In 1997 ILEA’s Greenwich District Offices (see ‘School Board for London’), redundant since the abolition of ILEA in 1990, were converted as an extension of the Greenwich Magistrates Court, round the corner in Blackheath Road. It housed, among other things, the South Eastern Division Warrant Office. It has since been mothballed.

The basement bar at the North Pole P.H. Was at one time called the South Pole; it was not a separate pub.

A Baptist chapel was established in Bridge Street, Greenwich (now Creek Road) in 1847 which closed in 1865. Services were held in Greenwich Lecture Hall, Royal Hill, 1865-72 until the South Street Baptist Chapel (built 1871-72 to the design of C. G. Searle & Son.) was completed. Charles Spurgeon was pastor here 1879-1903, hence the chapel was often called Spurgeon’s Tabernacle in the same way that his father, Charles Haddon Spurgeon gave the same name to the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Elephant and Castle. Charles Spurgeon was a keen photographer of local life in the late nineteenth century (cf ‘Grandfather’s Greenwich’, reprinted as ‘Grandfather’s London’). The Chapel merged with the Lewisham Road Baptist Chapel (q.v.).

A row of five large pairs of houses built on the Queen Elizabeth College estate south of the College between it and Ashburnham Road (Place) and fronting (Greenwich) South Street. In 1771 the lands of the College, other than the grounds of the almshouses themselves, were divided into six lots for development but not all lots were developed at that time. In fact, it was nearly 90 years before this part of the estate was developed, the villas being erected in 1859. The name was abolished on 22nd April 1870 and nos. 1-10 South Villas were renumbered nos. 2-20 (evens) (Greenwich) South Street. The Drapers’ Company, Trustees of Queen Elizabeth College, disposed of the freehold in the 1970s.

A theatre company without a theatre of its own based at West Greenwich House.

Apart from the private chapel of the Queen Elizabeth’s College, there is no longer an Anglican place of worship within the Ashburnham Triangle. The parish of Greenwich (St. Alfege or Alphege) until well into the 19th century comprised the whole of Greenwich, east and west, including the Ashburnham Triangle. The parish and the first church was founded in the 12th century on the site of the martyrdom of St. Alfege, Archbishop of Canterbury. The church was severely damaged in a storm and a new one, one of Queen Anne’s ’50 new churches’, was built by Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1714-18 with the tower by John James in 1730 and is a grade 1 listed building. The story of parish organisation in Greenwich, as elsewhere, during the 19th century was one of the successive division of the original parish and the foundation of new parishes as the population increased. And the story since World War 2 is of successive amalgamations as the population and the habit of church-going has declined. By 1902 there were six parishes in Greenwich: St. Alfege, Christ Church, Holy Trinity, St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Andrew and St. Michael; there was also a chapel of ease, St. Mary’s, (1823-1919, demolished 1936). (The Ascension, Blackheath, was also an offshoot of St. Alfege.) By the 1980's only the first two, St. Alfege, and Christ Church, remained, one each in West Greenwich and East Greenwich respectively. The process of merger began in 1942 when St. Peter’s, its church destroyed by bombing, was temporarily joined to St. Paul’s; it was amalgamated with St. Paul’s as the parish of Holy Trinity and St. Paul with the latter as the parish church. Finally in the 1980's the parish was split again with the bulk of Holy Trinity amalgamating with St. John’s, Lewisham Way, an offshoot of St. Paul’s, Deptford (part had been transferred to the Ascension, Blackheath in 1950). The remainder of the parish, essentially St. Pauls and including the Ashburnham Triangle, was amalgamated with St. Alfege with St. Peter to form St. Alfege and St. Paul with St. Peter.

St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church was founded in East Street (later Eastney Street, now Feathers Place), East Greenwich as United Secession Presbyterian Church, ca. 1824 (Scotch Presbytery 1841, Presbyterian Church of England, 1844) The South Street Church was built in1850 where it was initially known as the Scotch Church. It was bombed 1944, re-opened with a pre-fab building in1946, was rebuilt in 1953 and had further major alterations in the 1980's. In denominational terms, St Marks became a United Reformed Church in 1972. The congregation merged with that of the West Greenwich Methodist Church (q.v.) in 19?? to form St. Mark’s United Reformed and Methodist Church.

A terrace of seven houses (originally slightly longer) on the South-east side of Greenwich (High) Road mid-way between what is now Burgos Grove and Blackheath Road, somewhat nearer to the Burgos Grove end. The terrace first appears clearly on Morris’s map of 1838 though not yet named. The name was well established ten years later (Cruchley’s map) and probably was used from the start. The name was abolished on 19 November 1875 and 1-7 (consec.) St. Mary’s Place was renumbered in the opposite direction 16-28 (evens) Greenwich (High) Road. Nos. 24-28 still exist.

Map of London with its postal subdivision prepared by Edward Stanford. [London, 1856]. [3”: 1m] H no. 44 (2)

Stanford’s Library map of London and its suburbs. 24 sheets on a scale of six inches to a mile. London, Edward Stanford, corr. to 1877 (Sheet 16 (dated) Feb. 15th 1877) H. No 91 (12)

In the 1896 electoral register, two properties were listed with voters described as ‘at the rear of 11 South Street’; they were Stanley’s Cottage and Rose Cottage. The cottages were obviously situated in the service yard with its entrance between nos. 11 and 13 Greenwich South Street, now called David Mews (q.v.).

A new plan of London XXIX miles in circumference. London: printed by J. Stockdale, 1797. [6.38”: 1m.] D & H no. 213 (1)

This is an ancient back road that branches off to the north from the road from Deptford Bridge to the town centre (now Greenwich High Road) about half way along, just west of the present railway station. It is shown on Traver’s map of 1695 but is probably medieval. For most of its length it runs parallel to the main road and they ended up either side of the parish church of St. Alfege. Its earliest name is likely to have been Church Fields, a name applied to the whole length of the road forming the southern boundary of the parish glebeland including Greenwich (High) Road to Deptford Bridge. This is first shown as the name of the street on Morris’s map of 1834 and continued to be shown intermittently until Cruchley’s map of 1875. Over this period Church Row, Church Terrace, and Gale’s Row are also found, but these are subsidiary names applying only to sections of the street. Even earlier Carey’s map of 1829 shows Galen Row but this is a persistent error (it is still being found in Cruchley’s map of 1865) for Gale’s Row. In the meantime Straightsmouth first appears on Wyld’s map of 1851; it is also listed in Mason’s Directory of 1852 when it is spelt Straight’s Mouth, a form found on maps for a while. In 1898, the various subsidiary names were abolished and Straightsmouth, spelt as one word, was applied to the whole street except for the last block, nearest the church. This was named Church Fields and Straightsmouth was applied to a new road cut through back courts and lanes to join up with London Street (now part of Greenwich High Road) after construction of the extension to the railway beneath the Park. The latest change to Straightsmouth was also effected by railway construction. The Docklands Light Railway extension tunneled under the Thames and after Cutty Sark Station in the town centre the deep-bore tunnel became cut-and-cover rising to ground level at Greenwich Station. This necessitated the filling in of the underpass beneath the railway bridge over Straightsmouth leaving two cul-de-sacs. The larger one to the north nearest the town centre contains all the residences. The shorter one to the south provides access to Wines Galore; in 2000, this section was renamed Key Way.

The White Swan in Blackheath Road has often had its name unofficially abbreviated to just ‘The Swan’ and occasionally, as in the 1881 census returns, it has been officially so called. Its address, 17 Blackheath Road, makes the identification certain.

This is the name given to the Greenwich estates of the medieval Courtenays, Earls of Devon, based on their mansion Swan or ‘Swanne’ House. At one time it included a major part of West Greenwich including the Triangle. For the descent of the Triangle portion of this estate and the gradual dispersal, see ‘Ashburnham Triangle’.

Moor’s Auction Rooms at 217-219 Greenwich High Road closed at the beginning of 1998. Later that year, after conversion, it opened as a pub, appropriately called ‘The Auctioneer’.

"The Cage" was the popular name for the parish lock-up which, with the parish stocks, were situated in Stock Lane, opposite the parish church, St. Alfege's, in an area re-developed in the 1820's for the presenr Greenwich Market. The "Cage", but not the stocks, was moved to Greenwich Rd. on the south side (where now Egerton Drive joins Greenwich High Road. It replaced the Watch House (q.v.), which may have included a lock-up. A print dated 1841 in the collection of the Local History Library, Woodlands, shows a tall, single storey, three- bay classical building, with an inscription on the frieze, "erected in 1822" . Maps show it to have been a T-shaped building with a central rear extension. It is shown on maps until ca. 1860, but it is less clear how long it actually functioned as a local goal. After the creation of The Metropolitan Police a police station was established in Blackheath Road, where the magistrates court stands. The police station was certainly in existence at the time of the 1845 Tithe Map, and must have contained cells. These would have served much the same purposes as the parish lock-up, and presumably would have replaced it.

According to Beryl Platts in her “History of Greenwich”, the Ditches were the name given to some lands, originally part of the Swanne House Estate, lying to the west of Lime Kiln Lane (now Greenwich South Street). Passing to the Mason family, it was sold to Ambrose Crowley and came as a portion to the Earl of Ashburnham. It appears to be substantially the same as the ‘Ashburnham Triangle’. Mrs Platts does not explain the name which is elsewhere untraced.

For centuries, there has been a pub on the corner of Blackheath Road and Greenwich South Street. It was originally a coaching inn and was for long called the Coach and Horses. In 2000, after refurbishment, it reopened as The Graduate.

This history of the studio theatre attached to the Prince of Orange PH (now the St. Christopher Inn) in its short life has been a troubled one. It opened in the mid-1980s as the Greenwich Studio Theatre with the Greenwich Studio Theatre Company performing there. In 1995 the theatre closed and the company became homeless. Some months later the theatre reopened as the Prince Theatre with a new company, Galleon’s. In late 1998, the Prince of Wales PH, and with it the Prince Theatre, closed for redecoration. Once closed, it was announced that the pub would be redeveloped as a backpacker’s hostel and there would be no place for the theatre. In the event, pressure from the council backed by local public opinion forced a rethink on the theatre and when the pub reopened as the St. Christopher Inn, the theatre was still there as ‘the Greenwich Pub Theatre’. However, long negotiations followed before the theatre actually reopened in June 2000 with yet a new name ‘The Greenwich Playhouse’ (the fourth in five years) and Galleon’s Theatre Company once again in residence.

There had been a White Swan in Greenwich (High) Road since the eighteenth century. In the mid-1980s it changed its name to The Millers. The reason for the change and the choice of name are both somewhat unclear. There is another White Swan in Blackheath Road but the two had co-existed for at least a century-and-a-half. Diana Rimel’s suggestion in her ‘The Ashburnham Triangle’ that the Blackheath Road pub had begun to attract undesirable attention thus encouraging the other White Swan to disassociate itself from this seems likely. Although nearly opposite the old Miller Hospital, the pub’s name seems unconnected: the hospital had closed nearly a decade before the change and in any case the pub’s new name was ‘Millers’ in the plural. The new pub-sign was a windmill with a miller and his wife but previously showed a pair of bare-knuckle pugilists. Again, Diana Rimel appears to have the answer – in boxing circles, ‘the mill’ is slang for the ring and for a boxing match, so ‘millers’ are therefore the boxers. Two former landlords were connected with the Eltham Boxing Club. The original name was remembered in a roundel in the roof parapet showing a swan. The bailiffs were sent in and it closed in 1999. After lying derelict for ten or so years, it was condemned to demolition, in spite of a last minute local campaign to retain at least the handsome facade. It came down about 2012, and has been replaced by flats.

In the autumn of 1995, the Greenwich Studio Theatre (q.v.) reopened as the Prince Theatre with a new company. The ‘Prince’ of the new name is no doubt an allusion to the prince of Orange pub in which it was situated. In the autumn of 1998 the pub and the theatre closed for renovation. It was subsequently announced that the pub was being redeveloped as a backpacker’s hostel and the theatre would not reopen. A campaign to reverse the decision apparently failed but, when the pub reopened on 18 August 1999 as the St. Christopher’s Inn, the old Prince Theatre was revealed as the Greenwich Pub theatre (q.v.).

The Roan School for Girls (q.v.) built in 1877 and extended in 1906 and 1936 was closed in 1984 and lay derelict for a number of years. Eventually the property was acquired by Westcombe Homes in 1993 and converted to 38 one and two bedroom apartments. These were put on the market in 1995 as The Roan Courtyard.

An alternative name for the Greenwich Tabernacle (q.v.).

See ‘Greenwich Theatre, London Street’

According to L. A. J. Baber’s ‘List of the places of worship in the Bouroughs of Deptford, Greenwich, Lewisham and Woolwich…’, 1961, a free church of this name was formed in Borough Hall, ca. 1893 and moved to South Street (now Greenwich South Street) later that decade; it was disbanded in 1945 according to the same source.

Former name (with Thornton Row) of Greenwich South Street. In the early nineteenth century the street was named Lime Kiln Lane (q.v.) but by 1856, when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for street names, South Street was in use. It was renumbered and subsidiary names abolished on 22nd April 1870 and was renamed Greenwich South Street on 1st January 1939. The old name ‘South Street’ is still widely used locally and is preserved on no. 33.

This is the name in the 1871 census returns for what elsewhere is called just South Villas (the five pairs of houses on the west side of (Greenwich) South Street between Queen Elizabeth Cottage and Ashburnham Road (Place)). This usage is doubly curious: not only is it found nowhere else but subsidiary names had already been abolished (22nd April 1870) for (Greenwich) South Street. In fact, this shows that name changes and renumbering decreed on a specific date were put into effect over a period of time. The 1871 census returns shows the east side of the road with the new numbers but the west side still with the old names and numbers.

See ‘Greenwich Magistrates Court’

Charles Spurgeon, son of the more famous Charles Haddon Spurgeon, was pastor of the South Street Baptist Chapel (q.v.) from 1879 to 1903 and, like his father at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Elephant and Castle, gave his name in popular usage to the chapel in his charge.

The Prince of Orange P.H. closed at the end of 1998 for renovation. It was subsequently announced that it was to be redeveloped as a ‘backpacker’s hostel’. It reopened on 18th August 1999 with a bar and coffee shop on the ground floor. It was re-named St. Christopher’s Inn- ‘Inn’ to emphasise the accommodation provided and ‘St. Christopher’ referring to travelers. The bar entrance faces the forecourt of Greenwich Station, the coffee shop entrance faces Greenwich High Road and the Inn’s reception is at the rear via a service entrance.

A 1981 development (voters first appear on the electoral register in 1982) of 11 maisonettes on the south side of Ashburnham Place next to St. Mark’s Church from which it takes its name. It is treated by the Post Office as a separate ‘street’ and not as a subsidiary name of Ashburnham Place.

Opened in a temporary building 1864, present building 1866 by William Milford Teulon (or possibly by his more famous brother Samuel Teulon). Bombed 1944 (services held in vicarage), restored 1950 when parish merged with Holy Trinity, Blackheath Hill. Church closed in 1980 (??) and remained derelict until 1993 when Seventh Day Adventists re-opened it as the Deptford Seventh Day Adventist Church (q.v.).

Stanford’s Library map of London and its suburbs. 24 sheets on the scale of six inches to a mile. London, Edward Stanford, 1862 (Sheet 16 (dated) Feb. 15th 1862). H. no. 91 (1)

Stanford’s Library map of London. H. no. 91 (15) H. no 91 (15)

See ‘Bell House’

This is the name since mid-nineteenth for the back road which branches off Greenwich (High) Road shortly before the present railway station and runs parallel to London Street (now part of Greenwich High Road) to the back of the parish church (St. Alfege). Its main history is given in a separate "Straightsmouth" entry. In 1997 it was cut in two when the construction of the Docklands Light Railway extension to Lewisham required the stopping up of the underpass beneath railway viaduct to accommodate the rising DLR lines from the tunnel to the east to ground level at Greenwich Station. The resulting short cul-de-sac off Greenwich High Road has no residences in it but provides access to the yard and loading bay of Wines Galore (Davy’s Wines), formerly Lovibond’s Brewery. A hotel was later built on the other side of the road, with its entrance facing the station forecourt but Straightsmouth providing access to its underground car park. In 2000, this southern section of Straightsmouth was renamed Key Way.

See ‘Greenwich Cinema Studio Bar’

As with its namesake in Blackheath Road, The White Swan, later The Millers, in Greenwich (High) Road has often had its name abbreviated to just The Swan. In the 1881 census, it is recorded as The Swan Tavern. Demolished in 2012 (??) and replaced by flats.

A representative of the University of Greenwich speaking at a meeting of the Ashburnham Triangle Association in the Autumn of 1994 indicated that the Greenwich Council had renamed the former Melanie Klein House after its conversion to student accommodation for the University. The new name chosen by the Council was Teddington Court. However, the name that subsequently appeared on the building itself at front and rear is Binnie Court.

A pub at the corner of the present Point Hill (west side) and Royal Hill (south side) opposite Prior Street. It was recorded in Green Lane (which started at this junction) in Mason’s directory of 1852.For some time it has been operating as The Hill restaurant

This is built on backland on the North side of Blackheath Road with an entrance to the night of no. 75. The property itself is just named ‘The Cottage’ but it is additionally renumbered ‘75a’ in the electoral register.

A pub of this name is recorded in Mason’s 1852 directory and is shown on Wyld’s map of the same year (and later ones) as being on the west side of the road on the corner (north side) of Peyton Place. A public house is still shown here on the 1914 O.S. map and it presumably survived until the site was cleared in the 1930s for redevelopment. The South-East corner of the Bourough Halls now occupies the site. it was referred to as the Globe Tavern in the 1881 census.

In the 1980's the Red Lion (q.v.) established in 1742 was renamed The Greenwich Inn. Unlike the White Swan further down Greenwich High Road which also changed its name, there were no other Red Lions in the immediate vicinity. Formerly there were others in Greenwich but now the nearest ones are in Shooter’s Hill and Plumstead. Although ‘Red Lion’ is the commonest of all pub names, somehow, ‘The Greenwich Inn’ seems less distinctive. According to the local list of buildings of architectural or historic interest, the present building dates from the early to mid-nineteenth century and Greenwich Council have recommended it for statutory listing. Darrell Spurgeon in his ‘Discover Greenwich and Charlton’ dates it to the 1840s.

The present almshouses have the appearance of commemorating the present Queen’s silver jubilee but actually date from a year of so earlier. They are the third set of almshouses on the site (see Jubilee Almshouses, Greenwich (High) Road, for the earlier history of the charity) and were redeveloped by Greenwich Council as modern sheltered housing in 1974. They were renovated in 1993 and given pitched roofs. There are entrances in both Greenwich High Road and Egerton Drive though their address is the latter. Both the Post Code Directory and the Electoral Register agree that their correct name is ‘The Jubilee’ though they are still commonly called Jubilee Almshouses and notices on the buildings themselves call them both Jubilee Flats and the Jubilee Estate. Plaques and stone monuments from the former almshouses have been retained.

The usual form of name for what is shown on the renaming and renumbering plan for Deptford Bridge as Parade Buildings.

The Prince of Orange pub (now the St. Christopher’s Inn) has two beer cellars and earlier editions of CAMRA’s ‘South East London Pub Guide’ state that it was originally two pubs. In the 3rd ed. the other pub was stated to be the Railway Hotel.

This is yet another of the pubs in the vicinity of Limekiln (the junction of (Greenwich) South Street/ Lewisham Lane (Road) and Blackheath Road/ Hill) of which only the Coach and Horses and George and Dragon survive. It appears in the rate-books for 1800 and in Pigot’s Directory for 1827. It occupied the corner site of Blackheath Hill and the West side of Plumbridge Street more recently occupied by Favorite Fried Chicken takeaway (13 Blackheath Hill).

A lane has existed where Ashburnham Place (q.v.) now is for centuries and is clearly shown on Rocque’s map (1746) and all subsequent maps of the area. Usually it is un-named until the South side was developed as Ashburnham Road in the early 1850s but one, Wyld’s map of 1848 clearly marks it ‘Walk’. This may be a description rather than a name but it seems more likely that this was what the lane was called for some time before it was developed. See also ‘Jubilee Walk’.

A new plan of London and its environs from an original survey … drawn by Mr. Thompson, 2nd ed. London: Hoare & Reeves, engravers & mapsellers, 1824 – [Another ed.] 1823 [3.2”: 1m] D & H no. 296 (2) & ? (3)