LADYWELL. 113 
cf the gardens of Lewisham House. The site of these is now 
occupied by the Coroner’s Court and adjacent buildings. The 
Lewisham Public Swimming Baths were built in 1884, on a part of 
the Glebe, formerly known as Church field, as also the Parish 
Church Hall in 1891. The pathway to the church ran through this 
meadow, and was railed in when the Hall was built and the 
Ladywell Recreation Ground formed. 
The small houses on the northern side of the road, together 
with Church Grove, were built in 1857. 
Up to about the year 1830, the bridge over the Ravensbourne 
r 
| 
PLATE 50.—LADYWELL BRIDGE, 1857. 
was for foot passengers only. A reproduction of a pen and ink 
sketch of this bridge is given in Plate 49. Horses and carts drove 
through the river which was usually shallow at this point. In 1830 
the first portion of the present brick bridge was built, and on the 
making of the Mid-Kent Railway in 1857, it was widened, and 
further arches constructed to carry the roadway over the line. It 
was then that the old well finally disappeared. On the northern 
side of the bridge is the turning to Vicar’s Hill, which, with the 
roads adjacent, is the Vicar’s glebe. This remained pasture land 
until about 1882, when Algernon Road was formed on the site of 
the Lewisham Cricket Club ground, and building was commenced 
in the other roads. ‘‘ Vicar’s Hill” is the name by which the 
ground has been known at least as far back as Elizabeth’s days, 
the term Hilly Fields being quite modern. 
