Greenwich locals fear community break-up as house prices soar

Families in a borough have seen their neighbours pushed out of the area by soaring house prices, while others are forced to “sleep out and beg” next to new luxury developments in the leafy parts of town.

The divides in Greenwich are stark. On one side, there’s the beautiful riverfront town near Cutty Sark and the Old Royal Naval College. 

But in the north and east of the borough, the streets are run down and fighting to shake off a history of crime.

Yet despite the mixed standards of living, house prices in the borough are still sharply rising. 

Homes in Greenwich have been listed for an average price of £666,429 over the past year, according to Rightmove data. 

This has forced some families out of the town – and made life harder for many.

A long-standing business of Greenwich Park is The Junk Shop in Greenwich South Street, owned by Tobias Benjamin Decrespingy Moy. 

The owner said: “My family have been here since the 1950s. I think we’re one of the longest running family businesses [in Greenwich Park]. My grandmother worked with my parents, and then me and my brother, and now me and my stepson.”

Open since 1967, the shop owner said more office workers moving to the area was “inevitable”. Mr Moy feels that the new Elizabeth Line in particular has attracted a lot of people to Woolwich.

“Those areas were seen more as little villages around London, but they’ve become part of London,” he said.

“We were Kent back in the 1960s. Now we’ve turned into London and now the Royal Borough of London.”

Last September, Greenwich council revealed plans to redesign Beresford Square with terraced seating, an immersive garden and dedicated pavement for the market. 

Leanne Thomas, who runs The Bull tavern in Vincent Road, has lived in Woolwich her whole life and feels a community feeling is also prevalent in the area. 

Ms Thomas said: “The community is like a family. Everyone knows each other, everyone looks out for each other.”

The local said she is worried about the plans for the area, saying that the building for her pub is planned to be knocked down as part of the new leisure centre development.

Ms Thomas said: “You can feel the divide from the minute you go over there so I can see why they want to now bring it over this side, but it feels like they’re pushing us out, the original Woolwich.

“And obviously with all the new train lines and everything, people are going to want to live here so they can commute into London, but where are we going to go?”

Councillor Hyland said that Greenwich council is determined to remove the divide between areas that may have stereotypes of wealth or poverty. 

She said: “We’re doing everything we can to try and make ‘Woolwich-by-the-Thames’, if you like, one town. Rather than having, ‘the rich live over there and the poor over this side of the main road.’ It’s really important that that doesn’t happen.”

Pictured top: Leanne Thomas at The Bull Tavern in Woolwich (Picture: Joe Coughlan)