ABOUT BALLAST QUAY
Panorama of Greenwich 1558 by Antonis Van Den Wyngaerde
The earliest known representation of East Greenwich in the year Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne.
The broad walkway of Highbridge where the courtiers lived is clearly drawn in the centre of this detail. East of Highbridge is a large building with two little gatehouse buildings behind it.
This could possibly be Old Court. Further east there are buildings which may be on Ballast Quay.
Courtesy of Greenwich Heritage Centre
The earliest known representation of East Greenwich in the year Elizabeth I succeeded to the throne.
The broad walkway of Highbridge where the courtiers lived is clearly drawn in the centre of this detail. East of Highbridge is a large building with two little gatehouse buildings behind it.
This could possibly be Old Court. Further east there are buildings which may be on Ballast Quay.
Courtesy of Greenwich Heritage Centre
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BALLAST QUAY, formerly Union Wharf, is a residential street in East Greenwich which borders directly on the Thames. The houses are late Georgian and early Victorian and the street has a fine bow fronted public house, the Cutty Sark Tavern, formerly the Union Tavern, which has been a feature for over 200 years. The trade in ballasting ships, which flourished here for many centuries, is reflected in the name of the street. Former residents also earned their living by fishing and boat building and working in maritime businesses, as well as on the wharves or lighters in the coal, steel and iron trades.
Most of the houses on Ballast Quay are Grade II listed and form a 
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group which includes the Cutty Sark Tavern and the Harbour
Master's Office. The cobbled road surface is also listed, being a rare survival of mid-Victorian granite setts. Today the street's residents all share the use of a communal riverside garden created in the 1960s from a derelict industrial wharf. It is a tranquil place of natural beauty with views up and down the river, an oasis of greenery reclaimed from the concrete of post-industrial dockland with a lot of help from a few dedicated resident gardeners, who shared a common vision of bringing nature back to the urban environment. 
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