Railway London Bridge to Gravesend. East Greenwich
Railway Line from London Bridge to Gravesend
The line turns slightly north east on this section
Riverside industrial area with 19th workers housing
Post to the south Maze Hill
Post to the east East Greenwich and North Charlton
Post to the west Cubitt Town and Highbridge and Ballast
Post to the north Greenwich Marsh
Annandale Road
Calvert Road Schools. This was a London School Board School. A bell was supplied to the school in 1884. Parts of the entrance gates are incorporated into the new housing on site.
Annandale Primary School. The school was built in 1967 by the Inner London Education Authority and replaced a previous Annandale School and Calvert Road Schools. It closed in 2000 and became Millennium Primary School on a different site. The school site between Annandale and Calvert Road is now private housing.
Armitage Road
The road was originally built in the 1880s and had two small blocks of London County Council houses called Armitage Cottages. The east side of the road and the northern end were rebuilt as part of the Greater London Council’s Caletock Estate in the 1970s.
Caletock Hall. Tenants Hall. Demolished and now housing on the site.
Collerston House. Housing for elderly people on to the corner with Woolwich Road. The name is a reminder of Collerston Road which previously ran through the area.
Azof Street
Mission Hall. This small hall appears to have originated as a Baptist church. Demolished and replaced by housing.
East Greenwich United Reformed Church, Rothbury Hall, Built as a Congregational mission hall in 1893 by W. T. Hollands. It has a large upper hall with an exotic roof-line. It was paid for by arms dealer, Josiah Vavasseur, whose Blackheath house was also called Rothbury. It is in current use by arts organisations. The church garden to the east is now a tyre dealer. Inside stained glass windows related to local towns.
Banning Street
The original name of the street was, Chester Street from Durham mining area town, Chester le Street.
Waterside Gardens Estate. Greenwich Wharf. This site now under development as housing by London and Regional Properties was part of the area of Greenwich Marsh. The Marsh was a discrete area with a gate on the riverside at the present end of Pelton Road. Before the 1840s this was Dog Kennel Field and Great Meadow and owned by Morden College since 1680.
Tide Mill. The remains of a late 12th tide mill were found in 2008 on the part of the site known as Granite Wharf. It has been assumed that this was associated with St.Peter’s Abbey, Ghent, the then site owners.
Greenwich Wharf. The area between the junction with Pelton Road and the Enderby Wharf boundary was developed for Morden College from 1838 as Greenwich Wharf by William Coles Child. It was subdivided into parcels and let to various operators.
Lovell’s Wharf. The area later known as Lovells Wharf was operated as a coal import facility by Coles Child from 1841, with a lime burner as a sub tenant. From 1852 the wharf was managed by Rowton and Whiteway manage the wharf for Coles Child. From 1900 it was operated by John Waddell and Co. as a coal wharf. An ice well on the site was operated by Ashby. Coles Child lease expired in 1919
Shaw Lovells. Shaw Lovell, from Bristol took over the wharf from 1911. They operated a wharfage business with an emphasis on metal transshipment eventually hosting the London Metals Exchange on site. In the 1960s they built a computer centre and office block in Banning Street on the corner with Pelton Road. They ceased using the wharf in the early 1980s but two Butters Scotch Derricks remained and were occasionally used until their demolition by Morden College in 2000. This was a safeguarded wharf from the 1900s until quashed by the Mayor of London around 2000.
Granite Wharf. This was separate from Greenwich Wharf from 1852. It was let as a Stone Wharf to Mowlem, Burt & Freeman paving contractors, 1852. It is here that the Great Globe at Swanage was manufactured. In the 20th the operation of the wharf devolved to Wimpey Asphalt Roadstone, and in the 1980s to Tarmac. The wharf remained operational for transit of aggregate until after 2000 when the lease was terminated by Morden College.
Providence Wharf. This wharf was operated by Hughes, barge builders. They later became Tilbury Contracting and Dredging Co. and later Tilbury Lighterage leaving the wharf in the early 20th
District Board of Works Wharf. This later became Badcock Wharf. John Badcock, barge and lighter repairs
Thames Craft Dry Docking Services. These are now on Badcock’s Wharf. One of the few remaining boat repair facilities on the Thames. Supposed to be moving to Bay Wharf.
Piper’s Wharf. James Piper took over the wharf in the 1890s and built a series of outstanding sailing barges here. From the 1940s as Piper Marine Engineering they undertook barge repairs until the mid 1980s.
Thomas Scholey. Barge owners and operators working from Pipers Wharf and later from Dawsons’ Wharf from at least the 1880s until at least the 1950s, they were Motor, Sailing and Dumb Barge Owners Licensed Lightermen, and Wharfingers
Dawson’s Wharf. James Piper took over Dawsons Wharf in 1890.
Thames Foundry. This was on the west corner with Derwent Street in the 1860s. P.M.Parsons had this site to make his white brass, and other products.
Albion Mustard Mills 1867
Bellott Street
Flavell and Churchill. They are listed from the 1930s as engineers but in the 1950s as a chemical works. They eventually moved to Birmingham
Blackwall Lane
Formerly Marsh Lane this traditionally ran from the cross roads with Woolwich Road to the river at the north end of the Peninsula. Its current line is from the cross roads to the roundabout with John Harrison Way. Some buildings once in Blackwall Lane are now either in Tunnel Avenue or the Blackwall Tunnel Approach.
2-12 Greenwich Town Social Club. Probably built 1910 for W.Mills
33 building owned by Greenwich Council used in the 1990s for youth advice and associated work. Demolished
94 block of Buildings belonging to the London County Council called West View Cottages which stood near the junction with Tunnel Avenue. Demolished 1962
Meantime. The brewery was founded in 2000 by Alastair Hook who had trained at the University of Munich. It moved to Blackwall Lane in 2010. The company believes that in the UK beer manufacture has been concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of ever bigger brewers losing our cultural heritage of beer in the process. There is a Visitor's Centre attached to the brewery which runs tours.
Harrison Barber Knackers Yard. In business late 19th early 20th.
Cawood Wharton Co making concrete building blocks. Founded in 1922 and closed 1990s. They were based north of the flyover
Alfred J Gay. Paint works
United Lamp Black Works
Glenister Secondary School. This was a London School Board School dating from before 1906 and apparently originally East Greenwich The Meridian Senior Council School and then East Greenwich Glenister Road Council School. As Glenister Road School it was a Special School for Boys and later called Vanbrugh Special School. The building is now Christchurch Primary School with an address in Commerell Street. Also with an address in Blackwall Lane in the 1960s was Riverway Secondary School also a special school for boys. It is not clear if this is the same school or a different school to the north.
Vanburgh Primary School. This is also shown with an address in Blackwall Lane and do have been on site 1903 – 1961. It is not clear if this is a school nearby the Glenister School site (where there were many buildings) or a forerunner of the school on what was the original site of the Robert Owen Nursery
Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach
The current approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel was built in the late 1960s. The road
Braddyll Street
Houses on the Morden College estate. At the north end cottages were designed by Richard Bond, and others by George Smith 1851-2
Bugsbys Way
The road was built by London Borough of Greenwich and opened in 1984.
Cadet Place.
This was originally called Paddock Place.
Cyclopean Wall. A wall of random stone ran down the western end of the path as the boundary to Granite Wharf. The stone was assumed to be made up of pieces from Mowlem’s stone yard and has been described as a demonstration of the stone trade in the English Channel in the 19th. A sanitised version of this made up of stones from the wall is now displayed on the riverside.
Calvert Road
9-19 Calvert Road Cottage Homes. These began around 1901 and run by the local Union adjacent to the workhouse. They could house 50 children and worked with the Hollies homes at Sidcup.
Chevening Road
East Greenwich Pleasaunce. Named after the former Royal Palace of Pleasaunce. A formal, tree-lined garden - is a quiet haven that contains a burial ground for around 3,000 sailors who lived in retirement at the Royal Hospital Greenwich including some who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar and the Crimean War whose graves were removed from the Hospital site in 1875 and reinterred here. In 1926 it was sold to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich, the Admiralty reserving rights of further burials. Today, there is a small children's playground), a mother-and-toddler drop-in centre, a community orchard, a cafe and a war memorial
Infant Welfare Centre. This was opened by the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich opened in 1931. It is now a commercially run nursery.
Christchurch Way
The northern portion of this street was called Waldridge Street – after a coal mining complex in the Chester le Street Area. The southern end was Church Road East. Later the whole street was Christ Church Street
Houses at the southern end were built by Coles Child for Morden College and designed by George Lewis in the early 1859s. Houses and flats on the east side going north were built for Morden College in the 1960s and those at the far north end, west side, adjacent to the Alcatel Works were built by Pipers for their workers. Maisonettes on the west side show the Morden College coat or arms at gable level.
Entrance to Alcatel Works. Historically this was marshland used in the 17th as a government gunpowder depot and testing facility. The site, on which a rope walk had been built, was later taken over by the Enderby seafaring family, and used it for sail and rope making in connection with their whaling business which extended into exploration of Antarctica. In 1845 their works were destroyed by a fire but they subsequently built Enderby House which is still extant but ruinous. The site was then sold to cable makers Glass-Elliot & Co – who merged in 1864 with the Gutta-Percha Co to form Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) Gutta-Percha was used to insulate telegraph wires and its under sea use followed and a telegraph cable was successfully laid from Dover to Calais in 1850. Cable making continued on site and it became the main manufacturer and supplier of submarine telegraph cable world wide. Cyrus West Field an American entrepreneur, promoted a trans-Atlantic cable in 1857. This cable was unsuccessful but in 1865 Brunel’s Great Eastern was used as the cable layer. The next year saw a fourth cable laid successfully – and the third cable also completed. Although initially transmission through these cables was slow and used Morse code, research and developing technologies led to gradual improvement. In the 1920s Telcon who developed Mumetal and later coaxial cable. By 1950s repeaters were being added and these had Development led to transoceanic systems for over 5000 telephone channels in 1970s. Then optical fibre was developed – by Charles Kao who has subsequently been awarded a Nobel Prize, and the first experimental lengths were made at the Greenwich site. Traffic now is digital, mainly for the internet, and capacity is quoted in megabitlsec or gigabitlsec. The Greenwich site is now owned by Alcatel-Lucent still producing terminal equipment for subsea cable systems However, the riverside half of the site, which includes Enderby House, is being redeveloped with flats.
Christ Church School. This was originally a national school attached to Christ Church adjacent. The school is now in an old London School Board building in Commerell Street and this building became the East Greenwich Community Centre. It was later taken over by the Forum@Greenwich based in the old church building
Collerston Road
This road ran parallel to Armitage Road and was built in the 1880s. It disappeared when the area was redeveloped in the 1970s. The name remains at Collerston House in Armitage Road.
Collerston Cottages – these were two small blocks of London County Council flats which previously stood in the area.
Colomb Street
This was called George Street until the late 19th.
91 Vanbrugh Tavern. The pub dates from 1889 when the road was extended southwards beyond Walnut Tree Road. It was called the Duke of Edinburgh until the 2000s – before which it was eccentric and very, very dirty.
Commercial Way
This road was built in the 1990s as part of the development of an area of Gas Company owned sports fields and allotments into a shopping complex. It runs along the southern perimeter of the area and parallel to a stretch of the Millennium Busway which is in front of large retail units.
Commerell Street
43 Robert Owen Early Years Centre.
45 Christchurch School. Christ Church Church of England Primary School is now in the buildings of what was Glenister Road School. It was originally in Christ Church Way in buildings now used as a community centre.
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School. The school moved here into temporary buildings on what had been a bomb site after 1963. It had previously been on the corner with Pelton Road in buildings later used as a community centre. In 1963 it had amalgamated with St Anne’s School from Crooms Hill.
Dandridge Close
Local authority housing on the site of Arthur Dandridge’s builder’s yard.
Denham Street
Depot and garage used by Lewis Coaches until 2012.
Derwent Street
Street named after a Tyne tributary on the area of Greenwich Wharf developed by Coles Child.
Earlswood Close,
Houses built by the Greater London Council in 1970s around a new green.
Earlswood Street
This was originally called Edward Street.
Enderby Street
This was originally called Newcastle Street as one of the road names on the Coles Child Estate from mining areas.
Flamsteed Estate
Estate built before the Second World War by the London County Council. Some blocks rebuilt following V1 rocket attack in the Second World War
Community Centre. Converted laundry, now derelict.
Hadrian Street
Was Northumberland Street on the Coles Child estate and named from a colliery area.
Hatcliffe Street
Built in 1847 between Marsh Lane and Lower Woolwich Road on Hatcliffe Charity land
Kossuth Street
Built on the Coles Child Estate this was originally Wellington Street.
Lassell Street
This was originally called Marlborough Street
Gothic Row – this was an earlier name for the stretch of road between Old Woolwich Road and
Trafalgar Road. The shops on the east side remain – now art galleries – but the original cottages on the west side have been replaced with a nursery and flats.
Light industrial units. On the west side of the road between Old Woolwich Road and the river are industrial units which appear to be post Second World War.
Marlborough Hall, a redbrick building originally used by the Brethren. In the 1950s this was a print works.
Moseley Row
Name for Marian Moseley, local councillor died 1999
Old Woolwich Road
Junction with Lassell Street – on known as Marlborough Street, and Old Woolwich Road itself, west of the junction was Hog Lane. This is the site of the Tudor Hobby Stables – which was for horses which were smaller than those kept in the main royal stables. On the 1867 map a small circle here is marked as “Pound” – an official enclosure for stray animals.
128 Duke of Wellington. Closed and turned into housing. Late 19th
47 Greenwich Auction Rooms. Post war factory building used in the 1970s by John Erdington & Co who made protectomuffs for refrigeration equipment.
Spring Gardens. This was on the north side of the road opposite the Duke of Wellington Public House. Works for the manufacture of manure owned by Henry Howard and a Bridge Stondon. The works included an engine house
Pelton Road,
The road is named for the two Pelton Colliers – Pelton Main and Pelton West – near Chester le Street in County Durham. This is a main road in a layout planned by George Smith for Morden College, after 1838 and completed by 1865. Smith designed many of the houses and they were built by Coles Child. Terraces of houses had names connected to collieries, coal owners mainly in County Durham and on Tyneside.
Willow Wall Dyke. On a plan from 1838 there is a footpath along the line of where the road is now and a parallel drainage dyke going from the north part of Great Meadow and south Dog Kennel Meadow to the Woolwich Road. This road was built to face on to and run on the line of what was old Willow Wall Dyke to Ballast Quay. The line of the dyke can be seen in the gardens on the south side of Pelton Road - there are no gardens on the north side. It is thought there may even have been a tramway down the line of the road. At first the old dyke stayed and the new houses faced it but then it was arched over in 1846
St.Joseph’s. This Roman Catholic Church was built to replace the old chapel in Clarks Buildings. It was in 1881 by H. J. Hanson. A son of the better-known church architect J.A. Hansom. It was built by W. Smith of Kennington and opened by Cardinal Manning. It served a mainly Irish Catholic population, which had moved into the area. It has a lofty interior and its high roof is a landmark in the area although the planned tower was never finished. In 1940, the church was damaged by bombing which lifted the roof off the building and a year later, incendiary bombs led to fires. In 1959, an extensive restoration took place and the sanctuary frescos were painted over. In 1962, an organ built c.1905 by Conachers of Huddersfield was installed, replaced an organ by Sweatman which had been destroyed by bombing.
School. In 1870 the old school attached to the Clarkes Buildings chapel was condemned by the School Board for London. A new school was built in 1873 at the corner of Pelton Road and Commerell Street. The architect was Henry John Hansom who had been in partnership with his father and District Surveyor for Battersea. It was damaged in war time bombing. In 1963 the school moved to an adjacent site and the old buildings were converted to a parish club and social centre. In 2008, a planning application for its demolition of the old school building was refused. The building has however since been demolished.
Presbytery. This was built 1875, in the street corner opposite the school.
Parish Hall. In 1920 the parish bought old workshops adjoining the school fir a parish hall.
23 Pelton Arms. The pub dates from 1844, but following use in a TV show in 2000s has part signage as ‘The Nag’s Head’.
67 Royal Standard. Dates from the mid-19th. Plastic Christmas reindeer are a permanent feature.
Robert Owen. Robert Owen nursery was originally here moving in the late 1990s. Some trees from its nature garden remain.
Peterboat Close
Trading estate and industrial units on the site of local authority depot, previously used for wartime prefabs
Rodmere Street
This was originally called William Street and built with housing before 1870 and seen as poor quality. There was a decision to clear it in 1937.
Housing built in the 2000s on a car park used by cinema patrons. This was on the site of wartime air raid shelters.
Salutation Road
Trading estate and industrial units on the site of local authority depot, previously used for wartime prefabs
Schoolbank Road
Road leading to Millennium School, to the north. Built 2000s.
Selcroft Road
Built 1880s and since demolished to become part of Greater London Council’s Caletock Estate
Southern Way
This is part of the Millennium Busway. This road on the Millennium Village is open to bus traffic only. It was part of what was built as the Millennium Busway intended as a guided bus system to the Millennium Dome in 2000. The scheme failed and has only ever been used by London Buses.
Trafalgar Road
This road was laid out by the New Cross Turnpike Trust in 1824 thus providing a bypass and a link to the road to Woolwich and to Romney Road.
Christ Church. This was built for the new houses in East Greenwich, were laid out from the 1840s by Coles Child for the Morden College Trustees. It was designed, following a competition, by John Brown of Norwich. The main body of the church is now Forum@Greenwich, which began as a centre for disability support in the 1990s and now is mainly offices. The church itself is in a modern extension built at the same time as the conversion. There have been other extensions since.
50 Royal Oak Pub. Demolished
82 Odeon. This was Trafalgar Cinema opened here in 1912. It had a tower and dome above the corner entrance. It was designed by Ward & Ward. By the 1920s it was managed by Greenwich Picture Palaces Ltd. In 1934 it was taken over by D.J. James and made to look more modern and the seating increased, the work was done by Leslie H. Kemp and F.E. Tasker. The theatre also presented variety shows and there were two dressing rooms. In 1937 it was taken over by Eastern Cinemas and in 1945 by Odeon Theatres Ltd. It was then renamed Odeon. It closed in 1960. The building was converted into a car showroom and later a cut price supermarket. It was demolished in 1998 and an office block and flats built.
Greenwich Baths. These were opened on 1928 having been designed by Horth & Andrew of Hull. There is a foundation stone visible to read at the front door. The internal fabric still shows signs of a varied history from the original pool hall to the decorative archways which gave the centre its name. It has since been redesigned as The Arches and is run by Greenwich Leisure Ltd. It has two pools and a gym.
90 Hardy's. This was previously called the Bricklayers Arms. It dates from at least the 1850s.
114 Victoria. Demolished in 2006. Dated from at least the 1870s.
168 The London Bioscope Co. was a cinema in a shop conversion. It was operating by 1913 and closed around 1915. The shop is now a dry cleaners.
176 Crown. Dates from at least the 1850s
155 William IV. Dates from at least the 1850s.
Three Cups. Coffee Tavern
208 British Queen. Dates from the 1840. This became Ricks Bar but has since closed and been converted to a betting shop and flats.
234 Granada Cinema. Thus was opened by Gracie Fields in 1937. It was Designed by C. Howard Crane, with interior decoration by Theodore Komisarjevsky. It had a Wurlitzer 3Manual/8Ranks organ opened by organist Donald Thorne, and a fully equipped stage. It ran Bingo sessions from 1963 and full time from 1968. Later it became Stars nightclub. In the late 1990s flats were built inside with an internal decoration of tin can palm trees. Windows were added and a new glass roof to light a central atrium. Initially a Chinese restaurant with large glass windows operated in some of the foyer area, but that failed and it has since remained derelict. The basement has also housed short lived bars and pole dancing establishments.
Tunnel Avenue
Tunnel Avenue was originally built as the approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel, passing, in this secretion, over an area used as a fireworks and ammunition factory. The road breaks at the crossing with Blackwall Lane but continues north westwards some distance to the north.
British Oxygen. This branch of the company supplied medical and industrial gases and was based west of the corner with Denham Street. It dated from before the Great War. There is now housing on the site.
Motorway Bridge. Bridge to the retail estate on the other side of the motorway built in the 1990s.
Rose Garden. Small planted area on the junction of with Blackwall Lane
Tunnel Avenue Depot. Works depot for the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. This included a road with a railed system where trucks took refuse to a jetty where it was tipped into barges and removed for disposal down river. There was also a bathing and disinfection centre and a refuse destructor built in 1923. Some departments were moved here from Banning Street Board of Works site in 1918. The site is now a trading estate. 2
Morden Wharf. This wharf has been used by a number of industrial units. Before the mid 19th the area was known as Great Pits and Little Pits.
Kuper Wire Rope works. Kuper came from Camberwell 9 1851. The manufacture methods of wire rope could be adapted to cable.
Telegraph Cable Works. Glass Elliott first moved to this site in the early 1850s taking it over from wire rope maker Kuper. Their first cables were made here before they moved to Enderby Wharf to the south
Thames Soap Works. Wilkie and Soames. They moved onto the site in
1854. Soames were a prominent local family, involved in local politics and building a church. They made carbolic soap here and a variety of heavy duty cleansers.
Molassine Works. Molassine made pet (Vims) and cattle food on a molasses and sphagnum moss base. The works was known for its vile smell.
Tunnel Glucose. The glucose works on the Peninsula dates from the early 1930s. They made a variety of specialist sugars. In the 1970s the works was taken over by Belgian firm Amylum and then in the 2000s by Tate and Lyle. They sold to French based Syrol who demolished the works.
Sea Witch Pub. This was at the end of Morden Wharf Road and on the site which was later the Tunnel Glucose Laboratories. It was bombed in the Second World War and demolished.
Tyler Street
Terrace housing built, like the surrounding streets, in an area once known as Tyler Town built by Mr. Tyler, previously market gardens, houses all bought up as investments and rented out, no main drainage but barrel drainage laid near the new church, improvement area of 1970s
Vanbrugh Hill
Greenwich District Hospital, Built in 1961 this has now been demolished. Originally this was Greenwich Union workhouse, designed by Dinwiddy and built on the site of a field called Cats Brains. It became St.Alfege Hospital for Greenwich Board of Guardians and then transferred to London County Council and NHS. The 1961 hospital was an unusually large and experimental enterprise by the Department of Health and Social Security’s chief architect W. E. Tatton Brown. It was finally completed in 1976. It was closed in 2001 and the site is now housing with a planned leisure centre and library.
Health Centre. Built in 1976 by the Department of Health and Social Security. It has an A-frame with raking struts.
Woodlands Park Road
Maze Hill Pottery. This is the old downside booking office of Maze Hill station. There is a kiln at the back with a relic of the Erith based Doulton pottery. They make salt glazed ware which was traditional in this area
Woolwich Road
Before 1830 there was a small hamlet round cross roads at the bottom of Vanbrugh Hill and the top of Blackwall Lane. There was a tollgate at bottom of Vanbrugh Hill
1 Ship and Billet. For a while the pub was called the Frog and Radiator and is currently the Duchess Bar. Ship and Billet was a destination on bus blinds.
Wick Cottage. This was roughly on the site of the chip shop at the bottom of Glenforth Street. It was the address for Robson's patent safety light factory used for signalling at sea. Robson also made fireworks and distress rockets
Blenheim Engineering. This company took over the Robson site and remained there until land was taken for the Blackwall Tunnel. They made fireworks and ammunition
Victoria Halls. This was a Wesleyan mission and stood on the eastern corner with Glenforth Street
6 Lord Napier Pub. Now a Chinese restaurant.
11 Old Friends Pub closed in 2010 and demolished.
18 Gatehouse to Royal Hospital Cemetery. This is now a private house.
Glenister Gardens. Small Park laid out on the edge of the Caletock Estate. It features the Mural which was on the Woolwich Road frontage of Greenwich District Hospital. It is by ceramicist Philippa Threlfall and designed from pebbles and ceramics in concrete it shows the history of Greenwich riverside.
Maze Hill Working Men’s Club. This has now closed and is a Japanese restaurant. It was built on the site of the Aylesbury Dairy and open space behind it was used for sports and briefly a public garden. It was earlier known as the Old Field. In the Second World War an underground air raid shelter was built there
The Cecil Rooms. This belonged to Christ Church and was used as a furniture depository during the Second World War. It later became a ballroom dancing school.
Sources
Banbury. Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
Borough of Greenwich. Web site
Bygone Kent
Cinema Theatres Association Newsletter
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Field. London Place names
Goldsmiths College. South East London Industrial Archaeology
Greater London Council. Riverside assessment
Greenwich Antiquarian Society. Transactions
Greenwich Peninsula History. Blog
Greenwich Society. Greenwich Riverside Walk,
London Borough of Greenwich. Local List,
London Encyclopaedia
London Rivers Association. Reports
Mills. Greenwich Marsh
Mills. Greenwich and Woolwich At Work
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. Greenwich Guide 1951,
Pevsner and Cherry. South. London
Port of London Magazine
Smith. History of Charlton
Spurgeon. Discovering Greenwich and Charlton
Taking Stock. Web site
Thames Basin Industrial Archaeology Group. Report
The line turns slightly north east on this section
Riverside industrial area with 19th workers housing
Post to the south Maze Hill
Post to the east East Greenwich and North Charlton
Post to the west Cubitt Town and Highbridge and Ballast
Post to the north Greenwich Marsh
Annandale Road
Calvert Road Schools. This was a London School Board School. A bell was supplied to the school in 1884. Parts of the entrance gates are incorporated into the new housing on site.
Annandale Primary School. The school was built in 1967 by the Inner London Education Authority and replaced a previous Annandale School and Calvert Road Schools. It closed in 2000 and became Millennium Primary School on a different site. The school site between Annandale and Calvert Road is now private housing.
Armitage Road
The road was originally built in the 1880s and had two small blocks of London County Council houses called Armitage Cottages. The east side of the road and the northern end were rebuilt as part of the Greater London Council’s Caletock Estate in the 1970s.
Caletock Hall. Tenants Hall. Demolished and now housing on the site.
Collerston House. Housing for elderly people on to the corner with Woolwich Road. The name is a reminder of Collerston Road which previously ran through the area.
Azof Street
Mission Hall. This small hall appears to have originated as a Baptist church. Demolished and replaced by housing.
East Greenwich United Reformed Church, Rothbury Hall, Built as a Congregational mission hall in 1893 by W. T. Hollands. It has a large upper hall with an exotic roof-line. It was paid for by arms dealer, Josiah Vavasseur, whose Blackheath house was also called Rothbury. It is in current use by arts organisations. The church garden to the east is now a tyre dealer. Inside stained glass windows related to local towns.
Banning Street
The original name of the street was, Chester Street from Durham mining area town, Chester le Street.
Waterside Gardens Estate. Greenwich Wharf. This site now under development as housing by London and Regional Properties was part of the area of Greenwich Marsh. The Marsh was a discrete area with a gate on the riverside at the present end of Pelton Road. Before the 1840s this was Dog Kennel Field and Great Meadow and owned by Morden College since 1680.
Tide Mill. The remains of a late 12th tide mill were found in 2008 on the part of the site known as Granite Wharf. It has been assumed that this was associated with St.Peter’s Abbey, Ghent, the then site owners.
Greenwich Wharf. The area between the junction with Pelton Road and the Enderby Wharf boundary was developed for Morden College from 1838 as Greenwich Wharf by William Coles Child. It was subdivided into parcels and let to various operators.
Lovell’s Wharf. The area later known as Lovells Wharf was operated as a coal import facility by Coles Child from 1841, with a lime burner as a sub tenant. From 1852 the wharf was managed by Rowton and Whiteway manage the wharf for Coles Child. From 1900 it was operated by John Waddell and Co. as a coal wharf. An ice well on the site was operated by Ashby. Coles Child lease expired in 1919
Shaw Lovells. Shaw Lovell, from Bristol took over the wharf from 1911. They operated a wharfage business with an emphasis on metal transshipment eventually hosting the London Metals Exchange on site. In the 1960s they built a computer centre and office block in Banning Street on the corner with Pelton Road. They ceased using the wharf in the early 1980s but two Butters Scotch Derricks remained and were occasionally used until their demolition by Morden College in 2000. This was a safeguarded wharf from the 1900s until quashed by the Mayor of London around 2000.
Granite Wharf. This was separate from Greenwich Wharf from 1852. It was let as a Stone Wharf to Mowlem, Burt & Freeman paving contractors, 1852. It is here that the Great Globe at Swanage was manufactured. In the 20th the operation of the wharf devolved to Wimpey Asphalt Roadstone, and in the 1980s to Tarmac. The wharf remained operational for transit of aggregate until after 2000 when the lease was terminated by Morden College.
Providence Wharf. This wharf was operated by Hughes, barge builders. They later became Tilbury Contracting and Dredging Co. and later Tilbury Lighterage leaving the wharf in the early 20th
District Board of Works Wharf. This later became Badcock Wharf. John Badcock, barge and lighter repairs
Thames Craft Dry Docking Services. These are now on Badcock’s Wharf. One of the few remaining boat repair facilities on the Thames. Supposed to be moving to Bay Wharf.
Piper’s Wharf. James Piper took over the wharf in the 1890s and built a series of outstanding sailing barges here. From the 1940s as Piper Marine Engineering they undertook barge repairs until the mid 1980s.
Thomas Scholey. Barge owners and operators working from Pipers Wharf and later from Dawsons’ Wharf from at least the 1880s until at least the 1950s, they were Motor, Sailing and Dumb Barge Owners Licensed Lightermen, and Wharfingers
Dawson’s Wharf. James Piper took over Dawsons Wharf in 1890.
Thames Foundry. This was on the west corner with Derwent Street in the 1860s. P.M.Parsons had this site to make his white brass, and other products.
Albion Mustard Mills 1867
Bellott Street
Flavell and Churchill. They are listed from the 1930s as engineers but in the 1950s as a chemical works. They eventually moved to Birmingham
Blackwall Lane
Formerly Marsh Lane this traditionally ran from the cross roads with Woolwich Road to the river at the north end of the Peninsula. Its current line is from the cross roads to the roundabout with John Harrison Way. Some buildings once in Blackwall Lane are now either in Tunnel Avenue or the Blackwall Tunnel Approach.
2-12 Greenwich Town Social Club. Probably built 1910 for W.Mills
33 building owned by Greenwich Council used in the 1990s for youth advice and associated work. Demolished
94 block of Buildings belonging to the London County Council called West View Cottages which stood near the junction with Tunnel Avenue. Demolished 1962
Meantime. The brewery was founded in 2000 by Alastair Hook who had trained at the University of Munich. It moved to Blackwall Lane in 2010. The company believes that in the UK beer manufacture has been concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of ever bigger brewers losing our cultural heritage of beer in the process. There is a Visitor's Centre attached to the brewery which runs tours.
Harrison Barber Knackers Yard. In business late 19th early 20th.
Cawood Wharton Co making concrete building blocks. Founded in 1922 and closed 1990s. They were based north of the flyover
Alfred J Gay. Paint works
United Lamp Black Works
Glenister Secondary School. This was a London School Board School dating from before 1906 and apparently originally East Greenwich The Meridian Senior Council School and then East Greenwich Glenister Road Council School. As Glenister Road School it was a Special School for Boys and later called Vanbrugh Special School. The building is now Christchurch Primary School with an address in Commerell Street. Also with an address in Blackwall Lane in the 1960s was Riverway Secondary School also a special school for boys. It is not clear if this is the same school or a different school to the north.
Vanburgh Primary School. This is also shown with an address in Blackwall Lane and do have been on site 1903 – 1961. It is not clear if this is a school nearby the Glenister School site (where there were many buildings) or a forerunner of the school on what was the original site of the Robert Owen Nursery
Blackwall Tunnel Southern Approach
The current approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel was built in the late 1960s. The road
Braddyll Street
Houses on the Morden College estate. At the north end cottages were designed by Richard Bond, and others by George Smith 1851-2
Bugsbys Way
The road was built by London Borough of Greenwich and opened in 1984.
Cadet Place.
This was originally called Paddock Place.
Cyclopean Wall. A wall of random stone ran down the western end of the path as the boundary to Granite Wharf. The stone was assumed to be made up of pieces from Mowlem’s stone yard and has been described as a demonstration of the stone trade in the English Channel in the 19th. A sanitised version of this made up of stones from the wall is now displayed on the riverside.
Calvert Road
9-19 Calvert Road Cottage Homes. These began around 1901 and run by the local Union adjacent to the workhouse. They could house 50 children and worked with the Hollies homes at Sidcup.
Chevening Road
East Greenwich Pleasaunce. Named after the former Royal Palace of Pleasaunce. A formal, tree-lined garden - is a quiet haven that contains a burial ground for around 3,000 sailors who lived in retirement at the Royal Hospital Greenwich including some who fought in the Battle of Trafalgar and the Crimean War whose graves were removed from the Hospital site in 1875 and reinterred here. In 1926 it was sold to the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich, the Admiralty reserving rights of further burials. Today, there is a small children's playground), a mother-and-toddler drop-in centre, a community orchard, a cafe and a war memorial
Infant Welfare Centre. This was opened by the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich opened in 1931. It is now a commercially run nursery.
Christchurch Way
The northern portion of this street was called Waldridge Street – after a coal mining complex in the Chester le Street Area. The southern end was Church Road East. Later the whole street was Christ Church Street
Houses at the southern end were built by Coles Child for Morden College and designed by George Lewis in the early 1859s. Houses and flats on the east side going north were built for Morden College in the 1960s and those at the far north end, west side, adjacent to the Alcatel Works were built by Pipers for their workers. Maisonettes on the west side show the Morden College coat or arms at gable level.
Entrance to Alcatel Works. Historically this was marshland used in the 17th as a government gunpowder depot and testing facility. The site, on which a rope walk had been built, was later taken over by the Enderby seafaring family, and used it for sail and rope making in connection with their whaling business which extended into exploration of Antarctica. In 1845 their works were destroyed by a fire but they subsequently built Enderby House which is still extant but ruinous. The site was then sold to cable makers Glass-Elliot & Co – who merged in 1864 with the Gutta-Percha Co to form Construction and Maintenance Company (Telcon) Gutta-Percha was used to insulate telegraph wires and its under sea use followed and a telegraph cable was successfully laid from Dover to Calais in 1850. Cable making continued on site and it became the main manufacturer and supplier of submarine telegraph cable world wide. Cyrus West Field an American entrepreneur, promoted a trans-Atlantic cable in 1857. This cable was unsuccessful but in 1865 Brunel’s Great Eastern was used as the cable layer. The next year saw a fourth cable laid successfully – and the third cable also completed. Although initially transmission through these cables was slow and used Morse code, research and developing technologies led to gradual improvement. In the 1920s Telcon who developed Mumetal and later coaxial cable. By 1950s repeaters were being added and these had Development led to transoceanic systems for over 5000 telephone channels in 1970s. Then optical fibre was developed – by Charles Kao who has subsequently been awarded a Nobel Prize, and the first experimental lengths were made at the Greenwich site. Traffic now is digital, mainly for the internet, and capacity is quoted in megabitlsec or gigabitlsec. The Greenwich site is now owned by Alcatel-Lucent still producing terminal equipment for subsea cable systems However, the riverside half of the site, which includes Enderby House, is being redeveloped with flats.
Christ Church School. This was originally a national school attached to Christ Church adjacent. The school is now in an old London School Board building in Commerell Street and this building became the East Greenwich Community Centre. It was later taken over by the Forum@Greenwich based in the old church building
Collerston Road
This road ran parallel to Armitage Road and was built in the 1880s. It disappeared when the area was redeveloped in the 1970s. The name remains at Collerston House in Armitage Road.
Collerston Cottages – these were two small blocks of London County Council flats which previously stood in the area.
Colomb Street
This was called George Street until the late 19th.
91 Vanbrugh Tavern. The pub dates from 1889 when the road was extended southwards beyond Walnut Tree Road. It was called the Duke of Edinburgh until the 2000s – before which it was eccentric and very, very dirty.
Commercial Way
This road was built in the 1990s as part of the development of an area of Gas Company owned sports fields and allotments into a shopping complex. It runs along the southern perimeter of the area and parallel to a stretch of the Millennium Busway which is in front of large retail units.
Commerell Street
43 Robert Owen Early Years Centre.
45 Christchurch School. Christ Church Church of England Primary School is now in the buildings of what was Glenister Road School. It was originally in Christ Church Way in buildings now used as a community centre.
St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School. The school moved here into temporary buildings on what had been a bomb site after 1963. It had previously been on the corner with Pelton Road in buildings later used as a community centre. In 1963 it had amalgamated with St Anne’s School from Crooms Hill.
Dandridge Close
Local authority housing on the site of Arthur Dandridge’s builder’s yard.
Denham Street
Depot and garage used by Lewis Coaches until 2012.
Derwent Street
Street named after a Tyne tributary on the area of Greenwich Wharf developed by Coles Child.
Earlswood Close,
Houses built by the Greater London Council in 1970s around a new green.
Earlswood Street
This was originally called Edward Street.
Enderby Street
This was originally called Newcastle Street as one of the road names on the Coles Child Estate from mining areas.
Flamsteed Estate
Estate built before the Second World War by the London County Council. Some blocks rebuilt following V1 rocket attack in the Second World War
Community Centre. Converted laundry, now derelict.
Hadrian Street
Was Northumberland Street on the Coles Child estate and named from a colliery area.
Hatcliffe Street
Built in 1847 between Marsh Lane and Lower Woolwich Road on Hatcliffe Charity land
Kossuth Street
Built on the Coles Child Estate this was originally Wellington Street.
Lassell Street
This was originally called Marlborough Street
Gothic Row – this was an earlier name for the stretch of road between Old Woolwich Road and
Trafalgar Road. The shops on the east side remain – now art galleries – but the original cottages on the west side have been replaced with a nursery and flats.
Light industrial units. On the west side of the road between Old Woolwich Road and the river are industrial units which appear to be post Second World War.
Marlborough Hall, a redbrick building originally used by the Brethren. In the 1950s this was a print works.
Moseley Row
Name for Marian Moseley, local councillor died 1999
Old Woolwich Road
Junction with Lassell Street – on known as Marlborough Street, and Old Woolwich Road itself, west of the junction was Hog Lane. This is the site of the Tudor Hobby Stables – which was for horses which were smaller than those kept in the main royal stables. On the 1867 map a small circle here is marked as “Pound” – an official enclosure for stray animals.
128 Duke of Wellington. Closed and turned into housing. Late 19th
47 Greenwich Auction Rooms. Post war factory building used in the 1970s by John Erdington & Co who made protectomuffs for refrigeration equipment.
Spring Gardens. This was on the north side of the road opposite the Duke of Wellington Public House. Works for the manufacture of manure owned by Henry Howard and a Bridge Stondon. The works included an engine house
Pelton Road,
The road is named for the two Pelton Colliers – Pelton Main and Pelton West – near Chester le Street in County Durham. This is a main road in a layout planned by George Smith for Morden College, after 1838 and completed by 1865. Smith designed many of the houses and they were built by Coles Child. Terraces of houses had names connected to collieries, coal owners mainly in County Durham and on Tyneside.
Willow Wall Dyke. On a plan from 1838 there is a footpath along the line of where the road is now and a parallel drainage dyke going from the north part of Great Meadow and south Dog Kennel Meadow to the Woolwich Road. This road was built to face on to and run on the line of what was old Willow Wall Dyke to Ballast Quay. The line of the dyke can be seen in the gardens on the south side of Pelton Road - there are no gardens on the north side. It is thought there may even have been a tramway down the line of the road. At first the old dyke stayed and the new houses faced it but then it was arched over in 1846
St.Joseph’s. This Roman Catholic Church was built to replace the old chapel in Clarks Buildings. It was in 1881 by H. J. Hanson. A son of the better-known church architect J.A. Hansom. It was built by W. Smith of Kennington and opened by Cardinal Manning. It served a mainly Irish Catholic population, which had moved into the area. It has a lofty interior and its high roof is a landmark in the area although the planned tower was never finished. In 1940, the church was damaged by bombing which lifted the roof off the building and a year later, incendiary bombs led to fires. In 1959, an extensive restoration took place and the sanctuary frescos were painted over. In 1962, an organ built c.1905 by Conachers of Huddersfield was installed, replaced an organ by Sweatman which had been destroyed by bombing.
School. In 1870 the old school attached to the Clarkes Buildings chapel was condemned by the School Board for London. A new school was built in 1873 at the corner of Pelton Road and Commerell Street. The architect was Henry John Hansom who had been in partnership with his father and District Surveyor for Battersea. It was damaged in war time bombing. In 1963 the school moved to an adjacent site and the old buildings were converted to a parish club and social centre. In 2008, a planning application for its demolition of the old school building was refused. The building has however since been demolished.
Presbytery. This was built 1875, in the street corner opposite the school.
Parish Hall. In 1920 the parish bought old workshops adjoining the school fir a parish hall.
23 Pelton Arms. The pub dates from 1844, but following use in a TV show in 2000s has part signage as ‘The Nag’s Head’.
67 Royal Standard. Dates from the mid-19th. Plastic Christmas reindeer are a permanent feature.
Robert Owen. Robert Owen nursery was originally here moving in the late 1990s. Some trees from its nature garden remain.
Peterboat Close
Trading estate and industrial units on the site of local authority depot, previously used for wartime prefabs
Rodmere Street
This was originally called William Street and built with housing before 1870 and seen as poor quality. There was a decision to clear it in 1937.
Housing built in the 2000s on a car park used by cinema patrons. This was on the site of wartime air raid shelters.
Salutation Road
Trading estate and industrial units on the site of local authority depot, previously used for wartime prefabs
Schoolbank Road
Road leading to Millennium School, to the north. Built 2000s.
Selcroft Road
Built 1880s and since demolished to become part of Greater London Council’s Caletock Estate
Southern Way
This is part of the Millennium Busway. This road on the Millennium Village is open to bus traffic only. It was part of what was built as the Millennium Busway intended as a guided bus system to the Millennium Dome in 2000. The scheme failed and has only ever been used by London Buses.
Trafalgar Road
This road was laid out by the New Cross Turnpike Trust in 1824 thus providing a bypass and a link to the road to Woolwich and to Romney Road.
Christ Church. This was built for the new houses in East Greenwich, were laid out from the 1840s by Coles Child for the Morden College Trustees. It was designed, following a competition, by John Brown of Norwich. The main body of the church is now Forum@Greenwich, which began as a centre for disability support in the 1990s and now is mainly offices. The church itself is in a modern extension built at the same time as the conversion. There have been other extensions since.
50 Royal Oak Pub. Demolished
82 Odeon. This was Trafalgar Cinema opened here in 1912. It had a tower and dome above the corner entrance. It was designed by Ward & Ward. By the 1920s it was managed by Greenwich Picture Palaces Ltd. In 1934 it was taken over by D.J. James and made to look more modern and the seating increased, the work was done by Leslie H. Kemp and F.E. Tasker. The theatre also presented variety shows and there were two dressing rooms. In 1937 it was taken over by Eastern Cinemas and in 1945 by Odeon Theatres Ltd. It was then renamed Odeon. It closed in 1960. The building was converted into a car showroom and later a cut price supermarket. It was demolished in 1998 and an office block and flats built.
Greenwich Baths. These were opened on 1928 having been designed by Horth & Andrew of Hull. There is a foundation stone visible to read at the front door. The internal fabric still shows signs of a varied history from the original pool hall to the decorative archways which gave the centre its name. It has since been redesigned as The Arches and is run by Greenwich Leisure Ltd. It has two pools and a gym.
90 Hardy's. This was previously called the Bricklayers Arms. It dates from at least the 1850s.
114 Victoria. Demolished in 2006. Dated from at least the 1870s.
168 The London Bioscope Co. was a cinema in a shop conversion. It was operating by 1913 and closed around 1915. The shop is now a dry cleaners.
176 Crown. Dates from at least the 1850s
155 William IV. Dates from at least the 1850s.
Three Cups. Coffee Tavern
208 British Queen. Dates from the 1840. This became Ricks Bar but has since closed and been converted to a betting shop and flats.
234 Granada Cinema. Thus was opened by Gracie Fields in 1937. It was Designed by C. Howard Crane, with interior decoration by Theodore Komisarjevsky. It had a Wurlitzer 3Manual/8Ranks organ opened by organist Donald Thorne, and a fully equipped stage. It ran Bingo sessions from 1963 and full time from 1968. Later it became Stars nightclub. In the late 1990s flats were built inside with an internal decoration of tin can palm trees. Windows were added and a new glass roof to light a central atrium. Initially a Chinese restaurant with large glass windows operated in some of the foyer area, but that failed and it has since remained derelict. The basement has also housed short lived bars and pole dancing establishments.
Tunnel Avenue
Tunnel Avenue was originally built as the approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel, passing, in this secretion, over an area used as a fireworks and ammunition factory. The road breaks at the crossing with Blackwall Lane but continues north westwards some distance to the north.
British Oxygen. This branch of the company supplied medical and industrial gases and was based west of the corner with Denham Street. It dated from before the Great War. There is now housing on the site.
Motorway Bridge. Bridge to the retail estate on the other side of the motorway built in the 1990s.
Rose Garden. Small planted area on the junction of with Blackwall Lane
Tunnel Avenue Depot. Works depot for the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. This included a road with a railed system where trucks took refuse to a jetty where it was tipped into barges and removed for disposal down river. There was also a bathing and disinfection centre and a refuse destructor built in 1923. Some departments were moved here from Banning Street Board of Works site in 1918. The site is now a trading estate. 2
Morden Wharf. This wharf has been used by a number of industrial units. Before the mid 19th the area was known as Great Pits and Little Pits.
Kuper Wire Rope works. Kuper came from Camberwell 9 1851. The manufacture methods of wire rope could be adapted to cable.
Telegraph Cable Works. Glass Elliott first moved to this site in the early 1850s taking it over from wire rope maker Kuper. Their first cables were made here before they moved to Enderby Wharf to the south
Thames Soap Works. Wilkie and Soames. They moved onto the site in
1854. Soames were a prominent local family, involved in local politics and building a church. They made carbolic soap here and a variety of heavy duty cleansers.
Molassine Works. Molassine made pet (Vims) and cattle food on a molasses and sphagnum moss base. The works was known for its vile smell.
Tunnel Glucose. The glucose works on the Peninsula dates from the early 1930s. They made a variety of specialist sugars. In the 1970s the works was taken over by Belgian firm Amylum and then in the 2000s by Tate and Lyle. They sold to French based Syrol who demolished the works.
Sea Witch Pub. This was at the end of Morden Wharf Road and on the site which was later the Tunnel Glucose Laboratories. It was bombed in the Second World War and demolished.
Tyler Street
Terrace housing built, like the surrounding streets, in an area once known as Tyler Town built by Mr. Tyler, previously market gardens, houses all bought up as investments and rented out, no main drainage but barrel drainage laid near the new church, improvement area of 1970s
Vanbrugh Hill
Greenwich District Hospital, Built in 1961 this has now been demolished. Originally this was Greenwich Union workhouse, designed by Dinwiddy and built on the site of a field called Cats Brains. It became St.Alfege Hospital for Greenwich Board of Guardians and then transferred to London County Council and NHS. The 1961 hospital was an unusually large and experimental enterprise by the Department of Health and Social Security’s chief architect W. E. Tatton Brown. It was finally completed in 1976. It was closed in 2001 and the site is now housing with a planned leisure centre and library.
Health Centre. Built in 1976 by the Department of Health and Social Security. It has an A-frame with raking struts.
Woodlands Park Road
Maze Hill Pottery. This is the old downside booking office of Maze Hill station. There is a kiln at the back with a relic of the Erith based Doulton pottery. They make salt glazed ware which was traditional in this area
Woolwich Road
Before 1830 there was a small hamlet round cross roads at the bottom of Vanbrugh Hill and the top of Blackwall Lane. There was a tollgate at bottom of Vanbrugh Hill
1 Ship and Billet. For a while the pub was called the Frog and Radiator and is currently the Duchess Bar. Ship and Billet was a destination on bus blinds.
Wick Cottage. This was roughly on the site of the chip shop at the bottom of Glenforth Street. It was the address for Robson's patent safety light factory used for signalling at sea. Robson also made fireworks and distress rockets
Blenheim Engineering. This company took over the Robson site and remained there until land was taken for the Blackwall Tunnel. They made fireworks and ammunition
Victoria Halls. This was a Wesleyan mission and stood on the eastern corner with Glenforth Street
6 Lord Napier Pub. Now a Chinese restaurant.
11 Old Friends Pub closed in 2010 and demolished.
18 Gatehouse to Royal Hospital Cemetery. This is now a private house.
Glenister Gardens. Small Park laid out on the edge of the Caletock Estate. It features the Mural which was on the Woolwich Road frontage of Greenwich District Hospital. It is by ceramicist Philippa Threlfall and designed from pebbles and ceramics in concrete it shows the history of Greenwich riverside.
Maze Hill Working Men’s Club. This has now closed and is a Japanese restaurant. It was built on the site of the Aylesbury Dairy and open space behind it was used for sports and briefly a public garden. It was earlier known as the Old Field. In the Second World War an underground air raid shelter was built there
The Cecil Rooms. This belonged to Christ Church and was used as a furniture depository during the Second World War. It later became a ballroom dancing school.
Sources
Banbury. Shipbuilders of the Thames and Medway
Borough of Greenwich. Web site
Bygone Kent
Cinema Theatres Association Newsletter
Cinema Treasures. Web site
Field. London Place names
Goldsmiths College. South East London Industrial Archaeology
Greater London Council. Riverside assessment
Greenwich Antiquarian Society. Transactions
Greenwich Peninsula History. Blog
Greenwich Society. Greenwich Riverside Walk,
London Borough of Greenwich. Local List,
London Encyclopaedia
London Rivers Association. Reports
Mills. Greenwich Marsh
Mills. Greenwich and Woolwich At Work
Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. Greenwich Guide 1951,
Pevsner and Cherry. South. London
Port of London Magazine
Smith. History of Charlton
Spurgeon. Discovering Greenwich and Charlton
Taking Stock. Web site
Thames Basin Industrial Archaeology Group. Report
Comments
We have problems locating where old addresses were, like Bluchers Buildings, Clatks Buildings and The Huts near Blackwall Tunnel. These were there before the prefabs. 🙂