It was the site of a pub (the Long Reach Tavern), a fireworks factory, a smallpox hospital and, from 1911, a Vickers airfield that later became RAF Joyce Green.

[1] The Long Reach Tavern was a riverside pub that had a jetty extending into the Thames, enabling its use by barge and tugboat crews.

[2] It was recorded as a tied house of the Fleet Brewery in 1865, and in 1866 hosted a bare-knuckle boxing championship match between James Mace and Joseph Goss.

[2] Despite some local opposition, in May 1881, the Metropolitan Asylum Board (MAB) established a temporary tented camp for smallpox patients on land it owned north of Dartford.

Subject to frequent flooding and with a reputation as being unsuitable and too dangerous for training, it was eventually replaced by a more suitable site at RAF Biggin Hill.

It treats wastewater from a catchment area of 518 square kilometres (200 sq mi), covering Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Dartford, Sevenoaks, Tandridge, and from Tonbridge and Malling.