Lee, Kent

Lee
Kent
Location
Grid reference:	TQ395745
Location:	51°27’8"N, -0°-0’31"E
Data
Post town:	London
Postcode:	SE12,SE13,SE6
Dialling code:	020
Local Government
Council:	Lewisham, Greenwich
Parliamentary constituency:	Lewisham East

Lee (also Lee Green) is a town of Kent deep within the metropolitan conurbation. Lee lies to the east of Lewisham, a mile west of Eltham, and one mile south of Blackheath.

St Margaret's Church, which was built between 1839–41, is the burial place of three Astronomers Royal: Edmond Halley, Nathaniel Bliss and John Pond.

The town had (until 2006) two public houses with almost identical names – The Old Tiger's Head and The New Tiger's Head – facing each other on opposite sides of the same road. Folklore states that The Old Tiger's Head was the newer of the two.

The town

Lee today has centred itself on Lee railway station and the road namd Burnt Ash Hill, though in past days the village in the Manor of Lee, the ancient parish, was sited around Lee High Road which today stretches into the town centre of Lewisham. The River Quaggy formed much of the boundary between the two parishes of Lee and Lewisham, though at Lee Bridge (at the western end of Lee High Road) it is now almost completely hidden.

History

The Domesday Book describes Lee as a small area of cultivation set in extensive woodland. The earliest map available is Rocque's of 1740 and shows a cluster of about a dozen houses around a triangular village green. This hamlet was surrounded by fields. Lee Green Farm occupied the south-east quadrant from the 1660s (roughly on the site of the present Leegate shopping centre). The farm was demolished in the 1840s and rebuilt as Tudor House further east.

The Old Tiger's Head and the New Tiger's Head pubs are important and striking features of the crossroads. Confusingly, the original (Old) Tiger's Head is thought to have been built on the site that currently occupied by the New Tiger's Head. The original pub is thought to have been built before 1730. It was rebuilt on its present site, the north-west quadrant, in 1750–1770 and then rebuilt (in its third incarnation) in 1896 – the date carried on its frontage. It became an important mail and coaching inn. The New Tiger's Head started life as a beer shop known as the Tiger Tavern in the 1830s. It was situated in the end of four cottages known as Prospect Terrace built around the same time. Three of these cottages remain, housing a post office/newsagent and a hairdresser. In 1868 it is referred to as the Tiger's Head Inn. The present building is thought to have replaced the original cottage a few years after 1896 – the date of the rebuilding of the Old Tiger's Head. The New Tiger's Head has now closed down.

In 1815 cavalry and foot regiments passed through Lee Green on their way to the Battle of Waterloo:

“

The space in front of the Tiger's Head and the Green were very commodious for the transfer of baggage to the waggons of the farmers from the other side of London to those of the farmers in this neighbourhood which were pressed for that purpose, to convey them 15 miles further on the journey to Dover.

”

In the early 19th century boxing matches took place at the Old Tiger's Head. Horse racing and foot racing took place in the 1840s but the police put a stop to these events, probably under pressure from local shopkeepers. At that time the green was the centre of village life with cricket matches, bare knuckle boxing and other entertainments. In the 1850s further house-building prompted the installation of proper sewers and the Lee Green horse pond was filled in. In the 1860s John Pound, a developer, erected houses in the south-east quadrant, Orchard Terrace on Eltham Road and Crown Terrace on Burnt Ash Lane (now Road).

The opening of Lee station in 1866 prompted more house-building at the crossroads. The site of Lee Green Farm was built on as Carston Mews (demolished in the early 1960s to make way for Leegate shopping centre). In the same year Charles Henry Reed, a linen draper, moves into 1 Orchard Terrace and established a department store. Reed died in 1895 and in 1903 the business was taken over by Griffith & Co.

In the southwest quadrant the Prince Arthur pub was built at 422 Lee High Road in 1870 (closed 2005). It was originally one of a row of early 19th century cottages of which three - nos 424–428 - survived behind modern shop fronts. In 1898 No 345 Lee High Road was built in front of the former Old Tiger's Head stables. It incorporated a fire station but the London County Council built a replacement in 1906 in Eltham Road. It is still in use. A police station was built at 418 Lee High Road in 1904, replacing one built before 1860. It was converted to apartments in 2003.

In the early 1960s the south-east quadrant, including Carston Mews, was demolished to make way for Leegate shopping centre which went into decline following the opening of Sainsbury's on the opposite side of Burnt Ash Road in the late 1980s. Owners of the centre, St. Modwen Properties have recently proposed a £40m regeneration plan for the centre, including the demolition of the current shopping precinct to be replaced with an ASDA supermarket as well as the conversion of the existing office block into a hotel .

Outside links

• Te Lee Manor Society
  • http://www.leemanorsociety.org/Design/LeeGreenDesignBrief_June2007.pdf History of Lee – The Lee Manor Society]