Charlton

Charlton Village: War Memorial and Drinking Fountain

photo © Alan Palmer 1996

Charlton is situated mid-way between Greenwich and Woolwich. It retains its historical sense of identity because of the old village centre, which still has a village atmosphere.
The village centre is composed of Charlton House, which is the finest Jacobean mansion in the London area, the old village green in front of the House, St Lukes Church, and the village street.

Between 50 BC and 250 AD there was a large Romano-British settlement on a hilltop site to the north of the present village. There was a Saxon village near the present site, a church being there since the 11th century.

"Modern" Charlton can be said to have begun in 1607, when the manor of Charlton was acquired by Sir Adam Newton. Sir Adam was at that time tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I. In 1612 the Prince died, but Sir Adam continued in a series of royal appointments until he died in 1629. The building of Charlton House began in 1607, and it was finished in 1612. The manor of Charlton belonged to the Maryon-Wilson family between 1767 and 1923. In 1829 they enclosed the village green which had been in front of the House, and added it to their grounds. This is the reason why the original gateway to the House stands nowadays apparently stranded in the middle of the lawn. The green had been the site of the ancient and notorious Horn Fair, which was transferred to a field nearby until it was suppressed in 1874 on the grounds of the drunken behaviour of the revellers. A pale shadow of the original was revived in 1973, and it is now held at Charlton House.

One of the other great attractions of Charlton is the Thames Barrier, situated on the border between Charlton and Woolwich, to the north-east of Charlton Village. The area along the riverside is primarily an industrial zone, and is known as New Charlton. Industrial development began there in the middle of the 19th century, especially after the opening of a private railway branch line to Angerstein Wharf in 1852. By the 1930s the area was thriving, but since the 1960s the area has sunk into a decline, with most of the original factories closing down. There has been some attempt at regeneration in recent years, but this is mostly retail warehouses and supermarkets, not industrial factories as in the past.

The four parks of Charlton were all part of the manorial grounds held by the Maryon-Wilson family. Charlton sandpits, which were originally part of an area known as Hanging Wood, were presented to the London County Council in 1891, and one of the pits became Maryon Park. The then Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich bought Charlton House and its grounds in 1925; part of the grounds were opened in 1929 as Charlton Park, with another area opened as Hornfair Park in 1935. Maryon Wilson Park was opened in 1926, formed from the remaining part of Hanging Wood.

Charlton is the home of these football clubs:

• play Association Football at The Valley. They were founded in 1903, and have played there since 1920 with a short break in the early 1920s, and a longer one from 1985 to 1992. The Valley was built on the site of one of the Charlton sandpits.
• Blackheath play Rugby Union at The Rectory Field. Blackheath are the oldest open Rugby club in the world; they were founded in 1858 and have played at The Rectory Field since moving from Blackheath itself in 1882. The Blackheath Club also have thriving Cricket, Lawn Tennis, and Squash sections; in fact, until the 1960s, Kent County Cricket Club used to play their home match against Surrey there.