A Woolwich People Walk
Route & what to see
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london-footprints.co.uk |
An almost circular walk of 2 miles from Woolwich Arsenal Station (National Rail or DLR)
Begin in General Gordon Place
Major-General
Charles George Gordon (1833 – 85)
Gordon was born in Woolwich, a son of Major-General Henry William
Gordon. He was educated in Somerset and the Royal Military
Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned in 1852 in the Royal
Engineers, completing his training at Chatham. He saw action in
the Crimean War but made his military reputation in China. He
later became the Governor-General of the Sudan, where he did much
to suppress revolts and the slave trade. Gordon organized a
city-wide defence of Khartoum against the Mahdi lasting almost a
year but was killed before relief was finally sent.
Along Powis Street to the Co-op building
Alexander
Mcleod (1832-1902)
He was the son of Skye crofters and went on to work with
various railway companies. In 1859 he secured work at the Arsenal
where in 1868 a group of workers set up the Royal Arsenal Supply
Association. Initially they sold tea, butter and sugar from a
house in Woolwich, then in 1872 they leased premises in Powis
Street as a shop and changed the name to the Royal Arsenal
Co-operative Society (RACS). In 1882 McLeod was appointed
Secretary and Manager of the Society and he remained so until his
death. The new building, which also became their head office, was
built in 1903 by the RACS architect Frank Bethell. It has a
prominent statue of McLeod.
Continue to the end of Powis Street
Theodore
Komisarjevsky (1882-1954)
He was a Russian theatrical director and designer. He began his
career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London. He
was noted for groundbreaking productions of plays by Chekhov and
Shakespeare. After Lenin advised Lunacharsky to "put
theatres into coffins", Komisarjevsky emigrated to Britain.
He designed a lavish interior for the Granada Cinema in 1935.
This was later used by Gala Bingo but has now been purchased by a
church.
Cross John Wilson Street to the churchyard
Tom Cribb
(1781-1848)
He was born in Bristol and worked as a coal porter before
spending some time at sea. Taking up prizefighting, he had his
first professional contest in 1805, defeating his opponent over
76 rounds. He had two noted fights against Tom Molineaux, a
black ex-slave. On the first occasion Cribb had not trained
properly and was nearly defeated. The rematch in 1811 drew more
than 20,000 spectators. This time and the fight was over in
twenty minutes after Molineaux’s jaw was broken in the fifth
round. At the coronation of George IV he was one of the boxers
who provided an escort. The champion retired from the prize ring
greatly honoured, but the rest of his life was an anticlimax. He
set up in business as a coal merchant, but the venture failed and
he then kept a succession of London pubs. He died at the age of
67 in the house of his son, a baker, in Woolwich High Street.
Subscriptions were raised for the lion monument in the parish
churchyard.
Walk past the south side of the church
SS Princess Alice was a passenger paddle steamer on a day trip from Gravesend in 1878. She was sunk in a collision with the collier Bywell Castle where she split in two and sank within four minutes. Many passengers were trapped within the wreck and drowned but also the release of 75 million gallons of raw sewage had occurred an hour before the collision. Between 69 and 170 people were rescued but over 650 died in the greatest loss of life in any Thames shipping disaster. 120 victims were buried in a mass grave at Woolwich Old Cemetery with a memorial cross to mark the spot. There is also a memorial window in St Mary Magdelene’s Church.
Cross Woolwich Church Street. Go through to the river and follow the Thames Path eastwards
Woolwich Ferry Boats are named
after James Newman (a Woolwich Mayor), Ernest Bevin and
John Burns. Ernest Bevin (1881 – 1951) co-founded and
served as secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union
from 1922 to 1940. He was Minister of Labour in the war-time
coalition government and Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour
Government 1945-51.
John Burns (1858 – 1943) was a trade unionist and
politician, particularly associated with London politics. After
retirement, he developed an expertise in London history and
coined the phrase "The Thames is liquid history".
Sir Maurice
Fitzmaurice (1861– 1924)
He was an Irish civil engineer who worked on the Forth Railway
Bridge and Aswan Dam.
He became Chief Engineer to the London County Council and was
responsible for the Blackwall, Rotherhithe and Woolwich tunnels.
Continue into the Arsenal site
Napolon,
Prince Imperial (1856 – 1879)
Louis was the only child of Emperor Napoleon III of France. At
the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War he accompanied his father
to the front . However when the war began to go against them the
Imperial Family fled to England and settled in Chislehurst. He
was accepted by the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and
commissioned into the Royal Artillery. With the outbreak of the
Zulu War in 1879, the Prince Imperial, with the rank of
lieutenant, forced the hand of the British military to allow him
to take part in the conflict. He was only allowed to go by
special pleading of his mother, the Empress Eugnie, and by the
intervention of Queen Victoria. He went as an observer, attached
to the staff of the commander in South Africa, who was admonished
to take care of him. However a scouting party he was sent on was
ambushed by 40 Zulus. Unhorsed he was stabbed 18 times. His badly
decomposed body was brought back to England on board the British
troopship HMS Orontes and a riverside guardhouse at Woolwich
Arsenal served as a temporary mortuary. He was initially buried
in Chislehurst but later transferred to a special mausoleum in
Farnborough next to his father.
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington (1769 –1852)
He was a one of the leading military and political figures of the
19th century. Wellesley was commissioned as an ensign in the Army
in 1787 and was a colonel by 1796. He saw action in the
Netherlands and India but rose to prominence as a general during
the Peninsular campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. He was promoted
to the rank of field marshal after leading the allied forces to
victory against the French at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.
Following Napoleon's exile in 1814, he was granted a dukedom. In
1815 he commanded the allied forces which, together with
the Prussians, defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
He was twice prime minister under the Tory party from 1828–30
and in 1834. He continued as one of the leading figures in the
House of Lords until his retirement and remained
Commander-in-Chief of the British Army until his death.
He has a statue in the park built on the site of the Shell
Foundry.
Jan & Pieter Verbruggen
Jan and his son Pieter along with two daughters immigrated
from the Netherlands in 1770.
Jan had been the Dutch Master Gunfounder but had lost favour. The
Verbruggens vastly improved manufacturing in terms of quality and
the technology of cannon manufacture. A new house was built
for them in 1773 at government expense. This building is now
occupied by solicitors.
Sir John
Vanbrugh (1664 -1726)
He went into soldiering but found himself imprisoned in
France for over four years, the French thinking they had a spy or
a valuable hostage. When he returned he began writing plays
including The Relapse and designing properties such as Castle
Howard and Blenheim Palace. He also worked on buildings for the
Royal Hospital, Greenwich and Royal Arsenal, Woolwich where he
designed Dial Arch Square and the Royal Brass Foundry.
Nicholas
Hawksmoor (1661-1736)
He was taken on by Christopher Wren as his clerk at the age
of 18. From about 1684 to 1700, Hawksmoor worked with Wren on
projects including St. Paul's Cathedral and Greenwich Hospital.
He then worked with Sir John Vanbrugh, helping him build Blenheim
Palace and Castle Howard.
In July 1721 Vanbrugh made Hawksmoor his deputy as Comptroller of
the Works. Hawksmoor also worked in Oxford and Cambridge and was
responsible for six of the Fifty New Churches. Tower Place is
attributed to Hawksmoor.
ROYAL
ARSENAL
At its peak, during WWI, the Royal Arsenal extended over some
1300 acres and employed around 80,000 people. By then the site
had the Royal Gun Factory, the Royal Shell Filling Factory, the
Research and Development Department and the Chief Chemical
Inspector.
In 1886 workers at the Arsenal formed a football club initially
known as Dial Square but renamed Royal Arsenal. The
club entered the professional football league as Woolwich
Arsenal in 1893 and later became known as Arsenal F.C.,
having moved to north London in 1913.
Exit Arsenal site and cross into Beresford Square for access to station
london-footprints.co.uk 2013