A timeline history of Lewisham with prints, photographs and maps.New images added on a regular basis so bookmark this page (click on images to enlarge).



Lewisham Mill

Saxon Lewisham

Lewisham is located on the Ravensbourne river. The village centre was around the High Street and it was originally in the county of Kent. The name comes from Old English and may have meant 'Leofsa's village'.

862 Reference to Liofshema mearc.

918 Reference to Lieuesham. Lewisham, Grrenwich and Woolwich were bestowed to Abbey of St Peter at Ghent by Elfrida, daughter of Alfred the Great.

Medieval Lewisham

1086 Reference to Levesham Domesday Book. Described as follows 'There is arable land for 14 ploughs. In demesne there are 2 ploughs and 50 villeins with 9 bordars have 17 ploughs. There are 3 slaves (serfs) and 11 mills. There are 30 acres of meadow and woodland for 50 hogs'.

Stuart Lewisham

1652 Colfe’s Grammar school founded by Abraham Colfe (1580-1657) the vicar of Lewisham. Located near St Marys Church. (1910 History of Colfe’s Grammar school)

1664 Colfe's Almshouses built on Lewisham High Street near St Marys Church (demolished 1958).

1693 St Mary's Vicarage built on corner of Ladywell Road by Rev Stanhope.

Georgian Lewisham

1770 Lewisham Mill Engraved by John Cleveley Junior (1747-1786).

1774 Stone House built by George Gibson the Younger for himself on Lewisham High Road (now Way).

1777 St Mary’s church rebuilt, raised over old crypt. Replaced the medieval church incorporating original tower. Architect: George Gibson Jr. Listed Grade II.

1800 Topographical Map Of The Country Twenty Miles Round London (south-east including Lewisham) 

1801 Population of Lewisham was 4,007.

Regency Lewisham

1816 Lewisham described as 'a rural village on the banks of the Ravensbourne....only to be reached by a long coach ride'.

1821 Workhouses built on Rushey Green (now Lewisham hospital).

c.1828 Riverdale Mill built, Molesworth Street (now offices).

1830 Print of Colfe’s Grammer school

Early Victorian Lewisham

High street mansions gave way to numerous shops.

1840 Thackeray Almhouses, Rushey Green, opened.
Lewisham Park opened, previously a field.

1849 North Kent Railway led to Granville Park development plus many terraces.

1850 Population of Lewisham was 15,000.

1856 St Stephen’s church opened at 29 Lewisham High Street. Architect: George Gilbert Scott (1811-1878).  Church listed Grade II in 1954.

1857 Mid-Kent Railway and Lewisham station opened.

Mid Victorian Lewisham

1860s Stanford’s Map of London & Suburbs (Lewisham section). Much detail of Victorian Lewisham.

1867 Congregational Church opened on Lewisham High Street (steeple remains after WW2 bomb damage).

1874 Photograph of Lewisham High Street

1875 Lewisham Vestry Hall designed by George Elkington (1824-1???) in Gothic Style.

Late Victorian Lewisham

1884 Chiesman’s opened as a draper’s shop at 59 High Street. Later a famous local department store.
Ladywell Public Baths opened on Ladywell Road. Built in red brick (closed in 2004).

1895 Hither Green station opened.
Earl of St Germans sold North Park Farm and Archibald Corbett began development of the St Germans (Corbett) Estate in Hither Green until 1911. 

1897 Work on Diamond Jubilee clock tower began (finished by 1900). Architect: A.R. Gough 

Hither Green Hospital opened.

1899 Lewisham Police station opened on Ladywell Road. 

Edwardian Lewisham

1900 Lewisham became a Metropolitan Borough.
Population of Lewisham was 100,000.

1901 Lewisham Vestry Hall became Lewisham Town Hall

1905 Colourised postcard of Lewisham Clock Tower.

1906 Lewisham Street market started.

1908 Bartholomew's Handy Reference Atlas Of London & Suburbs (Lewisham section). Much detail of Edwardian Lewisham                                      

1909 St Saviour & St John (RC) built in Italianate style at 175 Lewisham High Street. Architect: Claude Kelly (more info)

1910 Population of Lewisham was 150,000.
Temperance Billiard Hall opened at 237 High Street.

1912 Kings Hall Cinema opened on Lewisham High Street

Chiesman’s now a large department store.
King’s Hall cinema opened on 15 High Street.

1913 Park Cinema opened at 232 Hither Green Lane (more info). 

Lewisham in WW1

1917 Oct: German airship attack on  London. Three houses in Glenview Road in Hither Green destroyed and several others seriously damaged in the raid

1918 Bombing raid on Whit Monday 20 May by a German Gotha twin-engine airplane. One 50Kg bomb fell at 11.40 am at Sangley Road Killing 1 man and injuring 1 woman. 44 houses were damaged.
Bombs fell in the area of 187 Leahurst Road [Hither Green Station killing several civilians & soldiers. The railway line, 19 shops and 63 houses were damaged.

Interwar Lewisham

1921 Lewisham War Memorial unveiled on Lewisham High Street. Architect: Edward Albert Stone (1880-19??). The Memorial remembers the 1/4th London Brigade RFA and the 20th Battalion London Regiment who were headquartered in Lewisham during WWI. More info
New Chiesmans store opened at 41-59 High Street. Photo below is of  later date (as next building - Tower House - opened in 1933) more info

1929 126 ft high campanile added to side of St Saviour & St John, 175 Lewisham High Street.

1930s H E Olby (est. 1912) opened new store in Art Deco style on 295-313 Lewisham High Street.

1932 Lewisham Town Hall extension opened. Designed by Bradshaw Gass & Hope.
Gaumont Palace opened at 1-5 Loampit Vale. Designed by WE Trent (1874-1948) et al.

1933 New Royal Arsenal Co-operative department store, with more than 70 different departments, opened at Tower House. Opening day film

1936 Neuk Laundry built at 59 Ladywell Road in Art Deco style (demolished 2010).

1939 View of Lewisham High Street.

Lewisham in WW2

1944 59 people killed by VI flying bomb in Lewisham High Street (near Endgate Street).

Postwar Lewisham

1957 Park Cinema closed in Hither Green.

1958 Colfe’s Almshouses on 175 Lewisham High Street demolished (suffered wartime bomb damage).

1962  Gaumont renamed Lewisham Odeon

1963 The Beatles played Lewisham Odeon.

1965 Lewisham incorporated Deptford borough.

1968 Old Lewisham Vestry Hall demolished.
Flooding in Lewisham

1971 New Lewisham Civic centre designed by A Sutton opened.

1972 Sion House demolished.

1976 Chiesman’s Department store acquired by House of Fraser. It was rebranded as an Army & Navy store.

1977 Riverdale Centre (now Lewisham Shopping Centre) built on Molesworth Street.
Battle of Lewisham fought between right wing and left wing demonstrators.

1980 Bank robber video by The Clash filmed in & outside Lewisham Odeon film.

c1983 Royal Arsenal Co-Op closed.

1991 Lewisham Odeon demolished.

1997 Army & Navy (ex-Chiesmans) Department Store closed and demolished. 

1999 Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott opened the 4·2 km Lewisham extension of London's Docklands Light Railway.

2000 DLR connected to Lewisham.

2004 Lewisham Place station opened on site of Chiesmans) Department Store.

c. 2010 London Sivan Kovil, a Hindu Temple, built on Clarendon Rise

2023 New park  Confluence Place, added on Station Road where the Ravensbourne and Quaggy rivers meet.
New town square planned opposite St Stephen's Church.

Booklist
History of the Borough of Lewisham - Leland Lewis Duncan (1908 Blackheath Press)
Lewisham, a Historical Record - JW Kirby (1950 Lewisham Borough Council)
History of Colfe's Grammer School 1652-1972 - Ed. by H. Beardwood (1952 University of London Press,)
Looking Back at Lewisham - Lewisham Borough Council (198?)
Rock Around Lewisham (1990 Lewisham Council)
Lewisham a History and Guide - John Coulter (1994 Alan Sutton)
Hither Green, Forgotten Hamlet: Including the Corbett Estate - Godfrey Smith (1997 G. Smith)
The Big Five, Lewisham’s Super Cinemas (1997)
Lewisham Past and Present – John Coulter (2001 Sutton)
Around Lewisham & Deptford in Old Photographs – John Coulter (2005 History Press)
A Century of Lewisham – John Coulter (2007 History Press)

Online
Lewisham Local Studies Library
lewishamhistory.org.uk