Blackheath:
The Story of a Suburb
by Neil Rhind

Page 1

Strategic Location

Blackheath has provided the name since at least 1160 not only for a 275-acre green space in southeast London but also for the contiguous residential suburb that developed around its boundary.

The Heath is a rare survival within the built up area of Greater London. Its location and the accompanying factors of position, with good communication networks, climate, and prevailing weather patterns, ensure that it is a desirable place for a modern residential suburb.

Its attractions, as far back as Roman times, made Blackheath a necessary part of outer London to retain. From its height: 125 feet above mean sea level - and particularly from The Point at the north east corner, there are commanding views over the Thames and to the Tower and City of London. From the heights of Shooters Hill watch can be kept on a long stretch of the river and the roads leading from the Channel ports. From a military standpoint Blackheath was strategically necessary to occupy.

The Heath is not legally a common (despite captions on old maps). It constitutes manorial waste and its acres are still owned by absentee Lords of the Manor: about two-thirds by the Earls of Dartmouth, and, to the north of the A2 traffic artery, about one third by the Crown as part of the Royal Manor of East Greenwich. Although Blackheath is now safely in public care and unlikely to be taken for any form of development this was not always the case.

Greenwich Park and Other Encroachments

Major encroachment of the waste was first apparent in 1432 - 1433 when Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (brother of King Henry V) obtained Crown consent to enclose about 200 acres from the north section of the Heath towards the Thames at Greenwich. He had been the owner of the Royal Manor of Greenwich from 1426 and his encroachment was to provide a private park and space for a fortified watchtower needed for personal security in dangerous times. His moiety is still marked clearly by the boundary of what is now known as Greenwich Park – a Royal Park and in Crown ownership since Humphrey’s downfall and death in 1447.

It is probable that Blackheath, covered with gorse, scrub, pits and hollows, stretched down Blackheath Hill to the west into Deptford, east to the junction of the Old Dover Road with Shooters Hill Road, and north towards the Thames between Greenwich and Charlton. It is likely to have been about 500 acres at the time of Humphrey’s encroachment.

But the growth of populations and the need for land for agriculture, horticulture and industrial uses (sand and gravel for building materials and ballast) ate into the gorse-covered acres of the open ground. Nevertheless, the flat tableland was a natural parade ground and rallying point for supporters and rebels alike. Over the period covering the 12th to the 19th centuries there were countless reports of activity on Blackheath, some of it bloody, some ceremonial, always substantial and frequently on a grand scale.

Battles and Pageants

In 1381 the Crown on Blackheath effectively crushed the Peasants Revolt, led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw. In 1415 Henry V processed with his victorious army to Blackheath to be met by the City dignitaries and courtiers and welcomed to London. Jack Cade’s rebellion of 1450 was frustrated at Blackheath by Henry VI. In 1497 Cornish rebels, angry at having to pay taxes to support the King’s wars with Scotland, met the Crown’s forces in battle on Blackheath and were routed. Chaucer (Canterbury Tales) and Shakespeare (Henry VI Part II) knew Blackheath and stitched its location in to their works.

Not all events were hostile. From the time of Richard II (1367 - 1400) to George III (1738 - 1820) Blackheath was used for military pageants or as a place to hold welcoming ceremonies for visiting foreign dignitaries. Until the end of the 17th century there was virtually no local population; just a few cottages housing agricultural labourers and those who worked in a handful of manor houses, such as the Manor house at Westcombe Park, Wricklemarsh (on the south side of the Heath, and now known as the Cator Estate), and Charlton House. Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich – despite enjoying industrial purposes – were relatively small towns. Charlton and Lee were hamlets rather than villages.

Images of Blackheath
Montagu House, Blackheath, c. 1790		Woodlands, Mycenae Road, Blackheath, c. 1790		Lewisham Hill, Blackheath, 1823		Holly Hedge House, Blackheath, c. 1835