202 LONDON PARKS © GARDENS 
the high ground beyond stood a windmill, the remains of 
which are embedded in the Windmill Tavern. 
The next common west of Plumstead, is Woolwich, 
maintained by the War Office and given up to military 
exercises. The extent is 159 acres. It is so much 
absorbed by the requirements of the War Office that it 
cannot be classed among London’s playgrounds. 
Going westward, the next large space is Blackheath, 
whose history is wrapped up with that of Greenwich, 
the beautiful Greenwich Park having once been part of 
the Heath. It is high ground, for the most part bare of 
trees, and with roads intersecting it—one of them, the 
old Roman Wading Street. The wild, bare summit of 
the Heath was a dangerous place for travellers, and many 
was the highway robbery committed there in times past. 
It is of very large extent, some 267 acres, and has been 
effectually preserved for public use, for some thirty-five 
years, since early in the Seventies. 
The Heath has played its part in history—gay scenes, 
such as when the Mayor and aldermen of London flocked, 
with a great assemblage, to welcome Henry V. after the 
battle of Agincourt, or more ominous and hostile de¬ 
monstrations, as when Wat Tyler collected his followers 
there, or when Jack Cade, some seventy years later, did 
the same thing. A few fine old eighteenth-century houses 
still stand on the edge of the Heath, and an avenue, 
“Chesterfield Walk,” perpetuates the name of one of 
the distinguished residents. Morden College, at the 
south-east corner of the Heath, is a fine old building 
of Wren’s design, founded by Sir John Morden, for 
merchants trading with the East who, through unforeseen 
accidents, had lost their fortunes. 
To the west of Blackheath there was once a Deptford 
