The origins of the Woolwich lay in an earlier terminating society, based in the local Castle Inn and chaired by the publican.

That the active founders of the new society included the pastor of the Salem Chapel and a Sunday School teacher may indicate the reason for the breakaway.

The first meeting was held in the parlour of a “modest house” of Benjamin Wates, a local draper.

[1] A feature of the early years was the Society lending out more than it had money, with funds coming from directors signing promissory notes to the bank.

Nevertheless, after ten years the Woolwich claimed to be “one of the leading Metropolitan societies” and dominant in its own neighbourhood.

This may have been an optimistic claim as the Wolwich was run on a very small scale: the Secretary was obliged to live on the premises until 1876, and in 1863 there were only 500 members.

The first of these was in nearby Chatham, Kent but it was not until the early 1920s that the Woolwich began a programme of branch expansion, slowly at first but then accelerating.

Three small societies had also been absorbed during the War: the Gosport and Alverstoke; Guildford and District Equitable, and Andover Mutual.

It also formed Woolwich Property Services and took over part of the estate agency operations of the Prudential Plc in 1991; by the late 1990s, it had a national chain of nearly 170 branch locations.

[2] The Woolwich Equitable Building Society demutualised in 1997, giving up its mutual status to become a bank: Woolwich PLC was formed, giving shares to investing and borrowing members of the society, and listing on the London Stock Exchange.

From 1896 until 1935, it was headquartered at a purpose-built corner office at 111-113 Powis Street, after which it moved to larger premises at Eakes Place, now Equitable House at General Gordon Square.

In 1989, it moved to new headquarters in nearby Bexleyheath, alongside the society's main administration and computer centre which had been based at the corner of Watling Street and Erith Road for many years.