Blackheath

Blackheath is not far from Greenwich and it still has an urban village feel about it despite the encroachment of high street brands. The name comes from the Old English Blaec and Haeth meaning Black Heath or Blachenhedfeld meaning the dark coloured heathland. The idea that Blackheath got its name from the black plague of 1665 is an urban myth. Certainly people who died in the plague were buried here but the name had been established long before the plague arrived.

All Saints Church shown in the picture here was designed by Benjamin Ferry and was completed in 1857. It is situated in the heath or the large grassland area which seperates Blackheath from Greenwich and Lewisham in the west. It was used by Terry Waite who was taken hostage in 1987 in the Lebanon in his role as advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury.  Terry Waite lives in Blackheath.