Blackheath, London

Blackheath is a place in London, divided between the London Borough of Lewisham and the London Borough of Greenwich. The borough boundary runs across the middle of the heath; Blackheath Village is on the south side of the heath, in Lewisham, while the Blackheath Standard area and Westcombe Park lie on the north-east side, in Greenwich. The name derives from the dark colour of the soil, and not, as was popularly believed for many years, from the burial of victims of the Black Death on the heath in the 14th century.

Famous residents

(in alphabetical order)

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• Sophie Aldred, actress and television presenter, was raised in Blackheath and attended Blackheath High School.
• John Julius Angerstein, whose art collection formed the basis of the National Gallery, London in 1824, built Woodlands, Mycenae Road, Westcombe Park.
• Caroline of Brunswick, married to the Prince Regent, was banished in 1799 to a private residence ('The Pagoda' - attributed to architect Sir William Chambers) in Blackheath.
• James Callaghan, British Prime Minister 1976-1979, lived at Blackheath in the 1950s and 1960s, and his daughter Margaret went to Blackheath High School.
• Montague John Druitt, for many years a popular suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders, lived in Blackheath, at 9 Eliot Place, during the 1880s.
• Peter Martin Duncan (1824-1891), palaeontologist and doctor, practised in Blackheath during 1860s.
• Astronomer Royal Sir Frank Watson Dyson lived at 6 Vanbrugh Hill, SE3 between 1894 and 1906 (blue plaque).
• James Glaisher (1809-1903), who pioneered modern weather forecasting techniques, lived in Dartmouth Row.
• composer Charles Gounod lived at 15 Morden Road in 1870 (blue plaque).
• Malcolm Hardee, anarchic comedian lived briefly at 33 Glenluce Road in the late 1990s.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), American author, lived at 4 Pond Road in 1856 (blue plaque).
• Jools Holland OBE, TV personality and musician lives in Westcombe Park.
• Elisabeth Lutyens, composer, lived in Pond Road.
• E. Nesbit, author, moved to 16 Dartmouth Row in 1879.
• Donald McGill (1875-1962), postcard cartoonist lived at 5 Bennett Park (blue plaque).
• Sir Gregory Page, landowner, had houses in Westcombe Park and Wricklemarsh, near Lee.
• Sir James Clark Ross, who in 1831 located the magnetic North Pole, and whom after the Ross Island and Ross sea are named, lived on Eliot Place.
• Walter Napleton Stone (1891-1917), recipient of the Victoria Cross, was born in Blackheath.
• Terry Waite, humanitarian and hostage in Lebanon (1987-1991), lived in Blackheath.
• Sir Willard White, opera singer.
• Sir Alfred Yarrow, shipbuilder, lived at Woodlands, Mycenae Road, Westcombe Park from 1896.