Lovell's Wharf

Greenwich Marshes covered most of the ground of what is now the River Gardens Estate up until the early part of the nineteenth century. However, all this was to change when Morden College leased the land in 1838 to William Coles Child who built kilns where Henry Hudson Apartments now stand. From the 1850s onwards, the area became heavily industrialised with the introduction of limekilns, coal importing, coke (coal extract) making, cement manufacture, and ice making. Various wharfs were also built such as Greenwich, Granite, Piper’s, and Enderby.

Greenwich Wharf was renamed Lovell’s Wharf after C. Shaw Lovell took it over in 1920. Lovell’s was mainly used for processing scrap metal, which had been requisitioned during the First World War. Lovell surrendered the lease in the 1990s with the decline of the scrap metal trade, and the area fell derelict. The last cranes were dismantled in 2000 and London+Regional acquired the area on which we now live. L+R originally called the development ‘Lovell’s Wharf ’ but subsequently rebranded it as the ‘River Gardens Estate.’ Greenwich Wharf, conversely is immortalised in ‘Greenwich Wharf Management Company.'

Idea, text and picture research by Dana Pavel