| Progress Estate | |
|---|---|
 Progress Estate conservation area | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location | Well Hall, Eltham, Greenwich, London, England |
| Status | Completed |
| Construction | |
| Constructed | 1915 |
| Other information | |
| Governing body | Royal Borough of Greenwich |
The Progress Estate is a housing estate located in Well Hall, Eltham, Greenwich, South East London. It was built in 1915 to house some of the senior and skilled workers employed at the nearby Royal Arsenal munitions factories in Woolwich.
The north/south Well Hall Road and the east/west Rochester Way cross about 600m north of Eltham railway station at the Well Hall roundabout. The 90-acre Progress Estate lies in the north-west, north-east and south-east quadrants of the crossroads. The Ordnance Survey map reference is TQ424755.
The Progress Estate, comprising 1,086 houses and 212 flats, was designed and built between January and December 1915 as a wartime measure under the Housing Act, 1914. The architect was HM Office of Works. The Estate was not known as The Progress Estate until 1925, when the Office of Works sold it to Progress Estates Ltd, a subsidiary of the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. The site was selected for three reasons. First, it was the nearest available land of the required acreage to Woolwich. Second, the Eltham to Woolwich tram service (route 44, which opened on 23 July 1910) provided transport for Arsenal employees to and from their place of work. Third, the Bexleyheath railway line from Dartford to Blackheath (opened on 1 May 1895) enabled rapid transport of building materials to the site.
By 1980, and as a result of the Leasehold Reform Act, 1967, about 65% of the estate's homes had been purchased by their occupiers so Progress Estates sold the remainder to what is now Hyde Group, a social housing company, in 1980. [1]
Although HM Office of Works had little if any history in the construction of housing estates, its principal architect, Mr. (later Sir) Frank Baines had four architects in the Office's employ who had previous domestic experience: Messrs. A Pitcher, G E Phillips, J A Bowden and G Parker. After each produced a site layout, Baines accepted one submitted by Phillips who had concluded the estate should look ‘as if it had grown and not merely been dropped there’. It has been described as 'the first and most spectacular of the garden suburbs built by the government during the First World War to house munitions workers.' The estate was intended from the start to be a showpiece solution to the emergency housing problems created by the war. Phillips' layout followed the low-density principles established by Richard Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin and others involved in the Garden city movement between 1900 and the outbreak of World War I. Faced with the acute wartime problems of materials supply, Baines's approach was to make use of all and any materials that might be available; architecturally the result was a tour-de-force of picturesque design. Variety in materials and finishes (timber-framing, tile-hanging, slate-hanging, stone, brick and rendering) was matched by the complexity of shape and silhouette, and combined with period details such as the raised pavement to produce a virtuoso re-creation of the ‘old English Village’. [2] The uniqueness of the design of the estate still makes the area popular today. [3]
Well Hall Road is the only road on the estate that preceded its construction. At the suggestion of HM Office of Works, London County Council – responsible at the time for the naming of all new roads in the Metropolis – selected the names of famous men who had lived in Woolwich and held high office at Woolwich Arsenal or the Dockyard; Congreve, Maudslay, Phineas Pett, Sandby, Shrapnel and Whinyates are examples. Sir William Congreve and his son both served as comptroller of the Royal Laboratories at the Royal Arsenal; machine tool pioneer Henry Maudslay worked at the Arsenal; Phineas Pett was master shipwright at the Dockyard from 1675 to 1678; artist Paul Sandby was chief drawing master at the Royal Military Academy from 1768 to 1799; Henry Shrapnel invented the shrapnel shell; and General Edward Charles Whinyates commanded the Royal Artillery base at Woolwich.
The estate was visited by Queen Mary in 1916. She met three residents in their houses before being driven to Woolwich Arsenal to inspect the canteen facilities. [4]
The estate was granted Conservation Area status in 1975. [5] The estate celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2015.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich is a London borough in southeast Greater London. The London Borough of Greenwich was formed in 1965 by the London Government Act 1963. The new borough covered the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich and part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich to the east. The local council is Greenwich London Borough Council which meets in Woolwich Town Hall. The council's offices are also based in Woolwich, the main urban centre in the borough.
Mottingham is a district of south-east London, England, which straddles the border of both the London Borough of Bromley and the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located south of Eltham, 9 miles southeast of Charing Cross. It is within the historic county of Kent.
Woolwich is a district in southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich.
Woolwich Dockyard was an English naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich in north-west Kent, where many ships were built from the early 16th century until the late 19th century. William Camden called it 'the Mother Dock of all England'. By virtue of the size and quantity of vessels built there, Woolwich Dockyard is described as having been 'among the most important shipyards of seventeenth-century Europe'. During the Age of Sail, the yard continued to be used for shipbuilding and repair work more or less consistently; in the 1830s a specialist factory within the dockyard oversaw the introduction of steam power for ships of the Royal Navy. At its largest extent it filled a 56-acre site north of Woolwich Church Street, between Warspite Road and New Ferry Approach; 19th-century naval vessels were fast outgrowing the yard, however, and it eventually closed in 1869. The former dockyard area is now partly residential, partly industrial, with remnants of its historic past having been restored.
The Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich was a metropolitan borough in the County of London from 1900 to 1965. It was formed from the civil parishes of Eltham, Plumstead and Woolwich. Its former area is now part of the Royal Borough of Greenwich and the London Borough of Newham.
The Royal Arsenal, Woolwich is an establishment on the south bank of the River Thames in Woolwich in south-east London, England, that was used for the manufacture of armaments and ammunition, proofing, and explosives research for the British armed forces. It was originally known as the Woolwich Warren, having begun on land previously used as a domestic warren in the grounds of a Tudor house, Tower Place. Much of the initial history of the site is linked with that of the Office of Ordnance, which purchased the Warren in the late 17th century in order to expand an earlier base at Gun Wharf in Woolwich Dockyard.
Eltham is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is 8.7 miles (14.0 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. The three wards of Eltham North, South and West have a total population of 35,459. 88,000 people live in Eltham.
The Ministry of Works was a department of the UK Government formed in 1940, during the Second World War, to organise the requisitioning of property for wartime use. After the war, the ministry retained responsibility for government building projects.
Phineas Pett was a shipwright and First Resident Commissioner of Chatham Dockyard and a member of the Pett dynasty. Phineas left a memoir of his activities which is preserved in the British Library and was published in 1918.
Hither Green is a railway station located in Hither Green in the London Borough of Lewisham, south-east London. It is 7 miles 16 chains (11.6 km) down the line from London Charing Cross and is situated between Lewisham and either Grove Park or Lee depending on the route.
Woolwich Common is a common in Woolwich in southeast London, England. It is partly used as military land 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 Garrison is a garrison or station of the British Army. Geographically it is in Woolwich, in the London Borough of Greenwich. In terms of command, it is within the Army's London District.
The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society (RACS) was a large consumer co-operative based in south east London, England. The co-operative took its name from the Royal Arsenal munitions works in Woolwich and its motto was: "Each for all and all for each". In 1985 it merged into the national Co-operative Wholesale Society.
Greenwich Heritage Centre was a museum and local history resource centre in Woolwich, south-east London, England. It was established in 2003 by the London Borough of Greenwich and was run from 2014 by the Royal Greenwich Heritage Trust until the centre's closure in July 2018. The museum was based in a historic building in Artillery Square, in the Royal Arsenal complex, which was established in the 17th century as a repository and manufactory of heavy guns, ammunition and other military ware.
HMS Defiance was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Phineas Pett II at Chatham Dockyard, and launched in 1675.
The Elizabeth Jonas of 1559 was the first large English galleon, built in Woolwich Dockyard from 1557 and launched in July 1559.
Well Hall is a place to the north of Eltham in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London, England, with no present formal boundaries and located 13.5 km (8.4 mi) east-southeast of Charing Cross. In the past Well Hall was the grounds of a manor house, and then a hamlet. Today it is a largely residential suburb and housing estate absorbed by the development of Eltham and London. It is centred on the main road between Eltham and Woolwich, on which many shops and businesses are located. Several major A roads including the South Circular Road and A2 road pass through the area, as does a railway line, serving Eltham station which is located in Well Hall. The Postcode that covers Well Hall and most of the Eltham area is SE9, and the 020 dialing covers the entire Royal Borough of Greenwich. Well Hall is split across two electoral wards, Eltham West on the west side of Well Hall Road, and Eltham North on the east side of Well Hall Road. In 2015 the population of these two wards combined was recorded as 24,621, although the wards cover a larger area than just Well Hall.
Coldharbour is an area of South East London and post-war housing estate within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is located to the south of Eltham and north of Chislehurst.
The Naval Ordnance Stores Department, was a former department of the Admiralty responsible for the management of naval ordnance storage facilities and depots of the Royal Navy the department was managed by a Superintendent of Stores supported by various deputy and assistant superintendents's it existed from 1891 to 1918 when it was replaced by the Armament Supply Department.
Old Woolwich or Woolwich Central Riverside is an area along the Thames in Woolwich, South East London. It is the oldest inhabited part of Woolwich, going back to an Anglo-Saxon riverside settlement. When the demographic centre of Woolwich shifted south in the 1800s, the area became a Victorian slum. Most of Old Woolwich was cleared in the 20th and early 21st centuries to make way for industrial, infrastructural and other large-scale developments. Although most of the earlier buildings have been demolished, the area has retained some interesting architecture, including the Georgian parish church, the Edwardian foot tunnel rotunda and two cinemas of the 1930s.
