Old Woolwich
Although most of the earlier buildings have been demolished, the area has retained some interesting architecture, including the Georgian parish church, the Edwardian foot tunnel rotunda and two cinemas of the 1930s.
Remains of Iron Age, probably Celtic fortifications were found at the current Waterfront development site between Beresford Street and the Thames.
In 2015, Oxford Archaeology discovered a Saxon burial site near the riverside with 76 skeletons from the late 7th or early 8th century.
[5] In 1512 a naval shipyard was established at Gun Yard, east of Bell Water Gate (now a car park next to the Waterfront Leisure Centre).
Apart from naval storage, the wharf was used for bringing in raw materials for the ropeyard as well as shipping out finished rope.
Hemp, tar and rope were carried or carted some 180 meters between this area and the ropeyard via Bell Water Gate and the High Street.
After 1671 gun storage moved away from here to the area around Tower Place, which had been acquired by William Pritchard, an ordnance contractor from Eltham.
In exchange for the 31-acre Warren or Tower Place estate, Pritchard acquired Gun Yard plus a large payment in cash.
[notes 3][7] By the end of the 17th century, the Warren, later the Royal Arsenal, had grown to rival the Tower of London as the country's main ordnance depot.
The ropeyard was rebuilt in 1695-97 by the surveyor and naval engineer Edmund Dummer, adding a double ropewalk to the existing one.
John Rocque's Map of London of 1746 shows very few buildings south of the main east-west street and the ropeyard.
[8] In the late 18th century, the population of Woolwich approached 10,000 and new areas for housing were found south of the main street.
This large Anglican church had an imposing façade in Portland stone with a stump tower above a Greek Revival portico.
The most notorious part was the so-called Dusthole, between Beresford Street, Warren Lane and the river, named after the dust from neighbouring coal wharves.
Later in the 19th century, more and more houses were replaced by industrial developments (coal wharves, a gas company and a power station).
Around 1965 the ferry approach was moved further west where it was connected via a roundabout to a new dual carriageway (John Wilson Street).
[11] With the successful regeneration of the former Royal Arsenal by Greenwich Council and Berkeley Homes, urban renewal has spread to the Central Riverside Area.
[14] In the 2012 Woolwich Town Centre Masterplan, Greenwich Council revealed plans for the Glass Yard site.
Remnants of watermen's stairs can be seen at Bell Water Gate and behind the Waterfront Leisure Centre at the end of Nile Street (formerly Hog Lane).
The ferry administration and maintenance building, as well as the ambulance station, are low-rise utilitarian structures with a touch of Brutalism.
The south entrance building of the Woolwich Foot Tunnel was built at the north-west side of Nile Street in 1910-12.
It included a large indoor swimming pool, sports facilities, a supermarket, a garden centre, a petrol station and flats surrounded by public spaces.
These ambitious plans were scaled down after construction had started, which resulted in the current hybrid building of red and yellow brick and mirrored-glass façades with blue detailing.
East of the leisure centre a large car park occupies the site of the former Woolwich Power Station coal yard.
The development of the Mast Quay Buildings (phase 1, 2004-06), at the eastern extremity of the Dockyard, was amongst the earliest signs of urban renewal in Woolwich.
At the eastern slope of Church Hill an unusual cluster is formed by two derelict buildings and a formidable Art Deco cinema.
On the south side, a chaotic picture is created by two clusters of small, mostly run-down shops, a garage complex and a cinema which is by far the largest building here.
Plaisted's is separated from the corner building on Hare Street by a narrow alley that leads to a part of Mortgramit Square previously known as Dog Yard.
The south side of Woolwich High Street continues with a scattering of small shops, followed by the Callis Yard construction site, and the 1960s Riverside House offices.
[notes 5] Not a single stone remains of the ropeyard that once dominated this area, nor are there any buildings left from the 1830s when Beresford Street was laid out.
