In 1769 William Wheatley laid out an avenue of elms. Wheatley came from a prominent Erith family and was Lord of the Manor of Erith by then. He built a new manor house which was slightly blighted by a legend that the avenue was haunted by a headless woman being driven by a headless coachman and four black horses.
In 1858 the manor house was pulled down and the far Erith end of Avenue Road (around the railway lines) seems to have been developed at that time. In August 1874 the Wheatley estate was sold off, fetching £170 000 with the open land being sold for building development.
Even so, in the late nineteenth century with all of its pressure for new housing, the road developed only slowly.
Avenue Road, Erith looking towards Manor Road (1915)
The Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society store with its distinctive tower was built at the junction with Manor Road. The Erith Branch of the Society began in 1882 in a house known as Kent House, which stood on the same spot.
The Prince of Wales public house, since demolished and replaced by a McDonald’s Restaurant also stood at the Erith end.
In the twentieth century, Avenue Road was extended west along the remaining line of elms. At the western end, in the post Second World War years, council housing was built by Erith Borough Council. The very first development of the new Lesney Farm Estate began with 28 new houses facing onto Avenue Road in 1946.
The top of Avenue Road, Erith looking down the hill, probably taken during the years around the First World War. The bend in the road would today be at the point that Buxton Road joins Avenue Road.
Credit: Bexley Archives