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12
Play Centre and Lido with its well-equipped swimming bath, tennis
courts and bowling greens.
In all, public open spaces amount to 11% of the total area
of the Borough, equivalent to approximately 5 acres per 1,000
of its population.
Besides Associations for rowing and barge sailing, the local
sports clubs include the famous Blackheath Football Club (the
oldest of all rugby football clubs) and the newer professional
Charlton Athletic Football Club.
More recently, social centres providing for all shades of cultural
and educational tastes have been established at Charlton House,
Kidbrooke House, the Town Hall and West Greenwich House under
the auspices of the Greenwich Community Council in conjunction
with the L.C.C. and, in this connection, it can be stated that there
are upwards of 65 clubs and societies affiliated to this Community
Council.
Fourteen " Old People's Clubs," each of which receives an
annual grant from the Council, cater for the elderly residents of the
Borough and in 5 instances accommodation for these clubs is made
available by the Council free of charge. The lot of the aged,
especially the " home-bound," is further ameliorated by an effective
" Meals-on-Wheels " service.
Within the Borough boundary over 200 units of accommodation
are provided for elderly people by seven groups of almshouses, one
group being founded as early as the Sixteenth Century.
In addition to the normal Health Services, Greenwich has
always been well furnished with schools and hospitals and it can
boast of modern baths and excellent library facilities.
Providing for the needs of the Borough residents are some
900 shops, generally of the smaller kind, many being of the oldfashioned
"shop on the corner " type, selling a wide range of goods.
Food shops form a large percentage of the total and whilst meat and
poultry come mainly from Smithfield Market in London and sometimes
directly from Kent and Surrey, the vegetables, for the most
part, are supplied either from the Borough's own market (which
obtains its products predominantly from the Kent area) or from the
Covent Garden and Borough markets in London.
Considerable alteration has taken place during the post-war
period by the erection of modern houses and blocks of flats and the
Borough Council, still pressing ahead with its new housing schemes,
has behind it a record of sound achievement.