Railway from London Bridge to Gravesend. Perry Street
Railway Line from London Bridge to Gravesend.
The line goes in a north easterly direction
Post to the west Springhead Road
Post to the east Gravesend
Post to the north Rosherville
Urban and inland area of Gravesend and Northfleet. It includes what may have been the original medieval centre of Gravesend as well as the main focus of Northfleet away from the river. It is otherwise part of a busy urban area, with railways heading for the centre and the riverside, churches, schools and pubs.
All Saints Road
Elim Pentecostal Church. In the 1930s the building here was the Springfield Gospel Hall.
Burnaby Road
Recreation Ground. Rosherville Park
Bycliffes Terrace
Flint-built houses which appear to have once been called White Post Terrace and later Pelham Terrace
Football field. A field near here adjacent to Campbell Road was used in the late 19h by Gravesend Ormonde football club, made up of local watermen. It later amalgamated with the Gravesend town club to become Gravesend United
Campbell Road
1 Campbell Arms
Cecil Road
Cecil Road Primary School. When it was built in 1909 it was called Cecil Road Board School and took children from infants up to school leaving age. It was and then the most modern of the elementary schools in the town and had cost £12,000. It was opened by the mayor, Alderman H E Davis. Staff were transferred here from Kempthorne Street Higher Grade School which then closed
Coyer Road
Northfleet Technology College. This is in a new school building built in 2010 on the site of the previous secondary school, Northfleet School for Boys; previously Colyer Road Secondary Modern School. Northfleet School for girls opened on a neighbouring site in 1937 and moved to a different site in Hall Road in 1950.
Denehole in the school grounds discovered in 1948 when a tree which had grown out of it fell. It was sealed with a brick cap.
Coopers Road
15 The Globe Tavern. This closed in 1976 and was demolished for new housing now on site. They sold Shrimp Brand beers from Russell’s Gravesend Brewery
20 The Rising Sun Pub. This opened in 1854 and closed in 2012
32 The Jolly Gardeners Pub. Closed long ago.
Dover Road
Rail bridge – this angled bridge crosses the North Kent Line but at one time also crossed the London Chatham and Dover Railway line into West Street.
North Kent Line. This section of the line and the bridge appear to date from the late 1840s, and the kink in the road as it crosses the railway may be of the same date. The final two houses on the terrace on the south side of the road appear to follow a slightly different alignment.
Thames Road crossing. The bridge over the North Kent Line continues westwards to cross Thames Way, built in the early 21st on the line of the defunct Gravesend West Line.
Gravesend West Line Branch line. This line built in the mid-1880s passed under the Dover Road slightly to the north west of the North Kent Line. It appears to have been on a higher level than the existing Thames Way (which is in a cutting) since it had been on embankment to cross the North Kent line, to the south east, and yet passed under the road.
Perry Street Sidings – these were on the west side of the West Street line. Thus they were on the down side and allowed for overnight stabling of locomotives. This area later became a coal yard.
Dover Road East
Fiveash Works – this is an old Tramway Depot. The main part of this site fronts onto Fiveash Road. However the entrance to the works from Dover Road was the exit for trams coming from the tramsheds onto lines laid in the road.
Copperfield “Academy”. This appears to be a very recent new name for Dover Road Primary School. Dover Road School was opened in 1911.
Bridge Inn. This listed pub up was built in 1906 and closed in 1995. It was later used as an old people’s home. In 2006 it was burnt down and replaced by a modern building. In
Huntsman Tavern. This 19th pub closed in 1969 and was replaced by flats
54-56 Builders yard and office. In the 1930s and later this belonged to Sid Bridger.
Fiveash Road,
Site of a smock-mill built by John Fiveash in 1795, who at one time worked the mill on Windmill Hill.
Tramway Depot. The original London Transport Northfleet depot was here and later became a factory. It was originally a depot for Gravesend & Northfleet Tramways. The first horse tramway here was opened in 1883 between The Hill, Northfleet, and St. James Church, Gravesend, - later extended to Trinity church. A short experimental electric line - the first in the south of England - was opened between The Hill and Northfleet station in 1889, but this closed a year later. The system was eventually electrified in 1902 and extended to Swanscombe and with a loop via Dover Road and Pelham Road, and a branch up Windmill Street to The Old Prince of Orange. In 1923 six of the original open-top trams had closed tops by Beadle Bros. of Dartford in 1923, the first public service vehicles in the area to have protection from the weather on the top deck. The first closed-top buses were Leylands, which trams in February 1929. The depot closed in 1929, - the first system in the London area to be abandoned. It was owned by British Electric Traction who took over Maidstone and District buses. It was taken over by London Transport in 1933 and closed in 1936. Its original entrance was from Dover Road. It is now Fiveash Works occupied by a steel fabrication factory.
Glebe Road
The lane between Pelham Road South, Old Road, and Victoria Road was originally glebe land belonging to the church
The Coach Works. Motor repair and construction works. The site is now housing.
Gouge Avenue
New housing at the end built on the site of a building contractor’s yard.
Havelock Road
Gravesend/Northfleet boundary a passage follows the boundary line
Kendal Gardens
Housing built in an area on the edge of the Gravesend/Northfleet boundary. After the Second World War this area was a chalk pit containing tanks. On the east side was a light railway dating from the late 19th and operated by Tolhurst who had a cement works on the riverside west of Pier Road.
Mariners Way
One of a number of streets in an area of housing built on land used as a chalk pit for the Red Lion Cement Works.
May Avenue
May Avenue Industrial Estate. The Avenue is made up of industrial units and yard up. These include Redeemed Christian Church of God. Palace of his Glory and a Homeopathic Health Centre
Mayfield Road
Gravesend/Northfleet boundary. A passage follows the Gravesend/Northfleet boundary
Mill Road
Named for the mill which once stood here at the end of Rural Vale. This was a 50 foot tall Brick-tower windmill, built in 1840 by Richard Young. It was taken over in 1858 by William Boorman, who was a corn merchant in Milton Road and thus was known as Boorman's mill. It closed in 1894 and was demolished in 1916.
Napier Road
The Gravesend/Northfleet boundary runs from a passage by the Rose Inn as far as this road and then runs along it.
Old Perry Street
26 Six Bells. The pub claims to have originally been a coaching inn dating to 1760. Six bells were recast and rehung in St.Botolph's church in 1758
Old Road West
Old Road is said to have been the main road handling coach traffic between London and Dover – hence part of it is called Dover Road. After 1801 this traffic took the new road through Gravesend. Houses along the road were built in the late 19th.
189 Pelham Arms
Pelham Road
The name relates to the Darnley family and specifically Lady Darnley but the name only dates from the mid 19th. It was earlier known as Manor Lane, from Manor Farm which was on its south- east side. It was also called Style's Lane from the name of a farmer and, later, White Post Lane.
61 White Post. The White Post pub was partly demolished in 2008 and following a fire completely demolished in 2009. The pub is said to have had the look of a house and had a croquet lawn at the side. It only became licensed in 1846 when it took on the license of the Black Horse. It was built in 1844 and had been extended on the side and at the rear. It ceased trading in 2002. There is a large walnut tree adjacent to the site and a flint wall along the northern boundary of the former car park
White Post area – the area around the now defunct pub is said to be the centre of the original village of Gravesend. A 19th writer says that glebe land here was marked out with white posts –hence the pub name. Land here was also known as St (or Queen) Mary’s Green
Site of St Mary's Chapel. The Domesday Book refers to a church which is thought to have stood on a site near the rear of where the White Post pub stood and its successors remained there until the 16th. In 1510 it was rededicated to St. Mary after earlier destruction by fire but there were complaints about its distance from the town for infirm people and others and it ceased to be the parish church in 1544. The last burial in its graveyard was in 1598. William Crafter made a sketch in 1822, of the churchyard from his survey of the site and when there were still some stone foundations. Since then Gravestones have been found nearby. The site was sold for in 1844 and then the White Post and the cottages were built.
St.Mary's Green in front of St. Mary's church. Sometimes called 'Queen Mary’s’ Green,
Perry Street
Perry Street. This was an old village the name of which is first recorded in 1281. Perry may refer to pears.
1 Rose Inn.
29 Crown. Pub which dates from the 1830s
All Saints Church. The population of Northfleet grew rapidly in the 19th and All Saints was built in 1870 to meet demand. The parish was created from those of the existing churches of St.Botolph and St. Mark. It ids said that this was down to the work of Rev.Gilling, the vicar of Rosherville, and funding from John Edmeades, the Rosher family and the Brenchleys of Wombwell Hall. The architect was James Brooks and it was built by a local firm, Thomas Blake of Stone Street, Gravesend. It is in Kentish ragstone. It is now an Anglo Catholic Church.
Rosebery Court
This court of modern housing appears to be built on the site of the Co-op Dairy. In 1838 a hoard of 552 coins, mainly Saxon were found here. It was thought they dated from between 814 and 878 A.D. buried with them was a silver cross with its decoration unfinished.
Rosherville Way
An extension of Thames Way, from which it diverges at a roundabout north of the Dover Road. It follows the route of an industrial railway which linked to the West Street line at Perry Street sidings. It then ran northwards to Red Lion Wharf – then operated by Tolhurst & Sons Red Lion Chalk and Whiting Co. It passes under London Road through a tunnel in the chalk. It is part of a network of roads in the area on old railway lines built in the late 20th, early 21st.
Vale Road
78-80 Pair of cottages built in the early 19th. They are weatherboarded a slate roof
157 Murrells. This is an L-plan building made up of a two-bay hall with a cross-wing. There is a smoke-blackened crown-post roof, with the rafters sitting on double wall plates dated at 1409. It is thought to date from the early 15th or late 14th. It is called Murrells from the family who lived there in the 18th.
177 Earl Grey Pub. This flint faced pub dates from at least the 1750 and claims to have been a coaching inn. It is a Shepherd Neame house which also claims to have a poltergeist.
Victoria Road
Perry Street Conservative Club.
Sources
All Saints, Perry Street. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site.
Earl Grey. Web site
Cecil Road School. Web site
Gravesham Council. Web site
Hiscock. A history of Gravesend
LeGear. Deneholes in the Gravesend area.
Lost Pubs Project, web site
Medway. City Ark. Web site
Northfleet Technology College. Web site
Oxford Archaeology. Web site
Six Bells. Web site
Stoyel and Kidner. Cement Railways of Kent.
The line goes in a north easterly direction
Post to the west Springhead Road
Post to the east Gravesend
Post to the north Rosherville
Urban and inland area of Gravesend and Northfleet. It includes what may have been the original medieval centre of Gravesend as well as the main focus of Northfleet away from the river. It is otherwise part of a busy urban area, with railways heading for the centre and the riverside, churches, schools and pubs.
All Saints Road
Elim Pentecostal Church. In the 1930s the building here was the Springfield Gospel Hall.
Burnaby Road
Recreation Ground. Rosherville Park
Bycliffes Terrace
Flint-built houses which appear to have once been called White Post Terrace and later Pelham Terrace
Football field. A field near here adjacent to Campbell Road was used in the late 19h by Gravesend Ormonde football club, made up of local watermen. It later amalgamated with the Gravesend town club to become Gravesend United
Campbell Road
1 Campbell Arms
Cecil Road
Cecil Road Primary School. When it was built in 1909 it was called Cecil Road Board School and took children from infants up to school leaving age. It was and then the most modern of the elementary schools in the town and had cost £12,000. It was opened by the mayor, Alderman H E Davis. Staff were transferred here from Kempthorne Street Higher Grade School which then closed
Coyer Road
Northfleet Technology College. This is in a new school building built in 2010 on the site of the previous secondary school, Northfleet School for Boys; previously Colyer Road Secondary Modern School. Northfleet School for girls opened on a neighbouring site in 1937 and moved to a different site in Hall Road in 1950.
Denehole in the school grounds discovered in 1948 when a tree which had grown out of it fell. It was sealed with a brick cap.
Coopers Road
15 The Globe Tavern. This closed in 1976 and was demolished for new housing now on site. They sold Shrimp Brand beers from Russell’s Gravesend Brewery
20 The Rising Sun Pub. This opened in 1854 and closed in 2012
32 The Jolly Gardeners Pub. Closed long ago.
Dover Road
Rail bridge – this angled bridge crosses the North Kent Line but at one time also crossed the London Chatham and Dover Railway line into West Street.
North Kent Line. This section of the line and the bridge appear to date from the late 1840s, and the kink in the road as it crosses the railway may be of the same date. The final two houses on the terrace on the south side of the road appear to follow a slightly different alignment.
Thames Road crossing. The bridge over the North Kent Line continues westwards to cross Thames Way, built in the early 21st on the line of the defunct Gravesend West Line.
Gravesend West Line Branch line. This line built in the mid-1880s passed under the Dover Road slightly to the north west of the North Kent Line. It appears to have been on a higher level than the existing Thames Way (which is in a cutting) since it had been on embankment to cross the North Kent line, to the south east, and yet passed under the road.
Perry Street Sidings – these were on the west side of the West Street line. Thus they were on the down side and allowed for overnight stabling of locomotives. This area later became a coal yard.
Dover Road East
Fiveash Works – this is an old Tramway Depot. The main part of this site fronts onto Fiveash Road. However the entrance to the works from Dover Road was the exit for trams coming from the tramsheds onto lines laid in the road.
Copperfield “Academy”. This appears to be a very recent new name for Dover Road Primary School. Dover Road School was opened in 1911.
Bridge Inn. This listed pub up was built in 1906 and closed in 1995. It was later used as an old people’s home. In 2006 it was burnt down and replaced by a modern building. In
Huntsman Tavern. This 19th pub closed in 1969 and was replaced by flats
54-56 Builders yard and office. In the 1930s and later this belonged to Sid Bridger.
Fiveash Road,
Site of a smock-mill built by John Fiveash in 1795, who at one time worked the mill on Windmill Hill.
Tramway Depot. The original London Transport Northfleet depot was here and later became a factory. It was originally a depot for Gravesend & Northfleet Tramways. The first horse tramway here was opened in 1883 between The Hill, Northfleet, and St. James Church, Gravesend, - later extended to Trinity church. A short experimental electric line - the first in the south of England - was opened between The Hill and Northfleet station in 1889, but this closed a year later. The system was eventually electrified in 1902 and extended to Swanscombe and with a loop via Dover Road and Pelham Road, and a branch up Windmill Street to The Old Prince of Orange. In 1923 six of the original open-top trams had closed tops by Beadle Bros. of Dartford in 1923, the first public service vehicles in the area to have protection from the weather on the top deck. The first closed-top buses were Leylands, which trams in February 1929. The depot closed in 1929, - the first system in the London area to be abandoned. It was owned by British Electric Traction who took over Maidstone and District buses. It was taken over by London Transport in 1933 and closed in 1936. Its original entrance was from Dover Road. It is now Fiveash Works occupied by a steel fabrication factory.
Glebe Road
The lane between Pelham Road South, Old Road, and Victoria Road was originally glebe land belonging to the church
The Coach Works. Motor repair and construction works. The site is now housing.
Gouge Avenue
New housing at the end built on the site of a building contractor’s yard.
Havelock Road
Gravesend/Northfleet boundary a passage follows the boundary line
Kendal Gardens
Housing built in an area on the edge of the Gravesend/Northfleet boundary. After the Second World War this area was a chalk pit containing tanks. On the east side was a light railway dating from the late 19th and operated by Tolhurst who had a cement works on the riverside west of Pier Road.
Mariners Way
One of a number of streets in an area of housing built on land used as a chalk pit for the Red Lion Cement Works.
May Avenue
May Avenue Industrial Estate. The Avenue is made up of industrial units and yard up. These include Redeemed Christian Church of God. Palace of his Glory and a Homeopathic Health Centre
Mayfield Road
Gravesend/Northfleet boundary. A passage follows the Gravesend/Northfleet boundary
Mill Road
Named for the mill which once stood here at the end of Rural Vale. This was a 50 foot tall Brick-tower windmill, built in 1840 by Richard Young. It was taken over in 1858 by William Boorman, who was a corn merchant in Milton Road and thus was known as Boorman's mill. It closed in 1894 and was demolished in 1916.
Napier Road
The Gravesend/Northfleet boundary runs from a passage by the Rose Inn as far as this road and then runs along it.
Old Perry Street
26 Six Bells. The pub claims to have originally been a coaching inn dating to 1760. Six bells were recast and rehung in St.Botolph's church in 1758
Old Road West
Old Road is said to have been the main road handling coach traffic between London and Dover – hence part of it is called Dover Road. After 1801 this traffic took the new road through Gravesend. Houses along the road were built in the late 19th.
189 Pelham Arms
Pelham Road
The name relates to the Darnley family and specifically Lady Darnley but the name only dates from the mid 19th. It was earlier known as Manor Lane, from Manor Farm which was on its south- east side. It was also called Style's Lane from the name of a farmer and, later, White Post Lane.
61 White Post. The White Post pub was partly demolished in 2008 and following a fire completely demolished in 2009. The pub is said to have had the look of a house and had a croquet lawn at the side. It only became licensed in 1846 when it took on the license of the Black Horse. It was built in 1844 and had been extended on the side and at the rear. It ceased trading in 2002. There is a large walnut tree adjacent to the site and a flint wall along the northern boundary of the former car park
White Post area – the area around the now defunct pub is said to be the centre of the original village of Gravesend. A 19th writer says that glebe land here was marked out with white posts –hence the pub name. Land here was also known as St (or Queen) Mary’s Green
Site of St Mary's Chapel. The Domesday Book refers to a church which is thought to have stood on a site near the rear of where the White Post pub stood and its successors remained there until the 16th. In 1510 it was rededicated to St. Mary after earlier destruction by fire but there were complaints about its distance from the town for infirm people and others and it ceased to be the parish church in 1544. The last burial in its graveyard was in 1598. William Crafter made a sketch in 1822, of the churchyard from his survey of the site and when there were still some stone foundations. Since then Gravestones have been found nearby. The site was sold for in 1844 and then the White Post and the cottages were built.
St.Mary's Green in front of St. Mary's church. Sometimes called 'Queen Mary’s’ Green,
Perry Street
Perry Street. This was an old village the name of which is first recorded in 1281. Perry may refer to pears.
1 Rose Inn.
29 Crown. Pub which dates from the 1830s
All Saints Church. The population of Northfleet grew rapidly in the 19th and All Saints was built in 1870 to meet demand. The parish was created from those of the existing churches of St.Botolph and St. Mark. It ids said that this was down to the work of Rev.Gilling, the vicar of Rosherville, and funding from John Edmeades, the Rosher family and the Brenchleys of Wombwell Hall. The architect was James Brooks and it was built by a local firm, Thomas Blake of Stone Street, Gravesend. It is in Kentish ragstone. It is now an Anglo Catholic Church.
Rosebery Court
This court of modern housing appears to be built on the site of the Co-op Dairy. In 1838 a hoard of 552 coins, mainly Saxon were found here. It was thought they dated from between 814 and 878 A.D. buried with them was a silver cross with its decoration unfinished.
Rosherville Way
An extension of Thames Way, from which it diverges at a roundabout north of the Dover Road. It follows the route of an industrial railway which linked to the West Street line at Perry Street sidings. It then ran northwards to Red Lion Wharf – then operated by Tolhurst & Sons Red Lion Chalk and Whiting Co. It passes under London Road through a tunnel in the chalk. It is part of a network of roads in the area on old railway lines built in the late 20th, early 21st.
Vale Road
78-80 Pair of cottages built in the early 19th. They are weatherboarded a slate roof
157 Murrells. This is an L-plan building made up of a two-bay hall with a cross-wing. There is a smoke-blackened crown-post roof, with the rafters sitting on double wall plates dated at 1409. It is thought to date from the early 15th or late 14th. It is called Murrells from the family who lived there in the 18th.
177 Earl Grey Pub. This flint faced pub dates from at least the 1750 and claims to have been a coaching inn. It is a Shepherd Neame house which also claims to have a poltergeist.
Victoria Road
Perry Street Conservative Club.
Sources
All Saints, Perry Street. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site.
Earl Grey. Web site
Cecil Road School. Web site
Gravesham Council. Web site
Hiscock. A history of Gravesend
LeGear. Deneholes in the Gravesend area.
Lost Pubs Project, web site
Medway. City Ark. Web site
Northfleet Technology College. Web site
Oxford Archaeology. Web site
Six Bells. Web site
Stoyel and Kidner. Cement Railways of Kent.
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