Ravensbourne, Quaggy & More -Lewisham: The real end of my walks on April 1st 1990 was a short walk around Lewisham. The previous post from these walks was Monkey Business, Wrecked Cars & Roupell – 1990.
Arriving at Lewisham Station I crossed to the opposite platform and walked along it away from the exit to photograph this view looking south along the River Ravensbourne which curves away to the west – towards the right of the frame. Just after the river runs down a small slope it is joined by Lewisham’s other river, the smaller flow of the River Quaggy. There is now a small park, Confluence Park, where the two rivers meet, opened in 2021.
The scrap yard and the car sales and Allied Carpets are gone replace and the whole area redeveloped with tall blocks since around 2020. There is now another tall apartment block – around 15 storeys tall – to the left of the river,
Silk Mills Path runs alongside the north platform of the station and Maggie’s is still there now offering Breakfast-Lunch-Dinner. It gets excellent customer reviews for its reasonably priced meals and friendly staff. At right one of the arches leads under the railway to Station Road.
Lewisham did have a number of mills using power from the flow of the Ravensbourne, and the silk mills were a short distance downstream on its east bank at the end of Conington Road, close to Elverson Road DLR station. The site is now occupied by flats, built around 20 years ago. The mill had a large mill pond, part of which is now Tesco’s car park.
Although there are still some mulberry trees in the area, the essential feed for the silk worms, the Lewisham mill apparently relied on imported silk.
The River Quaggy runs in a an open channel in front of this long terrace at 15-31 Lewisham High Street, some way below street level, emerging into this from a tunnel under the central streets of Lewisham. It can next be seen from a bridge on Clarendon Rise just south of Lee High Road – see below.
The Ravensbourne runs under recent flats on Molesworth Street and can be seen from the west side of the street where it runs under the railway line there. There is a small park, River Mill Park, with a bridge across the river.
This section of the river was channelled between tall concrete banks I think in the 1960s to alleviate the flood risk. The rather fortress-like Riverdale House was designed by Frederick Gibberd in 1981 as offices. In 2013 planning permission was granted for its conversion into luxury flats.
The site had a mill at the time of the Domesday Book and Riverdale Mill was restored as flats when this new building was erected on the rest of the site. It was built on the site of earlier mills as a leather mill in 1828, later becoming a flour mill and in 1901 was bought and turned into the John Wallis bakery, closing around 1970. It is the only remaining mill building in Lewisham.
The River Quaggy emerges from a tunnel under the end of St Stephen’s Grove where it meets Lewisham High Street at the south side of Saint Stephen With Saint Mark, Lewisham, a Grade II listed Parish Church by Sir George Gilbert Scott built in 1863. This and St Stephen’s Terrace also date from the mid-1860s.
The Quaggy apparently got its name for being very muddy – a real quagmire. Here it runs along the backs of the buildings on Lee High Road.
Following pressure from and plans developed by the Quaggy Waters Action Group under the name Operation Kingfisher in 1995, parts of the river have been restored to a more natural state and brought back above ground. Much of the work already completed has been driven by the need to control flooding by the river.
Taken from the pavement in front of the building at 233-241 Lewisham High St, this shows some detail of the building, built as a Temperance Billiards Hall in 1910, architect Norman Evans, the company architect for Temperance Billiard Halls Ltd. This Grade II listed building was derelict when bought as new premises for The Tabernacle Church around 2010 and is slowly and carefully being restored – details on their web site.
Later on the walk I photographed the building again from across the road which gives a far better impression of the building when it was in use as a Mecca Bingo Hall – I’ll post this picture in the final post on this walk shortly.
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