Cruchley’s New plan of London and its environs… A new edition improved to January 1st 1843 [4.85”: 1m.] D&H 320(8)

Cruchley’s New postal district map of London. [1859], [4.2”: 1m.] Note: ‘Additions to 1859’. –[Another edition] [n.d. c1862] H App. I no. 279(6) & either (8) or (9)

This is the most intriguing of the several former names of what is now Ashburnham Place. The lane is shown, un-named, on Travers’ survey map (1695) and Rocque’s map (1746) and probably dates from the founding of Queen Elizabeth’s College as it forms the southern boundary of the College’s original estate. William Lambarde, the College’s founder, acquired the land from Edmund Chapman in exchange for some of his property in Westcombe. Chapman had bought the Courteney ‘Swanne House’ estate which included virtually the whole of the Triangle. The remained of the latter came eventually, via several transfers of ownership, to the Ashburnhams. Though there may have been an earlier field division, it would seem that the line as a property division and so as a lane dates from the Chapman/Lambarde conveyance of 1575. ‘Cut Throat Lane’ (also ‘Cutthroat Lane’) appear in a deed dated 29 August 1805 reproduced with a map in John Kimbell’s “Charities of Greenwich”, 1816 (pp.176-177). Later maps show other names: ‘Back Road’ (Crutchley, 1843), ‘Walk’ (Wyld, 1848), and ‘Jubilee Walk’ (Wyld, 1852). But ‘Cut Throat Lane’ was shown on the O.S. Skeleton Survey (1848-51) and Wyld’s map of 1851 and must have been used in conjunction with these right up until the Earl of Ashburnham began developing his side of the street in the early 1850s and renamed it Ashburnham Road (now Place).

The former name of Brigade Place according to Charles Booth in his survey of poverty in London as published in “The streets of London: the Booth notebooks – South East” (Deptford Forum Publishing, [1987]) Walk 68 (p. 259). It appears nowhere else and is presumably a mistake for Davis Place. Whether it is an error in the original notebooks or an error in the published transcription is unclear

A private block of 17 2- and 3-bedroom apartments converted in 1995 from what was originally the nurse’ home for the former MILLER HOSPITAL and put on the market early in 1996. It was built in the 1920s when the Miller Hospital expanded and 15-23 Catherine Grove were demolished to accommodate it. It remained a nurses’ home until the hospital, by now the Miller Wing of Greenwich District Hospital, was closed in 1976. It was afterwards used for a while as a home for single mothers, but had been largely empty for a while before its current conversion to flats. It was named after the Earls of Dartmouth, lords of the nearby manor of Lewisham since the seventeenth century and major local landowners (cf. Dartmouth Row, Hill, and Grove). The Earl of Dartmouth of the period was a patron of the Miller Hospital. The name has a fortuitous West-Country link with Plymouth House and Barnstable House just around the corner and nearby Devonshire Road/Drive.

A service yard accessed under an archway between nos. 11 and 13 Greenwich South Street. The name may be unofficial as the name-plaque is non-standard, the name does not appear in post-code directories, and the properties within the ‘Mews’ number as part of Greenwich South Street (nos 11A & 13A). See also Stanley’s Cottage and Rose Cottage, (Greenwich) South Street.

Davies’s map of the British metropolis containing … Metropolitan County Court districts … London, Bubl. …(?) Nov: 20, 1848. Scale 3 inches to 1 mile D & H 410 (2)

Davies’s new map of the British metropolis … London: published (for the proprietor) by Saunders & Stanford, Oct. 25 1852 [2.96”: 1m.] H. no. 27A (2)

Davies’s New map of the British metropolis … London: Stanford’s, 1883 [2.89”: 1m.] H no. 27B (16)

A cul-de-sac off the north side of Grove Street (now Lindsell Street) that was in existence by the mid-1830s – it is shown but not named on Morris’ map (1834) where it appears to be a through road to Blissett Street. It is shown as a cul-de-sac on the Tithe map (1845) and named as Davis Place on the 1869 O.S. map. It was renamed Brigade Place in , was severely damaged in World War 2 and disappeared entirely in the redevelopment of the Blissett Street Fire Station.

The wine merchant firm of Davys was founded by F.E. Davy in 1870 and remains a family-run business with four generations of Davys as successive chairmen of the firm. In 1972, its cellars were moved from Barking to Greenwich – to 161-165 Greenwich High Road (formerly Blue Stile, q.v.). Its 50-plus establishments are mostly in London but there are outlets also in Bristol, Exeter and Oxford. At its Greenwich High Road headquarters, there are administrative offices, a wine bar (Davys Wine Vaults), and a wholesale outlet (Wines Galore), all of which, q.v.

This is a short cul-de-sac at the junction of Deptford Bridge and Blackheath Road on the south side opposite Greenwich High Road. Until recently it led to the recreation ground called Broadway Fields. The latter disappeared in 1997 with the construction of the Docklands Light Railway extension to Lewisham. The west side of Deal’s Gateway together with adjacent houses in Deptford Bridge have been demolished to accommodate Deptford Bridge Station. Morris’ map of 1834 was the earliest at a sufficient scale to show Deal’s Gateway as a short cul-de-sac running down to the Ravensbourne (since diverted) with buildings on the east side. Access appears to have been via a narrow gap in an otherwise continuous terrace (Queen’s Place) along that part of Blackheath Road and Deptford Bridge, but this is suspect. Other maps from as early as the Kent Waterworks map of 1809 show no such gap. This might be a matter of scale but the 1869 O.S. map shows clearly that access was via an archway in the terrace. The whole of Deal’s Gateway together with the terrace fronting it was demolished in 1878-82 as part of a scheme to widen the approaches to Deptford Bridge. It was rebuilt on a slightly different axis with a wider (and un-arched) access from the main road. It does not appear in any street directory, nor in the 1841 census. In the 1851 and 1861 censuses, the place is recorded as Deal’s Yard, and in the 1871 census as Deal's Court. These names, and Deal's Gateway all express the idea of restricted access and appear to be variants of the same name rather than name changes. There are two candidates for the origins of the name. An Edward Deal, grocer and cheesemonger, is recorded in Mason’s Directory of 1852 and the Deptford directory of 1853 at 1 Queen’s Place, Blackheath Road on the corner of Deal’s Gateway. He is not recorded in the Kelly’s directory of 1860 but a Joseph Deal, coal merchant, is recorded in the last house in Deptford Bridge. This may be on the other corner of Deal’s Gateway (the sequence is unclear) but is more likely to be on the corner of Greenwich (High) Road with access for his coal deliveries from the wharves of Deptford Creek. He is recorded here until 1872, but in the next Kelly’s (1876) he is at 1 Queen’s Place where a quarter of a century before Edward Deal (? a kinsman) resided.

In the “Endowed charities of London return”, 1899, Vol. 2, it is stated ‘… under authority of Charity Commissioners dated 4th May 1875 a piece of land belonging to the Charity (the Girls Blue Coat School, Elizabeth Dry Charity) having frontage to Greenwich Road of 82 feet and a depth varying from 99 to 125 feet or thereabouts with a messuage (site for a dwelling place) thereon known as Denmark House was sold to Greenwich Board of Works for a sum of £1500’. At the time of the renumbering of Greenwich High Road (11 November 1875), the site, numbered 141, was vacant; the foundation stone of the Greenwich District Board of Works Offices (later Greenwich Town Hall, later still West Greenwich House), was laid on 11 April 1876 and the building reopened on 18 April 1877. The former Denmark House was a short-lived building. The property was unlisted in the 1861 and earlier censuses and the site was shown as vacant on Stanford’s 1862 map. It appears on the 1869 O.S. map and in the 1871 census and must have been constructed in the mid-1860s and lasted ten years, being demolished in 1875.

Shown as such as the residence of a voter in the 1896 electoral register.

The generic name for the gin distillery in Deptford Bridge which existed for nearly two centuries (1779 to 1971). It was successively Goodhews Distillery, Hollands Distillery and Seagar Distillery.

The pumping station built by the Metropolitan Board of Works in Greenwich Road (now Greenwich High Road) was until recently called Deptford Pumping Station. This was somewhat confusing as, although it was built on the banks of Deptford Creek, it was on the Greenwich side of the creek. The anomaly became acute in 1986 when the GLC was abolished and its responsibility for sewerage management including this pumping station were transferred to Thames Water which already had a ‘Deptford Pumping Station’. This was the former Kent Water Works (q.v.) which became part of the Metropolitan Water Board early this century and later Thames Water (see ‘Deptford Pumping Station (Water), Brookmills Lane). The Greenwich High Road station was therefore renamed Greenwich Pumping Station (q.v.) presumably as Deptford Pumping Station (sewerage) did not sound well.

One of several house in Devonshire Road, now Drive, between Catherine Grove and Egerton Road (Drive) identified originally by name and not number (see Hope Cottage, Devonshire Road (Drive)). Its exact location is not clear. It was destroyed in the War and Plymouth House now occupies the site.

A church with a complicated history. Formed before 1760, by which time it occupied a site in London Street (now Greenwich High Road), it moved to the Huguenot Chapel, London Street (near the Mitre Tavern) in 1805 (a Huguenot congregation had formed in Greenwich in 1686 and had founded its chapel in 1690. That closed in 1800. After the ‘Devonshire Drive’ Baptists - the original London Street congregation - vacated it in 1827, it was used by another Baptist congregation until ca. 1880). The original London Street congregation - the "Devonshire Drive" Baptists - had moved to Bridge Street (now Creek Road) in 1827, and finally made it to Devonshire Road (now Drive) in1842! But that wasn't the end of their story. They amalgamated with East Lane Baptist Chapel in 1862 (formed in Shooter’s Hill Road 1842, moved to East (now Eastney) Street 1852). There was a further amalgamation in 1872 - with Counter Hill Independent Chapel, Deptford (formed as the Ebenezer Independent Calvinist Chapel ‘in a theatre at Deptford’ in 1800; a chapel was built at King Street (now Harton Street) off Deptford Broadway in1806; its congregation moved to Counter Hill (now part of Lewisham Way), New Cross, in 1866; and finally to Devonshire Road in 1872). The Devonshire Drive Church was destroyed in 1944 (services were held at Baildon Street Mission Hall 1944-45, and in Devonshire Drive Schoolroom 1945-55); the church was rebuilt 1955. Finally, in 2008 (???) the church building was converted to flats, and a smaller church and church hall built next door in Devonshire Drive.

A terrace of six houses in the middle of Catherine Grove (on the North side in the dog-leg section of the road). Renumbered as part of Catherine Grove on 20 Nov. 1900, the terrace was pulled down in the 1920s to accommodate the expansion of the Miller Hospital. When the hospital itself was closed, and partially demolished in the 1980s, the area formerly occupied by Devonshire Terrace was cleared to form a small community garden.

Alternative name for the A2, the main route from London to the Kent coast, including BLACKHEATH ROAD, q.v.

In Greenwich the Drapers’ Company’s principal estate was the Queen Elizabeth College Estate. William Lambarde, founder of the College, was a member of the Drapers’ Company and he made them Trustees of his foundation. The Company also administers the properties 199-215 (odds) Greenwich High Road through the Sir William Boreman Foundation.

A public house on the site of the present North Pole P.H. (q.v.). Whether the Duke of Gloucester, in existence in 1819, subsequently closed, and the North Pole opened some time later (it was in existence by the mid-1830s) or whether there was just a change of name is unclear. The evidence for the existence of a pub here called the Duke of Gloucester lies in a dispute over the extent of the property endowed by Mrs Elizabeth Dry to the Greenwich Blue Coat School for Girls (see ‘Harp’s Mead’) in 1732. The endowment was lost sight of in the 1770s and, when resumed in 1813, the Greenwich Road frontage was shorter by some 24 feet. This missing parcel of land was at the westernmost end of the property as described by witnesses at the Charity Commissions investigation (‘Endowed Charities of London Return’, 1899, Vol. 2 p. 146) and occupied by the Duke of Gloucester P.H., corresponding to the site of the present North Pole. The Charity’s right to the freehold was never established.

The suggestion that the street was named after the builder who began the development there is plausible but unproven. Otherwise (like the adjacent Guildford Grove and Devonshire Drive (qq.v.), also with doubtful explanations of their names) it may simply have been given a suitably aristocratic sounding name to boost its up-market image. Diana Rimel’s suggestion, in her otherwise admirable history of the Ashburnham Triangle, that the street ‘may have been named after Charles Comyn Egerton’ is untenable. Field Marshall Sir Charles Comyn Egerton was born in 1848 and had no special links with Greenwich (he served most of his life in India and retired to Christchurch, Hampshire); he came to modest prominence in the 1890s but, as the “Dictionary of national biography” says, he was ‘little known to the mass of his fellow countrymen’. He is, in any case, far too late to be the source for the name of a road developed first around 1830 and called ‘Egerton’ from the start – 18 years before he was born. It was originally named Egerton Road and was only renamed Egerton Drive in 1939. It was the first street in the Triangle, other than the boundary roads, to be developed. It began as a cul-de-sac running north from Blackheath Road around 1830 with a row on the west side of seven Greek-style villas, each two storeys plus basement with pillared porches. The development continued after a break of some 15 years with a mixture of detached and semi-detached houses on the same side of the road. In the 1850s the road was continued to Greenwich (High) Road but houses have never extended north of Devonshire Road (Drive). The east side of the road was much slower to be developed and by 1869 (O.S. map) there were still only three isolated pairs of semis, though development was completed soon afterwards. Six of the original seven villas (Nos. 1-6) are statutorily listed Grade II while nos. 7-13 and 17-23 are locally listed. Bomb-damaged nos. 33-36 have been replaced by an unsympathetic 1950s block of two-storey maisonettes.

Former name of EGERTON DRIVE, q.v.

The church hall of the Devonshire Drive Baptist Church (q.v.), set back from the road. Built on land of terraced housing destroyed in the War. It was demolished in 1998 in a development when the Church was converted to housing and the Hall was replaced by a new smaller church.

Cruchley’s New postal district map of London. ‘Addtions to 1857’. G. F. Cruchley, [1857], [4.35”: 1m.] H App I no. 279(5)

Cruchley’s Postal map of London for 1865… [London], 1865 Border title: Cruchley’s New Postal District map of London. H App. I no. 279 (10)

The restaurant ‘Gastro Gastro’ that opened in 2001 after refurbishment of the former ‘Royal Albert’ did not last long. Hit by the prolonged closure of Blackheath Hill in 2002, it closed the following year. After further refurbishment it re-opened in 2004 as Daniel’s Loungebar, but this lasted no longer, closing in 2006.

One of several houses in Devonshire Road, now Drive, between Catherine Grove and Egerton Road (Drive) identified originally by name and not number (see Hope Cottage, Devonshire Road (Drive)). Its exact location is not clear. It was destroyed in the War and Plymouth House now occupies the site.

Printers of Diana Rimel's local history, "The Ashburnham Triangle". Darwin published a revised and updated 2nd edition in 2009, before they re-located into Kent. Copies available from the Ashburnham Triangle Association.

A cul-de-sac off the north side of Grove Street (now Linsell Street) that was in existence by the mid 1830's. It is shown but not named on Morris's map (1834), when it appears to be a through road to Blissett Street. It is shown as a cul-de-sac on the 1845 Tithe map. It was recorded in the 1851 census returns (as DAVIDS PLACE, presumably a mis-print), and named as Davis Place in the 1869 O.S.map.Somewhat later renamed Brigade Place, it appears under that name in Booth's survey of South London Poverty. Booth statesit was formerly DARIS PLACE. The name appears nowhere else - presumably another misprint. Brigade Place was severely damaged in WW2, and was put out of its typological misery when it disappeared entirely in the re-development of the Blissett St. Fire Station. .

Davies’s map of the British metropolis in London, 1848 [2.95”: 1m] D & H no. 41D (1) or (2)

London drawn and engraved expressly for the Post Office Directory 1863 by B. R. Davies. [2.9”: 1m.] H. no. 61 (5)

Davies’s New map of the British metropolis. London: published by Edward Standford, May 1, 1885 [2.95”: 1m.] H. no. 27B (17)

The family wine merchants, Davy’s of London Ltd., opened their first wine bar, The Boot and Flogger, in 1965. A few years later, in 1972 the firm moved their centre of operations from Barking to Greenwich, taking over the former offices of Lovibond’s brewery. A wine bar, Davy’s Wine Vaults, was opened at 161 (formerly 163) Greenwich High Road, between Colonel Jaspers and their administrative headquarters (for the complications of street numbering in this part of Greenwich High Road, see ‘Blue Stile’).

In the 1871 census returns Deal’s Court was the name given to what was formerly called Deal’s Yard and subsequently Deal’s Gateway (qq.v.).

Until 1878 Deal’s Gateway (q.v.) was a courtyard behind a terrace stretching along Blackheath Road and Deptford Bridge accessed through an archway though the terrace. In the census returns of 1851 and 1861, it was called Deal’s Yard and in the 1871 census it was called Deal’s Court (q.v.), a variation on the same theme.

A bridge over the Ravensbourne at the highest point of the tidal river (Deptford Creek) and for long the lowest bridge on the river, though Creek Bridge (1803) and the Railway Bridge (1836) are now lower. Its position determines the alignment of Greenwich High Road and hence the configuration of the Ashburnham Triangle. It is also the name of the road which crosses the bridge, Watling Street, the Dover Road or the A2, between Deptford Broadway and Blackheath Road.

The originally proposed alignment of the DLR extension to Lewisham was further west, along the line of Deptford Church Street/Brookmills Lane, than was eventually built. The decision to route the line via Greenwich Town Centre with an interchange with Greenwich mainline station meant that it would cross the A2 on a viaduct over Deptford Bridge between the bridge itself and the junction with Deal’s Gateway/Greenwich High Road. A station at this point was to be constructed on the viaduct straddling the road with entrances to both platforms at either side of the road. Work began on constructing the bridge across Deptford Bridge in the spring of 1997 and the station was opened in November 1999.

The waterworks here are the oldest continuing business in the neighbourhood, being founded as the Ravensbourne Water Company in 1701; in 1771, John Smeaton, civil engineer and famous lighthouse builder, became proprietor and installed new equipment. It became Kent Water Works in 1809 and was absorbed into the Metropolitan Water Board in 1904, Thames Water Authority in 1973 and Thames Water Utilities PLC in 1989. Broadway Playing Fields are leased by Lewisham Council from the waterworks (entrance from Neal’s Gateway, q.v.).

The Greenwich Seventh Day Adventist Church at the former St. Paul’s, Devonshire Drive was called the Deptford Seventh Day Adventist Church until 1997. It moved from 470 New Cross Road late in 1993. That building, now the Iyengar Yoga Institute, has a cartouche over the door with the by-line ‘Established 1866’. This refers neither to the present Institute nor the former Church, which was there only from 1986 to 1993, but to the New Cross Building Society (now part of the Woolwich Building Society) whose headquarters were here until 1975.

According to a card index of Greenwich street names at the Local History Centre, Woodlands House, Devonshire Drive is built on land which belonged to the Earl of Devonshire’s father Henry Courteney. The Courteney’s certainly owned the area (and most of Greenwich) and sold it early in the seventeenth century (see Beryl Platt’s “A history of Greenwich”). However the Courteney’s title was (and is) Earls of Devon, not Devonshire. The earldom of Devonshire is a subsidiary title of the Cavendishes, Dukes of Devonshire, a family with no known association with the area. Either the namer of the street or the compiler of the index is mistaken. In default of any more specific explanation, the name may have been adopted (like Egerton Drive and possibly Guildford Grove) for its superior or aristocratic association. There is some doubt about the original name of this street. Both it and the present Guildford Grove were laid out at the same time in the late 1840s, each forking from the Guildford Arms PH, set back from (Greenwich) South Street, and the first building in either street. Several early maps (Wyld 1848 & 1852, Laurie 1854 and Stanford 1856) all show the present Devonshire Drive called Guildford Road while the present Guildford Grove was un-named; not until Crutchley’s map of 1857 was Devonshire Road named (and correctly placed) and Guildford Road referred to as the present Guildford Grove.

The original name of DEVONSHIRE DRIVE (q.v.). It was changed to avoid confusion with other Devonshire Roads in London (the nearest being in Forest Hill, S.E. 23) first to Kilmington Road (q.v.) in 1939 and then to Devonshire Drive two years later.

A proposal for an extension to Lewisham of the DLR was first made by Lewisham Council in November 1985, with two possible routes skirting the Ashburham Triangle on either side. The easterly route along the alignment of the old Greenwich Park line was rejected as impractical by a feasibility study dated August 1986. The recommended route tunnelled under the Thames at an angle to the mouth of Deptford Creek and followed the creek/ Ravensbourne with stations at Norway Street and Norman Road before crossing the creek to Deptford Church Street and beyond. After further studies and consultation, the alignment was moved eastwards with a station in Greenwich town centre (Cutty Sark), an interchange with Greenwich man line station and a station straddling Deptford Bridge. A bill was deposited in Nov. 1990 and received royal assent on 17th May 1995 (the London Docklands Railway (Lewisham) Act 1999 (1993 cap. vii)). The feasibility study envisaged the earliest completion of the line as the end of 1990 and at the time the bill was introduced completion was envisaged as the beginning of 1995. In the event, problems with financing the extension, especially Cutty Sark Station, delayed start on the work till late in 1996. Approval for Cutty Sark Station was agreed in September and soon after consultation on the line began with a completion date of February 2000. Completion was ahead of schedule with the line opening in November 1999 except for Cutty Sark Station which opened the following month just in time for the Millennium celebrations.

[Map of Drapers’ Company Queen Elizabeth’s College estate, Greenwich, London, 1939; base map O.S. 1: 1250, 1893 edn.]

One of a cluster of pubs on the southern side of Blackheath Hill, it was situated at no. 26 next to Burling Street towards the bottom of the street. It appears in the 1881 census returns, but was comparatively short-lived.

One of a cluster of inns around Limekilns, the juncture of Blackheath Road/ Hill and (Greeenwich) South Street/ Lewisham Lane(Road) (see also ‘Coach and Horses’, ‘George and Dragon’, ‘The Yorkshire Grey’, ‘Horse and Groom’, ‘Red Lion’, ‘Blackheath Hill’, and ‘the Sun’). It appears on Laffman’s maps of 1820 and in Pigot’s Directory of 1827. The "Deptford directory" for 1853 records it at 4 Lewisham Road, later renumbered as no. 7, on the corner of Lewisham Road (east side) and Friendly Place (north side), a few doors down from the George and Dragon. From its date it was presumably named after Fredrick, Duke of York (1763-1827), the ‘Grand Old Duke of York’ of the nursery rhyme; it is unlikely to have been named after his contemporary, and distant cousin, the Stuart Henry Benedict, Cardinal Duke of York (1725-1807), the Young Pretender’s younger brother.

The last house numerically in the street (No. 41) and the only one between Guildford Grove and Blackheath Road is called Egerton House.

Recorded in the 1881 census returns

Recorded in the 1881 census returns as a row of six houses at the Greenwich Road end of the road. It is not entirely clear which side of the road it was on but it is likely to have been on the east side, immediately behind the North Pole pub.