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This is the hand written material (over 500 cards) on the Triangle donated by the late Richard Cheffins. Now digitised, searchable & commentable!
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RAVENSBOURNE COTTAGE, Deptford Bridge
Recorded in the 1896 electoral registration as Ravensbourne Cottage, Ravensbourne Wharf, there being a separate entry for Ravensbourne Wharf, Deptford Bridge. The implication is that the cottage does not front the street at Deptford Bridge but is at the rear near the wharf-side on the Creek.
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Buildings
Comments
R09
Ravensbourne Water Works, 1809
Plan of the towns of Deptford and Greenwich shewing by a red line the present extent of the pipes for supplying the inhabitants with soft water from the River Ravensbourne, 1809
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Map
Comments
R11
RAVENSBOURNE WHARF, Deptford Bridge
This refers both to a wharf on Deptford Creek (the tidal portion of the Ravensbourne River) and to the access road to it. The wharf lies behind Greenwich (High) Road from its junction with Deptford Bridge to Mumford’s Flour Mills; it is probably the same as Trenchards Wharf. The service road is described as in Deptford Bridge in directories but on the plan accompanying the Metropolitan Board of Works improvement scheme for the widening of Deptford Bridge, the only map showing and naming Ravensbourne Wharf, it is clearly shown as at the junction of Deptford Bridge and Greenwich (High) Road.
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Wharf
Comments
R13
Red Lion P.H., Greenwich (High) Road
On the fascia board of the present Greenwich Inn (q.v.) it is stated that the pub was established in 1742 and for the most of its two-and-a-half century existence it was called the Red Lion. It is almost certainly one of the two Red Lions listed for Greenwich in the ‘Universal British Directory’ for 1792. After about a century (ca. 1840 according to Darrell Spurgeon in his ‘Discover Greenwich and Charlton’), the building was redeveloped and the present building is locally listed (though the local planning department has recommended statutory listing). In 198? the pub was renamed the Greenwich Inn.
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Building (pub)
Comments
R15
RIGA COTTAGE, Blackheath Road
One of a short row of houses between Catherine Grove and Catherine House on the north side of Blackheath Road; for more details see Brighton Cottage. Riga Cottage was numbered 25 Blackheath Road in 1878.
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Buildings
Comments
R17
Robin Hood P.H., Blue Stile (Greenwich (High) Road)
This is the more widely used form of the pub named formally the ‘Robin Hood and Little John’ (q.v.).
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Building (pub)
Comments
R20
ROCHESTER ROAD
Alternative name for the road from London to Rochester (cf. ‘Rochester Way’), the north Kent route to Canterbury and Dover more usually known as the Dover Road and including BLACKHEATH ROAD, q.v.
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Roads
Comments
R22
Rose and Crown P.H., Blackheath Road
This pub, on the corner of Greenwich (High) Road and Blackheath Road, is shown on Luffman’s map of 1820 though it may well have dated from much earlier. It was subsequently shown on a wide variety of maps up to Bacon’s map of 1877. It was demolished as part of the Metropolitan Improvement Scheme for the widening of the approaches to Deptford Bridge (1878-82), but was still in existence at the time of the 1881 census.) It was replaced, set back, by the Greenwich District Offices of the School Board for London whose ‘S.B.L.’ monogram can still be seen on the building, later an annex to the adjacent Magistrate’s Court, before being mothballed..
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Building (pub)
Comments
R24
ROSE COTTAGE, South Street, now Greenwich South Street
In the 1896 electoral register, two properties with voters were listed described as ‘at the rear of 11 South Street’. They were Rose Cottage and Stanley’s 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.).
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Buildings
Comments
R26
Royal Albert P.H., Blackheath Road.
Named after Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s consort, whose portrait was used as the inn-sign, this appears in ‘A list of inns, alehouses and victualling houses at present licensed… Blackheath Division, 1863’ in the ‘list of applications for a new license’ just two years after the Prince Consort’s death. It was a beer-house license that was applied for and it was many years before a full pub license was obtained. It was gutted by fire in 1994 but reopened after refurbishment late in 1995. It closed again in 2000 facing an uncertain future.
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Building (pub)
Comments
R28
Royal George P.H., Blissett Street
An early nineteenth century pub at the bottom of Blissett Street (South side) next to the Fire Station and facing (Greenwich) South Street. Indeed, the rest of the curved terrace of which it forms a part (the former Melville Terrace, q.v.) is numbered as part of (Greenwich) South Street (and it is here included as part of the Triangle on much the same grounds as the ‘George and Dragon’ (q.v.)). The pub appears in Pigot’s Directory of 1827 and Cruchley’s map of 1828. The ‘George’ should, therefore, be George III or IV but the inn-sign is a man-o’-war. The most likely HMS Royal George is a first-rate 100-gun line-of-battleship launched at Chatham in 1778 as HMS Umpire, renamed Royal George in 1782 and broken up in 1822. Other possibilities are its predecessor, another 100-gunner launched at Woolwich in 1753 which foundered at Spithead in 1782, or its successor launched in 1827 as a 120-gun ship-of-the-line, mothballed until 1843 when converted to a 102-gun screw ship and sold off in 1875, or finally a 330-tun naval yacht launched at Deptford in 1817 and in service until 1905 though with harbour duties only after 1843. No longer a pub, the building was converted to flats in 2010 (???).
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Building (pub)
Comments
R31
Royal Kent Dispensary
The Royal Kent Dispensary was opened in Deptford Broadway in 1783 and moved to Greenwich Road (now Greenwich High Road) in 1837. The present building dates from 1851 and is on the statutory list (Grade 2); it became part of the Miller Hospital in the 1880s and closed in 1974.
Category:
Business
Comments
R33
Russell Villas, Egerton Road (Drive)
In the 1865 Kelly’s directory, Russell Villas, nos. 1 and 2, are placed between nos. 20 and 23 Egerton Road and are presumably the same as the present 21 and 22 Egerton Drive, as the street numbering has not otherwise changed. If so, they are the pair of houses at the northern end (corner of Devonshire Road, now Drive) on the east side of the street. The name first appeared in the 1860 Kelly’s (the first to cover the area) in the singular - Russell Villa - following on no. 20. With no further houses in the street, presumably no. 21 had also just been built. The west side of Egerton Road was developed first from around 1830 and then the east side in fits and starts some thirty years later. Russell Villas may have been named after the mid-Victorian statesman, Lord John Russel, afterwards Earl Russell, Prime Minister 1846-1852 and 1865-1866. They were still isolated in the late 1860s as is shown on the 1869 O.S. map. The name was presumably dropped a few years later when that side of the street was more continuously developed. The pair of houses is locally listed like most of that end of the street. Mrs. Rosie Barnes, M.P for Greenwich 1987-1992, lived at no. 21, formerly no. 1 Russell Villas.
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Building (house)
Comments
R35
Rutland House, Blackheath Road
In Kelly’s 1860 London suburban directory, no. 6 Cold Bath Row was called Rutland House.
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Building (house)
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R37
School Board for London, Greenwich District Office, Greenwich (High) Road
In 1878 the Rose and Crown P.H. on the corner of Greenwich (High) Road and Blackheath Road was demolished as part of the Metropolitan Improvement Scheme for the widening of the approaches to Deptford Bridge. In its place, set back, was built the Greenwich District Offices of the School Board for London. By 1894 Kent House next door had been acquired. In 1904 the SBL (whose initials still adorn the building on its Blackheath Road flank) was replaced by the Education Department of the London County Council; and the LCC was in turn replaced in 1964 (for educational purposes) by the Inner London Education Authority. In 1990 ILEA was abolished and education was devolved to individual London Boroughs in inner London (as it had always been in outer London). The District Offices became redundant. In 1997 the building had been adapted as an annexe to the Magistrates Court in Blackheath Road around the corner. The annexe contained offices for the Licensing Office, the Maintenance Payments Office and the Warrant Office for the South Eastern Division. When the building was no longer needed for these purposes, it was mothballed.
Category:
Services
Comments
S01
Seager Distillery, Deptford Bridge
The Hollands Distillery, founded in 1779 as Goodhews Distillery, became the Seager Distiller in 1919 when the whole premises were enlarged, by taking over the Norfolk Brewery (which had been closed since 1905), and modernised. Its cooperage works were in Blackheath Road. The distillery closed in 1971, when the site and some of its buildings became a small industrial estate called the Old Seager Distillery.
Category:
Business
Comments
S03
Seager Sele Road
The alleyway between 75 and 77 on the North Side of Blackheath Road containing 75a (the Cottage) is at present unnamed. According to Diana Rimel’s The Ashburnham Triangle it was formerly called Seager Sele Road. The name was unexplained but ‘Sele’ suggests Lord Saye and Sele whose family until recently owned Brant Houses a few yards down the road. On the other side of the road and in the other direction is the former Seager Distillery, a quarter of a mile away in Deptford Bridge. Its cooperage was nearer at 32-36 Blackheath Road. But the connection betweeneither of these twoand Seager Sele Road is obscure.
Category:
Roads
Comments
S05
Simmons Cottages, Greenwich (High) Road
Indicated as a row of three houses on the South side of Greenwich (High) Road in the census returns for 1861-1871. It lay between Queen Elizabeth Row (called Queen Elizabeth's Row in the census returns) and the Jubilee Alms Houses. By 1875 when Greenwich (High) Road was re-numbered, only one house remained and that was without a name. It was renumbered 90. The site was most recently occupied by Perkin’s Warehouse. The cottages may have been named after Henry Simmons, Coachbuilder, who is shown as living at no. 1 Queen Elizabeth Row in Mason’s Directory (1852) which was next to Simmons Cottages. As the house was unnamed on the renumbering plan, ‘Simmons Cottages’ was never explicitly abolished as a name which may explain why even in the 1890s ‘No. 3 Simmons Cottages’ appears in the electoral registers between 88 and 92 (evens) Greenwich Road.
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Buildings (houses)
Comments
S08
Siren House, Greenwich High Road
See ‘Bell House’
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Buildings
Comments
S10
Skinner Street
A variant name for Skinner’s Row (q.v.).
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Roads
Comments
S12
Skinner’s Row
A cul-de-sac on the south side of Blackheath Road towards the west (Deptford Bridge) end, it is first shown, unnamed, on the Ravensbourne Waterworks map of 1809. It lasted until ca. 1970 (voters last listed there in the 1970 electoral register). The road as such has entirely disappeared but its alignment is preserved by the service road at Kwik-Fit-Autocar Centre.
Category:
Roads
Comments
S14
Smith, C., & Son, 1847
Smith’s new map of London and its environs. London, publ. by C. Smith & Son, 1847. [3.6”: 1m.] D & H 407 (1)
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Map
Comments
S16
Smith, C., & Sons, 1862
Map of London and its environs. 1862 [7.9”:1m.] H. no. 88
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Map
Comments
S18
Soames Memorial Almshouses, Greenwich (High) Road
In 1866 some houses were added to the Jubilee Almshouses paid for by public subscription in memory of William Aldwin Soames, vicar of Greenwich. The name disappeared with the rebuilding of the Jubilee Almshouses in 1888, if not sooner.
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Buildings (houses)
Comments
S20
South Eastern Division Licencing Office, Greenwich High Road
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 Licencing Office. It has since been mothballed.
Category:
Services
Comments
S22
RAVENSBOURNE STREET
See NORMAN ROAD
Category:
Roads
Comments
R10
Ravensbourne Waterworks
By letters patent dated 11 December 13 William 3 [1701] William Yarnold and Robert Watson, their heirs and assigns were licensed to provide water to the Manors of East Greenwich and Sayes Court (i.e. Greenwich and Deptford) from the Ravensbourne for a period of 500 years. In 1809 by act of parliament a new company was formed, The Kent Waterworks Company (q.v.), which took over the assets and responsibilities of the Ravensbourne Waterworks. See also ‘Deptford Pumping Station (Water)’.
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Services
Comments
R12
Red Lion P.H., Green Lane (Royal Hill)
The Red Lion is the most popular pub name in the country and besides the one in Greenwich (High) Road, now the Greenwich Inn and possibly one at Lime Kiln (q.q.v.), there used to be one in Green Lane, so recorded in Mason’s 1852 Directory. Green Lane was that section of Royal Hill between (Greenwich) South Street and Prior Street/ Point Hill. The renumbering plan for Royal Hill shows but does not name two pubs and a beerhouse in the Green Lane portion of Royal Hill. The Barley Mow still exists (as The Hill restaurant) and the beerhouse was The Good Intent leaving the remaining pub as the Red Lion. This was between Brand Street and Prior Street. It was demolished before 1888 to make way for the Greenwich Park branch of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Its location is confirmed by the 1881 census which numbers it as 11 Green Lane which places it near the Brand Street end of that row of houses. (1881 census.)
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Building (pub)
Comments
R14
Red Lion, Limekilns (?Blackheath Hill)
A pub of this name is shown on Luffman’s map of 1820 on the corner of Blackheath Hill and Lewisham Lane (Road) where now stands the George and Dragon. As the latter is not shown though probably already in existence, it may be an earlier name. But there is no other evidence for this and Luffman is not always accurate. The map also omits the Red Lion in Greenwich (High) Road and, though not all pubs are included, the most likely explanation is that this is the Greenwich (High) Road pub widely misplaced.
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Building (pub)
Comments
R16
Robin Hood and Little John P.H., Blue Stile (Greenwich (High) Road)
More commonly known as the ‘Robin Hood’, this appears in ‘A list of inns, alehouses and victualling houses at present licensed… Blackheath Division, 1863’ in the ‘list of applications for a new license’. However, it also appears in the 1851 census so ‘a new license’ does not mean a first-time license.
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Building (pub)
Comments
R19
ROBINSON’S MILLS, Deptford Bridge
The 1896 electoral register shows a voter registered at this address. The exact position in Deptford Bridge is not indicated but elsewhere Henry and Joseph Robinson are shown entitled to vote by virtue of the freehold ownership of 1-5 Deptford Bridge on the corner with Greenwich (High) Road. This would suggest the Mills were at Ravensbourne Wharf (q.v.).
Category:
Buildings
Comments
R21
Rocque, John, 1746
An exact survey of the City’s of London, Westminster, ye Borough of Southwark and the county near ten miles round; begun in 1741 and ended in 1745. London, 1746. facism. of D & H no. 96 (1)
Category:
Map
Comments
R23
ROSE COTTAGE, North Pole Lane (Norman Road)
According to R.H.G. Thomas’ “London’s first railway”, Rose Cottage was situated next to the North Pole PH in a lane (later North Pole Lane, now Norman Road) off Greenwich (High) Road and was used as a temporary ticket office in 1836-38 after Deptford Station was built but before the line had been extended to Greenwich.
Category:
Buildings
Comments
R25
Rose of Denmark P.H., Greenwich (High) Road
Pubs of this name are generally called after Alexandra, Princess of Denmark, who married Albert, Prince of Wales, afterwards King Edward VII, and usually date from shortly after the marriage in 1863. However, it first appears in the Kelly’s Directory for 1925, the year Queen Alexandra died and it is attractive to suppose that the pub was named in her memory. But there are problems with this hypothesis. Information in Kelly’s usually reflected the situation in the previous year – when the Queen was still alive. Moreover, while the Rose of Denmark first appeared only in the Kelly’s for 1925, earlier directories show a beer-house at the same address (57 Greenwich (High) Road) and the beer retailer of 1924 was the same as the pub licensee of 1925. Kelly’s did not normally name beer-houses it listed but the 1891 LCC ‘List of inns, etc. of the Blackheath Division’ named it Rose of Denmark. The pub is surrounded by the former Merryweather premises and, although the present buildings of both are more recent, this suggests that the pub predates Merryweather’s move to the site in 1876. It dates, therefore, from between 1863 and 1876 and is contemporary with other pubs of this name. It closed in 2001 and the ‘entire freehold premises’ was put up for auction. It re-opened as Fifty-seven Bar and Restaurant in 2006.
Category:
Building (pub)
Comments
R27
Royal Circus Tea Warehouse, (Royal) Circus Street.
Inscribed in gthe arch around the round-headed ground floor window of 12 Circus Street is the legend "Royal Circus Tea Warehouse". This side of Circus Street was developed in the 1830's.
Category:
Roads
Comments
R30
Royal Hill
A curving street that runs in a wide bow from Greenwich High Road South to join Greenwich South Street; towards its Southern end, it turns sharply Westwards and narrows while the straight continuation is called Blisset Street. The narrow Southern end (the part most closely related to the Triangle) is sometimes called Little Royal Hill; this part was formerly called Green Lane and before that the whole was called Gang Lane (qq.v.). Royal Hill, like Royal Place, was named after developer Robert Royal.
Category:
Roads
Comments
R32
Royalty Cottage, Blackheath Road
The Kelly’s directory for 1868 recorded Royalty Cottage as one of a row of houses between Catherine Grove and Catherine House. In the previous Kelly’s (1865) and earlier directories it was called Rainford Cottage (q.v.). In 1878 it was renumbered as 27 Blackheath Road.
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Building (house)
Comments
R34
Russell Villas, Egerton Road (Drive)
Briefly this was the name of the first house and at the time the only house on the east side of Egerton Road (Drive) on the corner of Devonshire Road (Drive). It appears thus in the 1860 and 1863 Kelly’s directories, in the 1865 edition it had become no. 1 Russell Villas (q.v.) and eventually no. 21 Egerton Road (Drive).
Category:
Building (house)
Comments
R36
Rymer’s Buildings
First shown on Thompson’s 1824 map though probably existing earlier, this is one of the courts or alleyways between London Street (Greenwich High Road) and Straightsmouth. It appears on other maps until the 1870s though it is hard to place precisely because of the scale of the maps. It disappeared with the extension of the railway.
Category:
Courts/ Alleyways
Comments
R38
Scotch Church, (Greenwich) South Street
St. Mark’s Church (q.v.) was originally founded as a Scottish Presbyterian Church (United Secession Congregation 1824, Scotch Presbytery 1841) but had become a church of the Presbyterian Church of England in 1844 well before it moved to (Greenwich) South Street in 1850. it was however still being called ‘The Scotch Church’ as late as 1861 (census returns).
Category:
Building (church)
Comments
S02
Seager Evans Cooperage Works, Blackheath Road
The Seager Distillery was in Deptford Bridge but their Cooperage where the barrels were made was at 32-36 Blackheath Road, next to the Blackheath Road School on the west.
Category:
Business
Comments
S04
Shaftesbury House, Circus Street
A property of this name is shown in the electoral register for 1898 as between 8 and 10 Circus Street.
Category:
Building (house)
Comments
S07
Simms, F. W.
Parish of Greenwich in the County of Kent surveyed in accordance with the directions of the Tithe Commissioners and examined and approved of by them for the Poor Law Commissioners by F. W. Simms, civil engineer, FGS, MICE, etc. Scale 2 chains= 1 inch. [1: 1584]. n.d. [1838]
Category:
Map
Comments
S09
Skillion Centre, Greenwich High Road
The Greenwich Business Centre occupied the old Merryweather Works (q.v.) at 49 Greenwich High Road and provided space for offices, studios and light industrial storage units. It was then demolished in the Galliard development of the Merryweather site.
Category:
Business
Comments
S11
Skinner’s Court
Perhaps this is another variant of Skinner’s Row (q.v. And see ‘Skinner Street’), but the 1881 census returns identify it as a subsidiary name within it and numbered continuously with it- nos. 12-15 Skinner’s Row being followed immediately by Nos. 12 - 15 Skinner's Court.
Category:
Roads
Comments
S13
Smith C., & Sons, 1864
Smith’s New map of London and its environs. London, published by C. Smith & Sons, 1864. [3.27”: 1m.] later version of D & H no. 407
Category:
Map
Comments
S15
Smith, C., & Sons, 1860
Smith’s New map of London and environs. 1860. [3.63”:1 m.] D & H no. 407 (3)
Category:
Map
Comments
S17
Smith, C., 1822
New map of the country twelve miles round London … London: printed for C. Smith, mapseller, 1822 [1.22”: 1m.] title from label on cover; title from border of map omits ‘New’ ?earlier version of D & H no. 327
Category:
Map
Comments
S19
South East London College, Blackheath Road
An ILEA College on the premises of Blackheath Road Schools, now Lewisham College, West Greenwich Branch (q.v.).
Category:
Services
Comments
S21
South Eastern Division Maintenance Payment Office, Greenwich High Road
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 Maintenance Payment Office. It has since been mothballed.
Category:
Services
Comments
S23
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