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Post to the south Eltham Centre
Allenwood Road
Hutments built in the First World War.
Arbroath Road
Cakehill Lane went north from here,
curving round the foot of the cemetery hill, before going towards Hill Farm and
Shooters Hill Road by the present gate to the old Naval College sports ground.
Hut which was used as a church before St. Barnabas was built. It was then used as a church hall until the
mid-1930s.
Hutments built in the First World War.
Boundary post once stood at the
north side,
Arsenal Road
One of a series of road names on the
Progress Estate with connections to the workplace of the munitions workers for
whom it was built.
Bournbrook Road
Southern boundary of Middle Farm
Broad Walk
The Lower Kid Brook follows the road
but then turns south towards the Rochester Way at its junction with Wendover
Road.
Craigton Road
The Earliest bit of the Corbett estate
to be developed
44 Birthplace of Bob Hope
Downman Road
The
picturesque groups on either side of the junction with Well Hall Road.
Dunvegan Road
Built by Corbett in 1909
Earlshall Road
Earliest bit of the Corbett estate to
be developed
Grangehill Road
Gordon School. 1904 by T.J. Bailey, for the London School Board. A late three-decker school, with
giant arches, steep open pediment, and
yellow terracotta trim. Huts survive
which were put up in 1913 to provide temporary classroom accommodation for
children from the Progress Estate.
Hutments provided here in the First
World War
Shops at the Junction with Rochester
Way. These were the successors of various huts.
Became Pat’s Corner and the last hut only went in 1965.
Greenvale Road
Earliest bit of Corbett estate to be
developed
Kidbrook Lane
Tiny scrap still left – the rest of
the road exists but under different names. This was the main road through
Kidbrook which ran northwest / south east. Described as the royal carriage
route between Eltham and Greenwich palaces.
Lovelace Green
Large
village green fringed by houses. The footpath leads into Well Hall Road
Phineas Pett Road
Road
name with connections to Woolwich Dockyard
Progress Estate
'Garden suburb' estate of 1,200 houses,
greens, trees, curving roads and footpaths, and array of house styles. It was a
government development built during the First World War to house
munitions workers. It was conceived, planned, and built in less than a year. Design
was by the Office of Works under the, Frank Baines, a former pupil of C. R.
Ashbee, and it was intended as a showpiece solution to emergency housing
problems created by the war following the low-density principles established by
Raymond Unwin. Originally
known the Well Hall Estate, it was renamed Progress Estate when it was bought
by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in 1925. The houses are now owned by a Housing
Association, though some are private. In
the 1920s Rochester Way was built slicing it in two. It is a virtuoso re-creation of the 'old English
village'. Tiles supplied by Halls.
Railway Line
Line runs around the Well Hall Estate
on a dangerous kink. The line should
have run north but the owner of Well Hall, Sir Henry Page-Turner Barron forced
Parliamentary consent for Well Hall Station.
Rochester Way
Developed in the 1880s and was then
called Woodville Road. From Brook Lane
to Well Hall it follows the line of Kidbrook Lane. The arterial road was opened in 1928.
A dip at Briset Road is where the
Lower Kidbrook emerges after skirting the Samuel Montague Sports Ground.
Dip where Mid Kidbrook crossed north
of Dursley Road.
Chandlers Farm was east of the road
and consisted of two fields of market gardens owned by the Drapers' Company
St.Barnabas. It was originally the chapel of the
Royal Naval Dockyard at Woolwich built 1859; by Sir George Gilbert Scott and in
1933 bodily removed and re- erected, brick by brick on its present site. It was
gutted by bombs in the Second World War. The interior is by Thomas Ford in 1957,
447 Howerd Club. Small club at the
rear of St Barnabas church hall. Founded by a former vicar, the pub takes its
name from Frankie Howerd, the comedian, who was born locally.
Ross Way
Sinuously
curving, with raised pavement;
Sandby Green
An
enclosed and intimate green, with a footpath leading under a house into
Whinyates Road. Named for Paul Sandby who worked at the Royal Military Academy
Sowerby Close
Tower Blocks
Swimming Pool
Well Hall Road
Semi-circular
terrace facing a green
Well Hall can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, and a complete
list of owners exists dating from 1253.
In the early 16th William Roper, who had married Sir Thomas More's
daughter Margaret in 1521, built a Well Hall on the site of an earlier moated house
of which nothing remains. In 1733 it was
bought by Sir Gregory Page, to add to his Wricklemarsh estate. He demolished the Tudor house and built a new
mansion on the east side of the moat. 1899 - 1922 this was the home of Edith
Nesbit and her husband Hubert Bland.
This house was damaged by fire in 1926, and the site was bought by the
Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich in 1930 to become the gardens of Well Hall
Pleasaunce. The house was demolished,
and a surviving Tudor building, now known as the Tudor Bam.
Tudor Barn. Its original purpose is unknown, but it
was not a barn. It was inhabited because there are original chimneys and two
fireplaces. The windows follow the original pattern. At ground level are
several blind windows originally decorated with coloured plaster. It has an Oak
timbered roof. William Roper’s monogram
is beneath the southeast corbel and a coat of arms on the north front has the
date 1568, but the building is probably earlier. In the west wall is a small
stained glass window showing Thomas More and his daughter Margaret Roper,
designed after Holbein's portrait by Margaret Cowell 1949, restored by Susan
Ashworth 1992. It was converted to an art gallery and restaurant. The art
gallery closed in 1991
Moat.
With Tudor brick banks. An extension to it runs along the west side
of the Tudor Barn.
Stone-arched
bridge. There is also a modern wooden bridge over the moat to the west.
Well Hall Pleasaunce. Noted
for its spring bulbs. Sections of the original
Tudor garden walls to the south remain. The Park entrance gates have the old ‘WBC’
badge. It was Laid out in 1936 with the medieval
moat, a scented garden for the blind, fishpond and a bowling green, plus woodland
lawns and gardens, a waterfall; a winding stream and fountain. In the east wall
are niches for braziers, used to keep the frost off delicate fruits or which
may have been bee-boles. There is a wild
area on the western side.
RACS store. Reading room and library
in 1906
Coronet Cinema. A former Odeon cinema of 1936 by Andrew
Mather with art deco features. There was a projecting glass staircase tower and
the circular canopy over the entrance.
The interior of the foyer was also circular, with a circular wooden
ticket box and the word Odeon in green and red mosaic set into the floor.
The
Martyrs Church. Roman Catholic Church,
dedicated to St John Fisher and St Thomas More.
A brick church, by O'Hanlon Hughes 1936. The functional interior has embodies
two pioneering structural features, - the aisle roofs are unsupported by
pillars, and the main lighting is by a series of circular windows in the nave
and aisle roofs. On either side of the
sanctuary are stone bas-relief statues of the two martyrs by Lindsay
Clarke. In a small chapel is a stained
glass window by David Whalley 1988.
Hutments built here in the First World
War
Whinyates Road
Delightful
junction with Dickson Road
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