and tutor of Trinity College 1807. In the early 19th there were several incidents of attempted body snatching from freshly dug graves.
Opposite was site of stocks and cage
Pair of c19 stucco villas with windows framed in giant arches.
Small c 18-19 cottages and shops on either side of the pub, close to the road,
Crystal Palace Road
90 Uplands Tavern
193 Crystal Palace Tavern
289 Castle Pub
Cyrenea Road
1880 fossil found in Dulwich called Cyrenea.
Dekker Road
Named after Thomas Dekker, the Elizabethan playwright who knew, and wrote to, Alleyn. built in 1909 on college farmlands
Desanfans Road
Benefactor of Dulwich Art Gallery connoisseur; built in 1909 on college farmlands
Dovercourt Road
Bomb seven died
Druce Road
Dulwich College solicitors; built in 1909 on college farmlands
House rebuilt by St.Austin's 1902. Sainsbury's Centre.
Dulwich
‘Dilwihs’ in 967 in Anglo-Saxon charter, ‘Dilwiche’ 1127, ‘Dilewisse’ 1210, ‘Dulwyche’ 1555, that is 'marshy meadow where dill grows', from Old English ‘dlle’ and ‘wise’. The dill plant was used for medicinal purposes from early times. The manor was already divided by the 14th century: East Dulwich is ‘Est Dilewissh’ in 1340; West Dulwich is ‘West Dilwysh’ in 1344. Dulwich is pronounced 'Dullidge'. The first known mention of Dilwys was in 967 when King Edgar granted the manor to one of his thanes. Dulwich has therefore over 1,000 years of recorded history. At one time the area was forest land, part of which still survives as Dulwich Woods and is recalled by the names of Kingswood and Norwood. Charles I and his court hunted here and, to preserve the woods for royalty, citizens were commanded "to forebeare to hunt, chase, molest or hurt the king's stags with guns, greyhounds, or any other means whatsoever". Set in woods, parks and playing fields, semi-rural Dulwich in southLondon has been carefully preserved by the major landowner in the area, the DulwichCollege Estate. A collegiate village with exclusivity maintained by Dulwich College.
Dulwich Village
Fine collection of 18thsuburban dwellings retaining village character. The village street is full of harmony and has a warm mellow style of great charm. It is small wonder that Pickwick, lover of all things English, chose to live here where he had a "garden situated in one of the most pleasant spots near London”. Chestnut trees in the village planted by James Allen, and he also began the white posts and chains.
101-103 c.1700. Land by Alleyne. Road widens after it, Woodlawn
Woodlawn – Black Walnut tree in the garden with saw toothed leaves
Bald Cypress tree in the road
18 Dr. Barbour
2 Dr. Finney
31 Art Stationers. Site of Beech House. Where the first Lucifer matches were reputed to be sold
5 also nineteenth century
25-49 Commerce Place site of the village pond.
50 Rose Cottage
52 nineteenth century Briar Cottage
57 Georgian. Built 1793
58 Woodbine Cottage
59 Lonsdale Lodge
60 The Laurels survived virtually intact since first built in 1767:
61 was Plasqwyn
61-67 all modern, west side of the street, nearly all 200 years old Georgian brick houses
62 The Hollies survived virtually intact since first built in 1767:
63 was Camden House
70 was the saddler, Flashman Furniture and Car Hire. Little house next door to it, is the same house in Dulwich
73 Crown and Greyhound pub. 1895, cheerfully cross gabled marks the centre of the old village. It replaced two early c 18 inns. Designated a ‘heritage’ inn. The Crown was on this present site and Greyhound was the other side of the road. Dulwich group met there. Land used to belong to the Greyhound. Known throughout Dulwich as 'the Dog', both traveller's rest and 'local',
76 1783
84 1773
86 1773
88 Mitchell Builders and Lloyd’s Yard. Mitchell & Son Ltd occupy the original smithy of Old Clem. Here, every November 9, four days after Guy Fawkes, the village smith would render a salute to his namesake, one of the first shoeing smiths of England, by reversing three anvils outside his forge, charging them with gunpowder and putting the touch paper to them
93-105 modern, 1903 named for road previously called High Street
94-96 are grey brick stucco underneath
97 eighteenth century approach, 1796, John Adock
103'country garden in London'. Long herbaceous border, spacious lawn, ornamental pond, roses and many and varied other plants, plus fruit and vegetable garden.
105 mostly herbaceous with lawns and lots of old-fashioned roses. Shrubbery, ornamental pond, water garden. Very pretty garden with many unusual plants.
Bricklayers Arms. Previously called The French Horn built 1740.
Dulwich Hamlet School occupies the two buildings, which once held the children of both Dulwich Infants' School and Dulwich Girls' School.
Fairfield, of which only the wall now remains
Finger Post
Gallery Book Shop on the site of the blacksmiths forge, eighteenth century coach house, nineteenth century house
Long Pond. some five hundred and fifty feet in length and seventy feet wide, filled in in 1859, and covered by a row of shops. Filled in with spoil from the Southern High Level Metropolitan Main Drainage Tunnel.
Number One, Dulwich Village,
Old College grounds Beech House claimed first place matches made
Post Office
St.Barnabas Public Hall. Stands in testimony to the residents who subscribed the cost of building in 1910. The foundation stone was laid on July 5 by A. Bonar Law. Art and Crafts style, with big sweeping roofs, tile-hung gable, and cupola.
White Cottage
Wood Yard at the back of Barclay’s Bank. Belonged to Dulwich College and where faggots for the poor were stacked
Ye Olde Tucke Shopp evokes memories of the traditional atmosphere of the Village.
East Dulwich
Is dull late c 19 suburban
East Dulwich Grove
Used to be called Bailey's Grove after a local landowner
Sainsbury's sports centre
Camberwell Enterprise Building Group
James Allen Girls’ School. James Allen was an 18th century master of the College. It is thought to be the oldest girls' school in London. It was founded in 1741 when James Allen, Master of Alleyn's College of God's Gift at Dulwich, gave some property in Kensington to endow his new school. He stipulated that the profits be applied 'towards finding a school mistress or mistresses to be resident in Dulwich for the instructing and teaching such and so many poor boys to read and so many poor girls to read and sew...' The school started in two rooms in the Bricklayers Arms, in Dulwich Village. In 1857, an Act of Parliament passed to reorganize Alleyn's College of God's Gift and decreed that what was then called the Dulwich Free School should educate girls only. Was now restricted to girls and the school moved to new premises further along the village in 1866; the buildings are still used by Dulwich Hamlet School. The school became known as James Alien's Girls' School in 1878 and moved to its present site in East Dulwich Grove in 1886 onto land through the Bessemer estate. Early c20 neo-Georgian buildings. Playing fields on the site of the railway. Wood was planned as a new thicket. Tennis courts are on melon grounds of Hill House. This is now one of the leading girls' public schools with 510 pupils, a handsome range of buildings. Sir Ernest Shackleton, the Arctic explorer - a prized school memento is the boat in which this Old Alleynian rescued his companions who were marooned on Elephant Island in 1915.Botany Gardens were created in the school grounds soon after Dr Lilian Clarke joined the staff in 1896. It was the first such experiment by a school in this country. A further pioneering step was taken in 1902 when the country's first school laboratory equipped solely for botanical study was established. Composer Gustav Hoist began teaching at JAGS in 1904. - Memorial window in the school hall. Jonathan Miller opened the Prissian Theatre, named after former headmistress Iris Prissian, in 1983. JAGS was the first girls' school in the country with its own purpose-built theatre. When the lease expired on Bessemer’s model farm, it was conveyed to James Allen's Girls' school for a nominal sum. In the 1960s the near-derelict model farm was replaced by a new pavilion which was later converted into the Music School
Botany Gardens, neglected from 1939- 1984, wide range of habitats, ponds, bridge over the railway and lane, wood, meadow. Heath and sand dune. Historic botany garden dating from 1896. Wildlife ponds, woodland area, osier beds, country lane, bordered by hedgerow and ditch. Many varieties of wild flowers
King's Head. rebuilt in 1770 with cottages, stalls and courtyard. Very posh inside. Closed 1810 and divided into two cottages - Retreat and Ivy House. Until 1899 Estate Previously called the Crooked Billet
75 Springer's Wine Bar. Interesting pub style tiling
Eastlands Crescent
1931 estate there called that because east side of the College; was a school
Felbrigg Road?
1897 Norfolk name of the Wyndham family of Cardinal Bourgeois
Gilkes Grove
Mansion of de Coll 1889-1914. 1923 site of horse pond. Gilkes was the master of Dulwich College from 1865-14
Glengarry Road
Goodrich Road.
Great Spillmans
Local field name
Green Dale
two lodges. One on the St Olave's Recreation Ground and the other on Sir H Bessemer's estate
Hansler Road.
Heber Road
3 Heber Arms
A few houses on north side near Lordship Lane 2-storey and 3-storey. Remainder 2-storey houses with bay windows. A few shops near the Board School. Houses on north side, west of Cyrena Rd, are better than the rest. People are not allowed to take lodgers. (Booth)
Hillsborough Road
Place where Alleyn had property.
Jennings Road.
Landcroft Road
Plot 1867 lot of land of Frien Manor
Landells Road
Ebenezer Landells lived in Dulwich, started Punch and worked in the Greyhound, 1868
108 Bernardi's Vineyard
Lordship Lane
Named from the title ‘Lordshipp’ 1609, from Middle English lordship 'a manor or estate', probably with reference to the old manor of Friern owned by Holywell Priory in Shoreditch- Lordship Lane formed the boundary between this manor and Dulwich.
1 East Dulwich Tavern
14 Chener Books
17 South London Christian Bookshop
27 Foresters’ Arms
Dulwich Wells near corner of Dulwich Common & eighteenth century spa
91 Lord Palmerston. Furnished in stately home style
211 Magdala
381 The Plough. Bus terminus. In 1805 this was a shack.Arts and Crafts conservatory. Plough by Dulwich College in 1838 sold to the railway because of big profits.
Moria Close, handicapped peoples scheme to eliminate sense of isolation
Lytcott Grove
Named after family that had died of the plague
1943 bombed and 10 people died
Allsopps bottling store close to the wall of Alleyn's School
Melbourne Grove
North Cross Road
North Croft Road piece of land
Pellatt Road.
Crystal Palace Rd.
Plough Lane
Tiny pond managed by London Wildlife Trust.
Two cottages on south side and another detached house. Men work for a milkman, about l0/- a week. (Booth)
Rodwell Road
Landell's daughter’s father in law. The White House green still there.
Police station opened 1881 after the Charlie Peace burglaries
Shawbury Road.
The Salvation Army has a large hall in this road.
Silvester Road.
East Dulwich Provident Dispensary, the popular medical resort. People pay a weekly subscription. Sometimes the attendance is so large that they have to have a policeman to regulate it.
Tarbert Road.
Thompson Road.
Thorncombe Road.
Townley Road
Especially made in order to give ample access from Lordship Lane. The road took its name from Margaret Townley, the mother of Edward Alleyn, founder of Dulwich College.
Christ Church Presbyterian Church of England 1890. Bombed and demolished. Vicarage still there.
Alleyn's School. Dates from 1887 when it was built to house the Lower College of God's Gift This establishment, called after the 17th century founder, had 810 boys in 1960 and a range of well equipped buildings surrounded by playing fields. The new school contained sixteen classrooms, offices, kitchens and servants' quarters but it had no gym and the field was a wilderness where the pheasant waged incessant war on the mangel-wurzel'. A path, wide enough to take a horse and cart, was cut from Dulwich Village to Alleyn's to enable easy access. This path was called 'Smith's Walk' and named after the headmaster the Revd J.H. Smith; it finished up opposite the front door of the school. Re-organisation of Dulwich College in 1881, building in 1887. Pioneer in day schools house system, partly rebuilt in 1939 and 1964. During the First World War 264 Old Boys were killed. They are remembered by the school organ above the platform in the Great Hall, which was installed in their memory. In 1920 R.B. Henderson, who had been Master at Rugby School, became headmaster. He revolutionised ideas within the school. He once said, 'it will be boys you will teach here, not subjects'. Parents were told that the whole waking time of the boy belonged to the school. Private again in 1958, independent again in 1976. Girls from 1976. In 1975 a major change of direction came when the first girls entered the school in the sixth form. The following year the school became co-educational with a first year intake of thirty girls. Various new buildings have been added to the school in recent years. Formal late c19 Jacobean front with cupola. Later additions
Near junction bombed 20 killed.
Greater part of road abuts on cricket fields and the grounds of Alleyn s School.
Trossachs Road.
Ulverscroft Road
Local field name.
Wellington Place?
Wellington House was police station, lot of fuss because no station in Dulwich
Whateley Road.
Woodwarde Road
1884 Alleyn's first wife
↧
Crystal Palace
This post has not been edited or checked
Border Road
2/2a mid 19th century pair
16/18, substantially altered and not very appealing. Mid 19th.
Bradford Road
55 Whole families were wiped out in their garden Anderson shelters in the Blitz. It was quite a common occurrence. On 19 September 1940, seven or eight members of a single family perished
Charleville Circus.
The design of the houses does not measure up to the opportunity presented by this attractive circular layout. There are five pairs on the inner circle, and two groups on the outer circle. All houses are of the 1880s, more or less Gothic in style
13 modern intrusion.
Coombe Road
St Philip the Apostle Church. This low-lying church of 1983, with its steeply raked back roof, occupies the eastern half of the site of the original St Philips Church, built by Edwin Nash 1865, demolished 1982. The rest of the site now forms part of the Wells Park Estate. An enclosed garden outside has a bell and a crucifix from the old church. The interior has a fine modern altar, font and lectern, and from the old church, a statue of Christ the King and ceramic Stations of the Cross - interwar, attributed to the workshop of Eric Gill
Wells Park Hall, a Gothic building, was built by Edwin Nash c1870 as St Philips School; it is now Sydenham Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Crystal Palace
Ridge between here and Honor Oak. Claygate Beds capping the ridge
Crystal Palace Park Road
Lined with mansions
57 – 61 1882
Chulsa Estate. Craftsmanly style of the 1950s
1-3 lodge of Penge Place – which was demolished for the Crystal Palace
Railway bridge. Between the two railway tunnels was called Hollow Combe and Upper Sydenham Station was there, steps down, it was above North of the Penge Line Railway
Paxton Tunnel. Called this because it passed near under Paxton’s house. 439 yards.
Hollow Coombe – ridge between the two tunnels
Landscaped Woodland on the tunnel cusp.
Halifax Street
This street preserves an authentic atmosphere as it bends round to Wells Park Road. There are pairs of cottages c1849 and terraces of double fronteded houses and an Italianate terrace of the early 1850s.
High Level Drive
Hillcrest Estate Wood. Around portal of old tunnel.
Hillcrest Estate.This sprawling estate of 1967, accessed by High Level Drive, occupies a valley below the ridge of Sydenham Hill and between Westwood Hill and Wells Park Road. The blocks and terraces, though uninspired in themselves, are nicely arranged in closes in an evocative rural environment, with steep wooded fragments remaining from the Great North Wood.
Bridge House Estateproperty marker post of 1816. At the junction of High Level Drive and Westwood Hill. Rather eroded
South of Upper Sydenham Station the line crossed over the Penge tunnel of the LCDR line
Jews Walk
An attractive road, in which two fine groups of houses have survived. The street was named after a line of elm trees planted in the late 18th century by DavidXimenes, who lived in Westwood House, which was located opposite Jew's Walk on the other side of Westwood Hill. Villas classical all slightly different
Farnborough Houseearly to mid c19, a three-bay early c 19 villa
1-15 contrastingVictorian Tudor Gothic pairs some plain stockbrick, others with diapering. Fanciful Gothic / Tudor houses c1852, rather more eccentric to the group round the corner at Westwood Hill
1/11 is three pairs some with gargoyles and patterned brick.
7 Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx, lived with Edward Aveling from 1895, and committed suicide there in 1898.
13, the southernmost house, is large and detached, handsome in bright red brick, an impressive tower and a recessed Gothic porch.
2/6 at the northern end in Georgian style
Lawrie Park Avenue
The finest street on the Lawrie Park Estate, highly attractive, wide and spacious with grass verges and many trees; it was laid out in this fashion soon after 1852; it was formerly known as Sydenham Avenue and as The Avenue. The view along the Avenue northwards towards St Bartholomew's Church is impressive; this is the view featured in Camille Pissarro's painting of 1871, 'La Route de Sydenham', which is in the National Gallery
Roundabout with the boundary oak, which marked the boundaries of the parishes of St Mary Lewisham and St George Beckenham until 1900, of the boroughs of Lewisham and Beckenham (and of the counties of London; and Kent) from 1900 to 1965, and of the boroughs of Lewisham and Bromley since 1965.
53 The only house remaining from the time of Pissarro's painting facing the roundabout, a large vaguely classical house, probably c1860, but much altered.
35a Burnage Court. At the junction of Lawrie Park Avenue and Westwood Hill, Pissarro shows Dunedin House, 1859; this is the present building on the site,
Lawrie Park Crescent
Preserves more of its original houses than any oil street on the Lawrie Park Estate. It originally comprised four large stuccoed pairs the late 1850s and one smaller house in the middle. Three of the four pairs have survived
82/84 much altered 1900;
2/4 relatively unaltered and quite handsome
10, relatively unaltered and quite handsome
Lawrie Park Gardens
On the Lawrie Park Estate. The part between Westwood Hill and Lawrie Park Avenue was laid out c1863. The part between Lawrie Park Avenue and Lawrie Park Road was laid out earlier,cl860.
10 Ashbourne House, a large classical house of 1864, the contrast between its vivid white stone dressings and its lively yellow brick being quite appealing
87, an attractive stuccoed house, probably of 1864
115/123, 1866, in poor condition and rather ungainly.
183 Woolwich House large stuccoed Italianate house of 1861,
191, with a bold porch. Large stuccoed Italianate house of 1861,
Longton Avenue
An imposing street, which sweeps round the south and west of Sydenham Wells Park. Most houses are Edwardian or interwar, not special in themselves, but they have quite an impact overlooking the park. There are however two interesting groups, at the junctions with Longton Grove and with Ormanton Road are self-build c1982, based on the Walter Segal concept
2/4 1856
6 1862
8 -10 are tall houses, with fine bow through three floors, of 1866
16 a fine classical
70/72 a fine classical c1857.
Rock Hill
615,000 gall tank and cast iron of brickwork standpipe 415' above OD cottages and buildings. Lambeth Water Co. 1890. Opening of Crystal Palace in 1854 and a lot of building in the area so works built in 1856. Two hp engines, etc. Lambeth Co. standpipe in obelisk form and forced the water over it to a height of 415' above OD.
Sydenham
Grand houses built in the area following the arrival of Crystal Palace. The hilly region of Sydenham has a character quite differentfrom the rest of Lewisham. A sizeable hamlet existed by the c16along Sydenham Road. Uphill were the 500 acres ofSydenham Common, of which Wells Park is now the onlyreminder. Springs were discovered there c.1640 and Sydenhambecame a minor spa, but did not develop much until the common was enclosed in 1819. In the later c19, Upper Sydenham becamea suburb of large wealthy mansions. Many directors and officialsof the palace lived in the neighbourhood, including Paxton,Owen Jones, its secretary Sir George Grove, and SamuelPhillips, author of the catalogues.
Sydenham Avenue
The continuation of Lawrie Park Avenue to the London Borough of Bromley, and maintains its grandeur. Some older buildings have survived.
6 Sommerfield. Looks like a long low stuccoed Regency house, but was originally a pair of outbuildings for two houses of the 1850s; they were joined together, probably in the late 19th century.
3/9 9, a group of four large and stately detached houses remaining from a larger group c1885, similar in style but alternately red brick
Brooklyn Cottage almost hidden behind trees and shrubs; it was originally the coach-house and stables for Southwood Lodge, later called Brooklyn, built 1859, demolished 1998.
Taylor’s Lane
St Philip, 1864-7 by E. Hash and Round, with transept chapel of 1896 by C. H. M. Mileham. Demolished 1983
Church site of Sydenham Wells Farm - George III. Demolished. Font was supposed to be on the site
Vigilant Close
Upper Sydenham Station. At the far point of the estate, is the site of the platforms of now a flat grassed area leading up to the mouth, with its ornamental brickwork, of the Crescent Wood tunnel, which emerged about 300 metres to the north in Sydenham Hill Wood. A lane leads from here steeply up to the old stationmaster's house. The station was opened in 1884 on the Crystal Palace High Level line, which closed 1954
Wells Park
Sydenham Wells - just to the west of the canal on the Common.The Wells, which were later written of as coming from the DulwichWells, were noted in 1648 by John Peters, physician, for their curingproperties. Poor women were cured by water from the spring in the woods and it became a spa. It became well known, and was visited by George III. EvenSt.Bartholomew's Hospital bought supplies. Thanks to the Wells, Sydenhamwas fairly commercialised before even the canal arrived. In 1910 the wells were covered by St.Mary's Oratory.
This attractive park, opened 1901, has in the north rolling parkland, and ponds and springs, now the only visible manifestation of Sydenham Wells.. Was it built to recreate the sections of the Rhine – was it because of all the Germans living there? Some old trees from the old forest of 1648 remain. Lots of pigeons. Called Hatton Comb Hill. Hambrick Hall site was held by the Manor under Act of Enclosure in 1810 but London County Council/Lewisham bought the park in 1901. 12 wells. John Burns opened it. Pets corner - budgies, rabbits, pheasant, finches, and waxbills. Originally part of Westwood Common, this is the site of the Sydenham Wells, a popular chalybeate watering hole in the 17th & 18th centuries, visited by king and commoner alike. Opened in 1901 as a formal park, its running waters apparently represent the River Rhine - a lasting testimony to the German community present in the area at that time.
The Shepherd Boy small bronze by Mortimer Brown 1964
Childrens Play area was a pond near Taylors Lane at the bottom of the hill. Flowed into a valley which can be traced beyond the park.
Hollow Combe in the south west corner of the park spring here which feeds a series of small ponds
Pond at the east end is the largest fed from Hollow Combe. Bridge at the pond outlet. .
Westwood Hill
Few remain of the lavishlater Victorian mansions in every style, standing in largewooded gardens, which used to cover the upper slopes.
Boundary of Kent and Surrey. Westwood was tract of waste land which belonged to Lewisham in the Middle Ages - very long legal battle for commons rights in 16th century helped by Colfe who was local vicar
Old Cedars. Large, with a Victorian front, but from the back visibly a house built c. 1780-90, with two full-height bow-windows, and with contemporary stables at the side. In part late 18th century, now a nursing home. The front view shows, from left to right: the dominant section, of the 1860s, including a canted bay and the attractive entrance porch; the original house of the early 1770s consisting of four bays plus the ground floor only of the next bay; a large neo-Georgian extension of 1992 which also covers the one storey part of the original house. To the left of the house are the Georgian coach-house and stables.
St. Benet 1827-72 house
43 Caen Tower, an extraordinary Gothic house of 1884, with a fanciful tower, gables and oriels.
108 Sunnydene. The most interesting survival at the corner of Sydenham Hill. 1868-70 for W. R. Sutton, founder of the Sutton housing trust. Eclectic Queen Anne mixture, with elaborate brickwork. A large and strange house designed by John Francis Bentley 1870. The projecting windows on the upper floor are the dominant feature; on the buttress underneath is a sunburst (a motif repeated on a gatepost) and the letters AVE. The gable has herringbone brickwork and an eagle on top, and there is some elaborate brickwork. The house forms a fine group with the adjacent houses, 106 and 104, also c1870, but overall more classical in style.
Bridge House Estate property marker - tall post 1816
Ellerslie, although much altered, was also built forSutton by Bentley.
St.Bartholomew on what was Sydenham Common 1851 inside older
Sydenham High School
Westwood House was built 1766, and used by the Lawrie family in the early 19th century. It was rebuilt by John Pearson 1881 for Henry Uttleton, proprietor of the music publisher Novello, the largest business of its kind in the world when he retired in 1887. The house was demolished 1952; the Sheenewood Estate is now on the site. The elms were replaced by chestnuts in the 1850s. Hand cut bricks.
Sydenham High School, of the Girls Day School Trust. The school opened in 1887 and c1934 moved here to Homer Grange, 19 Westwood Hill. Horner Grange, a fantastic Gothic mansion of 1883, remains the main building of the school. The front has a triple arched entrance flanked by gabled bays; the rear has a similar entrance with a balcony above; both the front and (in winter) the rear are best seen from Amberley Grove. There is a great look-out tower, with wonderful views to the north and east. A ballroom with a minstrel's gallery remains from a mansion off 1874 on the site; it is now the dining-room, and projects to the rear alongside Amberley Grove. Some of the rooms have exotic fireplaces of the 1900s. The main part of the building was badly damaged by fire 1997, and was well restored 1998. The school also occupies: the former coach-house and stables of Horner Grange, now the Technology Centre, in front on Westwood Hill, an extraordinary Gothic building of 1889 designed by Joseph Fogarty, with fanciful gables, turrets and chimneys: the former lodge. C1887: and 15 Westwood Hill now the Junior School, a large classical building of 1862. In between these older buildings are a series of interwar and postwar buildings, including a startling red brick block of 1993 along Amberley Grove
Fire hydrant opposite Jews Walk. gone
Fire hydrant west of Taylors Lane. Gone
Fire hydrant by Hillcrest Road. Gone
↧
Forest Hill
This post has not been edited or checked
Boveney Road
Garages, rear access road from Hengrave Road, line of the canal
West and south sides of the road rear garden boundary is the canal's west bank
Bovil Road
66 was no 5 Bovill Terrace. Home of Walter de la Mare 1877-1887
73 General Napier
Church Rise
Christ Church. 1852-62 by Ewan Christian. Ragstone, Decorated. Sited prominently on a hilltop, with a handsome tower with spin and corner turrets, completed 1885. Interior altered in the 1970s by the insertion of an extra floor at the end for meeting rooms. The original parish church of Forest Hill, large and powerfulGothic. The north aisle was added 1862, but the tower and the octagonal spire were not built until 1885. The spire isvery tall and very handsome, of smooth stone, with pinnacles; note the two groupssteeply hooded spire windows. The interior has lost its original impact, because an upper floor was inserted at the west end in the 1970s and the sanctuary partitioned off c 1992. However, one can still gain some idea of its original lofty and imposing size, with a very tall chancel arch and very wide Gothic arcade arches. Inthe north aisle is a fine stained glass window by Sir Ninian Comper 1936.
Churchyard near the church entrance, to the left a red granite obelisk over 'the family grave of George and Mary Baxter' 1867. and to the right a gravestone to the architect Alexander Heid 1838-1915 and family; by the west wall, a memorial in the form of a pinnacle to members of the Tetley tea merchant family, from 1872.
Davids Road
1/13 David’s Road is a terrace of 1864; some houses have altered ground floors.The houses were erected in the bed of the Croydon Canal. 13a-13 remain from around the late 1860s beside the highestsection of pavement. Some others have now been replaced
Raised pavement was the canal towpath, on the east side of the canal.
13, nowKingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, was previously in use as Forest HillWorkingmen’s Club and as the Mission Hall for St Paul, Waldenshaw Road.
St John’s United Reformed Church Centre, a small Gothic church withpolychrome window-hoods and barge boarded gables. It was built 1871 as the churchhall for St Johns Presbyterian Church, Devonshire Road (demolished 1983).
The line of the canal remained traceable between Woodcote Crescent and David's Road up until very recently and only in 1985 was itfirst developed for residential purposes.
Fire Hydrant at Devonshire Road corner. Gone, it was alongside a coffee stall which has also gone. Pipes from the road go up the side of the pavement going under the pavement to a stop cock.
Devonshire Road
Developed from the 1860s. Portion of the road called Canal Road until 1867. Remains of canal were on the West Side.
7 Pie and Kilderkin,. Was the Railway Signal, also called Hobgoblin, nicely rounding thecomer with Davids Road, is a pub c.1862, extended in the late 19th century. Reid’s Brewery mirrors behind the bar.
61 Post Office Sorting Office an Edwardian baroque building. Note the fine frieze, pediment, and royal arms above the central window, the curved parapets on either side, or the ER ciphers over side windows.
Two Penfold hexagonalpillar-boxes, almost certainly of the 1870s: in the northern part, outside no 202; andin the central part, at the junction with Benson Road. Oak leaves. Manufactured in Dudley.
K2 redlift-iron telephone kiosk, to the design of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott 1927
Edward VII letterbox.
Toilets at David’s Road corner. Two storey building with underground gents. Closed.
Devonshire Road Nature reserve. One of a chain of reserves following the railway line to London Bridge. The site was saved following a campaign led by the Forest Hill Forum, which opposed the cutting down of vegetation by British Rail, which began in 1979. A licence was granted to the borough council, which promotes the site as primarily an educational reserve with considerable community involvement in its management. The mix of wood, grassland and scrub attracts a good range of birds and butterflies. The secondary woodland is mainly oak and birch with blackthorn, hawthorn and ash. There is some invading Japanese knotweed and giant hogweed, and the grassland contains opportunists like ragwort and golden rod. Yarrow and yellow toadflax are only two of the species attracting moths and butterflies. The six-acre reserve supports an exciting community of plants and animals, and offers visitors a chance to enjoy some real wilderness right in the heart of London. The site has been an active nature reserve since 1981, and a nature trail has been set up to help visitors appreciate the site’s wildlife. The reserve is an ideal site for schools to use for nature study or ecology, including GCSE woodland studies. There is a classroom on the site. Between 1809 and 1836 the - site was crossed by the Croydon Canal, later (1842-4,7), by the Croydon Atmospheric Railway. The site now belongs to British Rail, and has remained relatively undisturbed for over 50 years. In 1979, the land was leased to the London Borough of Lewisham as an educational nature reserve, which has been run by a management committee since 1981. The woodland is dominated by hawthorn and sycamore, with a few large oak and ash trees, beneath which grow ivy, cow parsley, ramsons and dog violet. The trees provide a habitat for grey squirrels, and birds, including jay, woodpigeon, and blackcap and willow warbler. Speckled wood butterflies are common, and the leaf litter supports a huge range of invertebrates, fungi, and mosses. The scrub consists mainly of bramble and patches of gorse, providing food and nest sites for birds such as whitethroat, blackbird and dunnock, and a shelter for foxes. Around the bushes grow plants such as herb-robert, wood avens and greater stitchwort. Although smaller in area than the woodland, the grassland has a far more a diverse flora and fauna. Common plants include wild carrot, birds-foot trefoil, black medick and cowslip. Several butterflies are found, including Small and large skippers, orange tip and common blue. Other insects include grasshoppers and bumblebees and eight species of ant - the mounds of the yellow ant are a prominent feature. Two species of reptile, the slow-worm and common lizard, are also found, and kestrels.
Canal, 1809-1836 crossed by Croydon Canal and then by the Atmospheric Railway. The canal survived in water as far as Davis-Road until the 1870s (itwas most popular for skating), and the development of Devonshire Road onrailway owned land - they had purchased the whole area between canal andrailway.
Curve of the canal crosses, then it curved round the hill, crossed the railway and crossed the road again. Canal in water and used for skating until the 1870s as far as Davis Road. Its next curve took it across Devonshire Road and curves round the hill east of the railway to return and recross theroad. Continual problems with the railway cutting has ensured there areno traces left.
Haweis Wharf, west of Devonshire Road at northern extremity of Sydenham Common
St John. United Reformed, former Presbyterian. 1884 by J. T. Barker, French Gothic, very large, pinnacled spire. Demolished.
Ewart Road
London County Council housing
Forest Hill
Forest Hill. Recorded thus in 1797 and on the Ordnance Survey map of 1816, area developed from the early 19th century and named from the once extensive tract of woodland in this area called ‘la Forest de Leuesham’ - 'the forest of Lewisham' in 1292 and ‘Forest Wood’ in 1520, from ME/Forest 'wooded area set aside for hunting'.
Between Honor Oak and Forest Hill the land was mainly owned byLord St.Germain, and here it cut through his forest. The hill to the westabove the forest, along what we now call Honor Oak Road, was already aplace of residence before the canal was built - the original Forest Hill.The view above shows some of its houses on the skyline. The area was formerlyon Sydenham Common, near the north east edge, with the nearest habitationbeing the small settlement of Perry Stow just to the south east. Fourroads met at a swing bridge over the canal, and using the modern names,they were - Stanstead Road and a part of Perry Vale from the north east,Perry Vale from the south east, London Road from the west, and DartmouthRoad from the south. The 1819 Lewisham Award that obliterated the Commonresulted in development around the canal bridge, the earliest being alongDartmouth Road and Stanstead Road. As first built the railway was crossedin much the same fashion here, but by a level crossing. The subway underthe railway is its successor, when the new road was built to the north.The area had grown sufficiently for the railway to provide astation here from the outset, and called it Dartmouth Arms after the adjacent and newly 1894built inn, itself named after Lord Dartmouth, a local landowner. Built with its platforms stretching south from the crossing, was right up by it. Work for that laid on the east side, involved the removal of level crossings and the building of engine houses to contain the pumping engines. Forest Hill was to be the main passing place between Croydon and London, and consequently to have the largest engine house to work both sections. Like all the engine houses, it was built in a very ornamental ecclesiastical style, and contemporary illustrations have it attached to the rear of the station building. The area did not develop much until after the railwaycame in 1839. On the London Road a few mid c19classical terraces; in the roads to the North Italianate villas of thesame period, especially in Honor Oak Road, where thereare also a few older houses
Hermitage
3 The Coach House, Sculptor's mature courtyard garden. Crammed full of unusual plants and sculptures. Water-features, vegetables and decorative plants in containers large and small changing with the seasons. Roof garden also in containers.
Honor Oak Road,
Part of forest owned by Earl St. Germains. This road was the original Forest Hill, laid out in the 1780s. The area retains a strong appeal, with a mix of early, mid and late 19th century houses, postwar developments, which are mostly in a sympathetic style. The road windsalong the shoulder of a ridge, with higher ground to the west and quite nice views to the east. Originally called Forest Hill, the new name was a developer’s invention.
18 in part the lodge of a house called The Manor. The tall stuccoed section in the centre of this long block isan early 19th century house once called Forest Hill House
53 include a tall central section, which is basically the site of Tewkesbury Lodge. Tewkesbury Lodge was a large mansion facingHonor Oak Road, built in 1855, and demolished c1930. Horniman Drive and LiphookCrescent were subsequently laid down in the grounds. There are some interesting survivals from the grounds and the area around
64 Hill House is in part the oldest house in the street. Plain brick part to the left with its Doric porch is c.1796; the part to the right Italianate window-cases was added c1843.
147 Belmont, a large rambling house of 1895 with gabled rustic porch, nice brickwork, and a hall with a cupola.
175 mid 19th century, with a rusticporch, fantastic barge boarding, Tudor and Gothic windows;
74/82 form an impressive classical group near the bottom of the hill on the west side.
74 is a detached house c.1840.
76 is a detached house c.1842. The modem house alongside is an extension
78/80 are a handsome pair of the late 1840s, with stuccoed and rusticatedfloor and porches with fluted Ionic columns.
82 is detached with a strong porch, c 1854.
A lane normally closed leads up to the grassed top of an old reservoir;it was constructed 1887, but has not been in use since the early 20th century.
Ashberry Cottage. Story that it is the place of a Civil War battle, 1643. Also supposed to be haunted, cannon ball in the garden. A highly attractive house. Great rusticated and stuccoed bows through two storeys on either side of the entrance are the dominant feature, and the floor above is of brick with hands ofwindow-cases. A plaque says: 'Here lived William Duke of Clarence later King William IV &Mrs Dorothea Jordan actress'. However, this is very doubtful, as the house was not built until after their relationship ceased in 1811. With a royal coat ofarms over the back door.
Fairlawn. A school of 1957 designed by Peter Moro. Back from the road, a line of projecting glazed infant school classrooms recedes left to right, all linked by a long low block at the rear. Behind and running is the Hall, and at right angles to this going westwards the junior school. In front, to the right, a separate classroom on columns projecting was added in 1966, and to the left a separate classroom added in 1989, the additions being in similar postwar modernist style. It is very imaginative, taking advantage of the fine location on a slope with fine views. High up, overlooking Honor Oak Road. Curtain-walled classrooms with glazed hall at right angles; light, airy, and undated.
Hamilton Lodge now Eurocentre. Built by Tewkesbury Lodge owner, Charles Bayer for his son, atthe northern edge of the estate. It is a large and handsome red brick house in arts & crafts style, with a rounded projecting corner.
Havelock House. Built 1900 for owner of Tewkesbury Lodge, Charles Bayer, for his daughter at thesouthern edge of the estate. It is a harmonious and handsome house in Queen Annstyle, with a semi-circular porch and four fine dormers. Two houses of c. 1900 built by the lastowner, Mr Beyer, for his son and daughter also survive atthe extremities of the former estate. Now part of the MetropolitanPolice complex.
Honor Oak Road
Path to Reservoir built by the Lambeth Water Company in 1887. Because of a border dispute with the Kent Water Company water was not supplied continuously so it is supplied with an automatic water tank.
Kemble Road
On the Colfe Estates field called Great Ozey
Liphook Crescent
23 Bayer's Folly. Tower. Nineteenth century garden building for Tewkesbury Lodge. Now in a garden of Liphook Crescent. Erectedc.1880 in the grounds at the rear of Tewkesbury Lodge. It is quite difficult to see andthe only view from the road is between no 23 and a neighbouring house. It isoctagonal, of ragstone with strong stone dressings, two storeys high with a belvedereon the roof, accessed by a spiral staircase. Late c 19, octagonal, of rubble. This was a garden building
There are fantastic views overthe west and over Central London.
London Road
South Circular
29 King's Garth. The fine central Italianate part with abalcony was built in 1850 as a pair; the left porch has survived, but the right has disappeared as part of an extension called Princes Garth, of 1908 developer Arthur Dorrell. The similar extension to the left is also by Dorrel 1908.
Dorrell Estate, which extends for some distance along London Road, is namedafter Arthur Dorrell, who incorporated some mid 19th century houses withdevelopment from c.1900; Lewisham Council has added further buildings sincebought the estate in 1975.
67/77 London Road is a long and bulky but rather gblock consisting of two pairs and one detached villa of the late 1840s, linked by c.1900. The most prominent features are the protruding square bays with inset columns at first floor level which were the porches of the original houses, the staircases leading up to them having gone. Note the elegant balconies of the original houses
79/85 is similar but not so long; it consists of one pair of the1840s, with an extension c.1900 to the west.
Silverdale Lodge a large white buildinglate 1840s, its central porch flanked by full height canted bays
Malham Road
Former Zion Baptist Chapel, a large and rather forlorn whitebrick building of 1878. The chapel closed 1973, and the building has beenintegrated into an industrial estate.
Manor Mount
On both sides groups of interesting houses before the roadbends and descends to the railway.
2 plaque to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, large, stuccoed, mid 19th century, has a LewishamCouncil plaque: 'Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945 theologian and pastor lived here 1933-35'. Bonhoeffer was pastor of the German Evangelical Church in Dacres Road and this house was both the manse and a German school. On his return to Germany hebecame actively involved in the resistance to the Nazis. He was arrested in 1943, andexecuted in April 1945, a few weeks before the end of the war.
Cottage late 19thcentury cottage orne with decorated bargeboards.
4/6, large, stuccoed, mid 19th century, was from 1875 to 1917 the forerunner of Sydenham School. Extension to the right is c.1890.
8 is a distinctive red brick arts & crafts house of 1883, with a Gothic porch and tile hung gables, built by Edward Mountford as the Vicarage for St Paul’s Church, Walldenshaw Road (destroyed 1944).
10/18 are strange Gothic stuccoed houses with Gothic porches and windows,
Pearcefield Avenue
Pond on the site to collect water from high ground for the canal
Ringmore Rise
53 Corner plot with spectacular views over London. Front garden inspired by Beth Chatto's dry garden, with stunning borders in soft mauves, yellows and white. Rear garden on three levels. Themed beds, some shaded, others sunny. Large pond; patio with pergola.
Stanstead Road
Previously Forest Vale. On Roque it is Steucers Lane, and it is Staneyhurst Lane in 17th. At the century’s beginning, there were no buildings at all here, the road itself being along the north eastern edge of Sydenham Common
112 Railway Telegraph pub. Shepherd Neame tied house in 1970s. An imposing pub c.1853, with a central ’PW’ in the distinctive projecting ground floor. It was handsomely restored in 1998.
Terrace On the west side of the road, lying close to the railway bank, cottages. the last house in the terrace differs in that it has slit windows on either side of the house and in studying this small building you will find other interesting features.
Poststwo metal posts denoting that this marks the property of St. Olave's, Hart Street. One post is quite conspicuous the other one is not far away
319 Blythe Hill Tavern
63, a small early Victorian workshop style building. It has been recorded as a canal horse stable, with its plaque showing. Three lions in a boat as referring to the canal company. Its origin is as yet unknown, but the building was,not erected until well after the canal had closed. It arrived mid century, shortly after, and in the garden of the house just to its south.
'Forest Hill Hotel'. Plans of 1836 clearly show buildings here, but the most northerly of the group of five houses shown was the forerunner of the present day hotel. It is a 1937 structure on the old site, and the otherfour older buildings to the south had been replaced by the century's end
Tyson Road
3 home of Henry Cox entomologist. Linnean Society
Waldram Park Road
Waldram Crescent
Formerly part of Park Road which was built over nursery ground,
unusual building built into the side of the railway bridge.
Gents urinal. closed
l In 1846, were built near the Dartmouth Arms station and engine sheds by the railway company, so that the enginemen should be near their work.
Waldram Place
Corner with Stanstead Road and built into the bridge brickwork is a small cottage
It was probablybuilt here shortly after the new road was built under the railway inthe winter of 18434. It has been suggested it was for an engineman ofthe atmospheric engine house
Triangular area between road and railway was a coal depot with sidings at running line level 18. The triangulararea between road and railway was a coal depot, with sidings laid in atrunning line level above about 1870, and probably the cottage was connected with the security or administration of the yard.
Westwood Park
2 formerly called The White House, a large stuccoed house probably c.1815, and possibly a rebuild incorporating an earlier smaller house. Difficult to see properly behind fencing, railings, and trees. It has a Doric porch off the lane to the left, which leads to the coach house. 1780s
19 West sloping family garden dominated by old oak tree. Large vegetable and fruit garden, perennials, climbers, pots and small ponds for abundant wildlife.
Coach House, stuccoed originally built for White House.
Woodcoombe Road
Canal traceable from here to David's Road until recent redevelopment
↧
Sydenham
This post has not been edited or checked
Adamsrill Road
Mayow family name
Hall Drive
Originally a carriage drives leading to Sydenham Hall. It is an attractive road, with grass verges, white railings and posts.
15/19 replaced Sydenham Hall which was a house rebuilt c1805 for the Lawrie family. Replaced in 1939.
36 looks like a small Regency stuccoed house, but was originally the lodge for the house c1862; it then became a separate house, with extensions from the late 19th century
Home of Thomas Tilling and his daughter Mabel Constanduras
Kirkdale
Valley of the stream from Wells Park continues here.
Was Sydenham Hill Road
New houses on site of Otto House, Heath Hedge
Service Road on the site of Woodthorpe
Kirkdale Bookshop
168/178, Italianate pairs of the early 1850s.
174 was briefly the home of conductor August Manns,
182 is in Gothic style with Tudor door cases, of the early 1850s.
315 Greyhound. Now called Fewterer & Firkin. This is the oldest surviving inn of Sydenham, dating back to before 1726, but the present building, with its dramatic three gables, is a rebuild c1870. Note the small rounded oriels on either side of the front entrance. At the back is an appealing bar in a conservatory with Victorian tiled floor and tiled wall designs; this was the entrance to the Greyhound Hotel. The Greyhound predates the canal, and was at the south east corner of Sydenham Common. Although not mentioned in connection with the canal, itmust surely have had some very useful trade from it. The Canal Co. owned some land alongside it
Horse trough – has moved around a bit
325 Railway pub
Lawrie Park Estate
Enclosed before 1800 by John Lawrie. Then built up with posh villas by George Wythes.
Lawrie Park Road
Marking the eastern boundary of the Lawrie Park Estate
2 At the junction with Westwood Hill. A large and rambling stucco Italianate villa c1861 but much altered, with a central tower over a Tuscan porch. The ground floor is rusticated, with square-headed windows; the windows on the upper floors are round-headed.
7 home of W.G.Grace when he led the London Cricket Club. Demolished.
Flats. A short way down, on the east side, between Cricketers Walk and Bays Close, is modern block with a Lewisham Council plaque: 'W. G. Grace 1848-1915 cricket lived in a house on this site'. Grace lived here from 1899 before moving to Mottingham in 1909.
Houses. Between Bays Close and Copeman Close is a sequence of large stately houses of the late 1880s with strong gables.
74/76 are a large Italianate stuccoed pair of 1857, but altered and with later extensions.
79 Lichfield House, an attractive stuccoed villa of the late 1850s with a Corinthian porch.
51/59 St Christopher's Hospice, a large complex. It was a pioneering venture when founded by Dame Cicely Saunders in 1967, and is now regarded as the world leader of the modem hospice movement. The main block is of 1967, weather boarded and glazed, attractive with staggered bay and a curving top storey. To the south is Albertine Centre, consisting of a house the late 1920s connected to the main building by a linking block of 1991. Further south is a separate modern building of 1972, the Education Centre.
Recreation Road
Mayow Park. Ground in front of it was where shops in Sydenham Road are. From 1660. 18 acres bought from Adams by Lewisham Board of Works in 1877 and built as Sydenham Recreation Ground. Managed by Lewisham District Board of Works. Gift from a Mayow daughter. Mayow owned the land between Sydenham and Forest Hill bought up by the canal co. A pleasant but rather featureless park, with some fine trees. It was opened in 1878. Is affectionately called The Rec'; it was formerly Sydenham Recreation Ground but is now known as Mayow Park. Just inside the park, where the paths converge, is a fine evergreen tree, the Holm oak or Evergreen oak. It differs from the usual oak in that it is evergreen and the leaves are not the familiar lobed leaves of the common English oak tree. This full-grown tree is probably one of the finest examples of its kind in the Borough. Aviary. Pleasant park of 18 acres which was acquired in 1877 from Mayow Wynell Adams by the Lewisham Board of Works at -a cost of £8,000, of which £3,250 was collected by local subscriptions The fine granite fountain inscribed "Erected by subscription in recognition of the services of the Rev. W. Taylor-Jones M.A. in acquiring this ground for the public 1st June 1878" commemorates the hard work put in by the Vicar of St.Bartholomew's Church, to raise the funds for the purchase of the park.
Mayow Road
Named after Mayow Wynell Adams family . The Mayow estate held almost all the land on the east bank of the canal between Forest Hill and Sydenham, and M W Mayow had sold some to the canal for £317.
Valley of the stream from Wells Park visible in the road
Slatter’s bakery site of coach house of old house. Old house was the Mayow Adams home;
Forest Hill School for Boys, which accommodates 1,300 pupils well-chosen and spacious site
24 site of St.Magnus built for Baron de Koope. Before the First World War. King Edward VII used to visit him. It later became a private school for about 130 boys. The old fee structure is interesting - for boys under 12 years old, residing in the administrative counties of London and Kent - 12 guineas a year for school life; 12 years and over, 15 guineas; for other pupils, the out-county fee was £39 p.a. The school had to close in 1932 for economic reasons. During the Second World War it became a Rescue Service Station
Old House. Mayow Road to Silverdale contained the 'Old House' and its grounds, the residence of the Mayow-Adams family, great benefactors to the Sydenham community.
Peak Hill
Was called Pigg Hill. North was Westwood Common. Home of Ernest von Glehn Wolfson; Thomas Campbell. On the south side a long and handsome terrace of Edwardian houses 1905 in a staggered pattern following the curve in the road. The houses have crowstepped gables with scrolls and interesting terracotta carvings around the doorways.
Peak Hill Avenue
On both sides are large Italianate pairs of the late 1860s.
Queensthorpe Road
Part of Thorpe Estate. Some houses have pargetting in the gables.
Valley of the stream from Wells Park visible in the road
Base of a water-hydrant, a relic of the times when water carts were used to spray the dust on the road during the summer months
Silverdale
Low key brick terrace of the 1970s. Silverdale has undergone considerable re-development; it was once a dale with fine houses ornately decorated with stone carvings over the front doors and bay windows, their wooded gardens dominated by silver birch trees along the wide road. Many professional people resided here including solicitors and dental surgeons; there was also a Pitman's Shorthand and Typing College. An incline in the road reaches its summit near Bishopsthorpe Road. The 'thorpes' as they are familiarly known, as typical upper-middle-class houses, designed originally for teachers, doctors, retired clergymen, architects, solicitors, and other professional people. They were named the 'thorpes' by the Victorians, to get away from the familiar 'road' or 'street', and a bit of one-upmanship on Kirkdale and Silverdale. The 'thorpes' were laid out and named after the many dignitaries visiting the Crystal Palace - the Kings and Queens, Princes and Dukes, Earls and Bishops.
Tennis club. Halfway down on the right was a path-way flanked by tall, graceful Lombardy poplars, which led to a private tennis club.
West of here a lot of coal dug up - was it Doo's coal wharf. Interestingly, Mr. Mayow wrote that he hired a boat at Doo's Wharf and rowed it towards Croydon. The exact location of the wharf is uncertain. One possibility was indicated by the discovery of quantities of coal in the canal bed, revealed by excavations in the 1970s for new properties west of Silverdale, where the canal just diverges from the railway.
Canal – culvert took the stream from Wells Park underneath the canal.
Path to the right just before the station goes to it. It cuts through to the cul-de-sac that serves the station.
Dacres Wood Nature Reserve. A small reserve along a railway embankment in Lower Sydenham. The railway siding reserve includes a section of the cut of the old Croydon Canal. Mature woodland with a few exotics such as Turkey oak growing along the embankment extend the range of habitat which otherwise is mainly grass. With appropriate management and the addition of the pond this will become more interesting.
Sydenham
Westwood. Home of Harold Glanville MP for Bermondsey. In James Abbot’s business L.C.C. etc.
Sydenham Common
Site of filled in reservoir for Croydon Canal
Sydenham Road
Sydenham Station. Between Penge West and Forest Hill on Southern Rail. 1839 a guide to it said that the station was "not yet erected". Indeed, the plan, shows merely 'yard' on the site of the first station, with a flight of steps down and a small area reserved for the building on the east side, both south of the bridge. 1839 Sydenham Station Sydenham Station was opened by the London & Croydon Railway, using the bed of the disused Croydon Canal. 1854 The Crystal Palace line was added in 1854 – the old main line branch of Crystal Palace closed after the Penge tunnel was built. 1856 largely rebuilt. 1875 Station Entrance. A separate 'down' side building to the north of the road bridge was opened in 1875, and this building (now the only entrance to the station) survives in Sydenham Station Approach. 1980s The buildings have been rearranged from the original layout although two original lines of rails are on the canal alignment. The Platform layout is very narrow because it is on the layout of canal bed. The subsequent widening to three and four tracks, and in particular the divergence of a new Crystal Palace branch immediately south of the east side building, shifted the east side platform to the north of the bridge. The old east side building, always on a cramped site, was in due course removed. More recently, the west platform has also migrated north of the bridge.The original station building was on the south side of the road bridge, its location now a blank wall between the bridge and a telephone kiosk. The new 'up' side platform, accessible by a new footbridge from the 'down' side, was erected about 100 metres north in 1982. 1982 The original building was demolished in 1982, though traces of the old 'up' side platform can still be seen to the south of the road bridge. The building we see today, with its small service road was erected shortly after the c1870 building of the south end of Silverdale.
Station Entrance. A separate 'down' side building to the north of the road bridge was opened in 1875, and this building (now the only entrance to the station) survives in Sydenham Station Approach. The original building (largely rebuilt in 1856) was demolished in 1982, though traces of the old 'up' side platform can still be seen to the south of the road bridge. The building we see today, with its small service road was erected shortly after the c1870 building of the south end of Silverdale.
Brick canal bridge. Old canal bridge here, which was widened. The canal had done thework of cutting across the most built up road to intersect its routebetween here and land to the north west. . The brick canal bridge received attention from various artists,and four versions of the view are known. All are from the same viewpoint,the east or towpath bank, south of the bridge and looking north.
32 –34 Priory Cottage. Queen Anne on estate of Priory House. Little to remind one of the old hamlet apart from this pair with old tiled, hipped mansard roofs, rendered fronts with Gibbs-surround front doors, but weather boarded sides. Weather boarded timber-framed cottages were once characteristic of the area. With Woodman’s Cottage an interesting and attractive pair of semi-detached houses, early 18thperhaps as early as c1700. The oldest houses in Sydenham and among the oldest -semi-detached houses in London. Both houses have half-gables above doors surrounds; weather boarded sides, and mansard roofs with dormers.
34 Woodman's Cottage, Queen Anne, on estate of Priory House semi-detached white-fronted, with curved front ends, a high roof, and weather-boarding to be seen at the side and rear of the building. They were built in Queen Anne's reign on the estate of the old Priory House.
43/111 known as Grand Parade when built 1900. Some were replaced after war damage. These stately and impressive terraces dominate the shopping area.
120 has an altered ground floor,
120/124 next to the old chapel, plain Georgian brick houses c1800;
122 Severalaltered c18 houses - a well preservedplain house of c. 1800.
122/124 was formerly one house.
178 Prince Alfred, a pleasant pub c1865.
189 Kwick Fit. Small pump at the end of old garages.
Clune House top of the shops a large house of 1806 it looks in poor condition.
173 Man of Kent pub
Shop with 'Fish Market'and ‘Sydenham’ chipped out to confuse the enemy in Second World War
The Rink behind the Sydenham Post Office sorting office. A wide, deep forecourt which led down to the 'Rink' originally a roller-skating rink but later a large, luxurious cinema
Railway between Sydenham and Penge stations
Local line has to cross the main line. In order to get to Crystal Palace. Ascended on an embankment and crossed the line on a bridge. Novelty in railway engineering in 1852
Station Approach
Toilets 1936
Thorpe Estate.
This Edwardian enclave between Bishopsthorpe Road and Earlsthorpe Road was built 1900-14. It has many stylish terraces, groups and pairs
Trewsbury Road
All Saints Church. Not finished in 1950s. 1901 only three bays on the nave and aisle were ever built. Consecrated 1903. Only the ugly west end of this church by George Fellowes Prynne of 1903 can be seen from Trewsbury Road. The east end cannot really be seen at all, as it is concealed by later buildings. There is an unsatisfactory view of the top of the church from Sydenham Road. But the "'interior is of outstanding appeal and interest. It is of brick, very lofty and severe, and is dominated by the great chancel arch, with its stone screen built right up to the top. Very tall octagonal brick piers along the high arcades, tall narrow windows in the chancel and aisles, wooden barrel roof. However, only three bays of the nave were built, and the west end, even in the interior, is poor. The end now concealed by later buildings. Only three bays of the nave were built, and a later narthex, Interior with tall octagonal brick piers and with the typical Prynne stone screen up to the top of the chancel arch
Church hall, brick, of 1933. The Episcopal Chapel stood on this site, and the buttresses at the base of the spire can still be seen at the entrance to the hall.
A11 Saints Hall. Old and derelict. A small Gothic chapel with narrow Gothic windows. Its date is uncertain, basically and in part it may be c1760 or possibly slightly earlier; it occupies the site of a Dissenters' meeting house, which is on John Rocque's map of 1744. It became an Anglican chapel of ease in 1795, when major rebuilding took place and it became known as Christ Church. Apart from a brief period as a non-conformist chapel 1867-73, it remained Christ Church until 1903, when the present All Saints Church was built and it became All Saints Hall. The last major rebuild was in 1845, when the north entrance with its steeple was added; there is now just a truncated tower, the spire having since been removed. There is a proposal to convert the old chapel for housing. Rock faced, ragstone. Tower was intended
Venner Road
The Croydon canal curved east away from the railway route, but only a few insignificant ponds on its line near the south end of Venner Road were left when the area was built over near the end of the century.
The 1815 illustration on the next page could be taken from just this position, looking south. Here we meet a 100 recreational view. The artist has done his utmost to obscure the formality of the towpath on the left, the other bank has been made to go wild, and the canal had only been open six years. Venner Road swings left, and at its end turn right and take the Ponds at the south end of Venner road on the line of the canal Canals
5 Raymond Mander & Joe Mitchum theatre collection.
88 lots of Victorian cast iron. An impressive classical villa of the 1880s, rather startling in this street full of Edwardian style houses. It is rusticated, and has that glorious late Victorian delight intricate cast iron work in the railing along the parapet and slender twisted columns. Its owner had some feelings of grandeur.
Just to the east
Westwood Hill
St Bartholomew. A Gothic brick church of 1832 by Lewis Vulliamy. The chancel was added and the clerestory windows enlarged by Edwin Nash in 1858. The church is impressive, but it is also severe, with its castellated tower, nave, aisles and chancel giving it a fortress-like appearance. The church originally acted as a chapel-of-ease to St Mary’s, Lewisham, and did not become the parish church of Sydenham until 1856. Edwin Nash made a series of alterations in stages, which transformed the interior of the church. In 1858 he added the apsidal chancel, raised the roof and enlarged the clerestory windows. In 1874 he clad the brick columns in stone, and added carved heads at the top. In 1883 he removed the west gallery, and widened the north aisle considerably, since 1986 it has been the church hall, cut off from the church. The interior is spectacular, tall, wide and spacious, though the nave seems sombre. The dominant features, on entering through the south porch, are the east window and the grand chancel arch. The Chancel is colourful and full of interest, though perhaps at odds with the nave. The reredos of the Epiphany and the flanking archangel panels, with their bold relief figures, are extraordinary, by Henry Wilson c1905. The fine stained glass windows of the chancel, including the east window of Christ in Glory, are by Francis of the early 1950s. The floor of the chancel is dramatic, with bright coloured and mosaics, and circular panels in memory of the von Glehn family 1886. The stained glass windows along the south aisle are also by Spear. The west window is by Clayton & Bell 1888. Two smaller windows, above the south porch and opposite in the north aisle, are by Burlison & Grylls, probably c 1900. Note also the Gothic pulpit, of 1874, with its intricately carved stonework. The font at the west end is probably c1832, and is notable for the Greek lettering forming a palindrome around the rim.
Churchyard, in front of the church, note the large tomb to Robert and Elizabeth Harrild 1853 and a strange tomb in the shape of a miniature church to Charles English 1867, the first vicar of the parish. Many tombstones, and a lych-gate of 1906.
12St David's. 1928, next to the church. A large detached Gothic house of 1872, bearing a blue plaque: 'Sir Ernest Shackleton 1874-1922, Antarctic explorer, lived here'.
14/28, four pairs with Gothic and Tudor motifs, are older, c1852, and much more distinctive; the pattern continues round the corner in Jew's Walk. Note the gargoyles on 18, 20 and 14, and the oriel on 28.
14 Sir George Grove was the first resident of no 14, before he moved to 208 Sydenham Road
7 is a rebuild of 1888, large, irregular and rambling, gloomy in its dark red brick, with a tower, gables and tiled frontages. The design of the more modern houses and of the Holder houses too conspicuously fails to measure up to the grandeur of the street
↧
↧
Penge
This post has not been edited or checked
Albert Road
Cator Road
Victorian Villas
Alexandra County Primary School. 1952. In 1900 a school had been opened in Parish Lane. This was the Alexandra School, and in 1954 the junior school moved to new buildings in Cator Road.
Alexandra Recreation Ground named after the queen opened 1891. This is built on the site of Porcupine Field sold to The Metropolitan Assocation for Improving the Dwellinjgs of the Industrious Classes by the Duke of Westminster. Their only estate in a more rural area.
Edward Road
106a plaque on the wall
Green Lane
Co-op store, 'Justice for All', Penge and Beckenham Co-op, weather vane 1900
Factory for Small Electric Motors Ltd
Groves Estate
Built by the council after the Second World War. Now run by the Broomleigh Housing Association.
High Street
Otto House
Royal Watermen and Lightermen's Almshouses. 46 houses built in 1839/40. Arch with chapel, meeting room, clock, weather vane, cast iron hand pumps. The most prominent building in Penge – a two-storeyed ranges round three sides of a quadrangle reaching a climax in a gate-tower at the back, with battlemented turrets and ogee lead caps. Built by George Porter when Tudor was the inevitable style for almshouses. The buildings were restored by the Waterman's Company in 1920, and have had a further treatment with Greater London Council renovation in 1975. ‘For the reception of decayed watermen and lightermen’.
Police station stables at the back, pavement built in Penge
74 Queen Adelaide
99 Crooked Billet
131 Finlay
156 Pawleyne Arms
164-166 Moon and Stars. Spacious Wetherspoon's, built in 1994, incorporating interesting external architectural features and extensive wood and stone panelling inside.
Bridge Tavern under a Victorian arched brick railway bridge.
Kentwood BoysSchool. Now adult education. In 1931 the boys moved from the Technical Institute at Clock House to a new purpose-built building in Penge High Street, and became Beckenham and Penge Grammar School. It went from strength to strength, and made a name for itself in the district and beyond, but then was moved, in 1968, again to new premises, and has become Langley Park Boys' School. When the Grammar School vacated the building, a new school for boys took over the premises, and is known as Kentwood.
War memorial.This rough hewn granite Celtic cross at the entrance to the High Street Recreation Ground, opposite St John's Road, was unveiled on 25th September 1925 by Councillor F. P. Hodges. The memorial cost £237/10s, excluding the foundations.
Railway bridges. One carries the London and Croydon and was atmospheric. The other is the line from Sydenham to Crystal Palace low level. 1854
Howard Road
9 Organic and wildlife friendly, designed to incorporate many native species, but without sacrificing aesthetic standards. Wetland areas, nectar border and newly-built wild bee house.
Kent House Road
Alexandra Infants School In 1900 Alexandra School in Parish Lane was expanded in 1929 by a new school for the Infants
Named after a farm to the north on Kent House Road. Farmhouse from 1240 close to old boundary of Kent and Surrey. Demolished in 1950s
Kenilworth Road
26 Small contemporary garden on 2 levels, designed in 1995 to be easily maintained and have a strong Mediterranean theme. Circular paved and gravelled area planted with many rare Mediterranean native shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Euphorbias and cistus surround olive tree and mosaic water feature.
Kingswood Road
Boundary marker
Lennard Road
Holy Trinity Church. 1878. Geometrical tracery. Founded by Francis Peek in memory of his parents. Ground given by Cator. Stunted pyramid spire added 1883. By E. F. Clarke Ragstone.
Maple Road
101 Lord Palmerston
149 Hop Exchange. Previous name was 'The Market Tavern’
Mosslea Road
19-21 Good Shepherd Mission & Lady
35 Harriet Staunton starved to death
Parish Lane
Alexandra. Pub on the Roque map where it is shown as the Porcupine
Alexandra School. In 1900 a school was opened in Parish Lane to serve the Penge end of Beckenham, and to relieve the pressure on Beckenham Parish School. This took children of all ages. By 1954 it was a Secondary school taking only boys, but under the post war reorganisation it was closed in April 1968 upon the opening of the new Kelsey Park School, to which the boys were transferred. The Victorian building was then demolished, and upon the site has been erected the Anne Sutherland accommodation for the elderly. One of the original gateposts and one boundary wall are all that now remains of the old school.
Penge
Penge is for most people a joke, an epitome of the dreary suburban non-place. Means'head or chief wood' - a place at the head or end of the wood.‘Pange’ 1204, ‘Pengewode’ 1472. ‘Wudu the hatte- -'the wood called'‘Psenge’ 957, ‘Penceat’ 1167', ‘Penge’ 1206, that is 'wood's end, top of the wood', from Celtic ‘penn’ - 'head, end' and 'wood', with the addition of Middle English ‘wode’ - 'wood' in the 15th-century spelling. Penge was originally pasture 'seven miles, seven furlongs and seven feet in circumference'. This interesting name may suggest the survival of a native British population to the south of London after the Saxon settlement. Penge was originally a woodland swine pasture of the manor of Battersea; indeed it remained a detached part of Battersea parish until 1888 when it was transferred from Surrey to Kent. In a charter of 957 it says that the Penge woods were 7 miles, 7 furlongs and 7 feet in circumference.
Penge Lane/Hardings Lane?
Site of toll gate -toll house was there in 1910;
Railway little spur from Crystal Palace to Penge. Had been laid for building of Crystal Palace site. Small locomotives for Crystal Palace Co.;
Atmospheric railway flyover should be Davidson Road timber viaduct replaced
Princes Road
Southey Road
St.John's Road
King William's Naval Asylum. Technical style. 12 almshouses for widows of naval officers. Founded in 1847, designed by Philip Hardwick. More Tudor almshouses round an open-ended square. Red brick and stone, with black diaper patterns. Quite humble, but not only more correct than Porter could manage to be, but much more sensitively designed. Hardwick was rare in his generation, an architect who handled all styles with equal distinction. The buildings were erected at the sole cost of Queen Adelaide as a memorial to King William IV.
Level crossing when Penge Lane station opened in 1863
Station Road
Penge East Station. 1863. Between Kent House and Sydenham Hill on South Eastern Trains. Before this called Penge Lane?? And renamed Penge from that date. Opened as Penge Lane Station built by the. When the line was built a level crossing was built where the line crossed the old alignment of Penge Lane (now Newlands Park Rd and St John's Rd), but no station was built. An 1885 map shows that a station had been built, known as Penge Lane Station. When the level crossing was closed Penge Lane was diverted down what are now Thesiger Road, Parish Lane and the current Penge Lane. As parts of Penge Lane adopted new names, the station name became inappropriate and was changed to Penge East. From here the 'up' line goes through the Penge Tunnel to Sydenham Hill Station. There was no problem here with room for the station buildings, and there still isn't. The station was built on a green fields site and size reflects the importance of the line to the company. The station retains its original Gothic building of 1863 on the south side with projecting end pavilions with a lower recessed section between them. The platforms are linked by an old bridge. 1873 opened LCDR .1923 renamed ‘Penge East’
Old level-crossing keeper's cottage on the south side platform.
Tiny station house, partly on the platform east of the footbridge.
1 Park Tavern
Path to both stations was from the main road. Built there was a gatekeeper’s lodge with 6 windows all with different cills. Road built in the 1860s and follows what was Penge common;
Canal west of the railway remained in water as a fishing area
1 Park Tavern
Rail line
one track of the first line to serve Crystal Palace leaves the line coming out of Sydenham Station. It opened for goods in March 1854 to carry exhibits and building materials into the south side of the grounds.
Flyover– when the spur to the Palace was built the down line was carried over the main line and this is an example of an early flyover.
Stodart Road
26 Small sloping town garden on different levels. Mature shrubs and trees provide green oasis. Rose arches, clematis, honeysuckle and tiny pond. Shady area with ferns, hellebores and symphytum. A cottage garden in an urban environment.
Tennyson Road
Victor Road
Wordsworth Road
↧
Catford
This post has not been edited or checked
Blythe Hill
Conical hill. A Roman road supposedly ran across it. Marked thus near to ‘Blythe House’ built c.1830 on Bacon's map of 1888, possibly a transferred name or so called from the surname of some local person or family.
. To the north of Blythe Hill are the open fields previously mentioned as stretching to the south from Brockley Grove.
Blythe Hill Fields.
London County Council 1935. They had bought up Blythe Hill Farm which had also taken over the grounds of Blythe Hill House. Has in the centre a large grassed mound, 70 metres high, which provides sensational views on all sides except to the west; there is a particular! Good panorama to the north, covering Shooters Hill, Hilly Fields with Prendergast School, Canary Wharf, and the National Westminster Tower. Trees planted for the coronation of George VI.
Drinking fountain. Modern design and a reference point for Roman Road dig 1962. Now gone.
Toilets on the east side of the childrens’ playground., demolished 1992.
Blythe Hill Lane
A rural lane leading from Stanstead Road up to Blythe Hill Fields. Together with neighbouring roads - Winterstoke Road, Blythe Hill, Ravensbourne Road - it forms a distinct enclave, with many houses of the 1860S within an otherwise predominantly Edwardian area.
2 a late 19th century house, two recent sundial designed by Ray Ashley - one on the chimneystack with the legend ‘Time can do much', and one on the west side with the legend ‘The day flies on'
Blythe Hill House, built 1842 and designed by Samunel Teulon. demolished c1895. It was to the south and its grounds became a large part of the Fields
Fire hydrant iron pavement cover.
Very few houses in it on the east side, and these 2-storey houses, are south of Blythe Hill, rather than south of Upper Winchester Rd. No dwellings south of Lower Winchester Road (Booth)
Blythe Vale
Old lane on old maps called Stoney Street
Brockley Grove
The south end, overlooking the Cemetery has a new row of small 2-storey. Occupied by clerks etc, no servants. Begins just west of Arthurdon Street and the new houses a little way along on the south side. On the north is the Cemetery, with its Lodge. Further along is Haddon (now Joy) Farm, coming down. West of this house building until the other end of Chudleigh Road is reached, then a few more houses like the new houses in Ladywell Road. On the north side, east of Merritt Road are new 2-storey houses. Smaller. Between .Merritt Road and Lindal Road are new 2-storey houses with attics. Then older houses, 2-storey West only one house. The Grove is continued round the bend facing the open front of Brockley Hall. 2-storey houses. Occasional servants, "a better class than they look”. Cases of afternoon house-breaking; in one recently "a lot of stuff "taken. At the extreme corner are two old cottages. Brockley Hall is occupied by the family of Nokes (deceased), big brewers. At this point in this section there are no houses till those in Ravensbourne Park and Blythe Hill are reached.
Brockley Park
St William of York a Roman Catholic brick church with considerable extensions of 1931 on both sides. It is classical, with deep aisles, and a fine doorcase with Byzantine columns and shell hood. The interior is attractive, top-lit by a small square window in the centre of a fine wooden roof. The chancel is of 1986, with orientation north; behind the altar is a circular window with brightly coloured stained glass Goddard & Gibbs. At the rear of the church is an arcade with Byzantine columns.
Four self build houses next to the school
Brockley Park Estate, built by Lewisham Council 1980, is at the top of the hill. Partly weather boarded houses are in imaginatively grouped clusters around a large but secluded green, and there are similar houses nearby. The road outside provides a fantastic view across to the ridges formed by Honor Oak Road and Sydenham Hill, with the tower of Horniman Museum in between.
Houses Crisp low yellow brick terraces of the 1970s an interesting example of more recent trends. Homely timber-framed, partly weather boarded clusters of imaginativelygrouped houses, around a secluded green...A special feature is the flexible planning which allows for anadditional front room or garage. By the Borough of LewishamArchitect's Department, Geoffrey Wigfall. 1978-80.
Brockley Rise
56 The Chandos, an imposing pub of 1857. cheapest pub in the area. Model of the Burton Union system of brewing.
St Saviour. 1865-6 by W. Smith, completed 1875 and 1928, truncated after war damage.
Carholme Road
St Georges Church Hall, originally St Georges Slum School and Parish Room of 1889, now serving as the Church; like the church, has some distinctive features
Catford Hill
128 former Catford Police Station, an impressive long red brick building of 1891.
Prince Henry was the Place House Tavern with an alleged haunted cellar. closed
King's Church, or Catford Hill Baptist Church, built 1880; under the gabled east end are chequer work and a Gothic window.
Cranston Road
Horse trough at junction with Stanstead Road. Gone.
Elsinore Road
Bombed 8.12.40 50 casualties
Faversham Road
Late Canterbury Road.
Fermor Road
Fire hydrant iron pavement cover. Made by Blakeborough of Brighouse
Fire hydrant iron pavement cover. Made by Stanton with Thames Water logo
Kilmore Road
Bombed 1940, school destroyed
Ladywell Road
Lessing Street
Lower Winchester Road (Not on AZ)
Lowther Hill
Four more self-build houses of 1996 on the south side backing onto Segal Close.
1/3 a fine stuccoed Italianate pair c 1870, with towers at each end. Note the numerous narrow round-headed windows - pairs in the towers, tripletselsewhere.
Leads steeply up to Blythe Hill Fields. BetweenLowther Hill and Duncombe Hill is a private oblong of wooded open space, with nopublic access.
Montacute Road
Is the name of the murderer of Edward II who was rewarded with the manor of Catford?
82/84 an Italianate pair, probably c1860, a full-height gently bowed extension, probably of the late 1860s.
Rathfern Road
Rathfern School, a pleasant London School Board building of 1887, distinguished by tall pedimented windows which protrude into the gables; the smaller building to the south is 1900.
Fire hydrant iron pavement cover. Made by Blakeborough of Brighouse. BUDC
Ravensbourne Park Crescent
57 one of a pair facing the Gardens from the west, originally Italianate houses c1860 with Doric porches. In 1885 changed in an extraordinary way - it was extended to the left, given three dramatic top storey` bows, and a grand staircase leading up to the Doric porch to which square pillars were added. In the 1970s it was extended upwards in an unpathetic way, with a top floor and dormers added.
59 remains unaltered.
Segal Close
Self build houses - Attractive narrow close off Brockley Park, with seven timber- clad self-build houses based on the Walter Segal concept, completed 1981. It was the earliest of the social self-build schemes of Lewisham; built by Jon Broome of Architype in 1978.
St.Germain Road
1 St.Germain Hotel
Stanstead Grove.
Rural survival, a private close,
1/3 c1855,
4/8 1860s.
The Coach House, steep gabled was the coach-house for Stanstead Villa, a large mid 19th century house to the demolished in the late 19th century.
Stanstead Road
Tye Garage. Now a modern building. In the 1920s site of a private bus co. garage. Traded as Edward Paul Ltd. until 1949.
319 Blythe Hill Tavern, pub c1866. development followed the pub. Has become an Irish pub. Lively locals' pub on the South Circular, A three-roomed, two-bar pub, it is larger than the exterior suggests.
250 Stanstead Lodge, A large and fanciful stuccoed villa probably of 1842, with battlemented front and west side.a large Tudor villa ofc. 1840, stuccoed, with crowstepped gable
Upper Winchester Road (not on AZ)
↧
Beckenham Hill
This post has not been edited or checked
Abbey Estate
Abbey School. The largest and best known of the boys' schools which was built on a beautiful site ofan old gravel pit between Copers Cope and Park Roads. The land had been part of Copers Cope Farm, and the school was built in 1868 by the first headmaster Rev Thomas Lloyd Phillips and was aptly named, as the architecture was designed to give the impression of a venerable antique Abbey building. The school flourished and made a name for itself beyond the confines of Beckenham, but in 1940, to avoid the bombing, it moved to East Grinstead and never returned after the war. It finally closed in 1969. The buildings had remained in partial use for various purposes for many years after the school left, but were finally demolished and the Abbey Estate of flats and houses has been built on the site. The Worsley Bridge Primary School was erected on the Abbey playing fields.
Beckenham
Bromley’s little sister. Name from Beohha a saxon farmer.. ‘Beohha hammesgemxru’ 973 in an Anglo-Saxon charter, ‘Bacheham’ 1086 in the Domesday Book, ‘Becheham’ 1179, ‘Bekenham’ 1240, that is 'homestead or enclosure of a man called *Beohha', from an Old English personal name genitive case ‘-n’ and Old English ‘ham’ or ‘hamm’. The first spelling from a description of the Anglo-Saxon bounds of Bromley contains the Old English word ‘gemxre’ 'boundary'. An even earlier reference in another Bromley charter dated 862 is the phrase’Biohhahema mearcx’ 'boundary of the people of Beckenham', from Old English ‘hxme’ 'dwellers' and mearc 'mark, boundary'.
the coming of suburban railways to Beckenham in the 1860s led to a spectacular growth of population. In 1861 the population of the village was 2,391; in 1871 it was 6,090, in 1881 13,011 and by 1891 29,707. A soaring population meant expanding spiritual requirements, and this was in turn reflected by a mushrooming of places to worship.
Beckenham Hill Road
Red House. Good early c20 neo-Georgian.
Lodges - one heightened laterby a Jacobean gable
Beckenham Place Drive
Historically, the land on either side of the drive was open parkland. Drive was the main Beckenham Road and it was cut off by Cator
Beckenham Place Park
The only large mansion in ample grounds to remain in the area. The grounds, now a public park and golf course is mostly in Lewisham. The house actually lies just over the boundary, in Bromley. The estate was bought by John Cator, the developer of Blackheath Park in 1773 from the trustees of the second Earl of Bolingbroke. Cator became Lord of the Manor in 1773; the park belonged to his descendents throughout the c19. It was opened to the public two years after the LCC acquired it from the family in 1927. Records of the estate can be traced to the reign of Edward I 1272-1307. It has been held by a number of families of local and national significance, notably the St.John family: Henry St.John, Viscount Bolingbroke was leader of the Tory Party in the 18th century. In 1773, the estate was sold to John Cator, a prominent member of a family which had an immense influence on the form and character of the contemporary town. Cator built the current Beckenham Place and sold Beckenham's Old Manor shortly thereafter. By 1840 Beckenham Place was occupied by William Peters, followed in 1858 byH.L. Holland of Langley Farm. Subsequently the mansion was a Boys' School, then aSanatorium and now the Golf House of the G.L.C. Golf Course after the L.C.C. bought it in 1928. The Cator family, no longer holds the manor but maintain theirinterest in Beckenham.The debts of the estate built up during the lifetime of John Cator's son, John Barwell Cator (1781-1858). Parliament sanctioned the sale of entailed land bound to a family by a longstanding trust in 1825. The timely administration of the estate and the drawing up of a development plan 1864 by Peter Cator, an ex Indian Civil Servant, enabled Albemarle Cator, Barwell's son, to inherit a reduced area, saved from ruin by income from new property rents and sales. Both before and after the drafting of Peter Cator's development plan, many new houses were constructed on the formerly rural estate as a means of raising income, a process that continued until the 1890's, by which time Beckenham was firmly attached to London and a complete network of new residential roads had been built.
Walled Gardens planted by Linneus. Dr.Johnson advised on the trees. Now many birds. Cator was a timber merchant. . Planting in the park was reputedly carried out by (amongst others) the noted botanist Linnaeus many species belong to him. Cator's father-in-law, Peter Collinson, was also an early botanist and landscape architect. He introduced exotic trees and shrubs into the grounds.
Park. Recreational park with formal decorative plantings and a large golf course, with wildlife benefiting from a central block of ancient woodland. The golf course includes acid grassland and a pond. Elsewhere, the grounds are dominated by recreational grasses like rye but the presence of bent grass and sheep sorrel help to indicate underlying acid conditions. Around the edges hawthorn and willow grow, while scrub of various species has developed. The main block of woodland is to the North of the pavilion and South of the Ash Plantation. The oak-dominated ancient woodland has been modified by some planting of exotics such as sweet chestnut and cherry laurel. Hornbeam and ash add to the canopy and the understorey consists of natives like wild service, blackthorn, hazel, holly and hawthorn. The ground flora includes bluebells and dog's mercury. Alder can be found which, with remote sedge, show a damp environment. The development of this habitat is not continuous as the park slopes towards the Ravensbourne. The river has been canalised to prevent flooding but in some places looks natural where the bank is covered with water edge plants like reed-canary grass or bistort. Such a range of habitats attracts many birds. Some 45 species have been recorded although this marks a decline on numbers taken 25 years ago when 65 species were noted. Nature Conservation Centre. Ravensbourne through the park, ancient wood, pond and swamp
Pond to the west of the mansion,. It is fenced off but this has more to do with the mud than for protecting the habitat.
Homestead with small pond in the rear gardene4
Beckenham Place. The main house is a restrained Palladian block, stone, seven by four bays, two storeys over a tall basement, with a curved feature on the garden side, the only ornament here an iron balcony and rusticated basement quoins. On the entrance side a projecting wing with giant four-column Ionic portico, of quite different character. The explanation is that this is an addition, built from materials brought from Wricklemarsh House at Blackheath Park, the Palladian mansion by John James of 1721, which Cator demolished in 1787. The additions have been made so crudely that it seems unlikely that the same patron could have commissioned both of them and the original villa. So was the house already in existence in 1773? The re-used parts must include not only the columns but also the stonework of the projecting wing. The sidewalls have a heavy rusticated basement, attic windows with stone surrounds, and excellently detailed tripartite Venetian windows with pediments and engaged columns. They are visible on an old view of Wricklemarsh House. The wall within the portico has two empty niches. The entrance is at first-floor level - i.e. the rooms of the original villa are at piano nobile level, but because of the rise of the ground, the columns stand awkwardly without a plinth. The gable of the projecting wing forms a mean pediment. An architect could hardly have been responsible. In the pediment are the Cator arms and palm fronds of Coade stone. Inside, a groin-vaulted passage with pretty plaster ornament leads through the projecting wing to a bare central roof-lit hall, with balconies on four sides. Two small staircases behind doors in the far wall. Cator's Portland stone mansion - has become clubhouse, tearoom. In the nineteenth century a boys school and sanatorium. Leased to golf club in 1910. Then taken over by London County Council 1927. Starting in the 1770s, John Cator built the present. Statutorily listed grade II During the period of John Cator's ownership, the mansion was regularly visited by Dr Samuel Johnson who assisted Cator in the establishment of a library. Fanny Burney, authoress of the novel "Evelina" was also a regular guest.
Stables plain late c 18 brick. Symmetrical, with clock turret. Clock from clock house at Bellevue Place. Another former Cator residence that was located near the current Clock House Station.
Brackley Road
Edward VIII Pillar box Carron ironworks very rare.
St.Paul's Church. By Smith & Williams, 1872 Decorated. Ragstone. Font of White marblein the form of a shell held by a life-size kneeling angel with a Date 1912, very late for such a Victorian and embarrassing piece - a copy of Thorwaldsen's font, carved in Rome in 1823. . With the development of the Cator Estate, it had been proposed to build houses and shops in the New Beckenham area, on both sides of the railway, but the plans did not fully mature but the church, a daughter church of St George's, was built in 1864, consisting of the Nave and North Porch. In 1872 a separate Parish was created when the main church was consecrated. No houses anywhere near when it was built. 1872., it was in open country.
Foxgrove
Manor Of FoxgroveIn the reign of Edward III, about 1350, this Manor belonged to John deFoxgrove, then to Bartholomew de Burghersh and after that to Sir Walter dePaveley. In the latter part of the 14th century the property was sold to afamily named Vaux, in whose family it remained for about 50 years when itwas alienated to John Greene, from whom it passed in the reign of Henry VIIIto one Beversea.His heirs conveyed the estate to Luke Hollingworth who, in 1547, soldto Sir John Olyffe with whose daughter, Joan, it passed in marriage to JohnLeigh, of Addington. From John Leigh it descended to Sir Francis Leigh, andafter his death in 1711 the Manor was sold for £6,000 to John Tolson whosedescendants conveyed it in 1765 to Jones Raymond, of Langley.By the will of Jones Raymond (1768) this estate was devised jointly tohis sister Amy, widow of Peter Burrell the second, and to the children of hisother sister Bridget, whose share Mrs. Amy Burrell purchased, and upon herdeath in 1789 came into the possession of her son Sir William Burrell, and hesold to his nephew Sir Peter Burrell the fourth, later Lord Gwydir.Foxgrove Manor was then occupied byRobert Hoggart, a Churchwarden of St. George's Parish Church; and Borrowmansays that, by a special Act of Parliament in 1793 Sir Peter Burrell exchangedthese lands for others in the Possession of John Cator, of Beckenham Place.Early in the 19th century the farm was occupied by William Gibbons,who carried on a farm there until about 1853 when he was succeeded by hisson Henry Gibbons. The original farm building, the old Manor House of thisestate, was demolished about 1830 when the new farm house was built; andthis in turn was demolished about 1878, so presumably it was the Gibbonfamily who did the re-building.The Volunteer Fire Brigade did much of their practice at Foxgrove,using water from the moat around the house for that purpose.. After the Gibbons, the farm land subsequently passed into thehands of Charles E. Purvis who was still the occupier in 1910
Cricket field
Foxgrove Road
Preserves the name of the old manor of Foxgrove, recorded as Foxgrove 1275, Foxgrove 1355, Fox Grove 1805, that is ‘-grove’ or ‘copse frequented by foxes', from Old English ‘fox’ and ‘groffa’.
Foxgrove Manor and/or Farm stood between Foxgrove Road and the Avenue, which used to be called Moat Road. The old manor house was demolished about 1830 and a new farm-house built on the site. This was pulled down about 1878, but the moat was not drained until some years later.. Towards the end of the last century the West Kent Drainage Scheme tapped the stream which fed the moat. This had the effect of drying out the site, eventually leading to its being filled in. Whilst no visible signs remain, some of the local residents, who were totally unaware that a moat had existed in the area report that water lies in parts of their gardens after heavy rain.
Catholic Convent of Handmaids of the Sacred Heartfounded in 1930
Lodges - nice pairs of stone one-storeyed
David Bowie lived her
Southend Road
This is the historic South End Road, leading from Beckenham to the south end of Catford. Large Italianate houses of c. 1850. This section of Southend Road was formerly Copers Cope farm. Added to the Cator lands in 1783, the 225 acre farm was amongst the first land to be developed when the Cator fortunes declined. It has given its name to the Council ward surrounding it. Shortly after the acquisition of Beckenham Place by John Cator in 1773, Southend Road was diverted to provide privacy for Beckenham Place Park.
8-22 Cator developments. A range of tall houses constructed around 1850. Peter Cator's 1864 estate development plan shows that they had already been built, some while before the wholesale suburbanisation of the Beckenham area commenced. They were not particularly influenced by the coming of the railways. The semi-detached houses were large, providing accommodation for both a family and servants. High front facades overlooked large front gardens with drives capable of accommodating a carriage. They would originally have been occupied by people whose occupations did not require a daily commute to London. This distinguishes the houses from later developments in the Beckenham area that were built for occupation by the first generation of railway commuters
Stone wall for the Abbey, now demolished, it was a privateschool - Abbey School. On the site of a gravel pit.
Beckenham Place lodges First houses in the area. Constructed to flank the old road, now a drive. Both lodges are statutorily listed.
Stumps Hill Lane:
View of Crystal Palace
Stumps Hill,
Many posh people lived there, view to Crystal Palace.
Stables walk round Beckenham. Clock from Clock House
Westgate Road,
Beckenham Convent. in a school run by nuns of the Convent of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an order founded in Spain, but now with schools in many countries. The Beckenham Convent, which occupies a large corner site in Westgate and Foxgrove Roads, opened in 1930, for girls of all ages. In 1968 a new Primary School, known as St Mary's, was built on part of the grounds. This is classified as a Voluntary Aided Primary School under Bromley Education Committee, and takes boys and girls up to the age of 11. The Convent School, which is entirely independent, now only takes girls of secondary school age, of whom about a quarter are boarders.
↧