I was wandering the lovely back streets of Greenwich last week, past the theatre and the fan museum (both marvellous, and I found myself in Royal Hill. I looked to see if the building that used to be home to a cheese shop run by a lovely guy I met on a plane coming back from Zakynthos in the late 1980s, was still there. The terrace of shops hasn't changed much, In my mind's eye I recalled that his shop was within the terrace, possibly next to the butcher. But when I got home and started doing a bit of research I discovered that The Cheese Board is at No.26 (corner of Circus Street) and Michael is still there, known locally as Mr Cheese! Had the shop been evident and open I'd obviously have popped in and asked if he has any Cornish Blue (yummy!). Perhaps it was early closing day.
I continued up the street, admiring all the lovely houses, and stopped to look at the fab tiles on the Barley Mow pub at the corner of Point Hill, now a restaurant.
Realising that I was supposed to be meeting a friend in the Oxford Street in thirty minutes, I started making my way down the hill via Prior Street towards the station. I looked to the right and noticed that there appeared to be quite a wide angular gap between the houses here behind this tree, and I looked back and forth at that and at the twentieth century flats behind me, considering that there must have been a railway line here.
A couple walking their small friendly dog saw my quizzical face and asked if I was lost. I explained my thought process to them. Well, what a delightful interlude it turned out to be. John said yes, that he had wondered that too, but he hadn't been able to find out any info. The conversation progressed and I said I'd look into the things we discussed. I cave him my card and asked him to keep in touch. But I have decided to write it up here. Just shows how one bit of 'perhapsing' can evolve into a half a day of sleuthing! I do hope John is reading this. And I hope I have remembered his name correctly as I tend to forget what you'd call 'normal' names. His wife, who has lovely eyes, is called Della. Nice people.
Here's the Google view of the area today – I was standing were the word Vina [Launderette] is:
As you can see, there are allotments here which are often a hint at old railway lines or sidings, indeed that's what John thought, that this was sidings. I thought it was more likely to be a connecting line from/to Lewisham, which was confirmed when I found this 1890's OS map available on Layers of London – many of the road names have changed and this isn't exactly the same proportion and crop as the pic above, but it's easy to make the comparison:
I had assumed the railway line then fed into into the eastbound service towards Maze Hill but, no, it ended at 'Greenwich Terminus' on Stockwell Street, site of the Ibis Hotel today.
John also mentioned that he was intrigued by an old sign near the old Old Barley Mow pub which he wondered might have been a coal merchant. Ooh I thought... lets go and have a look! By this time I realised I was going to be even later for my appointment in central London but, luckily, I was meeting a friend who is as fascinated by these things as I am, so he'd understand!
I turned to look back past the pub where there is a hand-painted ghostsign on a building that looks to be No.1 Point Hill, but is actually constructed in the back garden of No.1 King George Street. I took a few photos:
There are multiple layers on this sign. Looking my the phone screen we found it was easy to make out CORN & COAL MERCHANTS through the middle but the names were hard to decipher. For instance, there's a name in a curve at the top that looks to begin 'J. S. PE..' and another name in a straight line over/under that. The last word at bottom right could be RAIL, perhaps making use of the adjacent railway line.
For more of my ghostsigns observations, simply use the search box or click here.
The railway line was built as part of the LCDR (London, Chatham and Dover Railway). This branch line ran from Nunhead, via the northern part of Lewisham, to the terminus you mention. This terminus was originally called Greenwich, and opened on 1 Oct 1888. On 1 July 1900 the terminus was renamed as Greenwich Park (to distinguish it from the other station, which had been built in 1838 by a different railway company, but also called Greenwich). And the terminus finally closed on 1 Jan 1917, when the passenger service (from Nunhead) was withdrawn. The line was abandoned in 1929.
ReplyDeleteI think I remember being told that the bomber in Joseph's Conrad's 1907 novel "The Secret Agent" is said to have used Greenwich Park station, on his way towards the Observatory. (And that novel was inspired by the actual anarchist bomb in the Park in Feb 1894.)
Regards, Ash
Thanks for all the extra information Ash. TBH, I stopped the narrative at the terminus because I had to 'protect' myself from delving any further – once I start looking at old maps I enter a time warp, and I'd have ended up in a Greenwich wormhole! Thanks again.
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