Anchor Iron Wharf
In 964 King Edgar granted this land to the abbey of St Peters in Ghent, Flanders. Henry V
re-posessed it in 1414. After the English Civil War Charles II granted the land to Sir William
Boreman in 1676. He was clerk to the board of Green Cloth and involved with the design of
Greenwich Park. He also founded Green Coat School. In 1695 his widow sold the estate
of Old Court Manor to Sir John Morden. He had already built Morden College in
1695 to accommodate merchants who had lost their estates by accidents
and perils of the seas.
In 1705 Sir Ambrose Crowley, an iron-maker, moved to a riverside
mansion which he renamed Crowley House and built
Crowley’s Wharf. In 1953 Charles Robinson moved his
premises to what became Anchor Iron &
Crowley’s Wharf. The principal
cargoes were scrap iron, lead
ingots, metal and glass.