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.
Powis Street
The area that presently forms the commercial heart of Woolwich - south of Old Woolwich, around Powis Street, Beresford Square and General Gordon Square - was still largely rural, with a small cluster of cottages around Green's End and the so-called New Road (Woolwich New Road). To the north and east of the future Powis Street were the Royal Ropeyard and some gardens; to the south and west lay virgin land. As the town was growing rapidly - from 6,500 in 1720 to almost 17,000 in 1811 - the need arose for a new town centre and the obvious location was the area south of the ropeyard, more or less between the old town and the main entrance of the Arsenal.