History
The area was once known as Spike Island after the workhouse that was situated there. The area is mainly residential although there is a large industrial bakery in Belmont Road. Much of the housing stock is Victorian with some 1940's council developments and a Cottage estate built for local Vickers armaments workers in 1916. Nearest Railway stations are Erith and Barnehurst. There is a large Catholic church in Bexley Road (Our Lady of the Angels) with a friary attached, and a Church of England (St Paul's) in Mill Road. A conservation area on Brook Street safeguards some terraces that represent early examples of municipal housing.
Read more about this topic: Northumberland Heath
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“All history is a record of the power of minorities, and of minorities of one.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)