Joseph Hardcastle (1752 1819) From The Portrait By William Etty

The Grove Road (later Dalmain Road) school was built by the School Board for London, which had been set up under the 1870 Act. It was their first local school and was opened in 1873 in one of the few poor areas of Forest Hill. Indeed, it remained the only state school there until 1903. The horseman seen on the right, was turning into Grove Road, which was part of the West Kent Park estate. It was not much above the level of a slum. The nearest building was the original school of 1873, which became the infants' department when the taller boys' and girls' school was added in 1875.

Southend Pond Showing The Green Man 02 Nov 1896

New suburbs were a magnet for architects and builders, who when successful left an indelible mark on the areas in which they worked. E. C. Christmas set up his own business in this converted and expanded cottage in 55 Dartmouth Road around 1890. Consequently, his career stretched from an age when he was building large detached houses in the old Forest Hill tradition, to the less expensive years between the wars when he made a living by converting similar buildings into flats. In the Perry Vale area, where his style is still pervasive, he made a curious bid for immortality by giving his houses names of which the first letters spelt out 'Ted Christmas' and 'Laura' his wife.

These twelve houses in Bromley Road were built by James Watt of Catford in 1808-1809, in two terraces of six, and called Upper Mill Cottages because they were opposite the Upper Mill. The houses, which replaced the Forster family's home farm, were the first stage of suburban redevelopment in the village. The trend was halted by the war, and not resumed in the same way afterwards because the Downham and Bellingham L.C.C. estates brought great changes to the area. Only four of the Upper Mill Cottages, the present 391-397 Bromley Road, survived World War II bomb damage.

The Elms was built as a farmhouse, probably in the 1780s, after the partial demolition of the Tudor mansion known as Place House, where the farmer had lived until then. The bay windows were added c.1870. The gradual break-up of the old Place House farm after 1850 made much of western Catford available for building.

Eliot Place, a row of detached and semi-detached houses on the edge of the Heath, was built between 1795 and 1802. It survives intact except for No. 9, which was rebuilt in 1911. Benjamin Disraeli went to school there and a blue plaque records the residence of Sir James Clark Ross, the polar explorer, at No.2. The part of the Heath opposite became a semi-private playing field for the boarding schools in Eliot Place. Engraving published by Rock & Co, 11th August 1864

Dr. Robert Breton's School, [Old Deptford Benevolent School] Deptford Green, Late 19th Century (Thankful Sturdee Collection)

Black and White postcard showing the exterior of the station and local businesses; Chalk and Cox (right) and W.H. Cullens Stores (left), c. late 1890s

Black and White Photograph of Deptford Railway Deptford Wharf Branch Railway. 1848

Black and White photo of the exterior of the station showing members of the public and horse drawn carriages, c.1890s

Deptford Station in the High Street is the oldest surviving passenger train station in London. It was opened in 1836 as part of the first section of the London and Greenwich Railway, which did not reach Greenwich itself until 1838. The High Street was emerging from its rural past, known at this time as Butt Lane - a farm still occupied much of the west side - but within five years Hyde Street and Hamilton Street, featuring a Railway Tavern, were stretching across the fields. Print of a watercolour by an unknown artist, 1839. William John Evelyn had ordered a new survey of his estate to prepare for the switch from market gardens to houses.