East Wickham

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Bethel Road

Welling was turning into an important dormitory for Thameside workers, especially at Woolwich. The developments were almost exclusively working class; estates were built where small units of land were available close to the tram route on the margins of the Danson and Goldsmith estates.

Burnell Avenue

part of the Welling Council Housing Scheme. The total cost of the scheme was approximately £460,000 with the building costs of the 426 houses approximately £408,000.

East Wickham Open Space

Fields of East Wickham Farm. In 1934 bought as an extension to Woolwich Cemetery but never used. Then a became a tip for debris from wartime bombsites. Grassed over and used as allotments. Called Fanny-on-the Hill which was the name of a pub demolished and rebuilt on Wickham Street. Part of the land of the farm on Wickham Street.

Edison Grove

41 Glenmore Arms.

Gipsy Road

Welling was turning into an important dormitory for Thameside workers, especially at Woolwich. The developments were almost exclusively working class; estates were built where small units of land were available close to the tram route on the margins of the Danson and Goldsmith estates.

Granville

Welling was turning into an important dormitory for Thameside workers, especially at Woolwich. The developments were almost exclusively working class; estates were built where small units of land were available close to the tram route on the margins of the Danson and Goldsmith estates.

Lewis Road

Welling was turning into an important dormitory for Thameside workers, especially at Woolwich. The developments were almost exclusively working class; estates were built where small units of land were available close to the tram route on the margins of the Danson and Goldsmith estates.

Station Approach

Welling Station, 1st May 1895 .Between Bexleyheath and Falconwood Maze Hill on South Eastern Trains, wooden shelter on the north side from original 1895 buildings. On the Bexleyheath Line.  The line enters the station on an embankment.. In 1936 the Original gas lit building on the up side was replaced A footbridge was built prior to electrification in 1926. Original passenger shelter on the down side has been modernised.   Platforms extended 1953-1991.

Goods yard was at the country end. Single track goods sidings closed in 1962.

Coal sidings

Upper Wickham Lane

Mortimer Terrace 1-8 rear of it is gas works site.

Fosters School. Main building and schoolmasters house in residential use. In 1728 William Foster of Croydon left an endowment to found a school at East Wickham where 20 poor children of the parish were to be taught reading, writing and arithmetic. By the 1820s organized on the plan of the National Schools and united with the National Society, although there had been nothing in the will to suggest Church management, the school was instructing 51 pupils. By 1860 the number had increased to 78, the population of the parish (666) having expanded owing to the settlement in the area of labourers from the Arsenal at Woolwich. Under the instruction of the Court of Chancery the school was thrown open to the whole parish, but twenty were exempt from the weekly fee of 2d. Paid by the others. The Vicar of Plumstead in his request to the National Society for aid for Fosters Endowed School described the existing room as "thoroughly unhealthy and at times unsupportable, the children even fainting". He stressed that the School was strictly Church of England. The new building completed in 1879 is still used, and has the original foundation stone of 1727 set in the front wall. Each year in July the staff and pupils of Foster's School still hold a festival to mark Founder's Day.

Hopping Brothers.  Pre-second World War timber distributors.  1930s office block. Demolished 2003.

Odeon Cinema.  Built in 1934 by George Coles. Bingo from 1960 and now then forms the central blocks of three storey shops and flats. the first Odeon by Coles,

172 Duchess of Edinburgh.  Very large roadhouse pub

Westbrooke Road

Fosters School moved here.

Wickham Lane

Greek Orthodox Church of Christ the Saviour was St. Michael's church. Orthodox since 1967. Situated on the north-western boundary of the Borough, it may have been originally a chapel-of-ease of St. Nicholas' Plumstead, with which the parish was combined until 1852. Parts of it date from the early 12th century. It is a small rectangular building of flint and brick with vestry and belfry added at a later date. The end was rebuilt in the early c 19.   Brasses to John de Bladigdone, c. 1325 -  two tiny prim half-effigies in a frame. On the shaft his name in large letters - The date 1325 on the base is modern and note Arabic, not Roman, numerals.  It is believed to be the earliest surviving brass showing civilian dress as opposed to Armour. Other features to note are the Jacobean pulpit, mediaeval font and royal coat-of-arms.  Monument to William Payn 1568 wearing the uniform of the Guard.  Some brasses etc. now in the new church. 

Vicarage

Parish hall

Foresters Arms. Collection of darts trophies

St. Michael's Church.  Behind the old church.  1933, modelled on church in Ravenna. Stones from old manor in the pillars, iron chest from a Spanish galleon, icon, brasses and so on from the old church transferred here.

Hutments built in the area in 1916 for munitions workers.  The outbreak of the first World War led to the building of a large estate of prefabricated dwellings to house munition workers from Woolwich Arsenal: these hutments were eventually replaced by modern houses.  Known as the East Wickham Hutments, built in tidy rows, set up south of St Michaels and also on the west side of Wickham Lane south of Wickham Street and east of Lodge Lane near the border with Woolwich.

Wickham Street

Housing. Stevens' and Norman's estates mainly modest semi-detached houses filled the space between Wickham Street and Central Avenue

German fighter plane shot down 24/8/40 A.Friedman killed. Buried in Bexleyheath Cemetery. ,

East Wickham Farmhouse. Very old used as riding stables.  Façade dates from 1843 but the timbers are much older.  Council housing built in the fields of the farm.   Kate Bush grew up in the farmhouse.

Bruce Gibson’s Farm on the west side. Pond beside the house

St. Mary the Virgin. 1954-5 by Thomas F. Ford. The exterior is no more impressive than St John. Red brick, in a sort of Georgian-Early Christian style, with a thin Lombard s tower. . A building like this epitomizes all that mid-c 20 architecture ought not to be, yet one at least feels that Mr Ford got a kick out of designing it.  

Green Man pub


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