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|constituency_westminster= [[Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Bexley & Sidcup]] and [[Bexleyheath and Crayford (UK Parliament constituency)|Bexleyheath and Crayford]]
|constituency_westminster= [[Old Bexley and Sidcup (UK Parliament constituency)|Old Bexley & Sidcup]] and [[Bexleyheath and Crayford (UK Parliament constituency)|Bexleyheath and Crayford]]
|post_town= WELLING
|post_town= WELLING
|post_town1= LONDON
|postcode_area= DA
|postcode_area= DA
|postcode_district= DA16
|postcode_district= DA16

Revision as of 00:31, 23 May 2012

This article is about the district in London. For other uses, see Welling (disambiguation).
For a definition of the term "welling", see the Wiktionary entry welling.
Welling
OS grid referenceTQ465755
London borough
Ceremonial countyGreater London
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townWELLING
Postcode districtDA16
Dialling code020
PoliceMetropolitan
FireLondon
AmbulanceLondon
UK Parliament
London Assembly
List of places
UK
England
London

Welling is a district in the London Borough of Bexley, South East London. It is a suburban development situated between Shooter's Hill and Bexleyheath north of the A2 road and 10.5 miles (16.9 km) east south-east of Charing Cross.

History

The East Wickham part of Welling is probably one of the oldest settlements in this area. A Neolithic stone axe was found in East Wickham in 1910 and more recently in 1989 the remains of Roman buildings were unearthed near Danson.

Before the coming of the railway, with the opening of the Bexleyheath Line on 1 May 1895[1], Welling was a village on the main road between London and Kent (Watling Street). It had been a traditional staging post for coaches; the presence of three inns along the main road is the result of that.

After World War I, Bexley Urban District Council built over 400 houses north of the railway. Later, when the Danson estate was sold to developers, the land to the south was opened up to suburban sprawl and the settlement incorporated the local parishes of St Michael's East Wickham and St Johns Welling.

Local legend has it that Welling is so called because by the time you reached it you were "well in" to Kent, and had thus survived the treacherous coach road up and down Shooters Hill, the highwaymen who were said to frequent it, and the forests which until the 1800s stretched almost down to Blackfen.

Welling today

Welling is home to a football ground but the ground can be used for many different events Welling United F.C. which is also shared with the Erith and Belvedere F.C., a refurbished reference and lending library with an IT educational and training room, free use of Internet and toilets, a Masonic Hall, a Martial Arts Academy, an Academy of Performing Arts, a Snooker Hall, Bellegrove Social Club and a Salvation Army Chapel.

The Age Concern pop-in parlour has closed end of May 2012 and is now based on the first floor of the Welling Library near by.

Park View Road ground, home of Welling United Football Club

Welling as a shopping area has plenty to offer such as several restaurants and take-away outlets, a range of fashion, sports, entertainment, and IT shops, computer and laptop repair shops, betting shops, charity shops, fast-food takeaways, cafés, tea shops, estate agents, banks, a post office, bakeries, bike and flower shops, pubs and barbers all lining Welling High Street (ancient Watling Street), Upper Wickham Lane, and Bellegrove Road and several local supermarkets, namely: Iceland, Morrison's, Shell (petrol station), Lidl and a well-stocked Turkish Food Centre (TFC).

On 8 November 2010 a new Tesco supermarket was opened, along with new apartments above the store[2]. A lift has been built for residents to access the shops and high street. A new bus stop has been built directly outside the shop which currently only serves the 96 bus. The new Tesco includes a meat and fish counter, a hot chicken counter, a hot pie cabinet, a take-away food counter, a Krispy Kreme doughnut counter and a Costa Coffie shop. It also includes a clothing department selling F&F style clothes and other items.

The Co-op Superstore opposite (formerly operated by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society) ceased trading on 19 September 2008[3] and was redeveloped as a Morrison's supermarket that opened on 16 November 2009[4].

The former Foster's School building in Upper Wickham Lane is a local landmark. The school relocated to Westbrooke Road in Welling and its original site was converted to residential use (retaining the old Grade II listed main school building and headmaster's house). Further north of the original site is an ancient church, now used by a Greek Orthodox congregation.

Russian Cannon from Crimean War, located at Welling Corner

A large Russian gun is located at Welling corner. This Russian weapon is a 36-pounder carronade (calibre 6.75 inches - weight 17 cwt) of a type used during the Crimean War (1854 to 1860), displayed on a simple wooden replica carriage. The carronade was in service from 1780 to 1860 and is now on loan from the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich as a reminder of Welling's early association with the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, when huts at East Wickham were built as homes for munitions workers in the Great War.

For five years after 1990, the headquarters of the far-right British National Party (formed in 1982) were based in Welling. The presence of the party in Welling sparked a rise in racially motivated crime in the area and several nearby communities[5]. At least three people from ethnic minorities - Afro-Caribbeans Rolan Adams and Stephen Lawrence and Asian Sikh Rohit Duggal - were murdered in the local area within three years of the British National Party's arrival.[6]. Bexley Council shut down the BNP Headquarters in 1995[7]

In 1992 a group of local people, led by local Councillor Nigel Betts, revived the old Memorial Hall Trust which was set up in 1921. In 1995 it started operation as a local grant giving charity called the East Wickham & Welling War Memorial Trust[1] using the revenue from the old hall to fund grants in the area. Its main aim is remember the men of the district who were killed in World War One so a new War Memorial was built in 1996. Its charitable aim is to help local groups with rents on their meeting places or to help groups maintain their halls. Other grants help young people adventurous activities.In 2006 it gave grants totaling £47,000. As part of a re-investment programme, the Trust sold the Hall for re-development in 2007.

A major upgrade of paving and street lighting was completed in the autumn of 2005. The retention or removal of a section of westbound bus lane from Welling High Street became one of the few specific local issues on which the main political parties disagreed in the approach to the local Bexley Council elections held on 4 May 2006. The incoming Conservative administration immediately revoked the bus lane.

The MECCA bingo hall in Upper Wickham Lane has ceased trading, apparently one of nine in England unsuited to operate after the national ban on smoking in public places[8]. This large building, which originally was an Odeon cinema is operating now as Freedom Centre International, a Pentecostal Church. Rosebys, the Co-op and Tesco's old store all closed since 2007, as has the pub near the station (formerly the Station Hotel) lately known as Inferno's. Live music is performed occasionally at the Avenida restaurant, at The Duchess of Edinburgh public house and, towards Plumstead Common, at The Glenmore Arms.

The Old Koffi Pot café, dates from the 1930s and was until the early 1990s known as 'Ferrara's'. The venue was well-known locally for its ice cream and enjoyed its heyday at the height of the 1960s cafe culture, when young people from Kent and SE London would call in for refreshments on the way to or from dancing at the Embassy Ballroom (demolished to make way for the building of Embassy Court). The café was closed during 2009 for 'economic reasons', but a modern coffee shop has since opened in its place retaining the name The Koffi Shop but a brand new black frontage and interior decor have abruptly erased any historical link with the original establishment.

Notable Past Residents

  • Kate Bush, world-famous singer/songwriter[9]
  • Sheila Hancock, famous actress (and widow of actor John Thaw) grew up in neighbouring Bexleyheath, and celebrated the reception of her first marriage (to Alec Ross in 1954) at the Embassy Ballrooms, on the site of the recently-demolished Embassy Court.

Education

For information about the following schools and colleges in Welling see the main London Borough of Bexley article
  1. Bexley Grammar School
  2. Bishop Ridley CofE Primary School (formerly Westwood Primary School)
  3. Danson Primary School
  4. East Wickham Infants School
  5. East Wickham Junior School
  6. Eastcote Primary School
  7. Foster Primary School
  8. Harris Academy Falconwood (formerly Westwood College)
  9. Hillsgrove Primary School
  10. Hook Lane Primary School
  11. St.Michael's East Wickham CoE Primary School
  12. St.Stephen's Catholic Primary School
  13. Townley Grammar School for Girls
  14. Welling School
  15. Westbrooke School

Sport and leisure

Welling has two Non-League football clubs Welling United F.C. & Erith & Belvedere F.C., who both play at Park View Road.

Transport

Welling railway station is close to Central Avenue at the western edge of the town centre and offers direct rail links to London Bridge, Charing Cross, Victoria and Cannon Street Stations in Central London, and to Dartford and other towns in North Kent.

Welling has several Transport For London (TfL) contracted routes forming an extensive bus network. London Buses route 51 will take you to north to Woolwich via Plumstead Common or south through Blackfen and Sidcup to Orpington, route 89, operates between Lewisham and Slade Green, Route 96 runs between Woolwich and Bluewater, Route 486 between Bexleyheath and North Greenwich (the O2), route B15 between Bexleyheath (Shopping Centre) and Horn Park (Alnwich Road) via Eltham High Street, and route B16 links Bexleyheath to Kidbrooke via Eltham High Street. Welling is also served by a night bus route, the London Buses route N89, which starts at Erith, running via Slade Green, Barnehurst, Bexleyheath, Welling and Lewisham, towards Trafalgar Square. Several registed minicab companies are based in Welling.

Nearest railway stations

Nearest places

References

  1. ^ The Bexleyheath Railway
  2. ^ Bexley Chronicle "The new Tesco store is now open in Welling"
  3. ^ News Shopper "Tesco and Co-op closures put Welling traders under pressure"
  4. ^ News Shopper "Morrisons Swamped by Job Seekers for New Supermarket
  5. ^ University of Exeter "Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime"
  6. ^ Socialist Worker "McGowan campaign"
  7. ^ Saggar, Shamit (1998). Race and British electoral politics. Routledge. ISBN 1-85728-830-0.
  8. ^ Financial Times "Rank to close nine Mecca clubs"
  9. ^ Pupils at Former Abbey Wood School Sought
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