Eltham developed along part of the road from London to Maidstone, and lies 3 miles (4.8 km) almost due south of Woolwich.

....This place had formerly a market on Tuesdays, and two fairs; one at the festival of the Holy Trinity, and the other at that of St. Peter and St. Paul; both of which have been long discontinued.By the 1880s the lathes and hundreds of Kent had become obsolete, with the civil parishes and other districts assuming modern governmental functions.

That, and the fact of its position close to the main route to the English Channel ports in Kent, led to the creation of the moated medieval Eltham Palace, still its most notable landmark.

Edward the Third held a Parliament at Eltham in 1329, and again in 1375.The nearby manor of Well Hall was home to Sir John Pulteney, four times Lord Mayor of London, and later to wealthy Catholic William Roper and his wife Margaret (daughter of Sir Thomas More, known to Catholics as Saint Thomas More, Chancellor to King Henry VIII).

Until its demolition in 1931, Well Hall House variously served as a home to watchmaker John Arnold, and later to socialist Hubert Bland and author Edith Nesbit.

The village streets adjacent to the Palace, and the surrounding land, remained rural until Archibald Cameron Corbett bought the Eltham Park Estate and developed it with well-built suburban housing between 1900 and 1914.

Since that time new house building has been limited to small private "infill developments" and replacements for demolished properties.

However, since the Licensing Act 2003 was implemented in 2005, Premise Licences are now granted by the local authority (Greenwich London Borough Council) instead of magistrates, as long as the applicant satisfies the council and the "responsible authorities" (such as Police, Environmental Health, Fire Service) that they will uphold the four licensing objectives (prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; prevention of public nuisance, protection of children from harm), then a licence will be granted.

The land to the north of Eltham rises to form the southern slope of Shooter's Hill, one of the highest points in London at a height of 430 feet (130 m).

The recently (2014) restored 18th century belvedere Severndroog Castle offers wide views from its observation platform which is 490 feet (150 m) above sea level.

Other nearby areas There is a large variety of open green space in Eltham, in the form of parkland, fields and woodland.

[16] In the 1990s the defence of Oxleas Wood to the north east of the town became a focus for a pan-European campaign to resist high capacity urban roads.

Significantly the European Court of Justice found the UK government at fault for not adequately assessing the environmental impact of the planned road, that would have joined Beckton to Falconwood and perhaps – if objectors' fears are to be believed – been a first stage of a wider orbital road through Catford (a revival of a Greater London Council-backed Ringway Two).

Green places in Eltham The Royal Borough of Greenwich maintains an online directory of open spaces.

These efforts resulted in the formation of an Eltham town centre partnership (ETCP), chaired by an elected local stakeholder.

In 2007, the new Eltham Centre opened just off the High Street including council offices and a new swimming pool and incorporating the early 20th century library.

[28] High Street and environs On 22 April 1993, 18-year-old black student Stephen Lawrence was fatally stabbed in Well Hall.

[29] In 2011 as a result of new evidence coming to light, Gary Dobson and David Norris stood trial for the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

[30] Other instances of racial attacks were documented throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with Eltham compared to a "sundown town" a name used to describe communities in America's Deep South where black people were advised for their own safety to not be out in public after dark.

[33] BBC reporters tracked fans of Millwall and Charlton walking along Eltham High St, with riot police following at a distance.

[34] Police were forced to move the crowds on for fear of violence, and were involved in minor clashes, but Eltham did not have any riot damage.

[35][36] Primary schools in Eltham include: Alderwood, Christ Church (Shooters Hill Rd), Deansfield, Gordon, Middle Park, Ealdham, Eltham C of E (Founded 1814),[37] Gordon, Haimo, Henwick, Kidbrooke Park, St Mary's, St Thomas More and Wingfield.

Eltham has a Non-League football club Cray Valley Paper Mills F.C., which plays at Badgers Sports Ground (shared with Greenwich Borough F.C.)

Cray Valley plays an annual charity match against their local non-league rivals Eltham Old Boys Football Club.

The same area is also home to the training ground of professional football club Charlton Athletic at Sparrows Lane.

This has a pavilion with changing rooms and six pitches for football and rugby Preserving these sports areas from the encroachments of property developers is a constant battle for Elthams environmental and community groups.

Currently (2014) the focus is on the long disused Gaelic Sports Field in Avery Hill Road, for which there is a planning application to build 150 houses.

The back streets of Eltham have been largely traffic-calmed by the local Council, but there are chronic rat-runs[43] as many of the measures are ineffective or insufficient.

Provision for cyclists is modest, while there are some interesting footpaths along ancient rights of way, for example in Oxleas Wood and Avery Hill Park.

Scheduled coaches, marketed as part of the National Express network, link Eltham Green to Pimlico and Victoria in central London and to several destinations on the Kent coast via Bluewater (a retail-based development on a grand scale in Dartford borough) and Canterbury.