Bexleyheath

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Bexleyheath

Was Bexley New Town - common land enclosed following Act of 1814 passed to get rid of squatters. Just a tree and a windmill until the 19^th.  Heath with the main road running over it – highwaymen etc.

Ecclesiastical parish from 1866.

Broadway,

Broadway Shopping Centre, by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners 1983, layers of steeply pitched red tile cladding; and protuberances with steeply pitched red tiled roofs on the open car park on top, panoramic views garish and metallic softened by tropical plants. Outside sculpture. Family Outing, by John Ravera 1985. On the site of Hide’s Department Store and the Lord Bexley Arms.

Clock Tower, in red brick, built in 1911 for coronation of George V. squat and heavy, lower storey is on a stone podium, and the second storey Ionic pilasters. To the west there is a classical stone door case which leads to an electricity sub-station and a replica bust of George V by John Ravera 1990.  By the 1960s only non-modern thing left.

Civic Offices, a sprawling building in red brick with black slate tile inserts. Low rise.  Its ‘no frills' functional treatment the consequence of 1970s inflation. It was designed by the Borough architect R. D Thornley from 1972 and built in three phases the first being completed in 1977. on the site of Oak House one of the earliest buildings in the area  1817. used as council offices from 1903. demolished 1980

Bexley Tramway Depot.  Berthing shed with six tracks for 18 trams built in 1903. site used for the civic office

2 Prince Albert rounding the corner with Erith Road, probably mid 19th century. Note timber-framed windows on the upper floor.

44 Duke of Edinburgh pub, probably c1848.  Build by Kidds on the site of Reeves cottages.

40/44 William Place

Lex Garage, post-modernist building 1991.

Trinity Baptist Chapel. 1868

Milestone by Police Station

179 Rose

Bexleyheath Shopping Hall. Due for demolition 2000 incorporates to the rear a brick hall, which was built in 1848 as a public hall, originally called The Athenaeum.

Jenkins and Co.Printers in the 1920s-30s.  Demolished 1988.

Bexleyheath Telephone Exchange. Gone

ASDA replaced Bexleyheath Bowl and Regal Cinema

Marriott Hotel. Was the Swallow Hotel.

Cineworld multiplex

East Street,

Erith Road:

Bexleyheath bus garage.  LT. windmill nearby. Large concrete framed hangar built in the 1930s for electric trolley buses introduced to replace trams.  2 storey staff block demolished 1959.

Church of St. Martin, This red brick church, is the parish church of Barnhurst, built in 1936. Handsome, with an open bell turret,windows, and a circular window over the brick porch. Outside great brick arched arcades, and a pure white sanctuary, added in 1972.

Woolwich Building Society. Corporate Headquarters. Irregular vernacular pile, with echoes of the Hillingdon Civic Centre, built 1989 by Broadway Malyan. yellow stock brick, topped by tiers of staggered red roofs receding upwards. Heavy pedimented entrance porch leads into a soaring atrium the full height of the building, with glazed lifts and great oak beams at the top. Hanging on the side walls are tall hand-woven silk tapestries by Heidi Lichterman - to the right A Walk into the Morning 1988, and to the left After the Storm 1990. Behind the main building is a complex of more functional buildings of the 1960s, with bands of white tiles and glass.

Geddes Place

United Reformed Church, church 1988 steeply sloping slate roof, out of which a quadrangular dormer projects. Brick crucifix incorporated into the design of the north front. On the site of the Congregational Chapel 1854 (demolished 1987).

Market Place,

Market with an arcade and arches. First mentioned 1831.

5 King's Head

Congregational church,

Ruffles Mineral Water Works.  Was the Premier Mineral Water Co. In the old Market Building of 1912.

Mayplace Close

Post windmill built in 1760 by T. Strickland.  Taken over by Steven Cannon. Last used 1865 demolished 1870. Abuts the Bus Garage.

May Place Road East

74-80 Sarah's Cottages, Two pairs of 1860, surprising.  76 is the least altered.

First chapel in the area

Mayplace Road West

65/83 group of cottages 1860s stuccoed, with trellised porches.

111 Jolly Millers pub.  c 1860. Named for the Bexleyheath Windmill.

58 Bricklayers Arms. Opened 1832 by family of bricklayers. Rebuilt 1906.

Cottages opposite the pub named after wife of the landlord.

Mayplace Road/Erith Road

Millfield House Crayford Windmill

North Street,

Bethany Hall built as Wesleyan Chapel, 1860. It is a pedimented with polychrome Gothic doors and windows.

Pelham Road

Pelham Farm   bought by Ideal Homesteads in 1932

Pelham Primary School site given by the developer.

Tower Road

The Foresters Homes complex of 1975, surrounded by grassed grounds, an oasis in this location; gates 1962. Original almshouses built 1873-75 by the Ancient Order of Foresters.

College of Technology

Watling Street

40 Lord Hill - The Coach House was the Lord Hill present appearance probably c1815,year of Waterloo, but dating back in part to the late 18^th century. Belonged to the Anglo Bavarian Brewery, then Norfolk Brewery, Deptford and then Trumans.

60/68 Sherston Place, terrace 1843 with blank arches set into the facades.

25/2725. Early 19th century. Note the fine timber window cases and the oriel to the east.

15 Grove Lodge stuccoed house, early 19th century.

70 The Woodman pub

Woolwich Road:

62 Orchard House might have been moved there on wheels. Weather boarded early 19th century house in an isolated location, on the edge of school playing-fields. Moved on wheels to this site from Mayplace Road in 1864.

65/67 Albion Villas. Concrete houses of 1866 by Joseph Tall, with rusticated ground floors. Among the earliest surviving concrete houses.