Railway from London Bridge to Gravesend. Gravesend

Railway line from London Bridge to Gravesend
The line runs north eastwards into Gravesend Station

An inland area of this old riverside town.  It includes much 20th and 19th century housing but also the sites of several entertainment areas built for 19th visitors to what was then a resort. This includes Windmill Hill - now an area of open space in the middle of the town. Otherwise the area includes infrastructure and housing for a busy urban area with a large Sikh population.

Post to the west Perry Street
Post to the north Gravesend

Albert Place
This row of houses curved from Wrotham Road into Windmill Street. It was named after the Prince Consort. All this was now demolished for the Civic Centre.  The street name still applies to the area in front of the Civic Centre, now part of a pedestrianised square.


Arthur Street
Public Assistance Relief Office. This was next to No.19 and provided a front office for the workhouse
30 The Nine Elms beer house. Beer house which opened in 1849 and closed in 1973.
47 The Cricketers now the Roisin Dubh. This pub dates from 1842. The current name means Black Rose.


Brandon Street
The road was built between 1840 and 1860 and was originally called Station Street and is still show as such in 1865.  Apparently it was intended to site Gravesend Central Station, built 1849, at the southern end of this road. Named from owners of the land
26a Shri Guru Ramdass Gurdwara. Sikh temple.  This opened in 1993 in what had been Brandon Hall, which was a gospel hall.


Cambrian Grove
Named thus because the builder, Mr. Jenkin Jones, was a Welshman

Clarence Place
Was Lacey Gardens after a builder who was Mayor in 1850.
19 Gravesend Spiritualist Church.
32-33 from 1899 these were Gravesend & Milton’s children's "cottage homes". These were for children under the care of a local authority and housed them in what, hopefully, was a family setting. These are now private houses
Milton Mount Congregational Church. This was built in 1872 and designed by Sir John Sulman. It was built to house 750 people and designed so that the entire congregation could see and hear the minister. Milton Congregational Church was founded following a split of the Gravesend and Milton congregation when Minister Wilhem Guest and his followers moved into the newly built church which was also the chapel for Milton Mount College a school for the daughters of Congregational Ministers. In the early 1950s, the two congregations re-united.   For a while it was used as a petrol station, and then in 1967 was bought by the Sikh community.
Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara. Before 1955 congregations were held in a private house and the building used as the Gurdwara was bought in 1968. The community also supports sports and other activities.   This has now been closed and replaced by the new Sikh Temple to the west.  There Aare plans to replace it with flats.
Windsor Castle. This pub was present by 1841, closed in around 1888. It is said to have been ‘near the veterans club’.
Windmill Gardens. The lower slopes of Windmill Hill were bought by the Gravesend Corporation in 1889 and laid out as a garden and were opened in 1902. However a very similar layout is to that currently in place is shown on the 1865 OS map.
War memorial. This is the centre piece of a garden design apparently load out before 1865. The memorial was unveiled in 1922 and, having been damaged in the Second World War re-erected subsequently. It is a figure of winged victory holding out a laurel wreath in her right hand. It stands on tall plinth and two stepped base.
Obelisk. In the gardens is an obelisk for one of the town’s philanthropists, William Tingey. He died in and is seen as the real founder of Gravesend Hospital. The obelisk was unveiled in 1908.
Belle Vue Bowls Club

Clarence Row
Fleming Resource Centre. This is run by AGE/UK as their Gravesend Centre.

Cobham Street
Built between 1840 and 1860. Named for the Darnley family’s residence at Cobham Hall. Before development it was the site of one of James Clarke’s nursery and market gardens
Blackberry Lane. In 1761 because of the dangerous state of the main road the Turnpike Trustees decided to build a new turnpike road along the back of the north side of Cobham Street to Windmill Street. It was abandoned and the site sold in 1801when New Road was built.

Cutmore Street
Built largely between 1840 and 1860. Named from a Mr. Cutmore who worked on the development of the area as part of the Corporation.
29 Hearts of Oak. This pub was here in 1879 and closed by 1914.

Darnley Road
Until the 1796 this road was a field path closed by gates at each end. The northern gate was just south of the junction with Pelham Road.  The road is clearly named for the Darnley family. Before development it was the site of one of James Clarke’s nursery and market gardens
T.W.Walters sited on the south west side the railway bridge. General merchant and house clearances. Used to be Green’s.
Little green at junction with Pelham Road.  This is seen as the last remnant of Manor Farm. A large triangular pond lay at the junction.
Lynton House. This was south of Trafalgar Road and the nursery was alongside it. Between 1918 and 1926 it housed the juniors of the County School for Girls, and was later the Income Tax office. Demolished in 1970
117a Nursery garden with glasshouses. Lynton nurseries and tennis courts.
161 Kent and Essex Hotel. This large pub was set up in 1898 and stayed in business into the 1990s. It has since been demolished.
Four Went Ways. This is said to be the site at the cross roads with Old Road that In 1797, the body of William Wallace, one of the mutineers on the Nore who had shot himself, was taken from the belfry of St.George’s church to the cross roads and buried with a stake driven between the thighs.

Darnley Street
55 was a Primitive Methodist Chapel built 1863 the congregation having moved from the chapel in Stone Street. This is now converted to housing.

Dashwood Lane
St.Mary’s Mission Church. This corrugated iron church stood on the corner with Lynton Road South and was built in 1904. It was succeeded in 1938 by the church on Wrotham Road and became the church hall. It was not demolished until 1972.

Eden Place
This was scheduled for demolition in the late 1940s, and residents rehoused on the Kings Farm estate

Edwin Street
19 Little Wonder Pub. This was in place before 1851 and closed in 2009. It is now housing

Elmfield Close
Housing built on gardens at the rear of the doctors’ surgery

Essex Road
Before development it was the site of one of James Clarke’s nursery and market gardens
Grange Road
The Pavilion Skating Rink. The rink was opened in 1910, as a result of the roller skating craze
Drill hall this was the skating rink which was taken over by the military before 1920. In the late 1930s it housed:. 167th (Kent) H.B.Thames and Medway Heavy Brigade RA (T) and 313th (Kent) Anti Aircraft S/L Company RE (T). The hall was destroyed in 1944 Second World War bombing.
Joint Cadet Centre, This was opened in 2014 for Gravesend Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps cadets from 402 (Gravesend) Squadron. It replaced previous cadet accommodation which was in a Nissen Hut built here after the war. It now has a shared drill hall, kitchen, and offices classrooms.

Homemead Close
Flats built in 1968 on the site of Peter Street which was slum cleared

Kent Road
Before development it was the site of one of James Clarke’s nursery and market gardens

Leigh Park Road
Portland Hall.  Until 1967 this stood at the western end the road in its own grounds. It was the dream house of William Aspdin, whose father had patented Portland cement. He enclosed an area with a high concrete wall with large gate towers and entrances, intending to build a large house designed by John Morris and Son of Poplar. It was completely cased in Portland Cement, with 11 bedrooms and Portland Cement statuary in the grounds. Only a fragment was built since Aspdin got into financial difficulties and went off to Newcastle. Although the house was built by 1852 the interior was never finished. It was sold in 1853 and partly demolished by he liquidators and hr remains became West Hill House. The remaining part of the estate was developed with houses and some was bought by the Water Company. Town houses now occupy the site of 'West Hill House'. Some stretches of wall remain.

Old Road East
Crossroads with Old Road and Windmill Street. Here until 1929 was the terminus of the Windmill Street tram service, and at an earlier date the turning point of the donkey rides from the Tivoli
Traffic lights - The first automatic traffic lights in the South-east were installed at the Old Prince of Orange cross roads in 1929.
Convent Grammar School. This was on the corner with Spring Grove and had previously been called Glenthorne which was the home of John Russell of the Gravesend brewery company.  It is said to have had a tunnel under Old Road to gardens south of the road.   The school left the premises in 1971 and there are now modern flats on the site.
Milton Mount Hall. This group of buildings is owned by the United ‘Reform Church and was built on the site of a house, itself built in gardens which had belonged to Glenthorne. It had opened as a Congregational Church in 1953.
Old Prince of Orange. On the corner of Old Road East and Windmill Street is the Prince of Orange inn, rebuilt on the site of old coaching house of the 18th century, with a history going back into the 17th. It was the coaching inn for London to Dover coaches which used the old road prior to the cutting of New Road in 1801, after which all coaches passed through the centre of the town. When these changes took place, an inn at the top of High Street became known as the 'New' Prince of Orange and the Old Road inn became the 'Old' Prince of Orange, the licensee moving from one to the other. Adjoining the Old Prince of Orange was at one time a cricket ground used for archery and prize fighting. 
Gravesend Corporation Feeder Pillar. Thus was built by the American “Western Electric Co. London” and installed outside the pub for the tramway extension in 1903 and supplied direct current until 1929. It was then used to supply street lights. Originally supplying direct current, it would have been converted to in 1966. It was decommissioned around 1993/1994 and has been at Amberley Museum since 2013
St Thomas Almshouses – Pinnock’s Charity. They are named for Henry Pinnock who was Portreeve in the late 16th. He bequeathed land for almshouses to the parish. The original site was on the corner of King Street and Windmill Street and in succeeding years there were further bequests. In 1894 it was decided to move to the current site.  During Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year money was collected which was used for a Common Room and Lodge and more donations followed. More blocks were built in the 1930s, 1950s and 1960s. In the 1980's improvement plans were made but there were subsidence problems and it was discovered the houses were on top of a chalk pit. It was then necessary to redevelop the site with the help of the Housing Corporation.
Reeds Cottages. These were replaced by the almshouses. They were late 18th-amnd belonged to the parish. They were used to house cholera victims in 1832.

Old Road West
Victoria Pleasure Grounds. This included concerts and balls and rural sports including archery and bowls. The decline of Gravesend as a resort led to closure.
Cemetery. This was built on the site of the Victoria Pleasure Gardens, and using much of the same layout.  The cemetery chapels were once the Assembly Hal of the gardens.  The cemetery was established by Private Act of Parliament in 1838 promoted by London based speculators who were bankrupt by 1847. It was taken over in 1905 by Gravesend Corporation. Since then it has been extended to double its original site. The architect was Stephen Geary, a specialist in cemetery design – including Highgate.   He provided a bank of gothic catacombs at the back of the cemetery although these were never finished. The entrance lodges and gate were built in 1840 probably by Amon Henry Wilds. The cemetery gates have a triumphal arch composition in Brick rendered pink and included a flat for the superintendent. Originally it was decorated with sarcophagi and mouldings.
Wartime Mortuary. To cope with expected mass deaths from air raids mortuaries were set up a specially designed one still exists next to the cemetery. This had bays for storage of corpses and a viewing place for relatives to identify bodies. 
Dashwood Road Recreation Ground.



Pelham Road
Manor Farm. This belonged to the Earl of Darnley and land stretched from the Northfleet boundary to Windmill Street. The farm had buildings around three sides of a courtyard, and orchard to the south. It was demolished in 1890, and the remaining granary burnt down in 1911
2 the Earl of Darnley’s manor house was on this site.
5 Church of the Latter Day Saints. Church of the Latter Day Saints designed by Butler and Robinson
7 Bronte School. In 1905 William and Florence Vine established the school in Bronte Villas, Parrock Road for the education of their own children. In due course, their three daughters took over. They carried on teaching until the last Ivy Vine, died in 1977.  However, a parents’ committee was the formed to save the school and Peers and Susan Carter, ran it from then on. In 1999, the school moved to Mayfield and there have been a number of additions. In 2002 22 Pelham Road, was added for Bronte Nursery. Around 2012 a search was started for a suitable new owner and the school and nursery were acquired by Nicholas Clements.
Mayfield House. A concrete house with a conservatory built in 1875 by I C Johnson, to his own designs. Johnson, who claimed to be the first developer of Portland Cement, owned local cement factories.  The house was partly built as a demonstration of what could be done with concrete. He lived in Mayfield until his death in 1911 at the age of 101. Later it was used for educational purposes and in the 1980s was part of the Gravesend Branch of the North West Kent Technical College.
17 Surgery in what was Kent County Council offices
25 educational facility and Driving Test Centre.
36 used by the Red Cross and extended to the rear
Football ground on Girls Grammar School site. The site of the Girls Grammar School was farmland and later used for sports.
Gravesend School for Girls. The school was founded in 1914 as the County School for Girls and moved to the newly erected school on its present site in 1926.  The school was opened by the Duchess of Atholl, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education. The architect was W. H. Robinson.  The original building with its bell tower, central quadrangle and walled playing fields remains today. It is a selective school and is now Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend to reflect the fact that they accept boys in the Sixth Form.

Portland Road
Portland Road, which rises steeply from Wrotham Road connects to Windmill Hill, this section of which was formerly known as West Hill.

Rathmore Road
Before development and the arrival of the railway this was the site of one of James Clarke’s nursery and market gardens
Gravesend Station.  The station was built by the South Eastern Railway who had parliamentary approval for a North Kent Line which would come from London Bridge through Lewisham, Blackheath and Woolwich, thence onto the Thames Estuary towns of Dartford and Gravesend and on to Higham and Strood. It opened in 1849, with a layout built to main line standards, upon a gentle curve. There were two platforms separated by a two line width track bed with lines acting as sidings. The main station building was behind the ‘’up’’ platform. It was built in brick designed by Samuel Beazley and had two-storey-high towers flanking a single-storey booking office. There was a flat for the Station Master. Until 1971 it had a rather portico but then the columns were boarded by British Railways. The original North Kent line to London Bridge ran via Woolwich and Blackheath, and there was one train every two hours, with one extra train up in the morning, and one extra one down at night. Changes were made before the SE&CR Joint Managing Committee was set up. This included turning the two central sidings into running lines. Single-storey extensions were installed on the up side building, and canopies were added and a105-foot-long roofed lattice footbridge was put in between the platforms. And an additional line was put in behind the up platform, to the west going to a turntable plus a water tower with a brick base building with arched windows. Another stabling siding was laid to the west beyond the road bridge and alongside the down line. In 1899 the station was named Gravesend Central. Extension of the third rail electrified network took place in 1930 and the platforms were extended at their western ends. Concrete bracket lampposts were use and Target name signs. The up side locomotive turntable was removed and a bay for stabling Port Victoria trains was formed. Steam-hauled services remained for services to the east and from 1932 to 1939 steam shuttles went t Allhallows-on-Sea. Platforms were lengthened again in 1954 and in 1965 the station became again just ‘Gravesend’. In 1961 the All Hallows service ended and with it went the water tank, although its base remained and was roofed.  In 1983 the station was refurbished with cleaned brickwork and restored platform canopies, and in 2007 it was planned to include lifts to a new footbridge.  High speed services to St. Pancras International began in 2009 and the station became an interchange for metro and high speed services. In 2013 a major overhaul of the station, involved the demolition of the water tank base the installation of a new large sheltered bridge with lifts and the removal of the early 20th footbridge.  The track layout was altered to allow 12 coach trains. Platform 1 became a London facing bay platform and takes terminating trains from London. A new central Platform 1 is on the site the former Up 'through' road. Platform 2 caters solely for coast bound services. The Gents WC has been reopened; there are new indicator screens and more shops. Gravesend is likely to be part of an extension for Crossrail. .
Goods, there was a goods shed on the ''down'' side, and a single-track wagon shed at the eastern end of the site. It closed in 1961 and in 1971 was tarmacked, buildings demolished and it became a car park. This is to become six storey major transport interchange building with a 396 space multi storey car park, a six-bay bus station, lots of tacky shops and ticketing facilities for train, buses and Fastrack.
Signal box. The layout was controlled by a small SER-designed signal box, at the eastern end of the site, beside the down line. When the layout was changed a second, larger signal box was put into a hole in the chalk beside the stabling siding. This had a brick base, and a timber top half, with SER sash-style windows. This cabin became No. 1 Box, and the older box was No. 2 Box, eventually closing in 1928. No.1. closed in 1971 when semaphore signals changed to colour light operation.
Car park.  A park for motor cars was laid out by Gravesend Corporation in 1957 on land used previously as allotments at the back of Cobham Street.

Rouge Lane
This lane winds up Windmill Hill, skirting the summit.  The name is probably really ‘Rough Lane’.
Queens Jubilee Beacon
Veterans’ Club. This is on the site of The Maze – one of the 19th attractions on Windmill Hill.  The club was built in 1954 for men over 60.

Saddington Street
Runs parallel to the south side of the railway and was previously called Farringdon Street.

Sheppy Place
Named thus because builder Wood’s foremen on the site came from the Isle of Sheppy
Baynard Castle This was a castellated Gothic house, built in the early 19th century by Edward Lacey, a former mayor, used later as a girls' school, and demolished in 1953.

Shrubbery Road
This was originally a lane running along a gully.
Millers Cottage. This became a beer house in 1842

The Grove
The Grove was originally an extension of the development of Harmer Street and was to be a gated road called Upper Harmer Street.
Flats on the west corner with Saddington Street. These are on the site of Harmer House School. This was run by W. H. Hedger. It later became Shaw and Sons laundry. The building has since been demolished and the flats built.
Shaw’s Laundries. This was started by Thomas Oswald Shaw in the late 19th. It eventually became a very large business with many outlets, and a large dry cleaning arm.  The vans had a distinctive ’gaiety girl' image. The business closed in 2002 when it employed 200 by which time it was part of a larger service group.
11 Gravesend Coop Society Education Offices. Later this became the Guru Nanak Day. Centre which was sold in 2012
13 Home for Friendless Girls. This appears to be Kendall House which had been set up to teach young women and help them start employment. In 1929 it was named after a Miss Kendall who was the supervisor of the home. In 1946 the house was sold and the home moved to Pelham Road
19-20 St. Andrews Presbyterian Church of England. This was established in 1870, with twin spires but was demolished to make way for motor showrooms in the early 1960s.  The stained glass was reused in St.Paul’s, Singlewell Road.
34 Gravesend Salvation Army. This extensive building dates from the 1966 but the army had had a presence in the town since 1883.
37 The Grove Dance Centre.
Tudor Lodge – this was on the junction with Parrock Street and may have been designed by Amon Henry Wilds for one of the speculators who built up Windmill Hill.

Trafalgar Road
St. James's Hospital. Before the passing of the National Health Act this was the Gravesend and Milton Workhouse, built in 1847 on Man of Kent Field by the Board of Guardians under the Poor Law Act of 1831 replacing a building in Stone Street. It was designed by John Gould with an H-shaped layout with an entrance block at the south with the board-room, Master's room, and school rooms. Kitchens and dining hall connected this to the main accommodation block at the rear. An infirmary was added in 1855, a children's' ward in 1882, and accommodation for lunatics in 1891. It later became St James' hospital. The site has since been developed as housing for aged and infirm people as St.James’ Oaks.
9 The Darnley Arms. Dates from at least 1848

Windmill Hill
An early name for the hill was Ruggen or Rouge Hill and it has been the site of a beacon. On the north east side was Furzy Hill where there had been sand pits. There was a mound called the Devils Mount and also Sandpit pond. The Windmill Hill Pleasure Ground Company bought a lot of the area and, along with others, set up many attractions. This got a bit out of control and there was a lot of public concern. The local corporation tried to buy it in 1843 but did not raise enough money. There was ongoing trouble.
Denehole.  Found by a workman digging a cess-pit, who used the traditional method finding it by falling down it.   The shaft was said be 55 ft. deep with two chambers at the bottom – one 18 ft high.   Roman potsherds, oyster shells and worked flint were found.
Windmill. It is thought there was a windmill here by the early 17th. A windmill here was burnt down in 1763 and another demolished in 1787. The one bunt down was rebuilt and remained. The camera obscura was moved here in the 1840s. A gallery was built round it in 1843. It was burnt down in 1902.
Gipsy House. This was next to the mill and was somewhere people could hire cutlery and buy drinks.
Mill Barn – somewhere else people could buy drink.
Observatory. This was built in 1836 by Thomas Smith from Dockhead. It had a spiral staircase to a flat roof with a camera obscura. There were also kitchens, refreshment rooms and bedrooms.
Belle Vue Tavern. This originated from the purchase of the hill by London based speculators, Smith and Snow.  They commissioned Amon Henry Wilds to draw up plans for a pub and pleasure garden. The building dated from 1838 and there was a Camera Obscura on the roof. Nearby were a souvenir shop and a fairground with a shooting gallery.
Royal Saloon of Arts. Opened in 1839 in the camera obscura and then into a pavilion which was part of the pub. There were exhibitions of silhouettes.
Windmill Tavern. This had an archery ground for a while.
Granite blocks on the hill mark sites of a bomb dropped by a Zeppelin in 1915

Windmill Street
The road marks the dividing line between the ancient parishes of Gravesend and Milton.
46 Clarence Hotel and Tea Rooms was on the corner of Clarence Row.  It was later the Clarence Arms which opened in 1832 and closed in 1855. It was then used as a college and was demolished in the 1920s.
51 Salisbury Arms. Pub present from 1849 to 1862
55 Emmanuel Baptist Church. Built in 1843, to the designs of John Gould, with his father as builder. It is rendered with giant pilasters.
62 Milton Hall. This is on the corner with South Street. In 1855 this was built as a timber building, Tulley’s Bazaar-  a place of leisure and entertainment for tourists to listen to free music and buy souvenirs. Illuminated views of Italy and Switzerland could be seen as through a porthole and in the evenings there were concerts. Milton Hall was built in 1859, and has been used as a drill hall for the Local Artillery Volunteers, with a small cannon standing outside and in 1890, a grocery Milton Hall Stores, later it was a wine shop.. It has a stucco façade with a curved pediment. In 1890 it was a grocery store called Milton Hall Stores.
77 The Clarence. This pub opened in 1855 as the Clarence Arms following the closure of the original. Recently refurbished and reopened in 2012 as The Clarence.
The Blue House. Around 1800 this was described as a dairy farm and the home of James and Hester Clarke who opened the local nursery and the market garden to the west of Windmill Street. A pub with this name opened here in 1803 and was renamed to The Blue Coat Boy in 1830. It closed in 1835 and Tivoli House stands on the site.
Sandybanks – Clarke’s Nursery. Land north of the Wingfield Road between Windmill Street and Wrotham Road as far as Woodville Halls was derelict and known as 'Sandybanks'. It had once been part of Clark's nursery. James Clarke lived at the Blue House on the site of what is now Tivoli House. He established a Nursery in the 1790's on the west side of the road. Here he grew saffron, and asparagus – which was shipped by river to London markets. Clarke also extended his activities as a grower to other local sites. By 1864 the business, under Charles Clarke, was in financial trouble and the Windmill Street land was mortgaged to George Arnold.  The property was sold in 1868 to builders by a younger generation of the Clarke family.
Tivoli House. This was originally the Tivoli Hotel opened in 1836. Known as Tivoli Tavern as a hotel, refreshment and ball rooms for the Windmill Hill Pleasure Gardens. It was later taken over by a Mr. Berkowitz and turned into a Jewish School – Tivoli House Academy – when it was extended. A small synagogue was built at the rear.  Mr. Berkowitz and his son became leading local citizens. The school was closed during the Second World War and moved to Harrow.  The building is now flats.
Fragments of the boundary wall to West Hill House survive on the corner of Leith Park Road. West Hill House was built by William Aspdin, but was unfinished when he went bankrupt and the materials were used to in Portland Villas
109 – 110- North House and South House.  This was once one house surrounded by iron fencing decorated with the town arms - originally part of the railings in front of the town pier.
132 Cygnet House. Council built office block, subsequently sold and is now housing.  This was previously the registry office. There is a mural at the entrance of a former registry office. It was created by Alan Boyson in 2009
133 A Police Station was built here in 1940. Civil Defence had wartime provision of static water tanks here as well as air raid sirens. It was demolished when a new Police Station was opened in 1975 by built by D. F. Clayton, County Architect.  This was closed in 2009
158 Queens Arms. This pub was established by 1836 and closed in 1963. It was demolished in 1968. It was on the edge of Albert Place.
Houses high on the slope of the hill were built during the 1930s, and are on the area once the gardens of the Tivoli hotel.

Wingfield Road,
The name dates from the 1880s, and recalls that of Gravesend's first Member of Parliament, Sir Charles Wingfield, in 1868. 

Woodville Gardens
Where Windmill Street and Wrotham Road join is the site of the 'pound', used in 1864 for the election hustings.  This area is now part of the square laid out in front of the Civic Centre and opened in  2011.
Burial Ground. This was a public garden which had formerly been a burial ground and a few of the old tombstones remained against the north wall.  The land had been acquired in 1788 by the churchwardens to supplement the old graveyard of St. George's. The site was closed for burials in 1855 and laid out for gardens. There is a plaque “This square is on the site of the former Woodville burial ground, an extension to St George's churchyard, consecrated in 1789.The original boundary of the churchyard is marked by the studs in the paving. The new square was officially opened on 19 July 2011. The gardens provide a large amount of public open space. In 1977 the area was laid out as a garden for the blind, provided by the Rotary Club in dedication of its 50th Jubilee
The Woodville Halls. These were opened in 1968 by the Duchess of Kent.  Part of the concept was to provide a public space between Wrotham Road and Windmill Street. a large underground car park was included The building was designed by architects H. T. Cadbury-Brown and Partners of London and the contractor was  G. E. Wallis and Sons Ltd.  of London. The Mayor's suite and Committee rooms link the two buildings. A foyer area is now shared with the Civic Centre
Civic Centre. A concrete panelled office block ‘to a good brutalist design’ by Brian Richards of HT Cadbury-Brown’s office of 1961-8 and with design input from Elizabeth Cadbury Brown.

Woodville Terrace
This terrace of housing was removed to make room for the Civic Centre and the new police station.  The houses dated from the 1840s in a private road.  They were eventually used Gravesend Council as offices.  The street was originally built on the site of a brickfield owned by a William Wood – hence the name


Wrotham Road
Part of the Gravesend to Wrotham Turnpike Road set up by Act of Parliament of 1825. It was de-turnpiked in 1879.  Previously, north of the Masonic Hall it was called Ruck Lane; south of this was Tadman’s Lane.
Clark’s nursery. Clarke had extended to five acres on the west side of Wrotham Road where Essex and Kent Roads now stand and extending as far as the Old Dover Road. 
1 Gravesend Rubber Company offices. Demolished in 1973
26  Prince Albert. This is at the junction with Zion Place. It was a Shepherd Neame house. It contained three organs which were used for nightly sing songs and concerts – it eventually lapsed for lack of a licence.
Masonic Hall. This was taken over by the Masons in 1906 and had been Ruckland
40 Wrotham Ale Shades. This pub was established in 1880 and closed in 1958. It is now demolished. A number of pubs in the Gravesend area have been called ‘Shades’ which seems to be peculiar to this area.
53 Man of Kent. This pub was established by 1842.  A Man of Kent comes from east of the Medway.
72 Wrotham Road Board Schools. This is on a bank on the eastern side is and, built in 1894, was the third of such schools built in Gravesend.
92 St.Luke's Hall.  This was built as a mission church for St. James's in 1890 y architect, Basset-Smith. It was used for community events including the Church Lads' Brigade, Sunday school and so on. It was demolished in 1964 and a clinic is now on the site.
Headquarters of the 402 (Gravesend) Squadron Air Training Corps. Built in 1956.  The cadets have since moved to the new combined cadet centre in Grange Road
97 Ashenden’s Nursery. George Ashenden had a nursery and florist here in a building with a dramatic white iron and glass frontage. This existed in the 1890s and was still present in the 1950s.   There is now housing on the site
111 Bat and Ball Cricket Ground. This was founded before 1854 for a County Club organised by Earl of Darnley – which led to acrimony over the path between the pub and the ground. It was used for county cricket and In 1849 Kent played an All-England Eleven in the grounds first first class match. It seems to have begun about 1845 as a private cricket ground for Ruckland House, and in 1853-4 the Earl of Darnley and others formed the North Kent Cricket Club with the Bat and Ball as its home ground.  Here the giants of the game have scored some of their great personal successes, Dr. W. G. Grace, Frank Woolley, Kenneth Hutchings, G. Jessop - Lionel Troughton, Kent's Gravesend captain, was also among them. From 1849 to 1971, the ground held 145 first-class matches for Kent, the last of which saw them play a touring team of Pakistanis.  The ground has also played host to 24 matches involving the Kent Second XI. In the 1900s the ground was bought by a local builder for building, but enthusiasts raised the money to buy it from him. In 1960 the Club got a 999-year lease at a peppercorn rent. Not only cricket, but bowls, tennis, and more recently, hockey, are played here. The ground is the home venue of Gravesend Cricket Club who play in the Kent Cricket League
113 Bat and Ball. The pub was present by 1862
From this point northwards the houses belong to an earlier date than those on the south, dating from the opening years of the 19th century.  Before the erection of the houses between Wrotham Road and Darnley Road, much of the ground was known as 'Man of Kent Fields', named after the licensed house on the corner of Arthur Street.
Pavilion Theatre. Around the area of Essex Road junction and to the south and west is the site of Thomas Eves’ The Pavilion Theatre. Eves was a nursery man who developed his nursery, inherited through his wife from the Clarke family who had had it for many years.  It had become the Subscription Grounds – flowers, walks and lanterns. There was a games area, and eventually the theatre. Eves was murdered and the land sold for building in the 1880s.  A thatched bandstand from the gardens is said to have remained until the 1920s
Brickfield. This was owned by Wood and Gregory in the 1860s and was south of Old Road on the west side of the road. Brickfield Cottages were in Old Road.
185b Ladies bowling club. This club had a grass rink here until the 1950s. It was on the junction with Old Road and has since been replaced by housing.

Zion Place
So named because it led to the Baptists’ Zion Chapel in Windmill Street which was built in 1843


Sources
About Gravesend. Web site
Bat and Ball Ground. Wikipedia web site
Bygone Kent.
Carley. The Gravesend to Wrotham Turnpike Road
Gravesend Historical Society. Transactions
Gravesend Station. Wikipedia. Web site
Gravesham Council. Web site.
Harker. The Book of Gravesham
Hiscock. A History of Gravesend
Kent Archaeology. Web site
Kent Rail. Web site
Lost Pubs Project. Web site
Phillip. A History of Gravesend and its surroundings
Pub History. Web site
Twentieth Century Society. Web site.
Workhouses. Web site