Westcombe Park

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Westcombe Park
Kent

Humber Road, Westcombe Park
Location
Grid reference: TQ402780
Location: 51°29’2"N, -0°1’6"E
Data
Post town: London
Postcode: SE3
Dialling code: 020
Local Government
Council: Greenwich

Westcombe Park is a largely residential area in Blackheath in Kent. It is bounded by the main London-Dartford railway line to the north, the Blackwall Tunnel southern approach to the east, Blackheath to the south and a road, Vanbrugh Hill, to the west (named after the architect and playwright Sir John Vanbrugh who built his house, Vanbrugh Castle, nearby in Maze Hill).

Much of Westcombe Park lies within the Westcombe Park Conservation Area.[1]

There are two public house in the Westcombe Park area - the Royal Standard on the corner of Vanbrugh Park and Stratheden Road, and The Green Goddess standing opposite.

Woodlands House

Woodlands House, in 1897

Its most notable existing landmark, and only Listed building (grade II),[2] is Woodlands House, in Mycenae Road. This four-storey Georgian villa still stands in its own grounds and was built between 1774 and 1776 for John Julius Angerstein, a Lloyd's underwriter and merchant whose collection of old master paintings was bought for the nation in 1824, following his death, to form the nucleus of the National Gallery, London.

The Angerstein family continued to live in Woodlands House until about 1870. It was later acquired by Sir Alfred Yarrow, a shipbuilder, in 1896.

From about 1923, the house served as a convent; neighbouring Mycenae House (formerly Kidbrooke House) was built in 1933 to provide dormitory space for the Little Sisters of the Assumption convent. Woodlands was then acquired by the local council in 1967 and opened as a Local History Library and Art Gallery (Woodlands Art Gallery) in 1972, while Mycenae House continues to serve as a community centre. Woodlands was leased by the London Borough of Greenwich in November 2007 to The Greenwich Steiner school.[1][3]

Westcombe Manor

West Coombe Manor, in 1794

To the west of Woodlands House was Westcombe Manor, former family seat of the Ballards,[4] the Lambardes,[5] and Sir Theophilus Biddulph (1612–1683). The original house was rebuilt in 1723 by Sir Gregory Page, and let to tenants who included Lavinia Fenton, Dowager Duchess of Bolton, who died at the house in 1760[6] (Peachum Road is named after a role, Polly Peachum, played by Fenton as an actress). In 1796, the building was described in Lysons' Environs of London:

"West-Combe-park, the site of this manor, was granted by Sir Gregory Page on a long lease to Captain Galfridus Walpole, (younger brother of Sir Robert, and uncle of the present Earl of Orford) who built the present house. The lease of West-Combepark afterwards came into the possession of Charles, third Duke of Bolton, who resided there for several years with Lavinia Fenton, the celebrated Polly Peachem, whom he married on the decease of his Duchess. The Duke died in 1754; Lavinia Duchess of Bolton in 1760, when West-Combe-park became the property of her son, the Rev. Mr. Powlett, in whom the remainder of the lease (which expires in 1824) is now vested. Since the Duchess's death WestCombe has been in the successive occupation of Lord Clive, the Marquis of Lothian, his widow the Marchioness, the Duchess of Athol, Mr. Halliday the banker, and William Petrie, Esq. It is now the residence of William Holmes, Esq. who has the remainder of an under lease granted to Mr. Halliday. West-Combe-house is situated on the verge of a steep hill, agreeably diversified with plantations, and commanding a fine view of the river."[7]

It was later, from 1827, leased as the home of Deptford shipbuilder, shipowner and timber merchant Thomas Brockelbank (co-founder of the General Steam Navigation Company), after whose death, on 10 June 1843,[8] it was eventually demolished in 1855.[9][10]

St George's Church

St George's Church (on a sloping site on the corner of Kirkside Road and Glenluce Road) is a Victorian red-brick structure completed in 1892 (architect: Newman & Newman).[1] As well as a place of worship it is also home to a Rudolf Steiner or Waldorf School-style nursery school.

Parks

Batley Park memorial fountain

There is a small park in the centre of the Standard. It was originally a village green, known during the 18th century as Sheepgate Green, marking the intersection of four major roads. In the late 1880s, local philanthropist William Fox Batley and other local dignitaries, including the Rev John William Marshall, vicar of the nearby church of St John the Evangelist,[11] began to campaign for local improvements. Batley's contribution is recorded in an inscription on a memorial fountain, unveiled in May 1889, and he is also commemorated by a stained glass window in the church.[12] The central area was surrounded by railings and planted with new trees and shrubs, and new public lavatories were constructed from 1905 to 1907, and it became known as Batley Green or Batley Park,[1][13][11] sometimes wrongly called Bartley Park.

Sport=

Rectory Field provides a ground for several sports. To the west, Greenwich Park hosts cricket matches and has tennis courts. To the south-west, Blackheath Common is used for cricket and football; both park and common are popular with joggers and walkers.

  • Rugby: Westcombe Park R.F.C., formed in Westcombe Park in 1904, though it currently plays in Orpington.

Community newsletter

A local community newsletter, the Westcombe News, is produced by the local community association, the Westcombe Society. In 2005 it won the Newsletter section of the Walter Bor Media Awards.[14]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Westcombe Park Conservation Area: Character Appraisal, March 2010
  2. ↑ "Consultations on future of historic building". newsshopper.co.uk. 2003. http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreen/422761.consultations_on_future_of_historic_building/. 
  3. ↑ Payne, Samantha. School secures 150-year lease, News Shopper, 4 July 2006. Accessed: 20 August 2015
  4. ↑ Ballard family tree
  5. ↑ English Jacobean Families
  6. ↑ Greenwich Guide - Greenwich Day by Day - January
  7. ↑ From: 'Greenwich', The Environs of London: volume 4: Counties of Herts, Essex & Kent (1796), pp. 426-93. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=45486&strquery=Woodlands%20Blackheath. Date accessed: 24 September 2007
  8. ↑ Reported in The Kentish Independent, 17 June 1843 - extract reproduced at The Brockelbank family. Accessed 18 August 2015
  9. ↑ Railway London Bridge to Gravesend. Maze Hill, Edith's Streets. Accessed: 18 August 2015
  10. ↑ Gearing, Albert W.. "Greenwich as it used to be". http://www.gmt2000.co.uk/Gearing/gr_six.htm. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Rhind, Neil (May 2022). "The history of Batley Green". Westcombe News. 
  12. ↑ St. John the Evangelist, Blackheath: insertion of stained glass window in memory of William Fox Batley. National Archives Record. Accessed: 20 July 2015
  13. ↑ Rimel, Diana (2006), "History of the Standard", Westcombe News, February 2006, p.6. Accessed: 20 July 2015
  14. ↑ Ball, Tom. "The presentation of the 2005 Walter Bor Media Awards". https://www.londonforum.org.uk/newsforum/newsforum45.pdf. 
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