Map 1. The three current Eltham electoral wards (green), in the Eltham constituency (yellow) within the Royal Borough of Greenwich (light grey)

Eltham (/ˈɛltəm/ EL-təm) is a district of southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. It is 8.7 miles (14.0 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross, and is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.[2] The three wards of Eltham North, South and West have a total population of 35,459.[1] 88,000 people live in Eltham.

History

Origins

Eltham developed along part of the road from London to Maidstone, and lies 3 miles (4.8 km) almost due south of Woolwich. Mottingham, to the south, became part of the parish on the abolition of all extra-parochial areas, which were rare anomalies in the parish system. Eltham College and other parts of Mottingham were therefore not within Eltham's boundaries, even before the 1860s.[citation needed]

From the sixth century Eltham was in the ancient Lathe of Sutton at Hone. In the Domesday Book of 1086 its hundred was named Gren[u/v]iz (Greenwich), which by 1166 was renamed Blachehedfeld (Blackheath) because it had become the location of the annual or more frequent hundred gathering.

By the 1880s the lathes and hundreds of Kent had become obsolete, with the civil parishes and other districts assuming modern governmental functions.

Eltham was a civil parish of Kent until 1889 when it became part of the County of London[citation needed] and from 1900 formed part of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. The metropolitan borough was abolished in 1965 and Eltham then became part of the then London (now Royal) Borough of Greenwich.

Eltham today is one of the largest suburban developments in the borough with a population of almost 88,000 people.[citation needed]