Thames Tributary Ravensbourne -The Kidbrookes - Lee

Thames Tributary Ravensbourne
The Mid Kid brook flows south west to join the Quaggy near Meadowcourt Road.
The Upper Kidbrooke is under the railway line flowing west towards the Quaggy.

Post to the north Blackheath Village
Post to the west Lewisham
Post to the south Manor Park
Post to the east Blackheath Park


Aislibie Road

Road is on a similar site to a lane leading to the the parish field, Lampmead.  led over a bridge over the river. A penstock kept the level up  for the ornamental water at Lee Place on the west side of the lane
Lee Centre. With a range of projects, including those in arts.

Arne Walk
Named for composer Arne.

Bennett Park
The Bennett family were clock makers. They held leases on this area.
4 plaque to astrophysicist Eddington
5 home of and plaque to Donald Mcgill 1875-1962. McGill was the man who drew rude holiday postcards. Originally Fraser Gould, born in Blackheath. Plaque dates from 1977.
16-18 Flats on was site of Plymouth Brethren meeting house built 1871. This was taken over by the Christian Scientists in 1920. It was then taken over by the Jehovah’s Witnesses and mysteriously burnt down.
20 plaque to weather forecaster Glaisher
Blackheath Art Club 1886 by Higgs & Rudkin. The first of several cultural institutions established at Blackheath by local benefactor, William Webster.

Blackheath Park
St Michael's Church, designed by George Smith 1828-9, as part of the layout of Blackheath Park. Brick and Bath and a thin slender spire -the 'Needle of Kent' or the Devil’s Pick. A window in the tower has motifs with little antiquarian accuracy. Built for Page Turner as a chapel of ease where worshippers had to be to be paying customers. It became part of the Church of England in the early 1900s

Curates House. Stab, State was bought by Cater in 1783 who did not want the mansion and gardens as a nursery making six John Parry the tenant turned the canal into the cylinderle block of Wricklemarsh  House. r
Canal – a piece of water on the south opposite Pond Road, formed by the widened Kid Brook, from Wricklemarsh Park. The Wricklemarsh Estate was bought by Cator in 1783 who did not want the mansion and let the gardens as a nursery John Halley the tenant turned the canal into a swimming bath.
Gothic Cottage
Upper Park Place

Blackheath Village
Age Exchange and its Reminiscence Centre. Set up to improve the lives of the elderly by stressing the worth of their memories.
Cactus Pit, where jazz musician Brian Green played.
Lawn Terrace, restaurant. Re-launched in 1999 by the former team at the Bank Restaurant and bar.
16 Fairway and Firkin pub beside the train station. Once known as the Railway Hotel. Opened 1851
Lloyds Bank. Was Alexandra Assembly Rooms of 1863. Became a bank in 1928.
Brunswick Terrace. built 1828 on the site of a nursery. Initially houses but then became shops. Three houses demolished when the railway was built.
Selwyn Court flats built 1936

Boone Street
The Lowne Electric Clock and Appliance Company was set up in 1904 to make electric clocks. The company moved to a former wheelwright's premises and stayed there until 2002. Robert Mann Lowne died in 1928 and his two sons with RJM Lowne's son, Frederick James Mann Lowne, continued.

Brandram Road
Called after industrial chemist Brandram
VR post box
1 refurbished and pebble-dashed back to life from almost total dereliction. Here lived F. H. Hart, who wrote History of Lee
Brandram Road Community Centre.
New Rectory
Car repairers' premises which incorporates the coach house of Dacre House

Church Terrace
Lych gate from the churchyard. Carved inscription inside. This gate used to stand in Belmont Hill but was moved in the 1950s because of traffic problems.
1-8 and 9-16 early development in Lee
8 refurbished
Rectory, a modern building, and the third rectory since 16th.

Cresswell Park
Presbytery was Park House. Built 1787 with a three-storey stone-faced front, approached up a double flight of steps.
Crossed by Upper Kidbrook which goes through gardens north of railway

Hillside 1830
Alpha House 1830s
St.Mary. site of mansion house and farm buildings for the Wricklemarsh manor
11-13 was Bennett Place
Burndept Radio of Blackheath 1964 went to Erith to make radio active equipment

Dacre Gardens
Site of Dacre House built more or less on the site

Fludyer Street
Built on the old Boone Estate, which extended from Dacre Park to Brandram Road and south to Old Road
Coach House of Dacre House over the wall

Glenton Road
Named after Glenton one of the owners of The Pagoda on Blackheath, owner of pits in Charlton and developer.
'Pagoda' name on the houses on the south side. Masks over the doors
Holy Trinity. Stone laid by Glenton. Demolished

Independents Road
Winchester House, School for the Sons and Orphans of Missionaries, which became Eltham College. The building is 1857 by W. G. & E. Habershon, it is red brick, tall, Gothic, with a high roof. Conversion to offices in 1980.
South Vale House. Now a housing estate

Kingswood Place
11 Dacre Arms. Lord and Lady Dacre lived in the big house on the corner in the 18th.

Lampmead Road
Name of a Meadow called that...

Lawn Terrace
Congregational Church. Within the shell of a bombed building of 1853 by Brandon & Ritchie is a small church by Trevor Dannatt, 1957. In 1982 it was altered by Watts & Partners for their offices.
Friends Meeting House, by Trevor Dannatt, 1973-4. A compact polygonal building of shuttered concrete, on stilts.

Lee Church Street
Built on the old Boone Estate, which extended from Dacre Park to Brandram Road and south to Old Road. The estate was bought by Christopher Boone in the 17th and sold and split in 1825. And split into building lots.
1 Royal Oak. Named in memory of a boundary oak marking the junction of the boundaries of the Fludyer and Boone Estates. It was a favourite of Sir George Airey, the Astronomer Royal.
The rear garden walls behind the 'Royal Oak' follow exactly the shape of the old path, which disappeared when the estate before you was first built up in 1825.
Lee Church of England School. Site of moated medieval farmhouse, demolished in the 17th when Boone bought it. The Moat became a lake called the ‘Mirror of Lee’ and the old house demolished. Annesley may have been the last occupant.
Lee Church of England School was founded in the 1830's and later. The new schools were opened in 1963
National School for Infants
39 Greyhound

Lee Green
It is listed as ‘Lee’ in the Domesday Book that is 'place at the wood or woodland clearing', Old English. This is a common English place name, variously spelt Lee or Leigh. Lee Green is on 18th maps. There is No bridge over the Quaggy on the Blackheath side of Lee Green. It was a scattered settlement until the c 19.
Windmill
Quaggy bridge marks the line of the Kidbrook boundary which then turns north.

Lee High Road
A very old road, it is a main road to Kent. A double bend was straightened in the 1820s from the 'Duke of Edinburgh' pub to Old Road.   To build the new road two South arms of a moat had to be filled and building a new bridge over the Quaggy,The previous alignment had followed the line of Old Road There was a growth in suburban terraces and villas in the second quarter of the c19 after The Boone estate was split into building lots. Previously this was a small country lane and in the 18th, there were several houses for City businessmen

Quaggy runs along the northern boundary between the road bridge and Lee Road. Brick wall on the south side of the river and an earth bank on the north.
Pool in the 1820s on the north side between Boone and Church
181 Woodman pub, 1820s crowned with its name and date
207 The Swan. Built at the end of the field path the moat of the old house became a lake hence the name of 'The Swan' pub. The Swan swam on the Mirror of Lee
246 urban early c l8 house,
306 The Picture Palace opened in 1910, with a stage by Mr.Watts, again. Opened before there was a need for a licence. Several attempts for sound with a number of devices including the Vivaphone. The building was requisitions as a munitions factory in the First World War. Became a car sales building and a caravan showroom.. New medical centre on site.
308-306 Lee High Road Medical Centre
345 built in 1898 in front of the former Old Tiger's Head stables. It incorporated a fire station.
351 Old Tiger's Head. Opened 1774. The pub rebuilt in 1896 previously the public bat had a small race course and a boxing ring. Music pub from the 1960`s with mainly rock& roll.
370 Lee Green Testament Church of God in the old United Methodist Church
394 Duke of Edinburgh. Quaggy can be seen from the garden and there is a footbridge and a culvert nearby.
404-8 Imperial Picture Palace. Opened 1913 and sold on in 1914. Eventually closed in 1929 but the building remained but was demolished for Sainsbury in 1986.
418 Police Station. Built in 1904, replacing one built before 1860. It was converted to flats in 2003
422 Prince Arthur built in 1870. Closed 2005. It was originally one of a row of early 19th century cottages. Converted to a shop.
424-428 – early 19th cottages behind modern shop fronts.
Boone’s Almshouses rebuilt further down the road in 1875 by E. B. O L'Anson, with a new Gothic chapel. This is now a Pentecostal Church. Now in other use
Boone’s Chapel was built in 1682 as a private almshouse chapel with four houses attached. It was the gateway to the founders’ house, Lee Place, and became their mausoleum. It became unused and derelict in the 1940s, Grade I listed,
Boone's Almshouses. 1683, Demolished. The successors of these almshouses were built in 1875 on the opposite side of the Road nearer Lee Green.
Colfe’s Almshouses 1664 by Peter Mills for the Leathersellers' Company. They were damaged in the Second World War. Large central chapel with hipped roof.
Flats on the site of Hurst Lodge a detached villa of 1819, which became the offices of Patterson Edwards Ltd who built a factory to manufacture rocking horses in the grounds
Horse trough late 19th
Market Terrace - Lee Place. The Tudor Boone mansion was behind this terrace. Lee High Road, was straightened when it was demolished.

Merchant Taylor’s almshouses. Behind the old chapel, 1826 by their surveyor, William Jupp jun. on three sides of an open quadrangle with central feature plus cupola. Part of the Boone estate was bought by Merchant Taylors Company. Well-kept gardens.
Milestone
Public toilets underground but gone without trace. Included a sewer vent with lamps on it
Wall plaque. An inscribed stone on a wall tells you that the land is the property of the Merchant Taylors Company
Wartime shelter notice on the boundary junction a painted notice
Quaggy Bridge. dates from 1826. LCC widened bridge in 1893 and part funded by the Plumstead Board of Works. LCC reconstructed it in 1906 for the trams replacing the brick arch with rolled steel and keeping the parapets.  It is on the skew. It also carries the water and gas mains, GPO pipes, and electric  

Earlier bridge to the west 1770 was a  County Bridge with a brick arch and oak ships blanks to protect the bank.  New Cross Turnpike.  Built by Robert Wade with a circular culvert for storm relief.  Older bridge demolished 1833. 

Gas and water mains under the river bed here.

Lee Park
A long straight route between Lee Terrace and the High Road.
119-148 a crescent 1842-52, tall pairs of houses.
Christ Church. The church had its own parish taken out of the ancient parish of St Margaret. It suffered severe war damage and was demolished in 1941. The site was sold to Page Estates for £10,000 in 1960.

Lee Road 

On Roque 1745 this is Lee Green Lane

Boundary between Lee and Kidbrooke down the middle of the road. 

The Mid Kidbrook crossed between two fields, both called Conduit Field, to join the Quaggy west of Lee Green. The river runs down Lee Road, crosses it, and flows down the western side in a brick culvert to enter the Quaggy. 

Lee Road bridge over the Quaggy. Built late 19th by Plumstead Board of Works. Single span brick arch.  Also carried gas, water etc mains. This  is on the north east corner of the old Lee Green.  On Roque 1745 it is Lee Water with a causeway and footbridge.  On the Bridge over the Quaggy is the stump of boundary stone which is a Kidbrook marker.  It is at the boundary of Lee and Eltham, Lee and Liberty of Kidbrook.
Quaggy. The river was diverted here when the main road was built in 1826. Previously the road crossing here was a ford and a footbridge. The Quaggy falls to the 50ft contour. Always problems with flooding.

Blackheath Art School 1896 by Edmeston & Gabriel, with studio block of 1911.
Blackheath Conservatoire of Music. 1896, plain except for shell ornament over the first-floor windows. Concert Hall, 1894-5. Both by Edmeston & Gabriel. Gables with much yellow terracotta artycrafty decoration and a frieze by Searle. Two halls seating 1,200. In the Great War used as a Royal Artillery pay office.
Beaconsfield Buildings
113 built as a dairy
129 Bitter Experience. Off-licence closed
159 New Tiger's Head. Large open L-shaped comer pub. Closed.
77 point at which the Kidbrook boundary arrives from Lee Green. The Mid Kid Brook can be seen in the garden of the house and the boundary then follows the stream to Broadway.
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. By Gareth Wright & Colin Dixie, planned 1977, begun 1980.
Lee Working Men's Club
Park Row. A group of nine houses 1963. Span

Riverside Court. Houses built 1994 on what was Lewin's Watery Meadow.

Lee Terrace.
Dowe House corner of the The Glebe
St.Margaret. It is at least the third church building which has stood here or nearby. The first recorded building was medieval and was on the opposite side of the road. It was demolished in 1813 and another built on the same site. This second church was superseded by the present church in 1841. The memorials were moved here from the old church and the tombstones in the old churchyard were recorded. This church is 1839-41 by John Brown of Norwich, in the Commissioners' style. Remodelled 1875 by James Brooks. Alabaster reredos carved by Earp, painted by Westlake. Stained glass by Clayton & Bell. Brasses to Elizabeth Conhill 1513; Ansley f 1593 and wife.
Graveyard of the old church. The old church tower, with late medieval fabric survives in ruins here. Call tomb (1794, 1801) with obelisk and coat of arms, Sir Edward Halley, Astronomer Royal, and John Cocking of the early parachute accident are buried here and Penn family graves. The Boone memorial, restored by Merchant Taylors Company, is near the Tower. Two imposing Fludyer tombs. The west wall of the churchyard has a sort of recess for some yards, which marks the site of the old Rectory, built before 1650, and demolished in 1866.
47-61, of 1834-5, is of the Searles` type. It is the earliest development in Lee.
St. Joseph's AcademyMetal pillar. Beside the telephone box at the entrance to Dowe House is a metal pillar and a metal plate in the pavement. This was a water standpipe used to fill carts which sprayed water to lay the dust in the gravel streets before tar macadam surfaces.

Meadowcourt Road

Road built 1890
Quaggy bridge metal plate on Kidbrook boundary put there by Woolwich Council
The Kidbrook boundary crosses the road on the line of the Quaggy to the bridge at Lee Green.
21 Eurocentre Bookshop

Old Road
The Route of old Lee High Road before it was straightened in 1827. 

Lee Place. In the bend was Lee Place. The water in the park is probably the moat two arms of which were filled in. Grounds ran north to the Middle Kidbrook, In 1824 because of a need to improve Lee High Road land was acquired from Lee Place which was for sale.  Some of Old Road was lost as part of this.
Manor House. In 1920 it was sold to the London County Council for a library and became Lee Public Library. Probably built for Thomas Lucas in 1771-2, by Richard Jupp, inside, the original staircase was removed c. 1932. Pretty plasterwork. The grounds with a lake are now a public park; an icehouse survives in a private garden. Plaque to Baring on the site of earlier farmhouse
Pentland House. Goldsmiths' College Hall of Residence. An irregular building of different dates, stuccoed. The centre is the original house of c. 1685, inside, a staircase with late c17 carved newel-heads, said to come from Lee Place.
Lee Place. Modern houses built by Lee lime burners
Working Men's Institution
Manor Lodge
The Firs

Osborne Terrace

This continued over the Quaggy with a footbridge. Replaced  by Meadowcourt Road.

Park Gate
24 visible signs of Mid Kidbrook here

Priory Park
Priory Lodge with very pretty ironwork
HeathfieldOld Priory battlemented tower c19 Gothic, now sandwiched between newer parts of yellow brick.
The Priory. Flats of 1954-6, grouped around informal courtyards, with vistas through open ground-floor lobbies. As Span Estates the first private housing after the Second World War where emphasis was laid on the surroundings. Designed by Eric Lyons with the architect-turned-developer Geoffrey Townsend.

Railway 

The railway was built from 1846. Between here and Lewisham it ran on the south side of the Upper Kid Brooke stream  and ir was the northern boundary of the goods yard at Blackheath station. Tthe company ran a stream through a pipe

St. Margaret's Passage
As the area was built up, old rights of way, or field paths, became modem streets or footpaths. This lane runs from St Margaret's, church of Lee, to Lee High Road. Between Kingswood Place and Lee Church Street the path was known as 'Royal Oak Place'.
Brick wall. A few yards past the start of the brick wall on the right down the Passage, about 2 feet from the ground, is a series of carvings, names, initials and 18th century dates. Here the old path used to end, probably with a stile into the field where the new church was built. The Fludyers, who owned the land and the great house which stood to the right, could not close the footpath, and so built the brick wall to give themselves privacy from the villagers who used the path and, presumably, also from the youths who hung around the stile and passed their time carving these graffiti. Their position on the wall indicates how much the ground level has been made up here in 200 years
St. Margaret's parish hall was built as Kingswood Place Baptist Chapel.

The Glebe
Laid out c. 1849, a few survivals of villas

Wricklemarsh
The Manor is in the Domesday Book when it was marshland and pastures. In 1503 it was owned by Sir William Ganoway then bought by Blounts when Blackheath village was known as Blunt's Hole. It was bought in 1711 by Sir Gregory Page, whose father was a brewer and traded with the government for shares of the South Sea Company. He Left 17,000 shares at bought four pence each sold at £500 each just before the South Sea Bubble burst. He became richest commoner in the country. However he attempted to commit suicide several times. Proposed at the age of 84 to a Greenwich girl aged 20. Died a widower two years later. The estate was inherited by his nephew and sold off. The New owner, Cator, divided up the estate selling it in lots and the house was demolished in 1787
Wricklemarsh was a mansion with a ballroom, an art gallery, and 120 other rooms. It was at the junction of Blackheath Park and Pond Road. . By John James 1723.


Sources
Osborne Defending London