Something is stirring at the Orangery on Orangery Lane behind the High Street in Eltham

The Orangery in september 2013

The Orangery is “a very elegant red brick structure of c1720; it was the end piece of the garden of Eltham House, which fronted the High Street until it was demolished in 1937.  

The tall baroque frontispiece has a high pediment, elaborate stone carving, and a mask over a central arch.

It is very dilapidated and at present difficult if not impossible to see, as it is covered by scaffolding and sheeting; several attempts at restoration (which would involve the creation of offices alongside to the west) have been frustrated and one can only hope that a current project will succeed.  

Thoughts on its future in 1974

It is accessible from the High Street by a footpath alongside no 105, and also from the car park behind Marks and Spencer.”*

I doubt that Mr Spurgeon held out great hopes for the continued survival of the Orangery when he made this entry in his book on Eltham in 2000.

Thirty years earlier the Council raised much the same concerns about its future and the use the area could be put to in a consultation document.*

The grim scene in 1977

This it suggested might in part be either a multi-storey car park or a landscaped area.

So it is encouraging to see that work is now being undertaken on this wonderful building.

Now living as far away as I do from Eltham I hadn't picked up on the changes that were underway.

And I have to admit I don't know what it's future will be but I am confident that there will be people who do and who will be in touch to set me right.

In the meantime I will contact the Eltham Society, they after all should know.  But of course if there is any one who has the story or more pictures I would love to hear from them.

Work underway, June 2013

*Spurgeon, Darrell, Discover Eltham, 2000

*A Future for Eltham Town Centre, Greenwich Borough Council, 1974

Pictures; the Orangery in 1977 and 2013 from the collection of Jean Gammons and a suggestion for its development from  A Future for Eltham Town Centre, 1974