A couple of months ago I said that I would start to write a history of Kidbrook - a very neglected area ` west to provide the northern boundary of Morden College’s gardens.
Before I begin I must apologise to the late Neil Rhind, or possibly his executors, because almost everything in this article is taken from his various works on Blackheath. I wish it were not so and I would certainly normally use a variety of source material But his work is so intense on the Upper Kid Brook area that I have very little room to look elsewhere.
The last article I did on this ended at the actual entrance to Morden College – their lodge at the corner of Morden Road. The line of the stream was followed by the Greenwich Parish boundary in the section which runs along the southern edge of what was the gardens at the rear of the Paragon. It was therefore included the series of articles I did here about the 1853 civic procession around the Parish boundary.
I felt that I should now continue to follow the Upper Kid Brook on its route to the Ravensbourne although its flow continues almost entirely in Lewisham Parish.
Following the Upper Kid Brook from the Morden College Lodge can be very difficult. There is no sign of the stream on the ground although the direction of slopes and dips in the road can reveal much. Map based evidence is often conflicting or non existent. The North Kent railway’s line which has run from Lewisham station to Charlton since 1849 defines the area we are looking at. Neil Rhind said that the railway company bought the land along the length of the stream as a convenient place to lay the line. If this is so it gives us a way of following the waterway which has been underground for almost 200 years.
It seems most likely that the stream crossed Morden Road slightly to the south of the Morden College lodge and north of the present day Fullthorpe Road. In this area and slightly to the north on the west side of the road, was once Cator Lodge built for the Cator Estate. This and the gate across Morden Road indicate one of the entrances to the Cator Estate which is still privately owned and managed. The lodge was destroyed by bombing in 1940.
From Morden Road the stream apparently continued to the rear of The Paragon on land used as gardens. There was at least one pond. Its route is followed by the Borough boundary and the account of the civic procession in 1853 describes the house nearest to Morden Road with a ‘garden ... in which there is a water course or brook’. We must assume the procession followed it ‘through some asparagus beds to another stone, and from there over Mr Hobart’s stabling - on each side of which is placed a stone in the wall.’ It went from there to a junction of three parishes.
This area, at the rear of the Paragon is now the site of council housing built in 1954. I am very, very confused by this estate. Half of it is in Greenwich Borough and half in Lewisham, on either side of Pond Road. It was designed by architect Albert Richardson, commissioned by the London County Council. Such estates were passed from the Greater London Council to the Boroughs in 1974 and this makes sense because the estate would have been split and added to the relevant Boroughs housing stock in each case - something similar happened in Deptford with the Pepys Estate. However Neil Rhind, writing about the estate in two separate books says that it was a Lewisham Housing estate and that Richardson was commissioned by the London County Council on behalf of Lewisham. Now this doesn’t make a lot of sense - because if that is so how is it that half of it now is in Greenwich Borough and managed by their housing department? However, to complicate things further the Running Past blog says that the land was purchased by Greenwich Council from the Cator Estate, with no mention of Mr Richardson. I would welcome some enlightenment on this.
The next feature on the route of the Upper Kid Brook is the pond which once stood in Pond Road. Its site is very easily recognised as a large circular area to the left as you travel south down Pond Road and now called Pond Close Green. One of the most important features of this area was the huge and very grand Wricklemarsh House which stood slightly to the south near to the site of St Michael’s church in Blackheath Park. The pond appears to have been an ornamental water for the house. It is said to have survived as an overflow tank for the Kid Brook. It was eventually filled in and there are apparently some willow trees remaining.
From the late 18th century a nursery stood in Blackheath Village on the site which is now Blackheath Grove. It became extremely prosperous in the early 19th century and in 1831 was taken over by John Halley who built staff housing on the site which is now that of the Post Office. The nursery was watered by a canal - an overflow basin for the Upper Kid Brook. John Halley cleaned it up and turning it into a swimming pool. ’Tastefully laid out with gardens and nursery ground’. He built greenhouses and did many exotic plantings with gardens on either side of the main road and a little wooden bridge. The gardens were open on a regular basis and were a big attraction in Blackheath Village
Problems began when the railway was built in 1848. It took land from both sides of the road and also the swimming pool had to go. The Upper Kid Brook went into a conduit and the ground between Blackheath Village and Pond Road was cleared for building The new site was called Blackheath Grove developed with houses and public buildings at the post office
The Upper Kid Brooke continued to flow along the path of the
railway although severely constrained by the work of the railway engineers. And
also in various houses alongside the railway but largely on the north side with
a series of lagoons and ponds most of all of which have now gone and most of
which were used as ornamental water. Neil Rhind commented that the ‘former route of the Brook is almost certainly hidden
beneath the 1970s Lewisham council housing of Hurren Close, and then crossing
Heath Lane (formerly Lovers Lane) to St Joseph’s Vale.”
There may have been a small tributary joining the Brook. There is a small valley clearly shown on OS maps.ThIs ran from The Orchard up on the Heath, with an obvious dip in Eliot Vale. Its course following Baizdon Road to the stream.
A
major site in Belmont Hill is The Cedars where a big house with extensive
grounds has been converted to other uses and much new housing. The railway split its grounds. The northern part
of grounds had been laid out by architect George Gwilt in the late 18th century.
The then owner was Samuel Brandram, a
paint and chemicals manufacturer whose business was based in Rotherhithe. The Upper Kid Brook was dammed to form a pair of
ornamental lakes, big enough for boating. A bridge connecting it the area to
the house in Belmont Grove, was built at the
same time as the railway. The estate later became the home of local engineer,
John Penn. The lakes were filled in by a future owner, Penfold, who probably rented land here in the Great War and bought
it along with the stables in the 1920s. Their carting business led them to fill
the lakes with rubbish before selling the site on for housing development in
the 1980s,- it is now called St Joseph’s
Vale.
Another small lake
existed in 1893, where the brook had been dammed - the site of new housing. It was
at the end of the grounds of a house called Belmont, built for the architect
George Ledwell Taylor around 1830.
The Upper Kid Brook
joins the river Quaggy near St Stephen’s church in Lewisham
