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The Old Blue Cross Pet Cemetery is adjacent to Hornfair Park and was once part of the former site of Charlton Kennels, which originated as a private kennel set up by an army veterinary surgeon in 1897. The purpose was to provide temporary housing for the pets of army officers whilst on manoeuvres or engaged in the Boer War. After the outbreak of WWI the kennels rapidly filled and the facility was enlarged and refurbished with funds from the local branch of Our Dumb Friends League, which later became The Blue Cross. An animal hospital was established here in 1925. This and the kennels continued until 1958 and '57 respectively. The animal cemetery was levelled in 1947 and became a memorial garden with the stones laid into the ground. In 2012 the Friends of the Pet Cemetery was formed to restore the neglected cemetery, which has at least 240 gravestones, the earliest dated 1908.
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The Old Royal Naval College is on the site of what had been a royal palace from 1447, known as Placentia or the Palace of Pleasaunce, a favourite haunt of monarchs until 1688, when William and Mary chose Hampton Court as their palace. At Queen Mary's wish a naval hospital (almshouse) for seamen and their dependants was built here, designed by Christopher Wren. Although incomplete, the first pensioners arrived in 1705 and by 1814 there were over 2,700 residents. Numbers declined and the Hospital closed in 1869, the buildings taken over by the Royal Naval College in 1873 for officers' training. After the Royal Navy left Greenwich in 1998, responsibility for the Old Royal Naval College passed to the Greenwich Foundation. Enclosed by fine railings, the landscaped grounds consist of a series of formal squares and gardens, with lawns crossed by paths, avenues of trees, ornamental fountains and lamp standards; a statue of George II stands in Grand Square.
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Plumstead Cemetery was opened by Woolwich Burial Board in 1890 on a prominent hillside. The cemetery has a dramatic gateway with lodges at the entrance and a driveway leads up the hill to the chapels sited on the top of the hill. Plumstead War Memorial is within the cemetery, which also has memorials to those who lost their lives in accidents at the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Among those buried here are local dignitaries and recipients of the Victoria Cross, Thomas Flawn and Gunner Alfred Smith who was part of the Camel Corps on its way to relieve General Gordon under siege at Khartoum.
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There were once orchards in the area as the land was good for growing fruit as well as grazing and as a consequence the village of Plumstead prospered. The eastern part of Plumstead Common is locally called Winns Common, an area purportedly settled by ancient Britons. Development accelerated in the C19th and encroachments of the common land took place to the increasing concern of local people. In 1874 the Lord of the Manor gave permission to the military to use the Common and then proposed leasing it on a permanent basis. This was actively opposed and in 1877 Plumstead and Winns Commons were purchased by the MBW to preserve them for public open space. Plumstead Common was landscaped from 1903 and today is a large expanse of heathland and grassland, in addition to more formally laid out areas. Some earlier features, such as the Edwardian bandstand, no longer exist.
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Plumstead Gardens is a small public park created after WWII. It was originally laid out as an ornamental garden with a notable area of formal hard landscaping comprising a raised terrace and central bay on an axis with an ornate sunken formal garden. The formal ponds were later drained and some of the stonework damaged, and this area has now been infilled. The park had a number of facilities, including a paddling pool and roller skating rink in the 1960s, with the BMX track added in the early 1970s.
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The Progress Estate was built by the Government over 10 months in 1915 to provide emergency accommodation for munitions workers at the nearby Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. The estate, originally called Well Hall Estate, was laid out on a hilly site on 'Garden Suburb' principles, with low density cottage-style housing, careful attention to detailing and use of materials. In addition to private gardens, throughout the estate were planted verges, hedged footpaths, and other landscaping, as well as two 'village greens'. Lovelace Green forms the larger of these communal open spaces with Sandby Green the smaller. The integrity of the estate endures, with most of the original housing still surviving, an important example of town planning of that period.
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Queen Elizabeth's College was founded in 1576 by historian William Lambard, and provided homes for the poor and elderly of Greenwich. The almshouses were subsequently rebuilt in 1817 as 40 one-bedroom cottages. In 1967 Lambard House was built to provide a further 28 flats. The almshouse cottages are on three sides of a quadrangle with a chapel at the centre of the south range. To the front is a small communal garden that comprises a simple lawn with specimen trees and shrubs.
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Queen's Gardens is a small area of open grass, which was created to serve the adjacent Coldharbour Estate that was built by the local authority from 1948. The gardens were named after HRH the Queen Mother, who opened the estate in the mid-1950s.
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Queenscroft Recreation Ground was provided by Woolwich Borough Council after WWII for the growing population of the Eltham area, following building of its new housing estates such as the Middle Park Estate south of the park. The name is taken from an early C18th house of that name in Eltham. The land had been one of three deer parks within the estate of Eltham Palace, which was later farmed and then purchased for housing development in the 1930s. Some of the mature trees in the park pre-date the municipal layout, which included a popular model boating lake and paddling pool.
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* on The National Heritage List for England, Parks & Gardens
Land here leased by the Board of Ordnance was developed from 1804 as part of the Royal Military Repository's artillery training ground at Woolwich initially under its Superintendent William Congreve. Repository Woods was specifically landscaped for military training, but in part also as a pleasure ground, and is the earliest known purpose-built military training landscape in the UK with early C19th features surviving. Here military displays were given, attended by British and foreign dignitaries, and during the C19th Repository Woods had public access.
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Rockliffe Gardens was created on the site of former brick workings, which operated from the late 1860s until the end of the C19th. The clay digging and dumping of spoil had left an interesting terrain. Woolwich Borough Council purchased the site in 1935 and laid out ornamental public gardens with formal areas, terraces, rock and water features, which were opened by the Mayor in 1937. There was serious subsidence here on 8 September 1937, affecting the children's play area at the northern boundary. Sadly neglected in later years, Friends of Rockliffe Gardens was formed in 2008 to work towards restoring the gardens.
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Royal Arsenal Gardens is on the former site of Woolwich Power Station but is named for its association with the historic Royal Arsenal situated to the east. The small park has a conservation meadow with sculptures in stone, a skateboard park and playground. The power station operated from 1893-1978 and its coaling jetty remains at the river edge. The Royal Arsenal had its origins here in the C17th and greatly influenced the development of Woolwich, at one time employing 100,000 workers. It ceased to be used for military purposes, it was eventually opened up for development.