Henry Cooke acquired the site in 1541 and it eventually passed to Sir John Hippersley who salvaged building materials, before selling the property to Thomas Hawes of London in 1632.

[citation needed] Abbey Wood railway station was opened in 1849, immediately to the north of the area now known as "The Village", built where Knee Hill became Harrow Manorway.

Contemporary maps show Knee Hill as a minor track compared with a more major pathway through the centre of the existing woods.

[citation needed] Abbey Wood was suggested as a site for a cemetery serving east London at a time of burial crisis in the capital.

The housing is largely traditional of the "two-up, two-down" design, in distinctive yellow London brick, with gardens to the front and rear.

[9] Between 1955 and 1959, the London County Council built the Abbey Estate starting with one road south of the railway and later extending on the northern side on former Royal Arsenal marshland.

In the mid-1960s, the Greater London Council (GLC) began building the first phase of Thamesmead on more ex-Royal Arsenal land, north-east of Abbey Wood station.

When it was initially developed, Thamesmead was envisioned as a revolutionary 'city within a city' of 60,000 people, providing much needed affordable homes with suitable amenities, surrounded by a lake and landscaped parkland exploiting it's riverside position.

The distinctive new station has transformed the area, resolving complex urban design issues and delivering a seamless multi modal interchange.

[16] Thamesmead is currently undergoing an extensive regeneration project by Britain’s oldest housing association Peabody, which promises up to 20,000 new homes, and improved community facilities.

Sir Charles Tilston Bright, the British electrical engineer who oversaw the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, died in Abbey Wood in May 1888.

Stewart Cochrane, a cruise ship bandleader, jazz musician, onetime member of NWOHM band Samson and author of Chindit Special Force Burma 1944[23] attended DeLucy infant/primary school.

Abbey Wood also hosted London's first cable TV station, Cablevision, on Plumstead High Street, near Wickham Lane.

The buildings have been utilised as a backdrop for many filmic projects, including the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange and the video of "Come to Daddy" by electronic musician Aphex Twin.

It was previously known as St Paul's RC Secondary School, whilst located in Wickham Lane, before converting to academy status in 2005 when it moved to the new site.