New Civic Offices, Wellington Street Woolwich London

Evaluation
During February and May 2008, Oxford Archaeology undertook an archaeological
evaluation by trial trenching on land between Wellington street and Love lane,
Woolwich (NGR TQ 435 787) on behalf of the London Borough of Greenwich who
have planning permission to develop the site to provide new civic offices.
The trenching demonstrated that the development area was heavily truncated by
modern basements and obstructions and no archaeological remains were found.

Building survey
A large section of Woolwich town centre is currently undergoing a long term, phased
redevelopment which includes the construction of new commercial, residential and retail
buildings as well as a new civic building. Oxford Archaeology has been commissioned by
Greenwich Borough Council to produce a Level I building record of a group of buildings facing
onto Wellington Street which have been demolished in Phase I of the redevelopment. The
buildings had already been demolished prior to the commission but a series of photographs of the
buildings have been supplied to Oxford Archaeology and therefore this report is based on these
photographs.
The buildings were not listed and were not of great historical or architectural significance but
they were on a major road close to the centre of Woolwich and they would therefore have been
well-known to local people. In addition the buildings provided interesting examples of
architectural styles from several different periods. In particular the Director General Public
House dated from the mid 19th-century, when Wellington Street was originally established,
whereas the large neighbouring civic building provided an interesting example of early 20thcentury
public architecture. A plan showing Second World War bomb damage has confirmed
that at least one of the buildings on the site was constructed to replace a group of previous
buildings which were destroyed by enemy bombing.
This project has also allowed a brief examination of trade directories to show the occupants and
uses of the buildings (and former buildings) on the site. This has shown a variety of uses of the
buildings including confectioners, newsagent, florist, printers, photographers and opticians.