IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Craigton Road, LONDON, SE9 1QF

The whole of the ground floor of this building on Well Hall Road is used by the Co-Operative movement: foodstore at the right hand end, funeral directors at the left. Viewed from the Pleasaunce.

Whilst on the bus heading for a photography shoot at Eltham Palace, I got lucky and managed to grab a few of the classic cars participating in the annual London to Brighton Classic Car Run on Well Hall Road. This is a shot of a 1969 Rover P5B and a Porsche 911 passing the Well Hall Pleasaunce shortly before Eltham railway station on Well Hall Road, taken from the top deck of a 132 bus heading towards Bexleyheath Shopping Centre looking south-southeast.

One of the entrances into the Well Hall Pleasaunce as seen from Well Hall Road (i.e. the A205). The C14th word Pleasaunce is derived from the old French word plaisance and is also associated with the French verb plaisir = to please. It has become used as an English noun, meaning a secluded part of a garden laid out with trees, walks, etc, something that this particular pleasaunce is, in part.

This newsagent's shop occupies the southern end of a long and elegant Art Deco parade of shops on Well Hall Road. There is a cycle rack outside.

This colourful display is one of the best-known features of Well Hall Pleasaunce as it is right next to Well Hall Road, from where the photograph was taken.

Eltham has a good range of shops, but they are strung out along the main roads leading away from the parish church, rather than there being one "shopping centre". The nearest one here, on the corner of Well Hall Road and Dunvegan Road, was as of 2011 a pharmacy, but was once a post office, as still shown on maps and evidenced by the postbox outside. It has ghost sign on the wall but I could not decipher it. Beyond are a clothes shop, convenience store, fish & chip shop and estate agent.

Well Hall Pleasaunce dates back to the 13th century. It contained a Manor House at the time of Henry VIII and more recently was the home of the author of The Railway Children Edith Nesbit. The Manor House has gone, although the moat survives as does The Tudor Barn seen here which was built around 1525 by William Roper, son in law of Sir Thomas More. It is now a restaurant while the rest of Well Hall Pleasaunce has also recently undergone an extensive makeover. The Pleasaunce consists of a series of formal gardens, ponds and woodland, as well as the moat and Tudor Barn..