Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for LEE

LEE, a village, a parish, and a sub-district, in Lewisham district, Kent. The village stands on the rivulet Lee, near Lewisham and Blackheath r. stations, 1½ mile SSE of Greenwich; is a pleasant, salubrious, and picturesque place; and has a metropolitan police station, and a post office, ‡ under Lewisham, London SE. Both itself and its environs, within the parish, are a resort of merchants and wealthy families from the metropolis; and many handsome residences have been erected, since 1860, in Lee Park, Manor Park, and Lee Road. The parish comprises 1, 273 acres. Real property, £37, 952. Pop., in 1851, 3, 552; in 1861, 6, 162. Houses, 953. Lee Manor House, Lee House, Lee Grove, Lee Place, Lee Villa, and others are old mansions; a continuous line of new villas connects the village with Blackheath Park; and so very many other new villas and ornate cottages are disposed in terraces or lines that a large proportion of the parish may be pronounced a metropolitan suburb. The living is a rectory in the diocese of London. Value, £464.* Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The old church went to ruin; but the cemetery of it continues to be interesting, for containing several handsome monuments, one of which is to the Dacre family, and another to the astronomer Dr. E. Halley. A new church was built in 1842; but this was found, in a few years, to be too small for the increasing population, and was then taken down. The present church stands near the old one, in a beautiful situation with an extensive prospect; was erected at a cost of £8, 000; and is a handsome structure with a lofty spire. Two other churches, Christ Church and Holy Trinity, are within the parish; and serve for chapelries constituted in 1840 and 1863, and containing a pop. of respectively 2, 333 and 1, 100. The livings of them are p. curacies; the former in the patronage of the Rector, the latter in that of L. Glenton, Esq. Value of the former, £300;* of the latter, not reported * Christ Church stands in Lee Park; and is a neat structure, in the pointed style. Holy Trinity church was completed in 1864; is cruciform, in the early English style, of Kentish rag with Bath stone dressings; has an external staircase turret, surmounted by an openwork oak bell turret and shingled spire; and presents a somewhat novel yet heavy appearance. There are chapels for Baptists and Wesleyans; a well conducted proprietary school; national and infant schools; thirty good alms houses, for the wives of freemen of the Merchant Tailors' company; alms houses, with endowed income of £71, founded by and T. Boone; and other charities £62.—The sub-district contains Kidbrook liberty, and the part of Lewisham parish lying N, NE, and NW of Plough-Bridge. Acres, 2, 399. Pop. in 1851, 8, 478; in 1861, 11, 807. Houses, 1,876.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Lee CP/AP       Lee SubD       Lewisham RegD/PLU       Kent AncC
Place: Lee

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