Thames Tributary Ravensbourne New Cross
Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
A tributary form this area flows north east to join the Ravensbourne at Deptford Bridge.
Post to the east St.Johns
A tributary form this area flows north east to join the Ravensbourne at Deptford Bridge.
Post to the east St.Johns
Post to the south Brockley
Post to the west Telegraph Hill
Alpha Road
Features in films 'Shaun of the Dead’ 'Intimacy’.
Amersham Road
Long terraces on both sides of the early 1850s.
Alpha Road
Features in films 'Shaun of the Dead’ 'Intimacy’.
Amersham Road
Long terraces on both sides of the early 1850s.
Called after place owned by the Tyrwhitt Drake family and built on land they owned.
Batavia Road,
Line of Five Bells Lane
Brighton Grove
Terrace of 10 properties associated with the railway works. 1858 for workers at the locomotive sheds. It is now the only reminder since restored.
Sainsbury’s supermarket on the site of the loco works
New Cross Gate loco works, 1838-1941. Owned by various railway companies. Foot of gradient to Croydon. Banking engines kept there. There was a large area of locomotive sheds and workshops to the west of the station which operated from 1844 to 1947. First round house here with carriage sidings. Itb was bombed but not closed until 1949. The aerea of the heds and workshops is now taken up by Sainbury's Superstore of 1996 and its vast car park.
Dixon Road
Batavia Road,
Line of Five Bells Lane
Brighton Grove
Terrace of 10 properties associated with the railway works. 1858 for workers at the locomotive sheds. It is now the only reminder since restored.
Sainsbury’s supermarket on the site of the loco works
New Cross Gate loco works, 1838-1941. Owned by various railway companies. Foot of gradient to Croydon. Banking engines kept there. There was a large area of locomotive sheds and workshops to the west of the station which operated from 1844 to 1947. First round house here with carriage sidings. Itb was bombed but not closed until 1949. The aerea of the heds and workshops is now taken up by Sainbury's Superstore of 1996 and its vast car park.
Dixon Road
Built in 1866
Florence Road
19th terraces of the Hatcham estate laid out for the Haberdashers Company. It has several long terraces of houses c1847, many with carved wreaths on the door cases.
Hatcham Manor Estate
The Haberdashers Company acquired the Manor of Hatcham in 1619 as trustees of a member’s will to set up almshouses, support to be provided by the income from the estate. In 1688 the Company was also made trustees of Robert Aske's charity, which also supported almshouses, and a school. In 1873 the Charity Commissioners directed that the excess Aske income should be used.
Jerningham Road
Hatcham Manor Estate, also known as the New Cross Estate, was built by the Haberdashers Company and laid out by their surveyor William Snooke between 1887, and 1900. Jerningham Road was developed with a similar pattern as Pepys Road from the 1880s
51 Telegraph Cottage - associated with Robert Browning. Site of Aske's Girl's school
Haberdasher Aske's School. Hatcham College. The college is in two parts - the Boys School built 1875 on a hilly site at the top of Pepys Road, and the Girls School, built 1891 at the bottom of Jerningham Road. The two schools came together as Hatcham College in 1991. The principal sponsor is the Robert Aske Foundation, one of many charities administered by the Haberdashers Company. Robert Aske, a haberdasher, died 1689, leaving in his will money to establish almshouses and a boys school, which was originally at Hoxton. The schools at New Cross were erected out of the same endowment in 1875, and the Hoxton School was sold in 1898. The first stage, designed by William Snooke 1875, consisted of two large blocks at the top of the hill with the ground sloping way steeply all around. The Boys School was in the block facing Pepys Road and the Girls School facing Vesta Road. Both blocks were in yellow stock brick, with gabled towers over the entrance. After the new Girls School was built in 1891, both blocks were used for the Boys School. In 1907 a low building for the Main Hal) was added between the two blocks. There are other later buildings, including a gym and art room of 1936.
Statue of Aske on the green in front of the central block. 1836 copy made of Coade stone of an earlier statue in Haberdashers robes, and holding building plans in his hand. Moved here from Hoxton 1903.
The Girls School, by Henry Stock 1891, is a large red brick building in Queen Anne style, with a Tudor door case and fantastic gargoyles. In front is the Connaught Wing of 1936,
Field House, home of Josiah Stansfield
Laurie Grove
Houses of the 1860s now part of Goldsmiths.
Laurie Grove Baths designed by Thomas Dinwiddy 1898, closed 1991. Now the Research & Development Precinct of Goldsmiths. Red brick and stone building is of an intricate and dense design, Swimming baths with Grand entrance steps, etc. pools boarded over and used by students for dances and sports.
Lewisham Way
Lewisham High Road until 1939 or Counter Hill, meaning County Hill, now Lewisham Way. Once an area of rabbit warrens
Bridge over Ravensbourne tributary which came roughly down the line of Malpas Road
19th terraces of the Hatcham estate laid out for the Haberdashers Company. It has several long terraces of houses c1847, many with carved wreaths on the door cases.
Hatcham Manor Estate
The Haberdashers Company acquired the Manor of Hatcham in 1619 as trustees of a member’s will to set up almshouses, support to be provided by the income from the estate. In 1688 the Company was also made trustees of Robert Aske's charity, which also supported almshouses, and a school. In 1873 the Charity Commissioners directed that the excess Aske income should be used.
Jerningham Road
Hatcham Manor Estate, also known as the New Cross Estate, was built by the Haberdashers Company and laid out by their surveyor William Snooke between 1887, and 1900. Jerningham Road was developed with a similar pattern as Pepys Road from the 1880s
51 Telegraph Cottage - associated with Robert Browning. Site of Aske's Girl's school
Haberdasher Aske's School. Hatcham College. The college is in two parts - the Boys School built 1875 on a hilly site at the top of Pepys Road, and the Girls School, built 1891 at the bottom of Jerningham Road. The two schools came together as Hatcham College in 1991. The principal sponsor is the Robert Aske Foundation, one of many charities administered by the Haberdashers Company. Robert Aske, a haberdasher, died 1689, leaving in his will money to establish almshouses and a boys school, which was originally at Hoxton. The schools at New Cross were erected out of the same endowment in 1875, and the Hoxton School was sold in 1898. The first stage, designed by William Snooke 1875, consisted of two large blocks at the top of the hill with the ground sloping way steeply all around. The Boys School was in the block facing Pepys Road and the Girls School facing Vesta Road. Both blocks were in yellow stock brick, with gabled towers over the entrance. After the new Girls School was built in 1891, both blocks were used for the Boys School. In 1907 a low building for the Main Hal) was added between the two blocks. There are other later buildings, including a gym and art room of 1936.
Statue of Aske on the green in front of the central block. 1836 copy made of Coade stone of an earlier statue in Haberdashers robes, and holding building plans in his hand. Moved here from Hoxton 1903.
The Girls School, by Henry Stock 1891, is a large red brick building in Queen Anne style, with a Tudor door case and fantastic gargoyles. In front is the Connaught Wing of 1936,
Field House, home of Josiah Stansfield
Laurie Grove
Houses of the 1860s now part of Goldsmiths.
Laurie Grove Baths designed by Thomas Dinwiddy 1898, closed 1991. Now the Research & Development Precinct of Goldsmiths. Red brick and stone building is of an intricate and dense design, Swimming baths with Grand entrance steps, etc. pools boarded over and used by students for dances and sports.
Lewisham Way
Lewisham High Road until 1939 or Counter Hill, meaning County Hill, now Lewisham Way. Once an area of rabbit warrens
Bridge over Ravensbourne tributary which came roughly down the line of Malpas Road
Victora House. Built for the Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society 1934.
Horse trough at junction with New Cross Road. 19th
9/31 terraced shops with modern ground floors and upper floors, early 1850s.
23 BooksPlus
32/42 Gloucester Terrace, used by Goldsmiths, built 1855.
41/53 Clarendon Terrace of 1854, in part used by Goldsmiths.
44 Gourmet Bar restaurant – was the Rosemary Branch, pub of 1854. Garden.
Horse trough at junction with New Cross Road. 19th
9/31 terraced shops with modern ground floors and upper floors, early 1850s.
23 BooksPlus
32/42 Gloucester Terrace, used by Goldsmiths, built 1855.
41/53 Clarendon Terrace of 1854, in part used by Goldsmiths.
44 Gourmet Bar restaurant – was the Rosemary Branch, pub of 1854. Garden.
William Cormack market garden was on the north side of the road from the Marquis to 117.
55/71, a group, mostly pairs, built 1846-52.
60/68 is a terrace of houses with Ionic porches, of 1857-60. This was Malcolm Terrace and replaced brick and tile kilns belonging to Matthew Sanderston Ffinch and before that Lancelot Loach.
70/72 and 74/76, 1857, recessed porches with Doric columns.
80 Surrey House Bryn Towy - 1860 with an ornamental door case in Shardeloes Road, in use by Goldsmiths as a students' Hostel. Built as Brindley House and then used as Knightville College.
82/110 are Italianate, 1857-61
55/71, a group, mostly pairs, built 1846-52.
60/68 is a terrace of houses with Ionic porches, of 1857-60. This was Malcolm Terrace and replaced brick and tile kilns belonging to Matthew Sanderston Ffinch and before that Lancelot Loach.
70/72 and 74/76, 1857, recessed porches with Doric columns.
80 Surrey House Bryn Towy - 1860 with an ornamental door case in Shardeloes Road, in use by Goldsmiths as a students' Hostel. Built as Brindley House and then used as Knightville College.
82/110 are Italianate, 1857-61
117 Durham Cottage built 1850 with Conservatory
119/133, formerly called Cambridge Terrace, 1848.
119/133, formerly called Cambridge Terrace, 1848.
124-130 site of pottery owned by Thomas Marshall 1905 until 1849.
130 strean used to cross the road here
132 site of Rokeby Terrace
132 site of Rokeby Terrace
135 Flower of Kent a pub of 1846. Ornate mirrors and bar fittings. On the site of Samuel Shepherd's dairy farm and market garden,
137/143, Albert Place, terrace of 1864
145/7 Alexandra Place, a pair of 1863.
153/163 entrance to New Cross Public Hall. Opened 1910 as New Cross Cinematograph Theatre. Became part of Pynes department store and demolished. The area was a market garden until 1808 when houses were built. The hall was built behnd them
137/143, Albert Place, terrace of 1864
145/7 Alexandra Place, a pair of 1863.
153/163 entrance to New Cross Public Hall. Opened 1910 as New Cross Cinematograph Theatre. Became part of Pynes department store and demolished. The area was a market garden until 1808 when houses were built. The hall was built behnd them
155 house which was raken by Pyne Bros, drapers. this grew as a department store to take up the whole block.
165/169, a white tiled building of 1935, was formerly part of Pyne's department store, and features the letter P in places.
171 Jenkins and Sons, surveyors
267 crescent between Breakspears and Wickham Roads
Alexandra Cottages with two name stones set in the brickwork and dated 1863, commemorating the year the future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. In addition, Alexandra Place and Albert Place.
Alma Terrace, Shops . Built 1851 and named after the Crimean War battle. Wth commemorative stone
Deptford Library, a grand baroque building of 1914 by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, now used as an art gallery, with artists' studios and workshops. The frontage has six columns flanked by two pilasters. Inside are long rows of round-headed windows along the ground floor, and a staircase lit by a Venetian window, leading to a gallery with a barrel-vaulted glass roof? It was a Carnegie gift – as on the Foundation stone.
Deptford Memorial Gardens, and War Memorial
Education Building in white modernist style
'Gloucester Terrace 1860'. Subsidiary name stone 'Clarendon Terrace' on the buildings opposite
Goldsmiths College. Annexe of the University of London, named after the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths who acquired the building and site in 1891 and presented it to the University of London in 1905. Site of 1789 used for the Counter Hill Academy. Built originally in 1843 for the Royal Naval School, it cost £35,000 to build. The armorial bearings of the Goldsmiths Company are on the front. It was built in Renaissance style by John Shaw of red brick with stone dressings and the The Royal Naval School used it from 1889 and it became the Goldsmiths Company's Technical & Recreative Institute in 1891. It was then the largest Teachers Training College in Britain and also had a School of Art. It now has students who specialise in visual & performing arts, media & communications, humanities, education, social sciences, and mathematics. It also offers part-time and evening courses. The entrance hall with a Royal Naval School plaque leads into the Great Hall, which was roofed over the former school's parade ground in 1891. At the rear is a block designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1907 with a monumental garden front. There is another older building, probably by John Shaw 1851, which was converted to become the Wood Theatre in 1964. Chapel also by Shaw
The Croydon Canal went through the grounds and earthworks remained visible.
Goldsmiths Gallery of 1975, a brick octagon,
Information Services Building of 1997. In white modernist style
Library, a vernacular building, slightly high-tech, 1988.
Whitehead Building, 1968 modernist
Lockwood Building, 1962, modernist, with lots of outbuildings.
Kent / Surrey boundary marker. 1843.
Students Union of 1975, bridging Dixon Road in white modernist style
Thomas Marshall pottery, like flower pots, tile works, tile ground in St Paul's area
Post box Victorian wall mounted
Warmington Tower, an obtrusively high hall of residence of 1969. In white modernist style
Malpas Road
Stream flowed down Malpas Road from Deptford Common, now area of Brockley Cross.; it met the Ravensbourne near Deptford Bridge.Site of Canal Cottage. By the 1890s the road was built up on both sides, except for the section by the canal cottage which was unmade and open to the brickworks. It was on the east side opposite Millmark Grove.
247 -243 four new houses filled the gap in where 3 spaces were left in the Victorian terraces for the expected demise of the already canal ancient cottage.
42 home of Joseph Leicester, leader of Flint Glass Makers, MP for South West Ham
81 Indio House. Flats on the site of the Duke of Edinburgh. A nicely kept local with an impressive ornate mirror in the bar area; skittles are available.
New Cross
New Cross. Recorded as ‘New Crosse’ in 1675, probably from the crossroads on the Kent-Surrey county boundary where the old east-west road from Dartford to London is joined by the road from Lewisham and the south. The road junction may have been 'new' a long time ago since in the 15th it was already called ‘New Cross Heath’. The name precedes the Golden Cross coaching inn which once stood here. The Haberdashers Company acquired much of the land by endowment in 1614 and leased it out as gentlemen’s estates.
New Cross Gate
Named from the toll gate set up on the New Cross turnpike road in 1718; the Old Kent Road from the City meets the road from Westminster here. The district is marked Hatcham on the Ordnance Survey map of 1816. Site of tollgate and toilets
New Cross Gate Station. Between Brockley and London Bridge on Southern Rail. Terminus of East London Line from Surrey Quays. London and Croydon Railway. Parliament insisted that the line went from here to London Bridge initially sharing the London and Greenwich lines. 1862 Opened as New Cross. East London Railway. London Brighton and South Coast Railway 7th December 1862. 1869 The East London Railway opened from New Cross to Wapping in December 1869 going through Brunel's Thames Tunnel and using London Brighton and South Coast Railway trains. 1884 run by the Met & District from St.Mary’s to New Cross. Line leased to District, Met, London & Brighton, London, Chatham and Dover, South Eastern and Great Eastern. 1923 name changed to New Cross Gate. The present station building on New Cross Road is basically c1844; the western section preserves its original appearance. New Cross Station was opened on the London & Croydon Railway 1839; it was renamed New Cross Gate 1923. The Station was originally north of the road and reached from the west by an entrance common to the works
New Cross Station 7th December 1868.East London Railway. Original southern terminus. Alongside the east of New Cross Gate. 1886 closed. 1900 demolished
Railway
London & Croydon Railway 1839 Station 1846-56 Northern terminus of atmospheric railway. South Eastern Railway Old Main Line Two most westerly tracks are ex London and Croydon Railway - just west of the line of the canal. Western part of station is the earliest, supposed to be pre-atmospheric. At the station building, the western part is the earliest part of the structure, reputedly dating back to the station's enlarging to four tracks (before the atmospheric). Initially the station buildings were north of the road, and reached from the west via an entrance common with the works. The railway completely obliterated the canal and all nearby buildings on this site, and development of the works has nearly done the same again. However, the cul-de-sac serving the entrance remains, still with its granite sett surface, and complete with delightful gatehouse. Demolished 2003.
First railway semaphore signal used here by C.H.Gregory. Invented by J.V.Raistrick
The Railway line was run partly along the bed of the disused Croydon Canal. On the east London Transport platform close to the road bridge are a group of large dressed stones forming a wall - thought to be from the canal. The two most westerly tracks – originally the first two tracks of the London and Croydon Railway - were built just to the west of the line of the canal.
The Croydon canal was crossed by a fixed road bridge here.
Stone sleepers on the wall at the south of the station
Croydon Canal –south down the line opposite the station, immediately below the bridge parapet is the site of lock 5, with the route of the canal gradually leaving the railway on the east side. There were five more locks on this section as the route climbs to Brockley.
The steep bank here on the railway line was the major obstacle in the railway's operation, and the reason for establishing the main depot and locomotive works here. It was also a major factor in the early decision to adopt the atmospheric system of traction.
The line to Old Kent Road opened 1871.
New Cross Road
The A2 - opened 1866, in the west, where it meets Old Kent Road, to Deptford Broadway in the east.
243/255 c1868. Terraces developed by the Haberdashers Company
263 Railway Tavern The pub closed following a fire and became a shop.
265, railway works gatehouse with a heavy curved brick front corner, and it could date from the very earliest reorganisation of works and station. The 'smith's shop' was incorporated into the range still behind the gate house, but the octagonal 'locomotive engine house', though surviving to the 1950s as a ruin, has gone. All demolished 2003
272 Hobgoblin was The Rose Inn pub of 1855. Alcoves, garden and boxing matches
London County Council flats on site of Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society shop. V2 25th November 1944 . Woolworth's and the Co-op store were crowded when the missile hit the ground at the rear of Woolworth's, causing the premises to collapse in a dense cloud of smoke and fine powdered dust. A 16-year-old delivery boy in Friendly Street felt the wave of blast warm to the face some 400 yards away. the Co-op store fell to the ground. In the road the bodies of passers-by were flung great distances andAn army lorry overturned. A double-decker bus span round in the shock wave. In a shop on the corner of St James Road, four clerks were killed at their desks. parked cars and vans burst into flames, and the driver of a car on the bridge at New Cross Gate station died at the wheel. No need to visit Europe to view a battlefield; here in an ordinary London shopping street was one as bloody as the front-line could offer. 21 rescue squads pulled bodies and the injured from under the debris and it took three days and nights to complete the task. Temporary medical posts were set up inside the wreckage-strewn town hall, at New Cross station, New Cross tram depot, Haberdasher Aske's School, the South Eastern Hospital, and elsewhere. the municipal mortuary ran out of space and Pearce Signs provided temporary accommodation. There were 168 dead, and 123 seriously injured. Yet at this precise time the government demanded a 25% cut in the Civil Defence establishments, almost as if it had never heard of the V2 And Deptford Council, sitting in a hastily swept-out committee room that very Saturday afternoon, had these demands on its agenda to consider.
Pearce Signs. Up to the early 1930s, the firm was owned and run by one Harry Pearce, it was essentially a local business making pub signs and shop fascias for customers in the London area. Pearce Group Holdings is now the umbrella for a countrywide network of sign manufacturing and installation companies, which together employ some 800 people and turn over around £30 million. Now based in Broadstairs
Toilets at Lewisham Way. Triangle underground site. Filled in, the vent pipe moved to Clifton Rise.
Parkfield Road
Called Park Road until 1938. Laid out c1850, has three pairs of houses.
Kent/Surrey boundary markers
Railline
The line to Lewisham Road from Nunhead was abandoned by an Act in 1929 and the line taken up.
Reservoir Road
Named for a reservoir built adjacent in 1874 by the Kent Water Company.
171 Jenkins and Sons, surveyors
267 crescent between Breakspears and Wickham Roads
Alexandra Cottages with two name stones set in the brickwork and dated 1863, commemorating the year the future King Edward VII married Princess Alexandra of Denmark. In addition, Alexandra Place and Albert Place.
Alma Terrace, Shops . Built 1851 and named after the Crimean War battle. Wth commemorative stone
Deptford Library, a grand baroque building of 1914 by Sir Alfred Brumwell Thomas, now used as an art gallery, with artists' studios and workshops. The frontage has six columns flanked by two pilasters. Inside are long rows of round-headed windows along the ground floor, and a staircase lit by a Venetian window, leading to a gallery with a barrel-vaulted glass roof? It was a Carnegie gift – as on the Foundation stone.
Deptford Memorial Gardens, and War Memorial
Education Building in white modernist style
'Gloucester Terrace 1860'. Subsidiary name stone 'Clarendon Terrace' on the buildings opposite
Goldsmiths College. Annexe of the University of London, named after the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths who acquired the building and site in 1891 and presented it to the University of London in 1905. Site of 1789 used for the Counter Hill Academy. Built originally in 1843 for the Royal Naval School, it cost £35,000 to build. The armorial bearings of the Goldsmiths Company are on the front. It was built in Renaissance style by John Shaw of red brick with stone dressings and the The Royal Naval School used it from 1889 and it became the Goldsmiths Company's Technical & Recreative Institute in 1891. It was then the largest Teachers Training College in Britain and also had a School of Art. It now has students who specialise in visual & performing arts, media & communications, humanities, education, social sciences, and mathematics. It also offers part-time and evening courses. The entrance hall with a Royal Naval School plaque leads into the Great Hall, which was roofed over the former school's parade ground in 1891. At the rear is a block designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield in 1907 with a monumental garden front. There is another older building, probably by John Shaw 1851, which was converted to become the Wood Theatre in 1964. Chapel also by Shaw
The Croydon Canal went through the grounds and earthworks remained visible.
Goldsmiths Gallery of 1975, a brick octagon,
Information Services Building of 1997. In white modernist style
Library, a vernacular building, slightly high-tech, 1988.
Whitehead Building, 1968 modernist
Lockwood Building, 1962, modernist, with lots of outbuildings.
Kent / Surrey boundary marker. 1843.
Students Union of 1975, bridging Dixon Road in white modernist style
Thomas Marshall pottery, like flower pots, tile works, tile ground in St Paul's area
Post box Victorian wall mounted
Warmington Tower, an obtrusively high hall of residence of 1969. In white modernist style
Malpas Road
Stream flowed down Malpas Road from Deptford Common, now area of Brockley Cross.; it met the Ravensbourne near Deptford Bridge.Site of Canal Cottage. By the 1890s the road was built up on both sides, except for the section by the canal cottage which was unmade and open to the brickworks. It was on the east side opposite Millmark Grove.
247 -243 four new houses filled the gap in where 3 spaces were left in the Victorian terraces for the expected demise of the already canal ancient cottage.
42 home of Joseph Leicester, leader of Flint Glass Makers, MP for South West Ham
81 Indio House. Flats on the site of the Duke of Edinburgh. A nicely kept local with an impressive ornate mirror in the bar area; skittles are available.
New Cross
New Cross. Recorded as ‘New Crosse’ in 1675, probably from the crossroads on the Kent-Surrey county boundary where the old east-west road from Dartford to London is joined by the road from Lewisham and the south. The road junction may have been 'new' a long time ago since in the 15th it was already called ‘New Cross Heath’. The name precedes the Golden Cross coaching inn which once stood here. The Haberdashers Company acquired much of the land by endowment in 1614 and leased it out as gentlemen’s estates.
New Cross Gate
Named from the toll gate set up on the New Cross turnpike road in 1718; the Old Kent Road from the City meets the road from Westminster here. The district is marked Hatcham on the Ordnance Survey map of 1816. Site of tollgate and toilets
New Cross Gate Station. Between Brockley and London Bridge on Southern Rail. Terminus of East London Line from Surrey Quays. London and Croydon Railway. Parliament insisted that the line went from here to London Bridge initially sharing the London and Greenwich lines. 1862 Opened as New Cross. East London Railway. London Brighton and South Coast Railway 7th December 1862. 1869 The East London Railway opened from New Cross to Wapping in December 1869 going through Brunel's Thames Tunnel and using London Brighton and South Coast Railway trains. 1884 run by the Met & District from St.Mary’s to New Cross. Line leased to District, Met, London & Brighton, London, Chatham and Dover, South Eastern and Great Eastern. 1923 name changed to New Cross Gate. The present station building on New Cross Road is basically c1844; the western section preserves its original appearance. New Cross Station was opened on the London & Croydon Railway 1839; it was renamed New Cross Gate 1923. The Station was originally north of the road and reached from the west by an entrance common to the works
New Cross Station 7th December 1868.East London Railway. Original southern terminus. Alongside the east of New Cross Gate. 1886 closed. 1900 demolished
Railway
London & Croydon Railway 1839 Station 1846-56 Northern terminus of atmospheric railway. South Eastern Railway Old Main Line Two most westerly tracks are ex London and Croydon Railway - just west of the line of the canal. Western part of station is the earliest, supposed to be pre-atmospheric. At the station building, the western part is the earliest part of the structure, reputedly dating back to the station's enlarging to four tracks (before the atmospheric). Initially the station buildings were north of the road, and reached from the west via an entrance common with the works. The railway completely obliterated the canal and all nearby buildings on this site, and development of the works has nearly done the same again. However, the cul-de-sac serving the entrance remains, still with its granite sett surface, and complete with delightful gatehouse. Demolished 2003.
First railway semaphore signal used here by C.H.Gregory. Invented by J.V.Raistrick
The Railway line was run partly along the bed of the disused Croydon Canal. On the east London Transport platform close to the road bridge are a group of large dressed stones forming a wall - thought to be from the canal. The two most westerly tracks – originally the first two tracks of the London and Croydon Railway - were built just to the west of the line of the canal.
The Croydon canal was crossed by a fixed road bridge here.
Stone sleepers on the wall at the south of the station
Croydon Canal –south down the line opposite the station, immediately below the bridge parapet is the site of lock 5, with the route of the canal gradually leaving the railway on the east side. There were five more locks on this section as the route climbs to Brockley.
The steep bank here on the railway line was the major obstacle in the railway's operation, and the reason for establishing the main depot and locomotive works here. It was also a major factor in the early decision to adopt the atmospheric system of traction.
The line to Old Kent Road opened 1871.
New Cross Road
The A2 - opened 1866, in the west, where it meets Old Kent Road, to Deptford Broadway in the east.
243/255 c1868. Terraces developed by the Haberdashers Company
263 Railway Tavern The pub closed following a fire and became a shop.
265, railway works gatehouse with a heavy curved brick front corner, and it could date from the very earliest reorganisation of works and station. The 'smith's shop' was incorporated into the range still behind the gate house, but the octagonal 'locomotive engine house', though surviving to the 1950s as a ruin, has gone. All demolished 2003
272 Hobgoblin was The Rose Inn pub of 1855. Alcoves, garden and boxing matches
London County Council flats on site of Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society shop. V2 25th November 1944 . Woolworth's and the Co-op store were crowded when the missile hit the ground at the rear of Woolworth's, causing the premises to collapse in a dense cloud of smoke and fine powdered dust. A 16-year-old delivery boy in Friendly Street felt the wave of blast warm to the face some 400 yards away. the Co-op store fell to the ground. In the road the bodies of passers-by were flung great distances andAn army lorry overturned. A double-decker bus span round in the shock wave. In a shop on the corner of St James Road, four clerks were killed at their desks. parked cars and vans burst into flames, and the driver of a car on the bridge at New Cross Gate station died at the wheel. No need to visit Europe to view a battlefield; here in an ordinary London shopping street was one as bloody as the front-line could offer. 21 rescue squads pulled bodies and the injured from under the debris and it took three days and nights to complete the task. Temporary medical posts were set up inside the wreckage-strewn town hall, at New Cross station, New Cross tram depot, Haberdasher Aske's School, the South Eastern Hospital, and elsewhere. the municipal mortuary ran out of space and Pearce Signs provided temporary accommodation. There were 168 dead, and 123 seriously injured. Yet at this precise time the government demanded a 25% cut in the Civil Defence establishments, almost as if it had never heard of the V2 And Deptford Council, sitting in a hastily swept-out committee room that very Saturday afternoon, had these demands on its agenda to consider.
Pearce Signs. Up to the early 1930s, the firm was owned and run by one Harry Pearce, it was essentially a local business making pub signs and shop fascias for customers in the London area. Pearce Group Holdings is now the umbrella for a countrywide network of sign manufacturing and installation companies, which together employ some 800 people and turn over around £30 million. Now based in Broadstairs
Toilets at Lewisham Way. Triangle underground site. Filled in, the vent pipe moved to Clifton Rise.
Parkfield Road
Called Park Road until 1938. Laid out c1850, has three pairs of houses.
Kent/Surrey boundary markers
Railline
The line to Lewisham Road from Nunhead was abandoned by an Act in 1929 and the line taken up.
Reservoir Road
Named for a reservoir built adjacent in 1874 by the Kent Water Company.
Rokeby Road
On the site of Samuel Shepherd's farm
Sharedloes Road
Called after place owned by the Tyrwhitt Drake family and built on land they owned.
Sharedloes Road
Called after place owned by the Tyrwhitt Drake family and built on land they owned.
Garage for private buses in the 1920s, Glen Bus.
V2 Corner with St.Donat Road on 1.11.199 44 V2 bomb. 12 houses destroyed and 13 died. The tram-track was blown sky high in a fountain of debris. A dozen dwellings tumbled to the ground. Piled-up rubble, densely packed, made the recovery of victims a long and arduous business. By dawn only 11 bodies had been retrieved and 24 people were still missing. One small boy died in his pyjamas as he was making for bed. Several awards for courage and devotion to duty were won in these harrowing conditions.
79 Shardeloes Road, 33 died in all - many medals.
2 'primitive looking' houses thought to be Croydon Canal lock keepers' cottages
Croydon Canal - between New Cross and Vesta Road were several locks. Jn. The southern half of Shardeloes Road no properties front onto one section and the rear gardens are supported by retaining walls. This is the cutting that gave a level section between the two flights of locks, and was the location of the lock-keeper's house for the flight down to Deptford.
Canal towpath was used as an access road to the brickfields.
St.Donatts Road
V2 Corner with St.Donat Road on 1.11.199 44 V2 bomb. 12 houses destroyed and 13 died. The tram-track was blown sky high in a fountain of debris. A dozen dwellings tumbled to the ground. Piled-up rubble, densely packed, made the recovery of victims a long and arduous business. By dawn only 11 bodies had been retrieved and 24 people were still missing. One small boy died in his pyjamas as he was making for bed. Several awards for courage and devotion to duty were won in these harrowing conditions.
79 Shardeloes Road, 33 died in all - many medals.
2 'primitive looking' houses thought to be Croydon Canal lock keepers' cottages
Croydon Canal - between New Cross and Vesta Road were several locks. Jn. The southern half of Shardeloes Road no properties front onto one section and the rear gardens are supported by retaining walls. This is the cutting that gave a level section between the two flights of locks, and was the location of the lock-keeper's house for the flight down to Deptford.
Canal towpath was used as an access road to the brickfields.
St.Donatts Road
Called after place owned by the Tyrwhitt Drake family and built on land they owned.
St.James Road
St.James, 1849, now the Laban Centre. The buildings were converted 1973-89. The Bonnie Bird Theatre in the Centre was opened 1989. The Laban Centre has links with Goldsmiths, and its courses are validated by the City University. It was founded 1945 by Rudolf Laban the pioneer and founder of European Modern Dance. Church by W. B. L. Granville. A dull ragstone building notable only for its ambitious plan: cruciform with aisled transepts. Converted to the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance 1979-80.-Lectern a good brass eagle.
St James Church modern. 1982, a small basic brick building converted from youth club building of c1962.
Houses with fancifully decorated door cases, probably of the 1870s, remain at the end of St James, and now form part of Goldsmiths.
Goldsmiths’ Hall of Residence long block 1997
St. James, Hatcham, School 1831. Opened by Earl of Shaftesbury. Gothic windows in a two-storey crenallated house. Part of Goldsmith's College. New building with the foundation stone. By the same architect as the church.
Upper Brockley Road
Brockley Baptist Church
69 Wickham Arms. Former two bar pub turned open plan but retaining wood panelling in "Saloon" area. Decorated throughout with photographs of bygone Brockley and New Cross.
76 Lord Wolseley
Vesta Road
2 boundary markers on the corner of Haberdasher Aske's school - one Haberdasher Aske’s and one Kent/Surrey
The Croydon canal can be best imagined looking north from the Vesta Road Bridge. Lock 7 would be in the foreground, and with 6 also visible, and 5 out of sight. Although the line of canal and railway diverged the cutting needed on both to lessen the climb up this steepest part of the hill is very similar.
Vesta Road bridge over the railway was "erected at £2500 for the convenience of the occupiers of some brick fields severed by the railway", and called Ffinch's Bridge.
A canal bridge was sited to the south of lock 12.
Barriedale can be taken as the site of lock 10 but there is nothing to see,
New Cross Gate Cutting Nature Reserve. A wide and steep cutting close to New Cross Gate station varies from woodland to grassy embankment. The 19th railway lines were cut across the country belonging to farms at Brockley. The embankments have been left undisturbed for many years. The widest section is wooded with birch, elm, sycamore and hazel. The clearings are acid to neutral grassland with false oat and cock's foot grasses as well as birds-foot trefoil, vetches, sheep's sorrel and toadflax. Large anthills give some indication of how little the reserve has been disturbed. There is grassland elsewhere but it is generally dense hawthorn scrub plus brambles. Birds include dunnocks, warblers, blackcaps whitethroat and lesser white-throat.
St.James, 1849, now the Laban Centre. The buildings were converted 1973-89. The Bonnie Bird Theatre in the Centre was opened 1989. The Laban Centre has links with Goldsmiths, and its courses are validated by the City University. It was founded 1945 by Rudolf Laban the pioneer and founder of European Modern Dance. Church by W. B. L. Granville. A dull ragstone building notable only for its ambitious plan: cruciform with aisled transepts. Converted to the Laban Centre for Movement and Dance 1979-80.-Lectern a good brass eagle.
St James Church modern. 1982, a small basic brick building converted from youth club building of c1962.
Houses with fancifully decorated door cases, probably of the 1870s, remain at the end of St James, and now form part of Goldsmiths.
Goldsmiths’ Hall of Residence long block 1997
St. James, Hatcham, School 1831. Opened by Earl of Shaftesbury. Gothic windows in a two-storey crenallated house. Part of Goldsmith's College. New building with the foundation stone. By the same architect as the church.
Upper Brockley Road
Brockley Baptist Church
69 Wickham Arms. Former two bar pub turned open plan but retaining wood panelling in "Saloon" area. Decorated throughout with photographs of bygone Brockley and New Cross.
76 Lord Wolseley
Vesta Road
2 boundary markers on the corner of Haberdasher Aske's school - one Haberdasher Aske’s and one Kent/Surrey
The Croydon canal can be best imagined looking north from the Vesta Road Bridge. Lock 7 would be in the foreground, and with 6 also visible, and 5 out of sight. Although the line of canal and railway diverged the cutting needed on both to lessen the climb up this steepest part of the hill is very similar.
Vesta Road bridge over the railway was "erected at £2500 for the convenience of the occupiers of some brick fields severed by the railway", and called Ffinch's Bridge.
A canal bridge was sited to the south of lock 12.
Barriedale can be taken as the site of lock 10 but there is nothing to see,
New Cross Gate Cutting Nature Reserve. A wide and steep cutting close to New Cross Gate station varies from woodland to grassy embankment. The 19th railway lines were cut across the country belonging to farms at Brockley. The embankments have been left undisturbed for many years. The widest section is wooded with birch, elm, sycamore and hazel. The clearings are acid to neutral grassland with false oat and cock's foot grasses as well as birds-foot trefoil, vetches, sheep's sorrel and toadflax. Large anthills give some indication of how little the reserve has been disturbed. There is grassland elsewhere but it is generally dense hawthorn scrub plus brambles. Birds include dunnocks, warblers, blackcaps whitethroat and lesser white-throat.
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