Alfred the Great’s daughter gave the Manor of Lewisham to an abbey in Belgium in 918. Ownership presumably soon reverted to England. The area was mainly farmland. Lewisham High Street was quite a fashionable place to live in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Ravensbourne River ran through Lewisham and for some reason had a collection of watermills on its banks producing various metals. The Domesday Book lists eleven mills even at that time. Riverdale Mill, which was constructed in 1828, is the only mill which survives, and gave its name to the Riverdale shopping centre where it forms the focal point of an office development. The arrival of the railways in 1849 led to comprehensive development of the Lewisham area with terraces of houses and shops. It became a middle-class suburb in the 19th century, but deteriorated badly during the 20th century.

The closer to Blackheath, the more desirable the properties. Quentin Road, Dacre Park and Eden Grove contain large period houses in keeping with their more prestigious neighbour to the north. There are also Edwardian houses along Belmont Hill. South of Lee High Road there are terraced houses in streets such as Limes Grove and Gilmore Road. In the north of Lewisham, the houses are mainly 20th-century developments. But the area of St John’s, a conservation area, contains attractive small terraced properties in the streets around St John’s Railway Station such as St John’s Vale, Albion Road and streets off it. Tanners Hill contains council blocks. The streets between Loampit Hill and Hilly Fields, a little arc to the south, contain Victorian houses in the Gothic style. These are to be found in Shelbourne Road and surrounding streets. South of these streets Vicars Hill and Adelaide Avenue run round Hilly Fields Park. Vicars Hill contains Victorian semi-detached houses and Adelaide Avenue has attractive terraced houses. West of Hilly Fields is the Brockley Conservation Area with a variety of Victorian houses in attractive streets leading to Brockley Road, such as Breakspears Road and Wickham Road and connected streets.