NORTH GREENWICH (cable car) to WOOLWICH ARSENAL
And On To Charlton, along the Thames Path!
HYDRA & KALI artwork, by
5 min. away…
Cycle shuttle to ROYAL DOCKS
THE PILOT P.H. & HOTEL
GREENWICH PENINSULA ECOLOGY PARK
GYC
ANGERSTEIN & MURPHYS WHARVES
A construction aggregate and an associated cement facility and freight station in the Port of London, operated by the Cemex company, located on the south bank of the Bugsby's Reach. It has a safeguarded wharf status, which ensures it is retained as working wharves and are protected from redevelopment into non-port use
The Father of Lloyds. Slave trade insurer?
When the Gallery was founded in 1824, the first 38 paintings came from the private art collection of the banker John Julius Angerstein.
Welcome to Charlton Riverside
Charlton Riverside, previously known as New Charlton, is the area along the south bank of the river Thames at Charlton, London, which forms part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It was formerly a primarily industrial zone, known for the glass and rope making industries, but is now an area of regeneration
A GOOD INTRUDUCTION TO CHARLTON, “NEW” and “BY-DOVER”: https://www.londonshoes.blog/2023/08/05/all-about-charlton-london-se7/
THE ANCHOR & HOPE P.H.
Not far away…
ATLAS and DERRICK GARDENS
Retail Park (entrance along BUGSBY WAY)
Buses 472 and 486
Libanese and African cuisine
Westmoor St., where CHARLTON ATHLETIC FC was founded
THAMES BARRIER
The world’s largest movable flood barrier, 520 m. wide. Commenced in 1972, completed in 1982, first used in 1983. Designed by RENDEL,PALMER & TRITTON, for the GLC. An imaginative use of structural steel and concrete, for which it has won awards, An outstanding engineering project, becoming a permanent London landmark.
From here:
Diversion to CHARLTON PARK , KIDBROOKE and ELTHAM or BLACKHEATH
See chapter
Welcome to Woolwich (the Town Centre comes later on)
The Westminster Estate, the area between the Thames Barrier and Warspite Road, has at times been referred to as part of New Charlton. The Survey of London however regards it as a part of Woolwich, since it is situated in the historic parish of Woolwich.
From 1863 until 1968 this was the site of Siemens Brothers, where many who were living across the road in New Charlton worked. This is also where Charlton Athletic F.C. played their first football matches at Siemens Meadow from 1905 until 1907. In the Charlton Riverside Masterplan SPD the Westminster Estate is considered a part of Charlton Riverside. The SPD also includes Charlton railway station and a small section of Charlton Church Lane
Site of DOCKYARDS
Henry VIII founded Gun Wharf, later to become Woolwich Dockyard, to build his flagship Henry Grace à Dieu (also known as Great Harry).
In her day, she was the largest warship in the world.
Site of AEI SIEMENS FACTORY.
The SIEMENS factory was founded here in 1863 for the manufacture of submarine cables. It expanded into the manufacture of telegraph, telephone and other electrical equipment. At its peak, in 1940, it employed up to 9.000 people. In 1954 SIEMENS became part of AEI GROUP. Then, shortly after the merger with AEC. in 1967, the decision was taken to close the factory. This became the first major factory closure since the War, and heralded a serios of other industrial closures in SE London.
The original building, 1863, was in HARRINGTON WAY, and on the N side of BOWATER ROAD. The oldest remaining b., of 1871, is the one with a long series of round headed windows along the GF, ear the end of that last street. Some early 20th c. remain, but most other buildings are more recent.
EMAFYL (manufacturers of picture frames; silver silos) owns HARRINGTON WAY. No access to it and neither to the elevated walkway along the river .
ROBOBOND LTD, under the EMAFYL brand
Picture frames and architectural mouldings, developing its unique extrusion method.
In 1996 EMAFYL won the prestigious Queen’s Award for Export Achievement. At its peak, over 640/staff were employed here.
The company shifted its focus to the caravan industry
THAMES-SIDE STUDIOS
Café & Cookery School
2010. Birth of the artists’ studios here
Initially located on the border of Charlton and Woolwich, is a large provider of artist studios in London. It offers nearly 500 studios across two sites here , housing a diverse community of artists, makers, and designers. The studios are known for providing affordable workspaces and fostering a vibrant creative environment, a home to a wide range of creative practices, including painting, sculpture, fashion design, carpentry, and more. They offer a variety of facilities, including a print studio, a photography studio, and a spray shop
The Thames-Side Studios Gallery provides a venue for showcasing the work of resident and visiting artists
The Rivershop offers practical classes in various crafts, open to both beginners and experienced makers
In 2016, TSS is formed, developing the complex into the largest single-site of artist and maker spaces in the country.
550 studios, 3 exhibition spaces, Photography Studio, Education Space, cafés, knitting facilities, yard, spray booth. Fully established as a centre for excellence.
2022. SHOREDITCH CENTRE opens. 200 studios projected when finished. This will place TSS as the largest provider of artists studios.
Nearby
BANKSY street artwork
SILK AND ASH artwork, by Vong Phaophanit
The Laotian artist’s work consists of a long glass wall, encasing wood ash on one side and pink silk on the other, with a section cut out and moved back to form a gateway. It was badly vandalised
Former THE LADS OF THE VILLAGE, former THE THAMES BARRIER ARMS, vet clinic
The attractive mid-19th c. pub became isolated as the housing terraces around were demolished
Former THE VICTORIA P.H., now Domino Pizza
Former MARYON PARK school
Multi-gabled LSB 1898 Building
London Sculpture Workshop
Restoration
TRINITY STAIRS
Site of the Royal Naval Dockyard
The site, extending for over a km., surrounded by a Victorian and postwar wall, has now a variety of uses.
The origin can be traced to a shipyard set up by HVIII in 1512, which began the transformation of Woolwich from a fishing village to an important town. The process accelerated when E of THE WARREN, later to be called the ROYAL ARSENAL, there was established a site, associated with the Royal Dockyard, for testing guns and for a gun battery.
The RD was founded to built the famous HENRI GRACE A DIEU, or THE GREAT HARRY, the largest ship ever known, which was completed in 1514, fitted out at the ERITH DOCKYARD, and launched in 1515. According to recent research, the shipyard was situated in the W side of the site of the POWER STATION, where in 1912 remains of a large TUDOR warship were excavated.
In 1546 a Dockyard was set up W of below the hill on which ST.MARY MAGDALENE’s church is. It became the RND, and the original became GUN WHARF.
During the 17th c. the DY was extended further W. In 1637, THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS was constructed. Further extensions during the 18th. c to the E (MAST POND) and, to the W, the area where the GATEHOUSE and the CLOCKHOUSE were to be built (and those are now surviving building) was incorporated in 1779.
From the 1800s, the importance of the RD started to decline, though from 1833: and from 1842, the site was extended W for the STEAM FACTORY, the FIRST naval establishment for the manufacture and repair of engines for steamships.
CHATHAM DOCKYARD had been growing fast , and this site was found increasingly unsuitable, as the river bed was silting up and the ironclad boats ordered by the RN were difficult to launch in the narrow river. It finally closed in 1869 (the same year as the DEPTFORD one) causing immense distress (the widespread unemployment was though slightly compensated by the continuing growth of the ROY.ARS.) through the districts of SE LDN.
Afterwards, ownership was transferred and used for DEPT.OF WAR stores.
18th/19th cs. buildings found. have been revealed y recent excavations. The finds were displayed in the GREENWICH BOROUGH MUSEUM, Plumstead
A number of historical buildings remain. In the central housing estate, 18th c. In the W section, where the STEAM FACTORY was located, 19th c. The larger part of this section was acquired by the ROYAL ARSENAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY, as a warehouse, works and office area, and given the name of COMMONWEALTH BUILDINGS.
Commonwealth Buildings
Small industrial estate
Site of APPRENTICES SCHOOL
CO-OP funeral services
Old GUARDROOM
1843
Remaining main buildings of the STEAM FACTORY
JOHN RENNIE, 1842-46.
The S range with the row of great round-headed windows was the SMITHERY (metal parts made here), of 1846, with the brass foundry at the W end, and the north range the marine engine fitting and erecting shop of 1843. Chimney (60 m.). Some rail track from the sidings still visible.
Mid 19th c. timber shed
Central section
Embracing 17th/18th cs extensions.
WOOLWICH DOCKYARD ESTATE
1980. After being acquired by the RLB of GREENWICH, designed by the in-house Arch.Dept.
GATEWAY and GATEHOUSE
Late 18th. c. The gate gives entrance to the modern housing estate (1973-80. LB GREENWICH). The GATEHOUSE, originally officers ‘quarters, later used to house the RD POLICE, and still later on a PH (“THE GATE HOUSE”), and a café (MANCINIS)
THE CLOCKHOUSE
It was b. 1778-1784, initially as the DOCKYARD’s ADMIRAL SUPERINTENDENT’s house and office. Brick with stone, 7 bays, 2 storeys, hipped roof, central clock tower. Two wooden porches either side of the entrance step, added mid-19th c, and quite and unusual feature.
Pleasant, handsome, well-proportioned building.
Ceramic tiles (1896, by W.Lambert) from the demolished CLARENCE ARMS P.H. in Plumstead.
Site of the RD Church
SE of the CLOCKHOUSE is the site of the DOCKYARD CHURCH (1859), no erected in ELTHAM as ST.BARNABAS church (1933).
Pedestrian tunnel to Prospect Vale
Originally opened c.1860 for a railway siding (North Kent Line)
Modern tunnel to Kingsman Parade
Back to the Riverside promenade
Laid out 1980s, running the length of the housing estate, and giving good views across WOOLWICH REACH to SILVERTOWN (TATE & LYLE)…
Gun drill battery
C.1850. With 2 swivel guns, used for training. River steps.
Mosaic set into a seat, showing the world and the months . Ceramic mural portraying a portraying a variety of fish. Both by a team from ELFRIDA RATHBONE SOCIETY, 1984-86.
2 graving docks
DRY DOCK, 1841. WET DOCK, 1848.
Used for cleaning the bottom of ships.
An acquatic centre?. Leisure fishing
Old hand winch nearby
Mosaic near the river, again by ELFRIDA RATHBONE SOCIETY
https://rathbonesociety.org.uk
East: part of the dockyard of 1546
Best seen from the churchyard. Until recently derelict for the most part, a small section still in use. Now residential
Western part: Dockyard site of 1746, embraced the DOWNTOWN MARINE CONSTRUCTION yard, with an old SLIPWAY still in use, and an area of waste land, also containing an old slipway (visible as you walk down CHURCH HILL).
Eastern part: Embracing the Ferry car park and CUBOWS shipyard formed the MAST POND WHARF of 1744.
Royal Arsenal Panorama
Woolwich Free Ferry
The earliest recorded date of a ferry at Woolwich is 1308.
In more modern times, in 1844 the WOOLWICH FERRY COMPANY collapsed, and this was followed by the provision, in 1847, of the PENNY FERRY, by the GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY, operating from the N.WOOLWICH pier, until 1908. Remains can be seen.
In 1885 powers were given to the METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS to provide a FREE FERRY. It was opened in 1889, an run by the LCC
This was planned by the Metropolitan Board of Works who has been petitioned by the Woolwich Board who were keen for it to happen. The Act was passed in 1885. It opened in 1889 to great celebrations. The first ferries were the side-loading paddle steamers (reminiscent of Mississippi steamboats)Gordon, Duncan and Hutton, named after General Gordon, who had local connections, Colonel Francis Duncan MP and mathematician Charles Hutton who had worked at the Royal Military Academy. Each was powered by a condensing engine manufactured by John Penn & Son of Greenwich.
This fleet was replaced, in 1923 with The Squire, named after a former Woolwich mayor, and in 1930 with the Will Crooks, after Woolwich's first Labour MP and the John Benn, Liberal MP for Wapping and a member of the London County Council.
Three vessels, built in Dundee (CALEDONIAN SHIPYARDS), were put in service in 1963, and were named John Burns, the first Labour Cabinet Member, Ernest Bevin, local trade union organiser and government minister and James Newman, another Woolwich mayor. These ferries feature Voith Schneider propulsion systems for maneuverability. A cycloidal propeller is fitted centrally at either end, and each is driven by a 500bhp 7-cylinder Mirrlees National diesel engine.
The original southern ferry approach at the end of Nile Street was flanked by blind-arcaded walls. There was also a new river wall from which two lattice-girder steel fall-bridges ran which could be hydraulically operated. These gave onto the floating pontoon or landing stage, of wrought iron and timber. In 1900 this was widened and equipped with public lavatories.
In the late 1950s problems generated by demand for the ferry from larger and more numerous vehicles led to new roads and the ferry approach being moved from here to a new road at the end of the south circular.
The current, from 1966, terminals were designed by HUSBAND & CO. with steel-trussed ramps adjustable to a 30’ tidal range
In 2018 the three 1960s drive-in drive-off boats have been taken out of service. The 2 new vessels, built by Remontowa, Poland, were named after the Vera Lynn, whose songs became popular during the World War II and who was born in East Ham and grew up not far from the ferry, and after a teenage deckhand, BEN WOOLLACOT, who drowned in an accident while untying mooring ropes of the ferry Ernest Bevin in 2011. Ben came from a family of River Thames watermen that had worked on the river for six generations.
They have an automatic docking system to hold the ferry in place during loading, and are equipped with hybrid engines that allow them to run on electricity generated by motors.
Planning to go North of the Thames?. www.visit-Londons-east-end.co.uk
WATERFRONT Leisure Centre
Foot tunnel
The Woolwich Foot Tunnel is a historical engineering feat beneath the River Thames, opened in 1912 by the London County Councilto provide a reliable, all-weather crossing for workers to access the docks and shipyards on both sides of the river. Designed by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice, it features a cast-iron tube lined with cast-iron segments, connected by vertical shafts with stairs and lifts, housed in glass-domed buildings both sides of the Thames. It is now a Grade II listed structure managed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich and is a popular pedestrian and cycle route.
JH GREATHEAD had designed an earlier -begun in 1876- subway , but was not completed.
Site of the late IRON AGE settlement, and of the ROMAN CAMP. Site of HENRY VIII first shipyard, then THE GUN WHARF. Site of Power Station
WOOLWICH ARSENAL.
For full treatment of this area see:
SE LONDON (1) next chapter —THAMES PATH 6: from the ROYAL ARSENAL to THAMESMEAD, CROSSNESS PUMPING STATION, ERITH and SLADE GREEN
SE LONDON (2)—WOOLWICH TOWN CENTRE route including parts of the Royal Arsenal
A complete secret
The riverfront OF East of WOOLWICH Town Centre was unaccessible for centuries. The huge RA site was out-of -bounds, and it’s whereabouts wher so secret that never appeared on maps.
These last decades the area has been redeveloped and regenerated, including the opening of a riverside walk and cycle path, with a nice landscaping beside, with trees, shrubs, heathers… running for almost 4miles, through Thamesmead and Belvedere.
(Uber Boats)Thames Clippers Pier
GUARD ROOMS
Twin octogonal buildings, b. 1814-15, as part of the RA defences. Vermiculated, a stylised texture simulating worm casts. The Eastern building has lost its conical roof.
ASSEMBLY, artwork by Peter Burke
A cluster of steel men forever frozen in a meeting that is about to take place IAN VISITS webs explains it, as usually, awesomely
James Clavell Sq.
N 1 St.
WOOLWICH WORKS
Woolwich Works is a multi-disciplinary cultural hub on the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich. The landmark venue opened its doors in September 2021 and has recently been named London's ‘best new culture spot’ by Time Out. Our programme includes cutting-edge contemporary music, award-winning stand-up comedy, as well as theatre, dance, cabaret and everything in between.
Keep enjoying this guide
