[1] Until the 1800s, most of Welling down to Blackfen was covered in woodland which offered excellent concealment for outlaws and robbers who would prey on vulnerable slow-moving horse-drawn traffic.

A Neolithic stone axe was found in East Wickham in 1910, and remains of Roman buildings were unearthed near Danson in 1989.

[specify] Before opening of the Bexleyheath Line on 1 May 1895,[4] Welling was a village on the main road from London into Kent (Watling Street).

Later, when the Danson estate was sold to developers, the land to the south was opened up to suburban sprawl and the settlement incorporated the local parishes of St Michael's East Wickham and St Johns Welling The area was part of the Municipal Borough of Bexley in the administrative county of Kent until, in 1965, the borough was abolished under the London Government Act 1963 and its area transferred to Greater London to form part of the present-day London Borough of Bexley.

The MECCA bingo hall in Upper Wickham Lane has ceased trading, apparently one of nine in England unsuited to operate after the national ban on smoking in public places.

[8] This large building, which originally was an Odeon cinema is operating now as Freedom Centre International, a Pentecostal Church.

This Russian weapon is a 36-pounder carronade (calibre 6.75 inches – weight 17 cwt) of a type used during the Crimean War (1854 to 1860), displayed on a simple wooden replica carriage.

Further north of the original site is the 12th-century former St Michael's, East Wickham church, now used by a Greek Orthodox congregation.

These connect it with places including Barnehurst, Bexleyheath, Blackfen, Blackheath, Bluewater, Charlton, Crayford, Dartford, Eltham, Falconwood, Kidbrooke, Lewisham, North Greenwich, Orpington, Plumstead, Shooters Hill, Sidcup, Slade Green, St Mary Cray and Woolwich.