WOOLWICH Royal Artillery barracks. Former Royal Military Academy SHOOTERS HILL (road) SEVERNDROOG CASTLE ELTHAM PARK (neighbourhood) AVERY HILL Park & University of Gr. NEW ELTHAM (district) MOTTINGHAM ELTHAM PALACE ELTHAM Town Centre KIDBROOKE BLACKHEATH (up to Blackheath Halls & The Village) The route continues (next chapter): THE PARAGON. MORDEN COLLEGE BLACKHEATH (Royal Standard) & WESTCOMBE PARK district EAST GREENWICH NORTH GREENWICH
First, to SHOOTERS HILL, as in the extension of the WOOLWICH town centre route
After the former ROYAL MILITARY ACADEMY, along RED LION LANE
Constitution Rise
Shooters Hill (road)
ROMANS
PEPYS:
DICKENS: was this the route of the Dover Stagecoach in the opening pages of Charles Dickens' novel "Tale of Two Cities", where lawyer Jarvis Lorry fears kidnap from a highwayman, but it turns out to be a messenger looking for him?. The novel says it is approaching Shooters Hill. It is set in 1775, but Dickens was writing in 1860 and doubtless thought of the roads as at that time.
THE RED LION P.H.
CHRISTCHURCH
MEMORIAL SHELTER
MILESTONE
Site of the Admiralty’s Telegraph
The Sheerness Admiralty telegraph was a station on a shutter telegraph network built in 1796 to link the Admiralty in London to the naval dockyard in Sheerness. This system, which used a series of huts with shutters that could be opened or closed to form code, was designed for rapid communication with naval bases during the Napoleonic Wars. It allowed the Admiralty to send messages to ships in the area much faster than by conventional means.
Each station had to have a clear line of sight to the next one. A message was transmitted from one station to the next, with each station repeating the signals. The system was fast but relied on clear weather conditions to work effectively.
SEVERNDROOG CASTLE
CASTLEWOOD ROSE GARDEN
ELTHAM PARK district
Detour
The Progress Estate
The Progress Estate, comprising 1,086 houses and 212 flats, was designed and built between January and December 1915 as a wartime measure under the Housing Act, 1914. The land was acquired from the Page Estate owned by the Polhill-Turnerfamily.[1] The architect was HM Office of Works. The Estate was not known as The Progress Estate until 1925, when the Office of Works sold it to Progress Estates Ltd, a subsidiary of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. The site was selected for three reasons. First, it was the nearest available land of the required acreage to Woolwich. Second, the Eltham to Woolwich tram service (route 44, which opened on 23 July 1910) provided transport for Arsenal employees to and from their place of work. Third, the Bexleyheath railway line from Dartford to Blackheath (opened on 1 May 1895) enabled rapid transport of building materials to the site.
By 1980, and as a result of the Leasehold Reform Act, 1967, about 65% of the estate's homes had been purchased by their occupiers so Progress Estates sold the remainder to what is now Hyde Group, a social housing company, in 1980
Crookston Rd.
Glenesk Rd.
Over the railway and the A2
Cross Bexley Rd.
Butterfly Lane
AVERY HILL PARK
The area of land now called Avery Hill Park was made up of a number of individual farms and it was not until the early eighteen hundreds that these were combined to make up the estate of ‘Avery Hill’.
The first owner of a house at Avery Hill seems to have been Thomas Hale, described in 1836 as 'a proprietor of houses'.
University of Greenwich campus (S of the park)
Former University of Greenwich campus: the mansion site
There has been a mansion at Avery Hill for more than two centuries. In 1884, John ‘Colonel’ North had the building demolished to be replaced by the structures which remain to this day. Although the eastern side of his Mansion was lost in WW2, the rest remains largely untouched, apart from careful adaptations carried out to the stable block for use as education.
When he built his Mansion, completed in 1890, he was one of the wealthiest men in the country, income derived from mineral extraction in South America and coal. It was the heyday of British Imperialism and Victorian industrialists left their mark on Britain’s architecture across the country.
Redevelopment
the historic Mansion Site at Avery Hill, which the university sold and moved out of by April 2020. This site was a Victorian mansion combined with modern facilities and served as a campus for teaching and learning, but is now being redeveloped.
Winter Garden
Historic England describe Avery Hill as an example of late Victorian vulgarity in the extravagance of its design and quality of materials used. The grandeur of scale can be indicated by the Winter Garden which is the highest in the UK and only the second largest after Kew. It outranks the latter in its overall presentation by its use of brick and its raised location, commanding a view over surrounding fields and into Kent. Its adjoining ‘galleries’ are on a grand scale, more redolent of an important institution or Royal occupation.
The character of its estate setting has been retained by the parkland of Avery Hill Park, a freely open and accessible public resource. To the west, the estate atmosphere is reinforced by the remaining existence of stables and grounds cottages, also the openness of aspect.
Avery Hill Road
Theobalds Cottages, Southwood Cottages
Redacted from Darrel SPRUGEON. A little bit of the 18th century in New Eltham: a terrace of old cottages,in an area of otherwise early/mid 20th century housing. the only survivors of the hamlet of Pope Street.Despite the date 1817 on the front, they date back at least to the 1760s. The porches are modern.”*
NEW ELTHAM
POPE ST.BAR & KITCHEN
PUBLIC LIBRARY
Cold War Control Centre
The rectangular windowless blockhouse was built in 1954 as Woolwich Borough Control but when Woolwich merged with Greenwich in 1965 it took over the role as the Greenwich Borough Control (before the merger the Greenwich control was at Greenwich Town Hall). The control was part of the South East London Group (see features: The London Civil Defence Controls) reporting the the Regional Group War HQ at Chislehurst and later to Pear Tree House.
Footscray Road
THE BEHIVE P.H.
Blanmerie Road
Green Lane
Broad Lawn
FAIRY HILL PARK
Crossmeads
MOTTINGHAM
THE TARN BIRD SANCTUARY
Alternative routes
Court Road
Middle Park Avenue and King Henry Walk
ELTHAM PALACE
Well Hall Road
ELTHAM Town centre
High St.
ST.JOHN THE BAPTIST Parish Church
If you want a little extension…
Over the A2 and railway
WELL HALL PLEASAUNCE and THE TUDOR BARN
Lassa Road
Lilburne Rd.
Keynsham Road
Lionel Road
Over the A205
Knockholt Rd.
Bedgebury
Ealdham
Jaken
Eltham Green Road
SUTCLIFFE PARK
CATOR PARK. CATOR?
- John Cator (21 March 1728 – 26 February 1806) was an English timber merchant and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1772 and 1793. He became a landowner and property developer with estates in later life in present SE London and NE London (Waltham Forest) – now in Kent, Surrey and Essex. The son of John Cator the Elder, a Herefordshire timber merchant and Quaker(who in turn was the son of Jonah Cator of Ross-on-Wye, a glovemaker),[1] Cator joined the family business which had relocated to a new London base at Mould Strand Wharf (now the Bankside site of the Tate Modern art gallery) in Southwark, and sought to capitalise on the growth of the capital by investing in property.
KIDBROOKE VILLAGE
CATOR PARK North
Sandby Lane
Ensign St.
Moorehead Way
BROOKLANDS PARK ESTATE
The BLACKHEATH CATOR ESTATE
The Blackheath Cator Estate comprises 282 acres just south of Blackheath Village, between Lee Road to the west, Morden Road to the east and Manor Way to the south. These private roads were laid down in the 1820s, some years after the purchase of the land by John Cator in 1783 when the Estate included a substantial mansion – Wricklemarsh House – and a few small houses. After its owner, Sir Gregory Page, died in 1775 the house was considered a white elephant and suffered some vandalism. Consequently, John Cator was able to purchase the Estate at the preferential price of £22,550, but being unable to sell the house he demolished it, selling off the component parts. Some foundations may survive under the junction of Pond Road and Blackheath Park. As to other significant buildings, The Paragon, South Row and Montpelier Row were all in place by 1800.
Casterbridge Rd.
A mysterious pond?
Looking back at the old map, you’ll see another pond to the south, fed by a small stream called the ‘Kid’ (hence Kidbrooke). ‘Brookway’, off Foxes Dale, is another clue to its path.
Now, that pond has *mostly* been drained, but a small ornamental area of it still remains. Go east, along Brookway, to the Casterbridge estate – and there, in the middle, is a pond – a pond I’m quite confident that was part of the grounds of Wricklemarsh. Look closely at the island – you’ll see there’s a still a bit of decorative statuary remain, and there’s an ornate little bridge too
Brooklands Park (road)
Blackheath Park (road)
ST.MICHAEL’s and ALL ANGELS Church
In 1828 £4,000 and a plot of land was given by Cator to create a proprietary chapel for the estate.
1830.The new chapel was completed using a George Smith Gothic Revival design The spire is the prominent feature, often known as the Needle of Kent. Porches and the vestry were added later.
When, in 1874, aseparate parish was approved and the chapel was rededicated to St. Michael & All Angels.
A major restoration project was completed in 2018 introducing new heating, lighting, repaired stonework, floodlighting.
decoration
Site of WRICKLEMARSH HOUSE (where Pond St. meets Blackheath Park)
BLACKHEATH HALLS
Welcome to Blackheath Town centre (see chapter)
The route can continue Northwards
Pond Road
Conservation Area
Another mysterious pond?
THE PARAGON
Despite the the flop of Gloucester Circus, in GREENWICH, (intended to be two crescents enclosing a vaguely circular space, it was not a financial success and only one crescent was completed by 1809) in 1793 Searles proposed a development in Blackheath to the wealthy timber merchant John Cator. Cator had purchased the Wricklemarsh estate in the 1780s and had already demolished Wricklemarsh Hall, which stood where Pond Road meets Blackheath Park. The opportunity to develop the land suited Cator and he appointed Searles as the developer. From 1794 Searles started designing and building The Paragon. The first houses were occupied by 1800, and the crescent was complete before Nelson’s State funeral in January 1806.
Each owner of the 14 semi-detached houses linked by colonnades enjoyed 9 acres of land which provided pleasure grounds and lawns but also allowed space for kitchen gardens, fish ponds, and pasture for keeping cows to provide fresh milk. Servants’ quarters, laundry, stabling and a coach house were provided for each owner. The houses enjoyed pleasant country views and fresh air (there is always a breeze on Blackheath!).
The houses remained individual dwellings for many years, gradually being adapted for other uses as the area changed – a school, a private hotel, among others. Over time those buildings used as dwellings were drastically changed; windows were altered and extra rooms were added on the colonnade flat roofs. The elegant design was seriously damaged.
Severely damaged during World War ll, they were restored by Charles Bernard Brown between 1949 and 1958 and were converted into flats.
St.German’s Place
St. Germans Place in Blackheath is a prestigious residential road with a rich Georgian heritage, known for its stucco-fronted properties and proximity to Blackheath. It was developed in the 1820s by Lord Eliot (later the Earl of St Germans) and includes several buildings that are part of the Blackheath Conservation Area,
MORDEN COLLEGE
Morden College is a charity which has been providing residential care in Blackheath, for over 300 years. It was founded in 1695 by Sir John Morden, a merchant who built it on his Wricklemarsh estate in Blackheath to provide a home and support for "poor Merchants" who had fallen on hard times. The original 1695 buildings, designed in the style of Christopher Wren by his master mason, Edward Strong, are a Grade I listed quadrangle that still forms the heart of the charity.
The original college buildings were intended to house 40 single or widowed men. It has since expanded and today, Morden College continues to function as a charity supporting older people, providing accommodation and care services
Charity governance
Under the terms of John Morden’s will, College trustees are drawn from the Turkey Company, and should it fail (which it did in 1834) from the East India Company, and should that fail then from the Aldermen of the City of London, who have provided the Charity’s trustees since 1884. A centenary plaque installed in the main entrance in 1984 commemorates the Aldermen’s association.
Turkey merchants?
The Levant Company, or Company of Turkey Merchants as it was also known, received its first charter in 1582 from Queen Elizabeth. The need for new markets for English cloth and anxiety about access to essential spices from the Far East prompted English merchants to seek to trade directly with the Levant where previously they had been content to leave it to the Venetians or the Dutch. Spain’s absorption of Portugal in 1580, however, threatened English spice supplies coming by way of the Cape; and they had to consider reverting to the older and more costly overland route through Aleppo. Venice was by now impoverished after fifty years of war, and could no longer be relied on to bring the spices to Leghorn, the great entrepôt of this period.
East India Company?
How the East India Company shaped London: https://www.amdigital.co.uk/insights/blog/margaret-makepeace-east-india-company
Aldermen of the City of London?
In the City of London, but not elsewhere in London, aldermen are still elected for each of the wards of the City by the regular electorate. To be a candidate to be Lord Mayor of the City of London, it is necessary to be an alderman and to have been a sheriff of the City of London.
The Court of Aldermen forms part of the senior governance of the City of London Corporation. It comprises twenty-five Aldermen of the City of London, presided over by the Lord Mayor (the Lord Mayor becomes senior Alderman while in the office). The Court was originally responsible for the entire administration of the City, but most of its responsibilities were subsumed by the Court of Common Council in the fourteenth century. The Court of Aldermen meets seven times a year in the Aldermen's Court Room at Guildhall.[1] The few remaining duties of the Court include approving people for Freedom of the City, approving the formation of new livery companies,[2]and appointing the Recorder of London.
MORDEN COLLEGE properties
Morden College has assets, both commercial and private properties
MORDEN WHARF