Living in Greenwich Peninsula: area guide to homes, schools and transport links
Now 20 years into its transformation, it will take another 20 years before Greenwich Peninsula is complete as a new town of 20,000 homes and the area finally becomes stitched into the long-established neighbourhood of East Greenwich, with its pretty streets of Victorian cottages.
The latest news from the Peninsula is the unveiling of The Tide by developer Knight Dragon. This is London’s first elevated linear park which starts a few steps from North Greenwich station.
The elevated walkway, inspired by New York’s High Line, connects with a kilometre-long riverside walkway adorned with artworks by Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley and Allen Jones, and includes London’s longest picnic table stretching for 27 metres along the waterfront.
Knight Dragon is developing the Peninsula’s derelict acres closest to The O2, the former Millennium Dome, and so far has completed 2,500 of the planned 15,720 homes it will build over the next 20 years.
The centrepiece will be Peninsula Place, three towers linked by giant curves, the first work in the UK by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who transformed his home town Valencia.
There have been collaborations, too, with the likes of designer Tom Dixon who brought his signature use of shiny copper to Upper Riverside flats in the current phase of development.
Next door, but not part of Knight Dragon’s plans, The O2’s operator AEG starts next year on a 36-storey tower of 262 flats beside the arena.
It seems a lifetime ago, that then-deputy prime minister, John Prescott, launched his Millennium Village initiative. The blocks of flats with their multicoloured balconies and curved roofs were the first new homes on the Greenwich Peninsula.
The first buyers saw themselves as genuine pioneers, but they then had to wait 10 years for the pace of development to pick up.
Masterminded by the Swedish architect Ralph Erskine, the homes were developed by Greenwich Millennium Village, a joint venture between housebuilder Countryside and Taylor Wimpey on a former gasworks site halfway down the eastern side of the Peninsula.
So far 1,600 new homes have been built with another 1,200 in the pipeline. Developments on the western side of the Peninsula include 770 new homes at Enderby Wharf built by Barratt Homes in a joint venture with JP Morgan, although plans for a further 400 homes and a cruise ship terminal have been shelved and this part of the site is now up for sale.
Next door Bellway is selling 900 homes at River Gardens in Banning Street; Weston Homes has 216 homes at Precision in Christchurch Way and developer U+I has plans for 1,500 new homes at Morden Wharf on the site of a former sweetener factory.
In East Greenwich itself, the former Greenwich District Hospital site in Woolwich Road has been developed as Greenwich Square, with 645 new homes and a new library, leisure centre and GP practice, although the silver cladding has been found, post-Grenfell Tower, to be flammable and will need to be replaced.
The final phase, Courtyard, a development of 325 homes, is now on sale.
The O2 arena is six miles south-east as the crow flies from central London but nine miles by road.
Poplar is across the river to the north; Woolwich is to the east; Blackheath to the south and Deptford is to the west, with the Isle of Dogs and Canary Wharf also across the river to the west.
The property scene
New-build flats are the name of the game
South of the Peninsula and east of Greenwich Park, the long-standing community of East Greenwich has two conservation areas.
In the East Greenwich conservation area there are Georgian houses around Ballast Quay and roads of pretty flat-fronted two-storey mid-Victorian cottages in the Morden College Estate around Pelton Road, with some Arts and Crafts houses in Trenchard Street.
There are two two-bedroom flat-fronted straight-off-the-street cottages for sale: in Caradoc Street for £590,000 and in Banning Street for £550,000.
In the Westcombe Park conservation area between Westcombe Park railway station and Blackheath are detached and semi-detached late-Victorian and Edwardian family houses.
The most expensive period house currently for sale here is a five-bedroom Edwardian semi in Coleraine Road, priced £1.5 million.
Everywhere else on the Peninsula is dominated by flats built over the last 20 years. Flats for sale in Greenwich Millennium Village, the first homes to be built on the Peninsula, start at £325,000 for a one-bedroom flat; £440,000 for a two-bedroom flat and £575,000 for a three-bedroom flat.
New-build homes
Knight Dragon is selling one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments in Upper Riverside close to The O2 arena and North Greenwich station, all with views of the river.
The one-bedroom homes start at £550,000, with two-bedroom flats at £760,000 and three-bedroom flats at £935,000. Call 020 3918 6574.
Mace is selling studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom flats at the Courtyard at Greenwich Square scheme in Woolwich Road in East Greenwich.
Two-bedroom flats start at £555,000 and three-bedroom flats at £742,500 Call 020 8858 4625 or Savills on 020 7531 2516.
Housebuilder Bellway is selling one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments at River Gardens in Banning Street. Prices range from £592,000 to £970,000. Call 0845 257 6065.
Commodore’s Quarter is the latest phase to launch at Greenwich Millennium Village. One-bedroom flats start at £410,000; two-bedroom flats at £520,000 and three-bedroom courtyard flats at £799,995. Call 020 8023 8034.
Weston Homes is selling move-in ready flats at Precision in Christchurch Way. Three-bedroom flats start at £749,995. Call 020 3257 6188 for details.
First-time buyers and shared ownership
Help to Buy is available at Upper Riverside and West Parkside (as before). Shared ownership at Upper Riverside is available through housing association L&Q, which will also have shared-ownership flats at Courtyard at Greenwich Square. Call 0300 456 9997.
Housing association Peabody has plans to launch shared-ownership flats soon at River Gardens and at Telegraph Works, part of the Precision scheme, in Christchurch Way. Call 020 7021 4842.
Rental homes
Jubilee line trains from North Greenwich station are one stop away from Canary Wharf, making the district popular with people who want a quick journey to work.
One-bedroom apartments start from £1,410 a month for a home in Holly Court in Greenwich Millennium Village, ranging to £2,300 a month for a flat on the 16th floor of Arora Tower in North Greenwich.
Two-bedroom, two-bathroom flats, popular with sharers, start at £1,575 in Farnsworth Court in Greenwich Millennium Village, ranging up to £2,750 for a home on the 18th floor of Arora Tower.
Staying power
The arrival on the Peninsula of a large state comprehensive school, St Mary Magdalene CofE, will entice residents to stay longer in the area.
Postcode
Maze Hill and the Peninsula are in the SE10 Greenwich postcode; Westcombe Park is in the SE3 Blackheath postcode.
Best roads
There are large Victorian, Edwardian and Twenties detached houses in Vanbrugh Hill, Ulundi Road and Westcombe Park Road in Westcombe Park.
Up and coming
The Morden College Estate in East Greenwich, with flat-fronted two-storey cottages, is a hidden gem.
On the Peninsula, the original flats built in the Greenwich Millennium Village now sell for less than the new flats in the area — and they have the advantage of being energy efficient.
Transport
North Greenwich station is on the Jubilee line, one stop from Canary Wharf, three from London Bridge and eight from Bond Street. Thames Clipper river buses go from North Greenwich to Canary Wharf, Tower, London Bridge and Embankment.
The Emirates Air Line cable car runs from North Greenwich to Royal Docks connecting to the DLR.
Trains from Maze Hill station in East Greenwich go to Cannon Street in 17 minutes and Blackfriars via London Bridge in 20 minutes, taking a few minutes more from Westcombe Park station.
The No 129 and No 188 buses connect East Greenwich to the Peninsula; the No 188 goes to Russell Square via Surrey Quays and Waterloo.
Council
Greenwich council is Labour controlled. Band D council tax for 2019/2020 is £1,604.84.
Lifestyle
Shops and restaurants
In Bugsby’s Way between East Greenwich and Charlton there is a new IKEA store and a large branch of Sainsbury’s, plus a string of retail parks with branches of Aldi, Boots, Decathlon, H&M, M&S, Matalan, Next, River Island, and Primark.
East Greenwich has shops, cafés and restaurants along Trafalgar Road and Woolwich Road including branches of Co-op and Sainsbury’s.
The Crown pub serves pizza. Another pub has been turned into Thai Tiger restaurant. Toomai Square is a popular pan-Asian street food restaurant. Zaibatsu is an unassuming Japanese restaurant.
The Cutty Sark in Ballast Quay is a Young’s pub in an historic building.
There is an abundance of chain restaurants in and around The O2 arena including Ask, Beer + Burger, Busaba Eathai, Byron, Gaucho, Pizza Express, Wagamama and Zizzi.
Foodies head for chef Stevie Parle’s Craft London, a bar, café and restaurant designed by Tom Dixon; the restaurants and bars in the InterContinental Hotel; and Ardoa, a Basque pintxo restaurant in Cutter Lane close to the entry to The Tide river walk.
A new multi-storey Aussie-style bar, café, restaurant and bakery with a South American twist, Mama Fuego, opens soon opposite the North Greenwich pier.
The shops, restaurants and market in Greenwich town centre are nearby.
Open space
Greenwich Park is a Royal Park. Occupying a 183-acre hillside, it offers views over the Thames to Canary Wharf, while visitors from all over the world come to stand on the Meridian Line and visit the Royal Observatory.
Separate gardens within the park offer special displays of roses, herbs, fruit trees in the Queen’s Orchard and a herbaceous border.
Greenwich Ecology Park on the Thames Path off John Harrison Way is a four-acre urban wetland created in 2000 which attracts many species of dragonfly and damselfly and is a quiet oasis for local residents.
East Greenwich Pleasaunce in Chevening Road is a local Green Flag park, the former burial ground for 3,000 sailors who died at the old Royal Hospital Greenwich. There is now a children’s playground, table tennis and a café.
Central Park is an 11-acre park running through the centre of the Peninsula which Knight Dragon will extend to nearly 15 acres as the development grows.
The Thames Path runs around the perimeter of the Peninsula with The Tide, a one-kilometre partly elevated landscaped river walk, which will eventually extend to five kilometres.
Leisure and the arts
There are two multiplex cinemas — the Odeon in Bugsby’s Way with an IMAX screen, and a Cineworld at The O2.
Now Gallery in Peninsula Square is an art gallery; the current exhibition is from playful Argentinian artist Kinska and outside there is wooden tower by Studio Weave to explore.
The Zetty is a large greenhouse on a riverside jetty on Olympian Way on the eastern side of the peninsula where there is a café, community gardening and workshops.
The Greenwich Yacht Club is in Peartree Way next to the Ecology Park. Greenwich Peninsula Golf Driving Range in Tunnel Avenue is a riverside driving range.
In Greenwich town centre there is Greenwich Theatre and a Picturehouse cinema.
The local council swimming pool is at The Greenwich Centre in Lambarde Square off Woolwich Road.
Schools
Primary school
All the state primary schools are rated “good” or better by Ofsted. Millennium Primary School in John Harrison Way on the Peninsula is judged to be “outstanding”, as is Halstow in Halstow Road.
Comprehensive
A new all-through school, St Mary Magdalene CofE, opened in September 2018 in John Harrison Way and eventually it will have 420 primary pupils, 900 secondary pupils and 300 in the sixth form.
The other local comprehensive, The John Roan School (co-ed, ages 11 to 18), in Westcombe Park Road, is currently rated “inadequate”.
In nearby Blackheath, Leigh Academy (co-ed, ages 11 to 18) in Old Dover Road also opened in September 2018. St Ursula’s RC (girls, ages 11 to 16) in Crooms Hill in Greenwich town centre is rated “outstanding”.
Private
There are private schools in nearby Blackheath.
The private primary schools are: The Pointer School (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Stratheden Road, Heath House (co-ed, ages three to 11) in Wemyss Road and Blackheath Preparatory (co-ed, ages three to 11 in St German’s Place.
Those wanting an “alternative” school for their children opt for Greenwich Steiner (co-ed, ages three to 14) in historic The Woodlands in Mycenae Road. Blackheath High (ages three to 18) in Vanbrugh Park is an all-through girls’ school.