A house on the corner of what is now Circus Street (formerly Royal Circus Street), north side and Greenwich South Street (formerly Thornton Row) opposite Queen Elizabeth College. It is clearly shown on Rocque’s map (1746) and presumably gave its name to Thornton Row. The site is now occupied by nos. 19-27 (odd) Greenwich South Street and nos. 34-44 Circus Street. It was pulled down around the turn of the century. It was still shown on the 1897 O.S map and notes were listed there in the 1898 electoral register but not later ones; it is still listed in the Kelly’s directory for 1900 (data probably for 1899). It seems likely to have been emptied in 1898 or early 1899 and pulled down shortly afterwards. Kelly’s directory for 1903 shows the site already redeveloped and that part of South Street renumbered as a consequence. It was for long used as a school before redevelopment.

Now part of Greenwich South Street (nos. 1-27 (odds)) on the East side between Greenwich High Road (London Street) and Circus Street. Formerly reckoned a separate ‘street’ but renumbered as part of South Street on 22nd April 1870. Thornton House (q.v.) at the Southern end was already in existence in the mid-eighteenth and obviously gave its name to the terrace.

Recorded in all the census returns so far opened and usually with a question mark in the census street indicated at the Family History Centre as to whether it is part of Prior Street. It is almost certainly the short cul-de-sac with four houses on one side only on the west side of Prior Street near the Green Lane (Royal Hill) end. When the Greenwich Park branch railway was built the house nearest it was pulled down and rebuilt. The street no longer exists and garages on the Prior Street side of Topham House (which obviously takes its name from the street) are on the site.

Recorded in the 1881 census returns. A horse-drawn tram service from Greenwich to Westminster was started in 1870 (see ‘Pimlico’, ‘Peckham’ and ‘Greenwich Street Tramways Co.’q.v.) and the yard originally provided stabling at the Greenwich terminus. It remained a tram depot even after the electrification in 1903-4.

A survey of the Kings Lordship or the Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent with the bounds and perambulation of the Parish of Greenwich, the Park and Desmesne lands there with … and the waste ground belonging to the said manor with the buildings and improvements thereupon. All which is truly described as the same was found by view …. and an examination of witnesses … by … commission under the Grand Seal … bearing date [7 Nov. 1695], by Samuel Travers, Surveyor General.

The Ashburnham Hostel, 75 Ashburnham Grove, was built on the site of bomb-damaged 75-79 and opened in 1968 (voters first appear on the electoral register in 1969) for mentally handicapped children. It was announced that it was intended to rename it the Triangle Hostel in 1993 in appreciation of the support of the Ashburnham Triangle Association who had provided funds for the purchase of garden furniture from the proceeds of a street party. In fact the name change did not take place. But the ATA has continued to provide significant support for the upkeep of the Hostel gardens, and has wherever possible involved residents (now adult) in its gardening.

A row of 17 houses on the South side of Blackheath Road running East from Blackheath Road schools (now Lewisham College, q.v.). On 31st May 1878 it was renumbered 50-82 (evens) Blackheath Road. By the early 1970s this had been reduced to nos. 56-62 and this appears in the 1973 (7th) list for Greenwich of Listed Buildings as Grade 2. It was described as an early nineteenth century three and a half storey terrace of stock brick with stone cornice and blocking course with name ‘Union Terrace’ inscribed. Listing did not save the terrace from destruction. The development which replaced it did not last long and in 1990 the site (with substantial back land never part of Union Place) was further redeveloped as a substantial private housing estate - Meridian Court (q.v.). Most of the estate is off Blackheath Road on a new road, Crosslet Vale, but a small part of the estate, Flats 1-6, 60 Blackheath Road, are on part of the site of Union Place.

A modest house at the end of Vansittart Terrace occupying the corner site on the North side of Greenwich (High) Road, West of the cul-de-sac giving access to the warehouse at the rear of Davy’s Wine Vaults (formerly Lovibonds Brewery). The House was renumbered 159 Greenwich (High) Road on 19th November 1875. It was destroyed on 12th July 1944 by the same V1 that destroyed Vansittart Terrace (q.v.) and the site is now part of the Greenwich Trading estate (q.v.). Nicholas Vansittart (1766-1850), MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1812, created Lord Bexley in 1821, a member of a well-established Greenwich Huguenot family, was chairman of the Trustees of the Greenwich Blue Coats School for Girls which owns the freehold of this property (see ‘Harp’s Mead’) and also of Vansittart Place and Vansittart Terrace. A Miss Vansittart with an address in Downing Street, presumably his daughter, was in 1819 one of the managers and the Treasurer of the charity. Hence the name.

A terrace running East from what is now West Greenwich House to the former Vansittart House (q.v.). the name was abolished on 19th November 1875 and the house renumbered 143 to 157 (the original numbers ran in the opposite direction). For the origin of the name see ‘Vansittart House’. The name was already in existence by 1816 when it was shown on a plan of the Elizabeth Dry (Day??) endowment of the Greenwich Green Coat School for Girls in John Kimbell’s ‘Greenwich charities’ of that year. The terrace, if not the name, may well be a good deal older still. It was totally destroyed on 12th July 1944 when a doodlebug (V1 flying bomb) glided into it. A good illustration of the handsome three storey terrace can be seen in the photograph on p. 13 of Barbara Ludlow’s ‘The Old Photograph Series: Greenwich’ and the picture of the devastation in the wake of the V1 is shown in the photograph on p. 145 of the same work.

Recorded in Mason’s Directory for 1852 and the Deptford Directory for 1853 but otherwise un-recorded. It was situated at 8 Union Place (afterwards 62 Blackheath Road). The site is roughly where the only part of the recent Meridian estate faces Blackheath Road.

In 1859 Elizabeth Warham had built two houses as part of the Jubilee Almshouses. They were presumably built facing the newly constructed Egerton Road, as Kelly’s directories of the period list them there, and not in Greenwich (High) Road. The name disappeared when the Jubilee Almshouses were rebuilt in 1888.

Ancient name of the Roman road from London to the Kent coast (and, north of the Thames, the route to the North-West) also called the Dover Road and including Blackheath Road (q.v.). It is almost certainly not the original route in the Blackheath Road area but a diversion Southward in late Roman times to avoid increasingly marshy conditions nearer the Thames. The road is nevertheless almost certainly Roman though the name is in part Saxon. ‘Watling’ is a corruption of ‘Atheling’ meaning princely or noble; ‘Street’ is from the Latin ‘Strata’. In Saxon usage, it had the connotation of a paved way, what we would now call a metalled road, and was commonly used of Roman roads.

Queen Elizabeth College as rebuilt in 1819 consisted of three blocks forming three sides of a hollow square facing outward to Greenwich High Road. At a later date a fourth block was built behind the centre block and back-to-back with it and, by inference, with its own entrance in (Greenwich) South Street. This row of 12 houses was probably built in the mid-1850s, replicating the style of the rest of the almshouses. It first appears on Stanford’s Library Map of 1862 where it is named ‘Wellington Alms Houses’. After the Duke of Wellington’s death in 1852, his name was frequently used for streets and buildings (i.e. ‘Wellington Grove’). Despite its separate name and separate entrance, this row was an integral part of Queen Elizabeth College and the name eventually disappeared.

Former name of Burgos Grove (q.v.). It was developed in the early 1850s. It does not appear in Mason’s Greenwich and Blackheath shilling directory for 1852 (preface dated December 1851) but was already established by 1st January 1856 when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for street naming. The dates are significant as the Duke of Wellington died on 14th September 1852. Greenwich honoured him by building some extra houses for the Jubilee Almshouses (q.v.) just down Greenwich (High) Road and Queen Elizabeth College (see ‘Wellington Almshouses’). The naming of Wellington Grove and the adjacent Wellington Terrace (q.v.) and Wellington Place (q.v.) at about the same time was obviously also in honour of the Iron Duke.

Recorded in the 1861 census returns and distinct from Wellington Grove (now Burgos Grove) and Wellington Terrace, both also listed. Whereas the latter was North of Wellington Grove on the East side of Greenwich (High) Road, Wellington Place was to the South between it and St. Mary’s Place. It consisted of two houses in the 1861 census but four houses in the 1872 Kelly’s directory. By the time of the renumbering of Greenwich (High) Road (19th November 1875), the name appeared no longer to be in use but three unnumbered houses, renumbered as 30-34 (evens) represented its location. The buildings survive.

The usual name of the West London Methodist Church from the time that it opened in London Street in 1876 until it reopened after reconstruction in 1906 as the Greenwich Central Hall.

A locally listed classical-style building which originally cost £9,090 including land (the former Denmark House purchased from the Girls Blue Coat School Charity for £1500), construction and equipment. The foundation stone reads ‘This memorial stone was laid by Thomas Norfolk Esq., the Chairman of the Board of Works for the Greenwich District on the 11th of April 1876’. The building was opened a year later on 18th April 1877, also by Thomas Norfolk, and the first Board meeting was held on 25th April 1877. On the foundation of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich on 1st January 1900, this became Greenwich’s first Town Hall. A new town hall was built in the 1930s (see ‘Meridian House’), and the Council last met here on 19th July 1939. The ‘Old Town Hall’ was then used for a variety of purposes. During WW2 it was the area HQ of the Local Defence Volunteers/ Home Guard and was also used by the ARP. Later part of it was used by the Council’s Housing Department, part as a Food Office for the Ministry of Works; it was also used by the Citizen’s Advice Bureau and by the WVS (now WRVS). In 1955, the upper floor was re-opened by the Council as a Community Centre which gradually expanded to occupy the whole building by 1967. In February 1958 the Old Town Hall was renamed West Greenwich House. On 1st January 1994 the management of West Greenwich House Community Cengtre was transferred from the Council to a local community-based cooperative. The present building is not exactly as originally designed. Apart from losing its railings, entrance gates and lamps atop the gate pillars (presumably to a scrap-metal drive in World War 2), it has also lost its porch and its dome set above the central front elevation (see the photograph on p.13 of Barbara Ludlow’s ‘The Old Photographs Series: Greenwich’). The building was seriously damaged by the V1 (doodlebug) which destroyed the entire terrace to the right (formerly Vansittart Terrace, q.v.) on 12th July 1944. The dome was damaged but not destroyed (see photograph on p.145 of same work) but was subsequently dismantled rather than repaired. This is a pity as the dome gave distinction to an otherwise rather nondescript building. In 2013 (??) the building was developed at the rear, with a new entrance from Lovibond Lane (qv) as part of the" Movement" redevelopment of the West Greenwich Business Park

This was founded in George Street (now King George Street) in 1816 and moved to London Street (now Greenwich High Road) in 1876. The church was reconstructed in 1906 as Greenwich Central Hall and was damaged by bombs in 1940 and services were held in the schoolroom at the rear. The building was declared dangerous in 1949 and demolished. The foundation stone of a new church was laid on 25th April 1953 and it was opened on 2nd January 1954. The church closed in 19?? and the congregation merged with St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church (q.v.).

Recorded in 1850 rate book as an alley of Blackheath Road separate from Ditch Alley (which was also recorded); two alleys are shown on Morris’s map (1834) which join together past North of Cold Bath (John Penn Street). West Passage, if it is the other alleyway, was to the East of Ditch Alley but West of Lewisham Way (Lewisham Road).

An obscure eighteenth century pub, the whereabouts of which was already uncertain by 1819 when the Charity Commissioners were inquiring about the Greenwich Blue Coat School for Girls. It was mentioned in a lease of 1731 of a property called Harp’s Mead (q.v.) where it defined the South-West corner of the property. The North Pole P.H. is now at that South-West corner. But the Wheatsheaf was described as contiguous to but not within the property and so must have been next door and to the West side of the site of the North Pole and separated from it by the alignment of the present Norman Road, which then would have been just a footpath (see ‘Manor Way’). According to John Kimbell’s evidence to the Charity Commissioners in 1819, the former Wheatsheaf and the Duke of Gloucester P.H. (q.v.), now the North Pole, were close enough to have cellars which extended beneath both properties (see ‘Endowed Charities of London return’, 1899, vol. 2 p. 246).

One of two pubs of this name in the area (see separate entry), this is probably the one listed in the ‘Universal British Directory’ for 1792 although no addresses are given. It is listed in the rate books for 1800. After trading under this name for perhaps nearly two centuries, the pub’s name was changed to the ‘Millers’ (q.v.).

A community hall built at the side of Queen Elizabeth College and behind Lambarde House; it bears a plaque with the following inscription ‘This Community Hall commissioned by the Draper’s Company to mark the refurbishment of Queen Elizabeth College and its integration with Lambarde House was opened by A. E. Woodhall, Esq., Master of the Company, on 27th July 1992’.

Apparently the earlier form of name for Wood’s Cottages (q.v.), recorded as early as the 1841 census, though no formal change of name can be found. ‘Wood’s Buildings’ was the usual form of name in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but there is overlap in usage of ‘Wood’s Cottages’ in Kelly’s directory 1900, ‘Wood’s Buildings’ 1901 ed. of LCC’s ‘List of Streets and Places’; ‘Wood’s Buildings’, 1911 electoral register, ‘Wood’s Cottages’ 1912 ed. of LCC’s ‘List of Streets and Places’!

A block of council flats, part of the Royal Hill Estate, which presents a blank end wall to Greenwich South Street. The address is ‘Blissett Street’ but the entrance is via a side footpath joining Blissett Street and Greenwich South Street, gated at either end. The Greenwich South Street frontage is on the site of the former Prospet Place (q.v.). Woodville or Wydville was the family name of Elizabeth, a local beauty (daughter of Sir Richard Wydville of Lee, Lord Rivers), whom Edward IV secretly married in 1464. As queen, she was mistress of the manor of Greenwich for many years.

An atlas of London and its environs, by James Wyld, London. [3.67”: 1m.] D & H. no. 415

An alternative name for Thornton Row.

A block of council flats on the Royal Hill Estate, see ‘Topham Place’.

See Tramway Yard

Part of the Jubilee Almshouses recorded in Charles Booth’s notebooks of poverty in London (‘The Streets of London…’ Deptford Forum Publishing, (1997), Walk 66, p.249)

No. 1 Greenwich Road on the corner with Deptford Bridge is identified as Trenchard Wharf in the 1898 electoral registers.

An intriguing name for a subsidiary street name in the Ashburnham Triangle and a tantalizing one as well, as it cannot be precisely located. It is listed in the 1860 Kelly’s directory as being in Greenwich Road but without an indication of where. However there are clues. It was small (only two residences listed) and was presumably triangular in shape or at least on an island site roughly triangular in shape. The only candidate is the building that was located at the junction of Egerton Road (now Drive), Ashburnham Road (now Place) and Greenwich Road (now High Road). This was formerly ‘The Cage’ built in 1822 as the parish lock-up supplied as such around 1830 when a police station with its own cells was established in Blackheath Road.

Two substantial terraces on Blackheath Rd. either side of Egerton Road (Drive) named after Francis Valentine. Valentine is shown on the 1845 tithe map as in possession of more than half the Triangle including the land on which the terrace stands. On 31st May 1878 the name was abolished and the houses renumbered. To the West of Egerton Road 16-19 were renumbered 37-45 (odds). The terrace still exists- Grade 2 listed early nineteenth century three and a half storey yellow brick terrace with stucco banding. To the East of Egerton Road, 1, 1A, 2-10 were renumbered 55-75 (odds) with an allowance of four numbers (47-53 odds) for a vacant site on the corner of Egerton Road. The terrace, including an infill for the gap, has largely survived; nos. 55-71 and 75 (odds) are locally listed and no. 73 is on the statutory list as Grade 2.

A mixed row of houses on the North-West side of Greenwich (High) Road between North Pole Lane (now Norman Road) and a market garden now occupied by West Greenwich House. The name was abolished on 19th November 1875 and the houses renumbered 131-137 (odds). It includes the North Pole Public House and possibly Grosvenor House (no. 139) which no longer exists. Apart from the pub, nos. 133 and 135 still survive. For the origin of the name see ‘Vansittart House’.

Recorded in 1841 census returns

The service road at the side of Davy’s Function Rooms (formerly Colonel Jaspers) leading to the former Lovibond’s Brewery and to The Movement development, which has replaced the former Greenwich Industrial Estate (main entrance in Norman Road). The service road had existed as an un-named cul-de-sac since at least the early eighteenth century. In an estate plan of 1732 (see ‘Harp’s Mead’), it is shown as a gated path called ‘wayleave open only to… tenants’. In 1999, as part of the infrastructure development for the Dockland Light Railway extension to Lewisham, the road was extended for pedestrians though to Jarvis Way under both the DLR and the Connex mainline railway and thus providing direct access to the DLR platforms of Greenwich Station without having to use the Greenwich mainline station (which only accesses the DLR up line anyway). At that time no new properties were accessed, other than Greenwich Station, so that there was no postal requirement to name the street. But it was obviously thought that its new character as a through road, at least for pedestrians, demanded a name and it was called Waller Way. Subsequently it has come to provide access to one end of the new Lovibond Lane, which provides public pedestrian access through the Movement re-development to Norman Road.

A plan of the area, in connexion with the establishment of the Jubilee Almshouses in 1809, shows a small triangle of land at the junction of Ashburnham Place (there called Cut Throat Lane) and Greenwich High Road (there called Turnpike Road Deptford to Greenwich) labelled ‘Watch House’: which provided a limited night patrol before the existence of a professional police force. This early ‘police station’ is unlikely to predate 1805 when the land in the area was transferred from the Crown to the Parish of Greenwich. It was replaced by ‘The Cage’ (q.v.), the parish lock-up, in 1822.

Welland’s New plan of London compiled from the latest survey, published by George Welland, 1862 [3.33”: 1m.] H. no. 94

In a pamphlet headed ‘To the subscribers to the Jubilee Almshouse and Wellington testimonial Fund’ giving final accounts for the appeal, it is stated ‘… In pursuance of the resolutions passed at a public meeting, held for this object on the 22nd of November 1852, two houses have been erected on the Jubilee property and are now incorporated with it, named the “Wellington Almshouses”…’. The name disappeared with the re-building of the Jubilee Almshouses in 1888, if not sooner. See also ‘ Wellington Almshouses, (Greenwich) South Street’

A grade 2 listed building that is probably the oldest surviving building in the Triangle. The statutory list describes it as early eighteenth century but it may be slightly older, though much altered. Queen Elizabeth College is an older foundation but was completely rebuilt in 1819. Wellington House is much older than the street in which it now stands (which was built on its grounds) and originally was reckoned to be in Greenwich High Road. It was called Lawn House in the nineteenth century but on 10th November 1896, when Wellington Grove was renamed Burgos Grove and the whole street was renumbered, Lawn House became 2 Burgos Grove. The then owners renamed it Wellington House in 1972, reviving the Wellington connexion of Wellington Grove. The Lawn House estate was originally more extensive and included the present Burgos Grove, Binnie Court and the Royal Kent Dispensary (qq.v.) and was formed in the 1750s when Christopher Mason sold the property to Mr Haysham (see Diana Rimel’s ‘History’). It was the second major alienation (after Queen Elizabeth College) of the Triangle portion of the Swanne House estate (q.v.)

A terrace originally of 14 houses built on the South side of Greenwich (High) Road between the Royal Kent Dispensary and Wellington Grove. Developed in the 1850s (it did not appear on Wyld’s map of 1848 but did on Stanford’s of 1862). The name was abolished on 19th November 1875 and 1-4 Wellington Terrace was renumbered 36-62 (evens) Greenwich (High) Road. Nos. 54-62 were lost to an extension of the Miller Hospital before World War 1 and the remains were destroyed in the 1920s for the same reason.

A property of this name is shown in the 1915 electoral register as at 23 Deptford Bridge. Confusingly, another property, called New Cottage, is also numbered 23.

In 1904 Andrew Carnegie agreed to fund the building of a second library in the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich. Bexley House, London Street (q.v.) was purchased and demolished. A competition was held for the design of the suitable building which was won by the firm of Willis & Anderson of Holborn. Pevsner in the South London volume of his ‘Buildings of England’ gives the architects as H. W. Willis and J. Anderson but the Statutory List state that the architect was Sir A. B. Thomas, the architect of Woolwich (now Greenwich Town Hall). Whoever the architect was, the building is a gem, a Grade 2 listed building with a restrained exterior topped by an open cupola on Tuscan columns. The long, narrow interior has three domes with ingenious clerestory lighting, the partitions are set off by pilasters. The building was extensively renovated in 1993 but much of the rear was inaccessible to the public. It has since become accessible again.

Originally Blackheath Road Schools, now Lewisham College, West Greenwich Branch (q.v.).

A new (1997/98) development on the backland behind 12-16 Guildford Grove with an entrance between 10 and 12. Large-scale O.S. maps (1869-1914) appear to show the land as part of an extensive L-shaped garden of what is now 73 Blackheath Road but more recent maps show a warehouse accessed between 75 and 77 Blackheath Road. It is however numbered 10a on the Ashburnham Triangle Conservation Area map and therefore part of Guildford Grove.

‘Swan’ and its variants are frequently used as pub names and there are two, both ‘White Swan’, to be found in the Ashburnham Triangle. The name may derive either from the bird itself or from its heraldic representation. In the latter case, it was the badge of the Bohuns in the middle ages with two Greenwich connexions. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, founder of Greenwich Palace, now the Royal Naval College, was a Bohun on his mother’s side; also, the Courteneys, Earls of Devon and extensive landowners in Greenwich, married into the Bohuns. Their great house was called Swan (or ‘Swanne’) House which ended its life as a brewery before being demolished in 1824 for redevelopment as the covered market in Greenwich town centre. According to Beryl Platt’s ‘A History of Greenwich’, the Swan House estate included the ‘Ditches’ which came via the Masons and Crowbys to the Ashburnhams. It is from this family that the area, on which both pubs border took the name of the Ashburnham Triangle. A White Swan is listed in the ‘Universal British Directory’ for 1792 but this probably refers to the Greenwich (High) Road pub (no address is given). The White Swan, Blackheath Road is certainly listed in Pigot’s Directory 1827. It was closed in recent years and its recent history has been chequered.

Broomfield's Bakery on the eastern side of the old Penn Engine Works (east of Ditch Alley) in Blackheath Road closed in 1992 and the site was cleared, initially for housing. In 1993 a boarding proclaimed 'Beaver Housing working with the Housing Corporation. Development of 26 new affordable houses...' but nothing came of this and the site remained vacant. In 1996 Wickes developed the site as a major DIY centre.

The trading name of the wholesaling business of Davy’s of London (q.v.). In 1972, this moved to 161-165 Greenwich High Road with its loading bay entrance round the corner in Straightsmouth.

The later name for the short terrace otherwise known as Wood’s Buildings. The 1901 edition of the LCC’s ‘List of Streets and Places’ gives the latter name only, the 1912 the former name without any note of a change of name. They are almost certainly the same place. This is shown on the 1930 LCC revision of the 1:2500 O.S. map as a row of four houses tacked in the angle between Greenwich Railway Station and the Prince of Orange PH. Access was via an alleyway between the station forecourt and Prince of Orange Lane with Wood’s Cottage a cul-de-sac off this towards the railway lines.

When the DSS/ Benefits Agency Offices moved from Norman Road to Meridian House, Greenwich High Road (the old Town Hall) in the early 1990s, a part of the vacated building was occupied by Woolwich College for its Tourist Centre with an entrance at 125 Greenwich High Road. It did not last long and before the end of the decade the property was on the market again.

Wyld’s New plan of London, 1848 [3.75”: 1m] D & H no. 415