AT RISK

 

I WAS WONDERING WHAT do for this week’s article and going through new emails  and stuff that was coming I noticed that the Charlton Society have a speaker on the Rotunda in Woolwich which is ‘at risk’ Following that up I find that ythere is a campaign on it, starting with a website - rotundatrust.org.uk

 ‘At risk’ means that Historic England has discovered that it needs urgent attention and will soon not be with us if something isn’t done.   I wrote about the Rotunda here  a couple of years ago. https://maryswritegreenwich.blogspot.com/search?q=rotunda.   It’s a very interesting building, very, very eccentric and it stands in an obscure bit of the Woolwich Barracks site, which means hardly anybody can get to it.   Because of its eccentricities it can’t really be expanded or have  anything added to it and I’m sure it’s very expensive to maintain.  It’s falling to bits because the army now aren’t using = so, yes it is ‘at risk’.

So I thought I would see what else is on Historic England ’at risk’ list for Greenwich and in particular those that could be described as ‘industrial’.   I know that’s a bit problematic as a description for the Rotunda  but it was built to exhibit military apparatus and used for exhibition purposes means it’s not a domestic building.   Anyway I get the ‘at risk’ list – only 17 items on it.   I think I should ignore the  three churches which are on it -  although one is architecturally so bizarre that it could well be an industrial building if you saw it when the light wasn’t too good.

One building on the list we’ve all heard of and it is always saying it’s ‘at risk’ and needs money for this and that, is Charlton House.  Now Charlton House is important and if it was anywhere other than Greenwich it would be a major attraction - but we have so much else!  It is a site of national interest in the way that other sites on the Greenwich ‘at risk register are not  - and that makes it very different to them.  I think that we can be reasonably confident that no one is going to let Charlton House fall down!

There are two other sites on the ‘at risk’ register which are associated with Charlton House. One of these is the stable buildings which front onto Hornfair Road and have been used as offices for many years. Currently they are let to a carers support organisation and  the at risk register describes their state as ‘very bad ’ I’m not sure what this means since clearly if it’s let out it can’t be too terrible but there may be an issue around alterations changing the historic character.  I don’t know.

There’s another building at Charlton which is ‘at risk’. This is the building which is now being described  as a ‘garden house’ and which is on the corner of Charlton House grounds and The Village.  For many years it was used as a public toilet, which ended, I think, in the 1990s.  Traditionally it is said to have been built by 17^th century architect, Inigo Jones – whatever! it’s thought to be contemporary with Charlton House itself. When it was closed as public toilets the then council officer dealing with it, Mike Neill,  made a website on its construction – it was interesting and useful and I’ve no idea what happened to it.  Today the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust website has a page about the work done on the Garden House  by architect Charlie McKeith. It actually says that they’re going to get the  ‘at risk’ status removed. Some years ago Charlie Mckeith came to Greenwich Industrial History Society and gave an amazingly interesting talk about Charlton House and its site in relation to the River and the surrounding countryside. It was all about sightlines and angles and it included the exact way in which the Garden House is located in relation to view down to the River.

So many of these ‘at risk’ buildings   are in the area between Charlton and Woolwich and result from the military presence. The next of these is about the ‘forecourt railings and gates to Red Barracks, and Gate Lodge’  Frances Street.  This is now the entry to a housing estate which apparently dates from the late 1960s and who is responsible for the remains of the barracks isn’t clear.

 

The next site on the ‘at risk’ register is pretty mysterious.  this afternoon, while writing this, I tested  out its mystery level. I had a visitor who – now in her ‘70s – is a life long resident of Woolwich and Charlton. She had no idea about the huge pond -  Mulgrave Pond -which lies just off Artillery Place. You used to be able to see the pond from the top of a 53 or 54 bus – and I did write something here about its past use as a reservoir. It is now in private hands and there is a wall round it and you can’t even really see anything.  The building is ‘Garden House’ and its somewhere  on the edge of the pond – no idea what it looks like except it’s ‘octagonal.  Perhaps someone with a window overlooking the pond can tell us more.

Then the ‘at risk’ register lists ‘Repository Woods’ which is about the same level of mysterious as Mulgrave Pond – and its only just the other side of the road from the pond.  I think we need to get back to the top of a 53 bus. You come out of Charlton, going towards Woolwich  - You go down Little Heath and when you get to the valley bottom  there’s a shop which used to be a pub called  ‘The Woodman’ -helpfully they’ve left the pub sign up.  Don’t look at the pub though, look to the right as the bus climbs up the hill to Woolwich. Over on the right there’s a long brick wall  and behind it It’s all trees and you can’t really see in. It’s all trees because it’s a wood  called ‘Repository Wood’ and there’s another big pond in there too. I started off this article because of the ‘at risk' status of the Rotunda and I think that if you go up to the Rotunda you can get into Repository Wood from round the back - if the army let you!

 

It consists of 7 acres of deciduous woodland created in the early 19th century as a purpose-built training landscape for the Royal Military Repository along with pleasure gardens open to the public.  It is the UK's earliest known purpose-built military training landscape with earthworks, a stream and man-made lake system with a circular island, used by an angling club.  Many of the features including the terraces are scheduled monuments. First created before 1808, during the 1820s an earthwork training fortification was added along the eastern boundary, on which were mounted "all the different sorts of cannon used in the defence of fortified towns. Also featured were two croquet lawns; and a garden building used as a  respirator training room.  Later additions were slit trenches and an assault course and an underground trench shelter.

The ‘at risk’ register defines the problems with Repository Wood as ‘Generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems” but it’s not clear what those problems are.  However I think everyone could be agreed it would be good if the public could have some of that  space.  I mean it could somehow be conserved for the public good.  Let’s see

Back to the at risk ==and a site which is familiar and something which I’ve written about in the past here. This is the Winter Garden of former Avery Hill Training College, Bexley Road, Eltham SE9 - I can certainly remember a time when it was looked after by Greater London Council and when you could go round the very exotic and beautiful gardens; I think it is now open again to the public  but it clearly is ‘at risk’.

 

After that on the there are a couple of street properties and which I won’t look at now but will come back to them. There  are also some general conservation areas.

 

The next one made me really jump when I saw the ‘Thames Barrier. How can the Thames Barrier be to ‘at risk’.  Of course when I read it more carefully it is not the barrier which it’s at risk, it’s the grisly area around it. It was set up originally to be a big tourist attraction with an enormous car park and a cafe and another attraction all of which seem to not be used.  So there’s a project for someone.