To the north and east of the future Powis Street were the Royal Ropeyard and some gardens; to the south and west lay virgin land.

It connected Green's End and the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, providing an alternative to the busy High Street.

An octagonal house stood at its west end (where the Art Deco co-op building stands now), perhaps an outbuilding of the Dog Yard brewery on the High Street, or a lavoir.

There were also several chapels, a Freemasons' hall, a theater and a number of public houses, two of which, the Shakespeare and the Star & Garter, were owned by the Powis brothers.

Most shops were at the east end of the street, close to Woolwich market and the railway station, which opened in 1849.

The west end of the street had remained largely residential but that changed when the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS, established in 1868) started its formidable expansion here at the beginning of the new century.

The Woolwich Equitable Building Society had built itself a grand new head office on the corner of Eleanor Road.

This part of the street had always lagged behind a bit, but became a lot busier after two huge cinemas were built at its western extremity, but not before the road had been widened (1933–34).

Others followed and more and more ornate Victorian shops were replaced by unadorned modern blocks with cantilevered canopies and glass curtain walls.

[8] Partial pedestrianisation came in the early 1980s, but by then the street had lost its appeal to shoppers who preferred modern shopping malls in Lewisham, Bexleyheath and Bromley.

With the regeneration of the Royal Arsenal and other parts of the town, the street has seen some improvement in the new millennium, with the arrival of multiples like Starbucks (2008), Nando's (2010), Travelodge (2012), T.K.

[9] However, Marks & Spencer left Powis Street in 2014 (after more than a century) in order to open an M&S food hall at the Royal Arsenal two years later.

The corner of Green's End with the south side of Powis Street (nrs 1–7) was redeveloped in 1958–60, after a design by British-American architect Hector Hamilton.

It features glass curtain walls with artificial-stone mullions, a pavement canopy and a set-back corner with diamond-patterned ornament.

The Marks & Spencer building on the corner of Calderwood Street (nrs 55–69) was started in the 1930s and extended in a similar style in the 1960s.

The last pair is the sole survivor of a larger block that was demolished to create the entrance for the intended shopping mall.

The row originally continued further west, but some of it (nrs 44–48) was replaced by Woolwich Borough Council's Electric House in 1935–36.

This is a classically proportioned building which has kept its cream-coloured faience façade and bronze window frames on the upper storeys, as well as some of the interior decorations.

Although nowadays divided into smaller shop units, with unharmonious storefronts, Kent House is still considered Church's best surviving work in Powis Street.

On the south west corner with Barnard Close (nrs 115–123, opposite Hare Street) five late-Victorian shops were replaced by a building designed by Rodney Gordon (of Owen Luder Partnership) in 1964–65.

It was designed by the Society's architect, Frank Bethell, and built in three phases, replacing a number of existing RACS shops and adjacent buildings.

With its red brick and moulded terracotta façade, the architectural critic Ian Nairn thought it would look more at home in the Midlands.

[18] A vacant lot with a large car park separates the hotel from Woolwich County Court, built by the Office of Works in 1935–36, shortly after the road was widened here.

The corner of Parson's Hill, originally the name of this whole area, is occupied by the Castle Tavern (nrs 179), a famous Woolwich hostelry in the 19th century, rebuilt in 1937.

[19] The large TK Maxx store (nrs 120–130) with its mirrored-glass façade is a new development on the site of the Premier Electric Theatre, which was hit by a bomb in 1940.

This development on the corner of Hare Street was a spear point in the 2012 Woolwich Town Centre Masterplan.

The large, metal-framed windows emphasise the horizontal lines in the faience-tiled gable, set between two end towers.

The elegant east tower contains an open stairwell with wrought-iron railings with the letters 'co op' integrated in the design.

The imposing brown-brick building has a curved façade and a slender advertising tower (Cecil Massey & Reginald Uren, 1936–37).

It was built in a modified modern architecture style, mindful of the Dutch architect Willem Marinus Dudok.