The town centre has been modernised with further dwellings added since 1961. The curved riverside high street has threelisted buildings, including theChurch of England church and the Carnegie Building. Erith otherwise consists mainly of suburban housing. It is linked to central London and Kent byrail and toThamesmead by a dual carriageway. It has the longest pier in London,[2] and retains a coastal environment withsalt marshes alongside industrial land.
The museum's work at the former site of Erith School in Belmont Road revealed traces of prehistoric settlement and a substantial community or farmstead in the first century CE.[4]
After the collapse ofRoman rule in the early 5th century, Britain was colonised byAnglo-Saxon invaders from northern Europe. TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle records that they won theBattle of Crecganford (thought to be modernCrayford) in 457 and shortly after claimed the whole ofKent. Their different way of life was reflected in their settlement pattern. The town and country estates of Roman bureaucrats gave way to a network of villages occupied by warriors and farmers. Erith was one such and has a Saxon name, originallyÆrre hyðe meaning "old haven".[5]
There was probably a church on the site of the present St John the Baptist's in the Anglo-Saxon period.[6] The early settlement was based around it, meaning that the centre of Erith was once west of its current location.
The earliest written reference to the area is in a Latin charter of 695, recording a grant by the Bishop of the East Saxons of land at Erith. The surrounding area was known as Lesnes or Lessness, which is mentioned in theDomesday Book of 1086. After theNorman Conquest, Lessness passed into the possession ofBishop Odo.[7] In 1315, aRoyal Charter was granted for a market to be held in Erith every Thursday, but it was noted in 1776 that the market was long discontinued.[8]
Erith owes its existence to the Thames, and was until the 1850s essentially a small riverside port, given prominence byKing Henry VIII's decision to open a naval dockyard there, approximately where the Riverside Gardens are now. Henry's famous warship,Henri Grace à Dieu, was fitted out there in 1515.[9]
After the death ofGeorge Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1538, Erith "alias Lysnes" was granted to his widow, Elizabeth, by Henry VIII "with all its members and appurtenances, to hold in capite, by knight's service."[10]
Erith remained a popular anchorage until the 19th century. Ships often discharged cargo there to reduce theirdisplacement before entering shallows upstream.
In 1797Edward Hasted described Erith as "one small street of houses, which leads to the water side", and mentions annual fairs atAscension andMichaelmas.[11] In 1831 Erith's population was 1,533. It was composed in 1840 "chiefly of two streets, one leading down to the water side, the other branching off to the left towards the church."[12]
28 and 30 Erith High Street, a building with eighteenth-century origins in Erith.
By 1849 Erith was enjoying a short spell as a riverside resort. Its pier and nearby hotel gave hospitality forday-trippers arriving on Thames pleasure boats or by rail.[9] Anarboretum with extensive pleasure grounds was opened to attract visitors.[13]
Erith Iron Works was established in 1864 on a riverside site at Anchor Bay, east of Erith's centre, byWilliam Anderson.[14]
On 1 October 1864 a 46½-tongunpowder explosion blew out the river wall, exposing large areas of South London to flooding at high tide. A crowd of navvies and soldiers directed by a local engineer managed to plug the gap just before high water.[15]
From 1881 an area north-west of Erith's centre was the site of a cable works founded by William Callender. This becameBritish Insulated Callender's Cables (BICC) and eventuallyPirelli, which announced its partial closure in 2003. The remainder becamePrysmian.
Erith's first library, designed by local architect William Egerton and funded by philanthropistAndrew Carnegie, opened in 1906.[16]
Engineering became an important industry in Erith, with armaments and cables as the main products.Vickers was a major employer, with links to theRoyal Arsenal at nearbyWoolwich.[9]
'The De Luci' 'dancing fish' mosaic statue at the roundabout in the town centre designed and created by artistGary Drostle in 2006
During theFirst World War Erith was an important area for the manufacture of guns and ammunition, largely due to the presence of the largeVickers works. In theSecond World War, the town suffered heavy bomb damage, mainly because of its riverside position near the Royal Arsenal. The bomb damage and a gradual decline in local trade prompted major redevelopment in the 1960s.[9]
Riverside Shopping Centre
In 1961, Erith began to be redeveloped as a modern shopping and working environment, through the clearing of sub-standard housing by the riverside and alterations to the street layout. Some of the new buildings, such as thesocial housingtower blocks, have abrutalist form typical ofoverspill estates built by councils in major cities as an affordable way to clear the slums.[17]
TheWhite Hart in Erith featuring Thames Barge mural by Gary Drostle.
Demolition of the old town started in 1966 and continued in phases until 1980, leaving only a few reminders of the old town centre. Many of the originalVictorian buildings were lost, but some original townscape remains, including theWhite Hart in the High Street and St John's Church in West Street.[9]
Riverside apartment blocks, just east of Erith town centre
Since the late 1990s Erith has undergone marked changes, culminating in the Erith Western Thames Gateway project.[18] The regeneration falls within the remit of the Thames Gateway project, with Erith as a focus forBexley Council, as its only population centre on theRiver Thames.[19] Since 2000 a significant number of new flats have been built on the river by private developers. The Erith Western Gateway will include riverside flats,[20] and is expected to include the regeneration of a large underused area of the town centre, earmarked by Bexley Council for a mixed-use development with up to 6,000 sq. m of new commercial space and over 500 new homes.[20]
In 2020, local campaigners secured National Lottery funding to restore the former library building as new community facilities.[21]
The population of Erith is 62% White British, according to the 2011 census, down from 82% in 2001 and 89% in 1991. The second highest ethnicity is Black African, at 14%.[22]
The median house price in Erith ward was £181,000 in 2014, the third lowest of the 628 wards in Greater London, with only neighbouringBelvedere and the Abbey ward ofBarking and Dagenham having lower prices.[23]
Much of Erith is in the Erith ward of theLondon Borough of Bexley. The local councillors are Joe Ferreira and Nicola Taylor (both Labour).[24] The eastern part of Erith is inNorth End ward and the southern part inColyers ward.
The annual Erith Riverside Festival is held in Riverside Gardens alongside the Thames.[29] Erith is the starting point for theLondon Outer Orbital Path (LOOP) and one starting point for the Green Chain Walk.[30] The Thames Path National Trail,[31] which runs to the source of the River Thames atKemble, begins at nearby Crayford Ness.
Sir William Anderson (1834–1898), engineer and philanthropist, lived in Erith from 1864 until 1889 and contributed substantial time and money to the local community.[35]
Tony Brise (1952–1975), motor-racing driver, was born in Erith.[36]
Linda Smith (1958–2006), comedian and writer, came from Erith.[49] Smith famously joked that Erith was not twinned with any town but had a suicide pact withDagenham.
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