By the Act 49 George cap. clxxxix of 20 June 1809 (an Act for supplying with water the inhabitants of Deptford, Greenwich and several other parishes and places in the Counties of Kent and Surrey), the ‘Company of Proprietors of Kent Waterworks’ was incorporated and empowered to purchase the Ravensbourne Waterworks (q.v.) and to provide an extended service. For its later history see the ‘Deptford Pumping Service (Water)’.

In the mid-1870s, The Kentish Mercury moved offices from Bexley Place, now part of Greenwich High Road to Blackheath Road. The Kelly’s directory for 1872 showed it at the former location, the 1876 edition at 7 Queen’s Place. This was on the south side of Blackheath Road near the Deptford Bridge end. In 1878, this renumbered as 12 Blackheath Road and this is the address shown in the Kelly’s for 1880. In the next edition (1884) this had become 6-12 Blackheath Road, a block that occupied the corner site with Deal’s Gateway. The site was redeveloped in the mid-1920s; a foundation stone to the left (Deal’s Gateway side) of the corner entrance read ‘Arthur C. Russell, LRIBA, Architect, William Mills & Sons, Builders 1925’; it also had an incised inscription in a gothic style, on the left-hand parapet cornice of the Blackheath Road front which read ‘The Kentish Mercury’. The newspaper remained here until xxxx and the building was occupied by Young & Solon, Solicitors until 2005. The building was then demolished and an extension of the OneSE8 development (Boston Building) built on the site.

The L’Attitude Bar is the main bar at the Novotel Hotel (q.v.)

A four-storey block of 28 post-war flats in the form of a three-sided square with a lawn in front facing Langdale Road. It is connected at the left to the former Langdale Place (136-138 Greenwich High Road, which is its official address). With the latter, converted to six more flats, it forms an annex to Queen Elizabeth College behind it, and is administered by the Drapers’ Company as part of the College almshouses. All are named, like so much else in the neighborhood, after William Lambarde, the founder of the College.

Samuel Harris obtained building leases for three houses for 80 years from mid-summer 1863 and three more for 79 years from mid-summer 1864. The six villas were probably completed by 1864. They were renumbered - Greenwich Road on . They were damaged in World War 2 and subsequently compulsorily purchased by the Council in 19 and redeveloped as part of the Maitland Close estate.

A block of 12 council flats at the west (Egerton Drive) end of the south side of Ashburnham Place. Built in 1953 (voters first appear on the electoral register in 1954), it replaced the bomb damaged 1-9 Ashburnham Place.

In 1773 land in Greenwich (High) Road which formed part of the Queen Elizabeth College estate, West of the College was leased by the Trustees of the Drapers’ Company for development, and a pair of houses was built immediately to the West of the College. The right-hand house of the pair was called Langdale Place and, when a road was constructed to the West of Langdale House, it was called Langdale Road (q.v.). On 19 November 1875 the name was abolished and the house renumbered as 136 (Greenwich) High Road.

The Drapers’ Company as Trustees of the Queen Elizabeth College, authorized by a Charity Commission Order dated 4 August 1863, granted a building lease to Samuel Harris from mid-summer 1864 to erect 30 houses at Lambard Cottages (later Lombart Cottages, q.v.) in Ashburnham Road (Place), Lambard Villas (q.v.) in Greenwich (High) Road and on a new road to be constructed, Lambard Road. The first two developments were quickly completed. For the third, the new road had been laid out by 1866, but only two pairs of semi-detached houses (2-8 evens) had been built by 1869 when Harris’ finances collapsed. A fresh building lease was agreed with L. Congdon in 1868 but fell through in 1870 with no work done. At the third attempt, the rest of the street was developed in the late 1870s. On the east side of the street a small terrace of eight houses (1-15 odds) was built on an 80 year lease from mid-summer 1876, and on the west side a larger terrace of five houses (10-18 evens) was constructed south of the two existing houses and in a similar style on another 80 year lease from mid-summer 1877. No further development took place until after World War 2 when council flats were built on the site of the demolished Maitland house (see Maitland Close) with entrances in Langdale Road and Greenwich High Road. Opposite, on the east side, on a piece of ground known as ‘Blind Man’s Garden’ and almost the last remnant of the market gardens that covered the whole area, the Drapers’ Company built Lambard House (q.v.). This links with 136-138 Greenwich High Road and together forms an extension to the Queen Elizabeth College almshouses next door. It seems likely that Harris intended the new road to be called Lambard Road (q.v.) like Lambard Cottages and Lambard Villas and it may briefly have been so called. The Metropolitan Board of Works with the responsibility for street naming called it Howe Street (q.v.) in 1866 but this appears never to have been used in practice. From 1869 at the latest on the evidence of the Ordnance Survey map the road was known as Langdale Road, presumably after Langdale House adjacent in Greenwich (High) Road (now no. 136), and the LCC officially sanctioned this usage in 1911.

A narrow alleyway with entrance between nos 98 and 100 (Greenwich) South Street on the west side of the street. The alleyway turns south behind the gardens of 100-112 (Greenwich) South Street, formerly Cottage Place. The alleyway was in existence at least as early as 1851 (evidence of Mason’s Directory) and long contained two cottages. It was still recorded in the 1964 edition of Bartholomew’s “Reference atlas of Greater London” but the cottages had disappeared around 1936 (no voters were listed in the 1937 or subsequent electoral registers) and in the early 1950s the site was redeveloped ‘temporarily’ for industrial purposes. It was so used until 1998. The site has now been redeveloped for housing with access via Guildford Grove (see Admiral’s Gate)

A pair of houses on the West side of (Greenwich) South Street about half-way between Devonshire Drive and Blackheath Road. The name was abolished on 22 April 1870 and the houses re-numbered 96 and 98. On the re-numbering plan they were called Laurel Terrace. To the South of Laurel Place (between nos. 98 and 100) was the entrance to the cul-de-sac called Laurel Gardens.

So recorded in the 1891 census returns, presumably an error for Laurel Gardens which is otherwise omitted.

The two houses on the South side of Wellington Grove (now Burgos Grove) next to Lawn House (now Wellington House) were called Lawn Cottages. On 10 November 1896, when Wellington Grove was renamed and renumbered, 1&2 Lawn Cottages became 4&6 Burgos Grove.

A grade 2 listed building on the south side of Blackheath Road built by the London School Board in 1874 as the Blackheath Road Schools. This name appears in stone on the right-hand gable and the LSB logo in a terracotta cartouche, 2nd floor left. The architects were E.R. Robson and J. J. Stevenson. the school later became the West Greenwich Secondary School and then part of the South End London College and then the West Greenwich Branch of Lewisham College.

This is the present name of the continuation of Greenwich South Street beyond the junction with Blackheath Road and Hill. It was formerly called Lewisham Lane.

This was formed as a Sunday School at Blackheath Hill in 1835 which moved to Lewisham Road in 1837. The church was formed in 1838 and a church was built in 1844 and destroyed exactly 100 years later in 1944. Services were held in the schoolroom in 1944-45 and at the South Street Baptist Chapel (q.v.) 1945-46 after which it merged with the latter. The ruined Lewisham Road Chapel was finally demolished in 1958.

A locality not a street name shown on Rocque’s map (1746) and mentioned in early nineteenth century directions (e.g. Pigot, 1872). It covered the scattering of houses around the crossroads formed by Kent Road (Blackheath Road/Blackheath Hill) and Lime Kiln Lane/Lewisham Lane (Greenwich South Street/Lewisham Road) and the streets between Blackheath Road and Mount Nod.

A turning off the West side of Greenwich South Street, near its Southern end, it was formerly called Grove Street and before that Orchard Street. Later both names were used for different parts of the street, Grove Street for the South Street (now Greenwich South Street) end of the street and Orchard Street for the right-angle turning to Blackheath Hill (parallel to Plumbridge Street but beyond it, now destroyed). Both names (and Orchard Terrace as well) were abolished on 16 May 1899 and the name Lindsell Street substituted.

That part of Royal Hill between its junction with Blissett Street and Greenwich South Street (almost, but not quite, the same stretch of road as the former Green Lane, q.v.) is sometimes referred to as Little Royal Hill. This southern-most part of Royal Hill is not only the shorter portion of the whole but is markedly narrower than the rest. I can find no documentary evidence for any official sanction for this usage, either formerly or at present.

Samuel Harris obtained building leases for a terrace of six houses in Ashburnham Road (now place) for 79 years from 1864 and they were probably complete by 1865. They lie on the north side of the road to the west of Langdale Road (q.v.). They were originally 1-6 Lambard Cottages (q.v.) which soon became Lombart Cottages (a variation of the same name). They were renumbered 44-49 Ashburnham Road (later Place) and survive intact.

Map 5: Ashburnham, Area 2

1:1250. Sheets XII. 31 (337) & XII. 41 (362) [L.C.C. Revisions, 1930]. Originally publ. by the Dir. Gen. of the Ordnance Survey 1894-96 & 1922 and later rev. by the L.C.C. for its own use, 2 sheets.

In 1889 the London Electric Supply Corporation was authorised to supply (among other places) the ‘District of Greenwich’ with electricity by authority of the ‘London Electric Supply Corporation electric lighting order 1889’ and the ‘Electric lighting orders confirmation (no. 2) act 1889’ (52 & 53 Vic. cap.clxxviii). The order required the corporation to provide mains electricity to certain streets, including Greenwich Road and London Street, Greenwich (now together Greenwich High Road) within two years of the commencement of the order. The inconspicuous single-storey electricity sub-station next to the former Miller PH. backing onto the grounds of Greenwich Pumping Station in Greenwich High Road, though dating from a later period (? the 1920s), commemorates this long-forgotten corporation. In the cornice are carved the initials: L.E.S.C. It iss suggested that as a result of the pioneering work of the L.E.S.C. Greenwich High Road thus became the first street in the world to be lit by a public electricity generating company.

John Lovibond opened a beer-house and brewery at the Nag’s Head, Bridge Street (Creek Road) in 1826. The Nag’s Head Brewery moved to Blue Stile, Greenwich Road (now Greenwich High Road) in 1865 when it prospered as Lovibond’s Greenwich Brewery. The firm acquired other breweries, public houses, hotels and off-licences until it was eventually taken over by xxx in xxx. The Greenwich Brewery was closed in 1962 just before it could celebrate its centenary and the offices and storage area (but not the brewery itself at the rear) were taken over by the wine merchant, Davys of London Ltd. (q.v.), ten years later.

London and its environs to the extent of 8 miles from St. Paul’s: a new survey by John Luffman, Geographer. [London] June 1, 1820. Scale 4 inches to 1 mile. D & H no. 255 (2)

The name appears on a plaque on the ground floor bay of no. 40 Devonshire Drive.

At some time during the 1850s, ‘The Kentish Mercury’ established offices at Bexley House, Bexley Place. This is recorded in the 1860 Kelly directory but not in Mason’s directory (1852). In 18?? this was renumbered as 94 London Street and in 1939 it was renumbered again as xx Greenwich High Road. 'The Kentish Mercury’ had moved long before that. It was last recorded in the 1872 Kelly’s but by the 1876 edition it was in Blackheath Road . Bexley House was the end house in Bexley Place, on the corner (east side) of Prince of Orange Lane.

According to the 1955 edition of the LCC’s “List of streets and places”, Devonshire Road was renamed Devonshire Drive in 1939, but the change was not direct. The 1937 and 1938 electoral registers record ‘Kilmington Road (later Devonshire Road)’

This appears to have been the original name of Lambart Cottages (q.v.) which uses a variant spelling of Sir William Lambarde’s name. When the change occurred (or even whether there was a formal change) is unclear.

The present-day Langdale Road (q.v.) was officially named Howe Street (q.v.) by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1866 when it was first laid out but this appears never to have been used in practice. Neither the 1868 nor the 1872 Kelly’s directories list the road under any name but in the directory for Greenwich Road, between Maitland House and Langdale Place is the legend ‘Here is Lambard House’; in the 1876 edition, this had become ‘Here is Langdale Road’. In fact the 1869 O.S. map shows the name already as ‘Langdale Road’ and so it seems likely that Lambard Road was used at most for only a couple of years. It should be distinguished from Lambarde Road with an ‘e’( q.v.)

According to the 1955 edition of the LCC’s “List of streets and places”, Ashburnham Road was renamed Ashburnham Place in 1939 but the change was not direct. The 1937 and 1938 electoral registers record ‘Lambarde (with an 'e') Road (late Ashburnham Road)’

In the Kelly’s directories for 1860 and 1863, No. 2 Blue Stile is called Landsdowne House; in the 1865 edition and thereafter until renumbering (as 171 Greenwich Road) in 1875, it is called Melville House. In Mason’s directory of 1852, there is a ‘Melville House’ in Blue Stile but, because of the erratic numbering of Blue Stile, no house numbers are given. Nevertheless, it seems clear this is the same place and so ‘Landsdowne House’ seems to have been a short-lived name and the renaming of ca 1864, a reversion to the original name.

The pair of Grade 2 listed houses on the South side of (Greenwich) High Road between Queen Elizabeth College and Langdale Road. The right-hand house of the pair was called Langdale House and presumably gave its name to the pair. Langdale Place appears in contemporary Kelly’s London Suburban directories (and clearly applies to the pair) but in the renaming plan only Langdale House is named. The pair were renumbered 136 and 138 (Greenwich) High Road on 19 November 1875. The houses are linked at the rear with Lambard House in Langdale Road and technically Lambard House is numbered as 136-138 Greenwich High Road. The complex (Lambard House and the former Langdale Place) is part of the Queen Elizabeth College almshouses.

In 1881 Miss Fanny Rosina Larwill negotiated with the Trustees of the Jubilee Almshouses to add four more houses to the estate but, as space was insufficient, this would necessitate dismantling three existing houses. In the light of an inscription on a stone memorial preserved at the rear of the garden of the present almshouses, it is doubtful if four houses were ever built. It read: ‘The Larwill memorial. These two almshouses were erected and endowed in affectionate remembrance of the late Ebenezer Larwill, Esq., and family, by his youngest daughter and sole survivor. Their names shall live though they are no more. Revd Broke Lambert MA BCL Vicar’. The houses, whether two or four, faced Egerton Road, not Greenwich (High) Road, according to the 1884 Kelly’s directory. Their building presaged the complete rebuilding of the Jubilee estate: a subscription was opened in 1883 in anticipation of Victoria’s jubilee and rebuilding by Thomas Dinwiddy was undertaken, 1888-1893.

According to Diana Rimel in “The Ashburnham Triangle” this is former name of an alleyway between Nos. 100 and 101a Greenwich South Street. There is no 101a at present and no space between 100 and 98 or 100 and 102 for an additional property. There was an alleyway between Nos. 98 and 100 called Laurel Gardens. ‘Laurel Grove’ is either a mistake for this or an alternative name for it, or possibly an alternative name for Laurel Place (now 96-98 Greenwich South Street), also called Laurel Terrace.

A somewhat incongruous alternative name for the pair of houses otherwise called Laurel Place (q.v.)

Laurie’s plan of London, Westminster and Southwark as trigonometrically surveyed … 1854. [4”: 1m.] D & H no. 361 (9)

Former name of Wellington House (q.v.). In the Mylne map of 1800 which shows land use the grounds of Lawn House are shown as ‘paddock’ in distinction to the rest of the Triangle, which was put to market garden use. The grounds were subsequently used to develop Wellington Grove, now Burgos Grove, and the Greenwich High Road properties as far as the Royal Kent Dispensary.

The former name for Lewisham Road, the continuation of Greenwich South Street beyond Blackheath Road/Hill to Lewisham. Before the chalk quarrying and the liming industry Greenwich South Street cannot have been called Lime Kiln Lane and the whole of the road from Greenwich to Lewisham may well have been called Lewisham Lane (or Road, or Way).

The formal name of the combined congregations when the Lewisham Road Baptist Chapel, founded 1838, merged with the South Street Baptist Chapel, founded 1847, and the two groups moved to South Street in 1872. Recently a new church notice board was simply headed ‘South Street Baptist Chapel’ (q.v.), the name by which it has always been known in practice.

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.

Former name of GREENWICH SOUTH STREET (q.v.). A chalk pit is shown just South of Blackheath Hill in a map of 1809 (just about the Western-most outcrop of chalk in the North Downs) and there may well have been a kiln nearby. At that date the street was still called Lime Kiln Lane (evidence of the same map) but seems to have changed fairly soon afterwards to South Street (Greenwich South Street from 1939).

The present ASHBURNHAM RETREAT was according to most evidence un-named before 1961 when the present name was assigned. However a map of 1925 untraced by me is alleged to give the name as Linole Road.

This is recorded in the 1881 census returns as at 137 Greenwhich (High) Road, formerly part of Vansitart Place. 137 was two doors up to the left of the greenwich District Board of Works office (later the Town Hall).

Ashburnham Triangle Conservation area (temporary map – presentation base pending). Boundary approved by Planning and Developing Committee, 17/1/80. Scale 1:1250. [London], February 1980.

Bomb damage map of London

By the mid-eighteenth century, as shown in Rocque’s map of 1746, there was already a warren of courts and alleys on the backland between London Street (now Greenwich High Road) and Church Fields (Straightsmouth) at the town centre end. Morris’ map of 1834 shows them more clearly though still not naming them. Farthest from town was a dog-leg alley which Stanford’s map of 1862 names as London Court, at least at the London Road end. Most of the alleys were swept away when the railway was extended in 1878 but London Court, shorn of its buildings and with a bridge over the railway, survived and still survives. Although it has now lost any name and is just a rather seedy passageway with an entrance in Greenwich High Road between the Post Office and Midland Bank, it is a thoroughfare with a history going back more than 250 years.

County of London map showing the situation of all premises licensed for the sale of intoxicating liquors in the County of London, Section VI containing the Petty Session Division of Blackheath … London, 1903. Scale 6 inches to 1 mile or 1:10560.

The popular name for Railway Passage (q.v.) which formerly ran between Straightsmouth and Norman Road, or at least that part of it that ran behind Lovibond’s Brewery.

In the 1871 census returns a ‘Lydia Cottage’ is recorded as in ‘Norman Road’. By the 1881 census, this had become 1 & 2 Lydia Cottages. They are recorded in Kelly’s directories up to the Second World War. They lay on the West side (the Deptford Pumping Station side) of Norman Road, called north side in Kelly’s beyond the railway bridge but before the Norman Arms PH.

This is also spelt MADOX PLACE. It was a terrace of four houses on the north side of Greenwich (High) Road towards the west (Deptford Bridge) end. It is shown on Bowles’ map (1787) but not named (indeed, it appears not to be named on any maps) but is well documented in directories, census returns, etc. It lay between GOSS PLACE (to the east) and PROSPECT PLACE. On the renumbering plan (1875), it was numbered 13-16 in continuation of the numbering of Goss Place but elsewhere it was 1-4 and became 51-57 (odds) Greenwich (High) Road numbering in the opposite direction. By 1914, it had been reduced to two houses (?55 & 57), later these too were demolished, the whole site being developed as part of the Merryweather’s Works. Part of the site is occupied by the former Rose of Denmark pub which broke the Merryweathers façade, and which, as a Japanese restaurant, also survived the subsequent Galliard re-development, of the Merryweather site. The Maddox family appears frequently in the parish registers of St Alfege, and an Erasmus Maddox is recorded in the Rate Books for 1743 to 1769 as a resident in Church Fields (at that time the designation for all the parish west of the town and north of the present Greenwich High Road). He, or another of his family, owned other property in the area including a wharf. This suggests a locality in Greenwich (High) Road backing on to Deptford Creek at or close to the later Maddox Place.