Telling sad stories about the end of our Police Station …….

Actually, is it less a story and more a collection of pictures taken by Garry Luttman who was on hand to record the demolition of Eltham’s Police Station

Just before opening, 1936/37

It opened sometime around 1936/7, and after over 80 years of service it closed permanently in August 2021.

The front desk had been closed four years earlier, but there remained a police presence until 2021.

Of course for those who live in Eltham this will not be news, but there are lots of us who were born here or grew up in Eltham who may not know that the police station has gone.

All of which makes Garry's pictures so important because they record its end.

Somewhere there will be photographs of the place being built and others of the time between then and now. 

2023

I am hoping that they will surface along with memories and anecdotes of the station and those who used it.

2023

And just before I posted the story Garry came up with an image from 1936/7 showing the finishing touches being made before the station was opened adding, "I have especially fond memories of the place, as my late father was stationed there for a number of years and it was, infact, his last 'Nick'. 

The last stages, 2023

If we were in Eltham when he was on leave, he would occasionally take my brother and I into the canteen for a cup of tea and some biscuits!"

Back in 2019 I wrote about its history and that story prompted a heap of accounts from people who had been summoned to the station, has asked for help or just remembered its presence.*

So here’s hoping that this story will elicit some responses, like those that have started to come through from yesterday’s article.**

Location; Well Hall Road, Eltham

Pictures, Eltham Police Station, 2023, and in 1936/7 from the collection of Garry Luttman.

*Eltham Police Station .............. one of those buildings I have always taken for granted, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/eltham-police-station-one-of-those.html

**Pictures from an Eltham Walk ......no. 1 ...... goodbye after 84 years, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2023/09/pictures-from-eltham-walk-no-1-goodbye.html

Pictures from an Eltham Walk ......no. 1 ...... goodbye after 87 years

If you are going out for a walk, always take a picture.  

Looking for a Police Station, 2023

My friend Larissa does and it follows on from her very succesful project of capturing scenes of Eltham from a bus.*

And the first of the new series is that empty space at the top of Well Hall Road, close to the High Street.

Most of us will know it as the former Police Station which I took for granted while I was growing up in Well Hall.

At the time I never gave it much thought and if I did I guess I thought it was rather ugly.

But the passage of time has made me think it was a fine example of late 1930s architecture, where purpose took precedence over style, although I do think it does have style.

Passing the Police Station, 2015

Or I should say did, because for all of us who no longer live in Eltham I can report it has gone.

It was closed some years ago, recently  demolished and is the site is waiting for something to happen.

And as you do I went looking for a planning application for its redevelopment on Greenwich's planning portal.

So far there is no reference for what is to happen, although I did  stumble across the two applications to knock it down, the first in September 2022 and the second in the November of the same year.

That said someone may know.

Knocking on the door, 2015

Leaving me just to reflect that I have wondered about when it was built***

The search ended up with the Greenwich Heritage Centre who came up with a date between 1936-39.

"The only clues as to the date of the station I’ve found come from the electoral register and the ordnance survey map. The ordnance survey as revised in 1936 shows the site on which the station would come to be built as empty. 

Fortunately, it appears that when built there were three flats incorporated into the station - for married members of the force or possibly caretakers, I would imagine – which means that the police station, with its residents, was included in the electoral register. 

The first time it appears is in October 1939. So 1936-39 is as close as I can come to a date."

Although there is a picture of the station just before it opened with a suggested date of 1936/7.

So, that may be when it was built and 87 years later it has gone.

Apologies to anyone who knew it is no more and a thank you to Larissa for the pictures and the start of a new Eltham series.

A space, 2023

Picture; Eltham Police Station, Well Hall Road, 2015, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick and the space that was Eltham Police Station, courtesy of Larissa Hamment

Tomorrow; the sad end of our Police Station

*Picture; from an Eltham Bus; https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Pictures%20from%20an%20Eltham%20Bus

** Greenwich Planning Portal, https://planning.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/online-applications/searchResultsBack.do?action=back

***Eltham Police Station .............. one of those buildings I have always taken for granted, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/06/eltham-police-station-one-of-those.html

****Greenwich Heritage Centre, http://www.greenwichheritage.org/site/index.php

Eltham Police Station .............. one of those buildings I have always taken for granted

I don’t suppose I am the only one who takes the more recent buildings of Eltham for granted.

The big brick built police station at the High Street end of Well Hall Road doesn’t have the style or elegance of its Shooters Hill counterpart but I grew up with it and it has just been a part of the landscape as familiar as the old Burtons, the fire station and St John’s Church.

If I am honest I have to say it is an ugly building and while it is a perfectly functional piece of architecture it does nothing for me.

Not that I have ever been inside and until this week I wasn’t even aware that it was just open from 10 am to 6 pm on Tuesdays through to Saturday which is a bit of news that has left me without a story because for years I dined out on telling people how we had had two police stations at either end of our road.

Now the Shooters Hill one which was opened in 1905 has long closed  and the other at nu 2 Well Hall Road seems a pale shadow.

But the place will have a history and so I shall set myself the target of looking for its history.

And like you do I have wondered about when it was built and  turned to the Greenwich Heritage Centre who came up with a date between 1936-39.

"The only clues as to the date of the station I’ve found come from the electoral register and the ordnance survey map. The ordnance survey as revised in 1936 shows the site on which the station would come to be built as empty. 

Fortunately, it appears that when built there were three flats incorporated into the station - for married members of the force or possibly caretakers, I would imagine – which means that the police station, with its residents, was included in the electoral register. 

The first time it appears is in October 1939. So 1936-39 is as close as I can come to a date."

And that is just perfect.

And Garry Luttman has added "As an update Andrew, the front counter is now permanently closed. The building is still operational, but no one knows for how much longer. Most London boroughs now have only one centralised police station".


Location; Well Hall Road, Eltham, London

Picture; Eltham Police Station, Well Hall Road, 2015, from the collection of Elizabeth and Colin Fitzpatrick

*Greenwich Heritage Centre, http://www.greenwichheritage.org/site/index.php