Green Man, Blackheath

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Exterior, c.1850
Exterior, date unknown
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Venue Type & Location

Tavern

Site Name: Green Man, Blackheath
Location: London
County: London (city-county)
Location Type: Town - in town at determined location

Overview

  • Address: Blackheath Hill, Blackheath, Lewisham. For a current map,
    Click Here.



  • Alternate Names: Green Man Hotel



  • Audience Composition: Edward Walford notes that the inn was “well known to holiday-makers” (reproduced at British History Online). Other than this small detail, no information about audiences at the Green Man has yet been located.



  • Performance Space Description: Contemporary images suggest that the Green Man was a rather simple, rectangular edifice that stretched three storeys high (at its tallest point). The front of the building was adorned by bay windows, and by a small overhang jutting out from the central entranceway. Details about the performance space within the venue are still being sought.



  • Typical Fare: The ‘Ideal Homes’ site indicates that the Green Man was both “an important staging post in the Dover Road” and “a meeting place for many official and unofficial bodies”. The building was also theatrically licensed (according to Diana Howard) between 1850 and 1902. For a listing of blackface/minstrelsy-related events that took place in this performance space (with attached bibliographic references), follow the links at right.


    • Performance History

  • The Green Man seems to have been erected during the 17th Century. It flourished for sometime thereafter; in fact, Walford calls it the area’s “principal inn” in 1878 (reproduced at British History Online).



  • Some uncertainty surrounds the building’s ultimate fate. While the ‘Ideal Homes’ site claims that the inn was renovated in the 1860s and then demolished a decade later, Howard suggests that it was still licensed until 1902. Likewise, in his ‘website book’ The Blackheath Connection, Dan Byrnes notes that the Green Man was not taken down until 1970.
    Please see the 'Bibliographic Sources' link at right for a complete listing of materials (both primary and secondary) from which the above information was compiled.


    Beth Marquis

    • Troupes at Green Man, Blackheath

    Troupe Troupe Type # of events
    Beyadere and Female Serenaders Minstrel 1
    Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48) Minstrel 1

    Events at Green Man, Blackheath

    Event Date Venue Location Troupe
    Minstrel Show 12 June 1846 - 12 June 1846 London, London (city-county) Ethiopian Serenaders (1846-48)
    Minstrel Show 25 May 1847 - 25 May 1847 London, London (city-county) Beyadere and Female Serenaders

    Bibliographic Sources

    • Byrnes, Dan. The Blackheath Connection. A website book. 03/23/2008 (http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/article1.htm)
    • Dictionary of Victorian London Online. 07/27/2008 (http://www.victorianlondon.org/)

      (Under Entertainment - Drinking & Drugs - Public House - Inns of Old London)

    • Howard, Diana. London Theatres and Music Halls 1850-1950. London: The Library Association, 1970.
    • Ideal Homes: Suburbia in Focus Website. 03/23/2008 (http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/index1a.html)
    • Observer (London) June 7, 1846: 1 (3rd relevant ad).
      Info in Record:
      • description/décor/performance environment (suggested in ticket info)
      Document Scan
    • Walford, Edward. Old and New London Vol. 6 (1878). Reproduced at British History Online. 03/23/2008 (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/source.aspx?pubid=344)

      Chapter 17.