West Greenwich sits under the Royal Borough of Greenwich as part of its main district.
It is bounded on three sides by Blackheath, Lewisham and Deptford.
West Greenwich is served by Greenwich mainline train and DLR station, Elverson road DLR and
various buses such as the 180, 199 or 177.
Royal Hill seemingly lived up to its name already despite the road merely being named
after its overall developer, a Victorian builder named Robert Royal. The name was quite an
upgrade from its former name, 'Gang Lane', laid out around 1830, the same year the Beer
Act came in to encourage beer drinking as a safer alternative to water.
It has 86 houses and flats on it with a current average value of over 1 million pounds, nearly
twice the average value for SE10 in general with the rental comparison sitting at circa
£450 per week.
The Point is a tucked away place of solitude, which opens up to views covering vast amounts
of the city. You can usually be the only person admiring the view in stark contrast to the
panorama from the Royal Observatory just 5 mins walk away.
Meridian House; formally the Greenwich Town Hall was built in 1939. Its elegant clock
tower and overall design was influenced by Willem Dudok, the architect who designed the
Hilversum Town Hall in Holland. The clock tower has a public observation window designed
for locals to view the curve of the Thames.
It gains extra character from its medieval-inspired mosaic mural over the Royal Hill side entrance.
The interior was designed to resemble an ocean liner before it was later refurbished.
St Alfege Church is of medieval origin. It was built shortly after the year 1000 as a
dedication to Alfege, the Archbishop of Canterbury who was murdered on the site a year earlier
by Danish raiders for failing to come up with ransom money.
The church was rebuilt around 1290 and Thomas Tallis, the father of English church music,
was buried there in 1585. The amount of burials in and around the building weakened its foundations
enough for a storm to take it down in 1710. It was then finally rebuilt by 1714. The Meridian
Ringers ring the 10 bells here sometimes on Sundays in the musical key of D.
The Greenwich Vintage Market is a small, friendly, family run Market in the heart of Greenwich.
It's open everyday except Monday and Wednesday from 8-5pm. On the last Friday of summer months,
live bands and pop-up bars occur there till 10pm as Vintage Moonlight - all drinks are £2.50.
The Clocktower Market, established in 1977, is an array of quirky stalls selling vintage,
retro and crafts between the Picturehouse cinema and the old clock tower. It opens weekends
and bank holidays from 10 to 4pm.
On 5th January 2010, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced in the House of Lords
that The Queen had bestowed Royal Borough status on the London Borough of Greenwich
in recognition of its close links between Greenwich and Royalty, since the Middle Ages.
Greenwich Park is over 590 years old. It provides an appropriate setting for several historic
buildings which makes it ideal for anyone to learn about it's history whilst enjoying
the scenery, activity and relaxation the park offers all at the same time.
There has been a settlement on this site since Roman times and it was enclosed in 1433. The
Greenwich Park we see today though was laid out in a French style during the early 1600s.
It's a Grade 1 listed landscape with world famous features drawing 4.8 million visitors
a year.
The Coldbath Estate is margined by the River Quaggy which emerges shortly downstream as
the River Ravensbourne. Penn Works was a firm started in 1799 by John
Penn Snr from Bristol to produce agricultural machinery. His son of the same name then took
over and advanced production onto marine engines in 1825 when his dad passed on. When the son
died in 1875 they renamed Cold Bath Lane as John Penn Street.
The mills of Connington Road started off milling corn in 1371 before producing metal goods
and armour for the military in the 15th & 16th centuries. Silk thread manufacturing commenced
in 1824 forging its new name 'Silk Mills'.
Silk Mills were declared bankrupt in 1928 and most of the mill was demolished in 1937.
A Tesco, DLR station and new neighbourhood have almost erased all trace of it now but
the Silk Mills Passage and new path remains in its memory.
Orchard Estate is one of the larger residential estates in London stretching from Tesco Superstore
in Lewisham to John Penn Street, which is just shy of Blackheath Hill. The estate is
split between the two boroughs of Greenwich and Lewisham with the divide being Morden
Hill, home to the now defunct Sydney Arms pub.
Development started in 1963 after London County Council’s committee approval the year before.
Building contractors Kirk & Kirk were commissioned to begin putting together the various two
storey maisonettes, houses and tower blocked flats.
The Lethbridge Estate was built around 1968. Following the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower,
a structural robustness assessment was carried out on the Lethbridge Estate. Once the report
was produced, it was revealed that the grey brutalist buildings could not withstand large
pressures and would literally collapse if say a gas explosion occurred.
The gas supply was disabled immediately for fear of placing residents at high risk, although
it rendered them without heating for the winter months. Eventually, residents were forcibly
rehoused since the only way to correct the issue was to remove the gas supply completely.
The remainder of the estate sits empty, awaiting demolition later this year.
The land is now being regenerated to the tune of £270million. According to some, the whole
process was seen as "managed decline."