Woolwich Common
| Woolwich Common | |
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View of Woolwich Common (from Shooter's Hill)
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| Type | common land, urban park |
| Location | Woolwich, London |
| Coordinates | 51°28′35″N 0°03′14″E / 51.4765°N 0.0539°ECoordinates: 51°28′35″N 0°03′14″E / 51.4765°N 0.0539°E |
| Area | 60 hectares (150 acres) |
| Status | military terrain (partly); conservation area |
| Public transit access | Woolwich Arsenal station |
Woolwich Common is a common in Woolwich in southeast London, England. It is partly used as military land (less than 40%) and partly as an urban park. Woolwich Common is a conservation area. It is part of the South East London Green Chain. It is also the name of a street on the east side of the common, as well as an electoral ward of the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 17,499.
Woolwich Common lies on the northern slope of Shooter's Hill, a 132 metres high hill in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, only a few hundred metres southwest of Woolwich town centre. It is bounded to the south side by the A207 Shooters Hill Road, although the open space continues south of this road in Oxleas Wood and Eltham Common. Academy Road (part of the A205 South Circular road) and the former Royal Military Academy form the eastern borders of the common. Repository Road and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital make up the western border. On the north side, Ha-ha Road separates the military section around the Royal Artillery Barracks from the public section. Pockets of green spaces that were once part of Woolwich Common but are now separated from the main body, remain at Green Hill and Repository Woods in the west, around Mulgrave Pond in the north and in Eaglesfield Park in the east.
Until the mid-18th century, Woolwich Common formed part of an open space that was much bigger than it is now. It covered a large part of the north slope of Shooter's Hill, stretching west as far as Charlton (Charlton cemetery was laid out in 1855) and continuing east in what is now Shrewsbury Park, Plumstead Common and Winn's Common. The actual common was only about 80 acres and was used for grazing cattle and sheep, as well as digging peat and gathering wood and gorse for fuel. Ownership rested with the Crown; Woolwich Common being attached to the manor of Eltham. Unlike most of Woolwich, it never became part of the Bowater estate. Because of the rapid growth of both Woolwich Dockyard and the Royal Arsenal, local people were increasingly concerned about losing their ancient rights on the common. In the 18th century parts of the common were privatized to build houses on. The Woolwich Vestry vigorously defended customary rights against enclosure when around 1760 two houses were built on the eastern edge of the common.
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Wikipedia