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Shooters Hill is situated in the London Borough of Greenwich in Southeast London and reputedly takes its name from the practice of archery. As the name also implies, the district is centred upon a hill - the highest point in south London at 432 feet - offering good views over the River Thames to the north, with central London clearly visible to the east.
Landmarks include The Bull public house which opened in 1749, used as a refreshment stop by the Royal Mail coaches and the distinctive Victorian gothic water tower that can be seen from far around. Shooter's Hill Road stretches eastwards from the heath at Blackheath up and over the hill down to Welling. The road follows the route of Watling Street, a Roman road which went from Dover on the southeast coast of England to Wroxeter in Shropshire via London.
Stretching on one side of the road is Oxleas Wood - one of the few remaining areas of ancient deciduous forest, dating back over 8,000 years. It is part of a larger area on the south side of Shooter's Hill: other parts are Castle Wood (named after Severndroog Castle), Jack Wood, Shepherdleas Wood, Oxleas Meadows, Falconwood Field and Eltham Park North (the latter being divided by the A2 main road from its southern section). It is a Local Nature Reserve and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, covering 72 hectares with oak, silver birch, hornbeam, coppice hazel, and a great number of fine samples of the Wild Service Tree. Oxleas Wood remains a public open space with a café close to the top of the hill. On the other side of the road, there is a golf-course and one of the last remaining areas of farmland in inner London, Woodlands Farm which is now an educational charity.
Charles Dickens mentions such carriages "lumbering" up Shooter's Hill in A Tale of Two Cities, and refers to a public house there in Pickwick Papers. The district is also mentioned in Bram Stoker 's Dracula and in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds. On 11 April 1661 diarist Samuel Pepys mentions passing under "the man that hangs upon Shooter's Hill" which may have been a highwayman.
Former residents include TV cook Fanny Craddock, singer Boy George, writers Algernon Blackwood and E Nesbit. In 1824, English engineer Samuel Brown developed an internal combustion engine that used hydrogen as a fuel and tested it to propel a vehicle (arguably one of the earliest automobiles) up Shooters Hill. |
