Housing plans at Abbey Wood pub site
Consultation is underway on plans to build new homes to the rear of the Abbey Arms pub beside Abbey Wood station.
In welcome news the pub itself would stay (this wasn’t a given) with an adjacent commercial unit built. Homes would be on the rear garden
That means the pub will avoid the fate of nearby Harrow Inn which stood for 150 years until demolition in 2009.
That site is still vacant sixteen years on.
In the recent past the garden has been covered over. That weeping willow tree above has also been removed though that was Network Rail’s doing.
Pub operator
A total of 38 flats are proposed at this stage. The development’s site states the current pub tenant will remain and that “we are hosting a public exhibition on 20th March 2025 between 3pm and 7:30pm at the Abbey Community Centre, where you can speak to the project team and provide your feedback on our proposals.”
I presume they mean Abbey Wood Community Centre on Knee Hill beside the former post office where another development is now rising.
Uplift Developments are behind the proposal. A timescale given states an application submitted this summer, a decision this winter and start on site autumn/winter 2026.
The area around this site badly needs a joined up plan from Greenwich. Currently you have 4 separate access roads off Wilton Road to TfL parking, the pub car park, the telephone exchange, and an MOT site, as well as the Abbey Alley. All are potential development sites.
Piecemeal development like this will mean space is wasted on vehicle access while a great public amenity like the Abbey Arms pub garden is lost.
If the whole area shared access routes and hid parking under a co-ordinated mixed use (even high rise) development, you could build a lot more homes and save all of the pub garden, perhaps even creating a more attractive route through the Abbey Alley or safeguarding land for a Western entrance to the station.
Assuming such a plan doesn’t come forward, it would would be easy for the developer to add an extra storey to this, turn the ground floor into covered car parking and have the space freed up as a larger pub garden.