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housing can come only from clearance of sub-standard houses and
redevelopment in areas such as St. Mary's, Glyndon, Lewisham
Road, Maryon Road, etc.
Housing in the Borough is not only provided by the Council,
the G.L.C. and private enterprises but also by a number of other
agencies which serve special classes of citizens, i.e. the aged,
widows, elderly spinsters, and widowers, etc. Organisations such
as the Greenwich Housing Society provide assistance in the housing
of elderly people not likely to qualify for such help from the local
authority and over 200 units of accommodation for aged persons
are furnished by ten groups of almshouses one of which was
founded as early as 1558, being the first public charity to be established
after the reformation.
Although the future housing problem is monumental there is
no doubt that it will be tackled by the Council in a manner as firm
and resolute as has been demonstrated in previous years.
Providing for the needs of Borough residents there are, at the
present time, more than 2,000 shops, generally of the smaller kind,
many being of the old-fashioned 'shop on the corner' type selling
a wide range of goods. However, this situation is changing.
Possibly contrary to the interests of many sections of the public,
town planning is demanding concentration of traders into 'shopping
centres' which tend to be dominated by big combines. Of the existing
shops, a large percentage are food establishments to which
supplies of meat and poultry come mainly from Smithfield Market
and sometimes directly from Kent and Surrey. Fruit and vegetables,
for the most part, arrive from Kent or from the Covent Garden,
Borough, Greenwich or Spitalfields Markets. The rights of a
flourishing daily open-air market in Beresford Square mainly for
the sale of meat, fish and poultry, are vested in the Council and
date from the reign of James I. A 'new market', under cover, in
Plumstead Road, is also a popular centre for the daily and weekend
shoppers of south-east London.
Full time supervision is afforded by the Borough's Food
Inspectors to the private slaughterhouse at Woodlands Farm,
Garland Road, one of the most up-to-date and busiest abattoirs
in the Metropolitan area.
Both the previous local councils, now united in the London
Borough of Greenwich, had always been in the forefront of
progressive health authorities and within the new area all aspects
of health and welfare, both personal and environmental, are amply
covered. These range from the normal maternity, child welfare
and school health services, to the usual general practitioner and
hospital services, and from the useful municipally-run chiropody