Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground

Northumberland Heath was originally part of the old Manor of Erith, and 'Northumbre' was first mentioned in 1292 in Kent Assize records. It appears to have long been commonland or heath and is referred to as 'barren heath' in Hasted's History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent in 1797. Settlement here probably began from the early C19th, and there was a workhouse at the west end of what is now Sussex Road in 1805, which was financed by local dignitaries such as Baron Eardley of Belvedere House, Lord Wheatley of Erith and General Hulse. The influential Wheatley family was later awarded 38 acres of land at Northumberland Heath after the Erith Enclosure Act of 1812. The use of the land was largely agricultural, the Tithe Map of 1843 showing smallholdings and orchards, which largely supplied the local area until the mid C19th, supplying the further afield London markets after the arrival of the railway to Erith. Milling was also undertaken here, with a post mill built in 1819 at the top of the heath, although by the end of the C19th it was no longer in use. As the century progressed the heath remained largely rural while the town of Erith began to grow and local landowners such as Lord Eardley at Belvedere and Lord Wheatley at Erith began developing parts of their estates. From the 1870s Northumberland Heath began to be gradually developed, largely to provide housing for workers in Erith's industries and by the 1880s terraces had been built along Brook Street, Mill Road and Bexley Road. By 1900 Northumberland Heath was quite well established with four of the Brook Street terraces laid out by Erith Urban District Council in 1901, an early example of council housing provision.

Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground was laid out by the UDC around the same time on former farmland to the north of Sussex Street. The Arts and Crafts style Duchess of Kent public house by the park entrance dates from 1903, built on the site of an earlier public house of the 1860s and a cottage. St Paul's Church at Northumberland Heath was built in 1901 as a chapel of ease for the parish church of St John the Baptist, Erith (q.v.) but became a separate parish in 1905. There was considerable residential development from 1916 with the building of the 'garden suburb' inspired estate for workers at the Vickers factory. In the 1920s Erith UDC commenced building large housing estates, and by the 1940s Northumberland Heath had lost much of its rural atmosphere.

The original recreation ground was considerably smaller than the present park and was laid out with paths and perimeter trees, with a bandstand and drinking fountain shown on OS maps of c.1938. It was bounded to the east by houses along Brook Street and with nursery gardens to the north. The area to the west of the recreation ground remained unbuilt upon with allotment gardens shown on maps prior to WWII, later used for playing fields and now subsumed within the recreation ground to the north and south of Sussex Street. The bandstand appears to have disappeared at some time in the 1960s. The park has a notable entrance with mid-C20th railings and brick piers with concrete capitals, and is laid out with grass and flower beds, with large areas for playing fields. Those playing fields to the south are laid out on a substantially raised area.