Thames Tributary Earl Sluice - Cold Blow

Thames Tributary Earl Sluice
The River Peck runs underground through this area between Peckham Rye and where it joins the Earl Sluice in Rotherhithe.
TQ 35437 77360

Inner city suburbs off the Old Kent Road and near Milllwall Football Club. Remains of two old canals and many railways, some in use and some just remains.

Post to the west Peckham Park Road
Post to the north South Bermondsey
Post to the east Deptford
Post to the south Telegraph Hill

Avonley Road
New Cross Hospital. Opened 1877. Architects J Walker and W Crickman. It was established by the Metropolitan Asylum Board as a smallpox hospital and developed into a general hospital treating infectious diseases serving the south-east London area. Its buildings were added to in the ea
rly 20th century. Under the National Health Service it came under the control of the Bermondsey and Southwark Hospital Management Committee and various functions were transferred from Guy's Hospital. The Name was changed from Deptford Hospital to South Eastern Hospital. It closed in 1985. Only a few older buildings remain, including the physiotherapy department with its prominent turret, the doctors’ quarters, the matron’s house, and part of the boundary wall. Part of the site remains in health authority use, now known as Wardalls Grove; the other part is now a housing estate.
Wardells Grove, Poisons Unit. The poisons information service started in 1963 as the Guy’s Poisons Unit and provides 24 hour advice and support nationally and internationally on the management of poisoned patients. The old New Cross hospital mortuary is just inside the gateway

Bridge House Meadows:
Bridge House Meadows opened in 1981. An extensive area of open space, opened 1981 on the site of the stadium. A hilly mound gives a fine view all around. Features in films 'Once a Jolly Swagman’.
New Cross Stadium, opened 1913, closed 1969. Famous for speedway and, stock car racing for a while.
The Den. Millwall Football Ground. The Club was previously in Coldblow Lane, south of the Meadows and itwas originally enclosed by railway lines on three sides, all of which were closed in the 1960s. The club founded as Millwall Rovers FC in 1885 by workers at Morton’s jam & marmalade factory on the Isle of Dogs. They used several grounds north of the river but they were difficult to access, and they moved south to Coldblow Lane in 1910. They changed their name to Millwall Athletic FC in 1889 and to Millwall FC in 1899. Now to the north of here in what was Senegal Fields.
Lewisham Lions Leisure Centre, also high-tech 1993.
Railway Line between the stadium and the football ground. This 1869 link connected the Deptford branch with the South London Line.
Footpath this leads across a modern footbridge over Surrey Canal Road. It replaced a railway bridge. The brick base below carried a branch of the East London Line from Peckham. The footpath leads between The Den and SELCHP under three railway arches - first, a modern bridge of the Croydon railway; then a brick bridge of the North Kent Line; and then a wider brick bridge carrying both the Bricklayers Arms branch of 1844 and the Greenwich railway.

Bridge Meadows
Built in the 1990s on the site of the old Millwall Football Ground. Millwall played here from 1910 until they moved in 1993 to the New Den nearby.

Clifton Terrace
Particularly rewarding diversion is a single composition of 1846- 52 but still in the Regency tradition, two storeys, with taller ends and centre. Red brick, an unusual material for that date, very restrained details, nice cast-iron porches. The whole terrace excellently restored by Southwark (1977) as the piece de resistance of a redevelopment area

Coldblow Lane
Coldblow Farm was sited east of the Croydon line between it and the East London line – on the site of Millwall Football Club car park and/or the Sandown Housing Co-op.
Housing where the lane turns sharply east built on the site of the old Den of Millwall Football Club.
Croydon Canal crossed Cold Blow Lane at the junction with Mercury Way. It is also the site of the first lock
Railway track on site of Coldblow crossing - a level crossing to the Deptford Wharf branch, closed 1963
Bridge Piers of siding into the Signal Works.
Road tunnel under Croydon railway - a very narrow road tunnel with a brick arch c1854 of the Croydon Railway, widened by iron extensions with wider arches on either side which take additional tracks

Culmore Road
Brimmington Park
45 Carlton Tavern. Overlooking a small park and near the sports ground, outside seating area

Egmont Street
1 Royal Archer. Closed

John Williams Close
Built in the 1990s on the site of Millwall Football Ground. Millwall played here from 1910- 1993
Manley Court Nursing Home, where Magda Pniewska was shot dead in 2009.

Joseph Hardcastle Close
Named after the slavery abolitionist who once lived nearby in Hatcham House.

Hatcham Road
James Glancy Design Ltd.
Abendant Life Ministries
Flu Metal
River of Life Vineyard

Ilderton Road
Was previously called Canterbury Road
Barnaby pub. Closed and derelict. Was previously the Canterbury Tavern
Canterbury Bridge over the Grand Surrey Canal. Plate girders and jack arches

Juno Way
Was Mazawattee Lane. Line of old track way to Cold Blow Farm. By 1894 it had been built as a road to factories.
Iron bridge - under the East London Line to Wapping.
Croydon Canal – the First lock was sited at the junction with Mercury Way.
Lift bridge – this was here when the road was a track across the canal. The canal narrowed here when it was built, later railway bridges narrowed it
Elizabeth Industrial Estate, tower of Mazawatee Tea factory. The long established tea importers had a purpose built factory here in 1901. They also processed coffee, cocoa, and chocolates and confectionery. The factory also produced the decorated tin canisters. The raw materials would have come by water from the Thames dock system. The complex was heavily bombed but there are some original remains.

Landmann Way
George Landmann was a Royal Engineer who built the London and Greenwich Railway.
Road built on the line of the Deptford Wharf siding which closed 1963
SELCHP - South East London Combined Heat and Power Ltd. A large waste-to-energy incinerator of 1994, the first such plant in Britain. it deals with the refuse of the London Boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham, plus other boroughs and private companies. 100 metre tall round chimney. The largest part of the complex is the boiler house, with its blue framework; the storage pit, and at the end the turbine and condensers.

Manor Grove
Pilgrims Way Primary School. Nature garden
Gods Church of Peace. this was previously Corpus Christ; Mission

Mercury Way
Road laid along the length of only sidings from the Deptford railway branch and is the only reminder of them.
Croydon canal. The site of the junction with the road is almost exactly that with the Grand Surrey canal.

Monson Road
30 Duke of Albany. Part of Hatcham Park Estate. Features in films 'Shaun of the Dead’. Closed and converted to housing
87 film star Alfred Burke born
Monson Road School. London School Board School dates from 1882 and provided schooling for 1,000 pupils. In 2000s it was a failing school, and, was closed, to re-open as Temple Grove Hatcham and incorporated with Haberdasher Aske’s.

Montague Square
Central green space

Myers Lane
Built in the 1990s on the site of the old Millwall Football Ground. Millwall played here 1910-1993 when they moved to the New Den.

New Cross Road
3/41 are the most interesting and varied group on New Cross Road; formerly known as St James Place, building started at the eastern end in 1827. 3/5 are a small pair, of 1839.
6/8 Carlton Cottages, 1828; note the fine fluted pilasters with ammonite capitals -an ammonite is a fossilised shell - the motif was often used by the Brighton architect Amon Henry Wilds.
41 St James Cottage, a detached house of 1827.
43 Hong Kong City was the Crown and Anchor, a pub of 1827.
62 Christ Faith Tabernacle. part of this was The Fox. Closed
92 Hatcham Arms 1850. Latterly known as Down the Hatch. Closed.
1 Deptford Ambulance Station. In the old entrance to the Fever Hospital.
109/117 are terraces c1870 above modern shop fronts. They were developed after the Haberdashers Company demolished Hatcham House, which was sited at the end of the present Casella Road, until 1869. The mansion, originally medieval, rebuilt probably 1775, was the home of the Hardcastle family, merchants and philanthropists.
116/118 New Cross Library, a baroque building of 1911, now a community music studio. By Gerald Warren & Sydney E Castle, 1910-12. Edwardian Renaissance, brick with stone dressings
All Saints Church, a bulky ragstone Gothic church of 1871 with a fine large rose window to the west. The interior more imposing; note the apse shaped chancel with postwar stained glass, the rose window, the acutely pointed arcades, and a fine font inscribed 'to the memory of Alfred Hardcastle, born at Hatcham House 1791, died there 1842'
All Saints Institute and Sunday School. A Gothic brick building of 1877, extended towards the church 1882

Old Kent Road
864 -866 Listed Grade II pair of stuccoed houses of c 1830. Attributed to Brighton architect, Amon Henry Wilds. The distinctive ammonite capitals are a feature of his work.
888 Breffni Arms with Windsor Hall was previously the Prince of Windsor and also The Prince of Saxe Cobourg.
871 Gem Bar and Restaurant was previously The Canterbury Arms. Interesting display of barrels on the wall.
Old Kent Road and Hatcham Station 13th August 1866. Built by the London Brighton and South Coast Railway. Opened as Old Kent Road. In 1870 the name was changed to ‘Old Kent Road and Hatcham’. It was on the south side of Old Kent Road. In 1917 it was closed and in 1925 the platforms were demolished but street level buildings remained, 2002 all demolished
There are a few early 19th three-storey houses and some villas. Just before New Cross Road Around the railway bridge by the borough boundary the relics of an interesting group. All with the distinctive decoration of pilasters with ammonite capitals supporting segmental arches. The ammonite capital was a motif popularized by Amon Wilds at Brighton.


Pomeroy Street
24 Arrows pub now flats
Eno's Fruit Salt Works. James Crossley Eno had begun making and selling salts from his pharmacy in Newcastle. Demand grew and he moved here.Eno's Fruit Salt is still made although the firm moved to Brentford before 1940 – It is now part of GlaxoSmithKline.
Reliance Mill. Thamesmead, business cleaners


Sanford Mews
The Sanford Housing Co-op on the site of Cold blow Farm.
Mural.1980s anti-war mural. 'Riders of the Apocalypse' by Brian Barnes (1983) includes images of Margaret Thatcher, Michael Heseltine and Ronald Reagan on cruise missiles.

Surrey Canal Road
Road built precisely into the bed of the Grand Surrey Canal. The Towpath remains as the footpath. Constructed c1980,
Iron bridge which takes the South London Line to Queens Road Peckham. This was the line of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company. It was one of the first to be electrified on their short lived overhead system by 1912.
Jewson. A timber shed with a prominent canopy of Harcros, the only survivor of many timber yards on the canal route.
Ware, massively overhanging the road, is a storage shed and canopy, a relic of waterborne arrivals of timber to the yard of W.C.Ware.
Sign about lowering masts at railway bridges remained for many years after the road was nui.lt.
Footbridge to Bridge House Meadows – this pedestrian bridge replaces what was once a three track railway bridge. These carried the East London Line from Surrey Docks Station to New Cross and New Cross Gate and they were moved and rebuilt over the years.
Brick arch of the Croydon Railway going to New Cross Gate on the site of the former junction of the Surrey and Croydon Canals at the beginning of Mercury Way,
Iron bridge for the East London Railway, carrying lines from both New Cross and New Cross Gate Stations. Railway Bridge – The line diverges into two routes south of this to serve New Cross and New Cross Gate south of the road at Canal Junction. Opened in 1869. It was electrified on the 4th rail system in 1913 for Metropolitan trains to Shoreditch, and through working of Brighton Company trains finished. All connection between these London Transport lines and those of British Railways was severed in 1966.
Coldblow Pepper Mill. This was the first industrial building of any size to appear between the East London and the Croydon lines at the end of the 19th. Materials could be brought to the doorstep. In glassmaking, sand and fuel are needed in large quantities. Key Glass succeeded them on the site.
Excelsior Works
Key Glassworks Ltd. On the site of the old pepper mill. At New Cross they had ten regenerative furnaces and one recuperative furnace, all oil-fired. They made bottles and jars for the medical, pharmaceutical toilet, cosmetic, druggists and drysalter's trades. Taken over by United Glass in 1962
Archangel Wharf. Along with its dock basins this was built in the early 20th and used by Dolton Bournes and Dolton. They were timber traders since the 1840s in the main docks area. Basin filled in and area cleared in 1985.
Inlet to Archangel Wharf. This was sometimes described as the last remnant of the Croydon Canal. A short arm of the canal had been used by Dolton’s as a timber storage pond but it had been filled and closed in 1963. Before the opening of the Deptford Wharf Railway in 1849, the remaining section of canal went as far south as Cold Blow Lane. The London and Croydon Railway had arranged for it to be used as a canal-railway interchange, and it was served by a siding from New Cross.
Coking Ovens in a row between Archangel Wharf and Cold Blow Lane in early 20th.
Lift Bridge for the Deptford Wharf Railway. In 1849 the Thames Junction Railway had wanted a swing bridge. This Hand operated bridge raised the headroom from 4' to 9'6". And was was installed despite objections. Its successor was removed in 1964
Toll cottage on the Grand Surrey Canal. This would have been west of Juno Way. Erected in 1810. It was positioned nearly opposite the Croydon canal, and its occupant collected the dues from barges entering or leaving it. It survived until 1914.

Tustin Estate
G.L.C. 1964-9, the usual mixed development with three towers. Built on the area of what was Tustin Street
Hatcham Manor Works, Tustin Street. Dr. Horace Cory was a Manufacturing chemist, in 1893. He made plant Dyestuffs, Paint and Chemical colours,

Sources
Canals from Croydon to Camberwell
Disused Stations. Web site
GLIAS Newsletter
Field. London Place Names,
Lewisham Local History Society Transactions

London Murals. Web site
Lost Hospitals. Web site

Millwall Football Club. Web site
Nature Conservation in Southwark
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Spurgeon. Discover Deptford and Lewisham

Comments

Unknown said…
Hi there, I've bought one of the buildings in the block 3/41 New cross road and I'm wondering where you got such exact dates from?

All the properties are clearly shown on the 1844 tithe map but I'm having trouble finding dates (so far it's been online only) that are earlier than that.
This is absolutely brilliant, thanks so much for taking the time to compile this information. I had no idea the River Peck went underground through this area. Is it possible to find out more regarding its route? Is there a map?

Best wishes
Kirsten
Unknown said…
For anyone interested in this area (or any others) and its past, there are map overlays of various ordnance surveys maps at the National Library of Scotland https://maps.nls.uk/ and various maps of London and further afield at MapCo https://mapco.net/. Hours of fun and fascination....
Gary Cross said…
The railway arches in Juno Way where R Welling Scrap Metals is were in fact houses before the second world war. If you look closely, you can see traces of where the chimney stacks were. My grandparents, who came from railway families lived in the very first one, adjacent to Coldblow Lane, as did my mother until war broke out. There is a photograph of their house in one of the Middleton Press railway books. It was quite close to the level crossing (even I remember that!) and the LBSCR Signal Works factory works.

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