Woolwich
The civil parish of Woolwich, roughly the area of the present-day wards Woolwich Riverside and Woolwich Common, was formerly known as Woolwich Saint Mary. Until 1842, when the Old Town Hall was built, the vestry met in a room in the parish church of St Mary Magdalene. Woolwich became part of the London metropolitan area in the mid-19th century, although was officially still in Kent at the time. In 1889, with the formation of London County Council, Woolwich became officially part of London. In 1900 the parishes of Woolwich, Eltham and Plumstead formed the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. In 1906 the new Woolwich Town Hall was inaugurated. In April 1965, following implementation of the London Government Act 1963, Woolwich was merged into the London Borough of Greenwich, since 2012 the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The administrative buildings of the borough are in Woolwich.
North Woolwich railway station
The station opened on 14 June 1847 as the southern terminus of the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway from Stratford. The service was later extended beyond Stratford to Palace Gates. In 1963 diesel traction replaced steam and the service was cut back to Stratford with peak-hour trains to Tottenham Hale. The route became an extension of the North London Line in 1979. From the 1980s onward, only one track of the double track line was used through the Connaught Tunnel under the Royal Docks and on to North Woolwich, where the station building and a platform were closed and replaced by a minimalist entrance and passenger shelter on the south side. In 1985 the line from North Woolwich was electrified on the third rail system under British Rail, with the service running round inner north London to (a route part-third rail and part-overhead wire). Prior to closure, the typical service frequency Monday to Saturday was every 30 minutes during the daytime, increasing to every 20 minutes in the evening and every 30 minutes all day Sunday.