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15
Play Centre and Lido with its well-equipped open-air swimming
bath, tennis courts and bowling greens.
In all, public open spaces amount to 11 per cent of the total
area of the Borough, equivalent to approximately five acres per
1,000 of its population.
Areas located near the River Thames are, generally speaking,
industrial but more densely populated than the upper parts of the
Borough. In recent years, however, the commencement of a gradual
movement of people away from the river-side has been witnessed,
and the Kidbrooke area, which pre-war had always been described
as the "rural" part of the Borough, is almost entirely built over.
Housing has always been given a high degree of priority by
the Borough Council from shortly after the first World War when,
under the Housing and Town Planning Act, 1919, a number of
large houses in the Blackheath area were acquired and converted
into flats, to the present time when the Council have control of
approximately one sixth of the total dwellings in the Borough. The
earliest Council-built permanent dwellings were located in the
Charlton area but today their flats and houses are situated in all
parts of the Borough. In fact 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.
In addition, a number of sizeable estates have been built by
the London County Council at Blackheath and Kidbrooke and in
East and West Greenwich.
Within the Borough boundary over 200 units of accommodation
are provided for elderly people by seven groups of almshouses,
one group was founded as early as 1558 being the first public
charity to be established after the Reformation.
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 Greenwich market (which
obtains its produce predominantly from the Kent area) or from
the Covent Garden and Borough markets in London.
From its inception as a Borough, Greenwich has always been
in the forefront of progressive health authorities and now within
its area all aspects of health, personal and environmental, are