Up to the late 18th century, the area that presently forms the commercial heart of Woolwich - south of Old Woolwich, around Powis Street, Beresford Square and General Gordon Square - was still largely rural, with a small cluster of cottages around Green’s End and Woolwich New Road. To the north and east of the future Powis Street were the Royal Ropeyard and some gardens. As the town was growing rapidly - from 6,500 in 1720 to almost 17,000 in 1811 - the need arose for a new town centre and the obvious location was the area south of the ropeyard.

In 1782, the Powis brothers - two Greenwich brewers - took a lease of 43 acres of these fields which were then part of the Bowater Estate. Shortly afterwards a road was laid out here. It connected Green’s End and the parish church of St Mary Magdalene, providing an alternative to the High Street.

As the lease that the Powis brothers took out was only for 22 years, the land was not profitable for development and, apart from the road, very little happened until 1799, when a 99-year development lease was signed. Plans were made to fill in the entire area of 43 acres with streets and houses. In less than 30 years the project was completed, giving Woolwich a municipal precinct (the area now called Bathway Quarter), and a new shopping precinct - the Powis Street and Hare Street areas.

By 1810 there were 141 houses in Powis Street but the long period of peace after the Battle of Waterloo brought hardship and population decline. From the beginning there were shops in Powis Street and there were also several chapels, a Freemasons’ hall, a theatre and a number of pubs, two of which, the Shakespeare and the Star & Garter, were owned by the Powis brothers.



Powis Street as a dirt road, from the east (1783). Artist: Paul Sandby (click image to enlarge)


In 1827 Henry Hudson Church was born in Powis Street and he became a prominent Woolwich architect and surveyor. In the early 1860s he laid out new streets in the area. In the 1890s Church was also responsible for the rebuilding of most of the commercial buildings in Powis Street. By 1902, Powis Street had been more or less rebuilt, unified to some extent by the prominent role of Church. Around 1890, 75% of the buildings in Powis Street were commercial. The west end of the street had remained largely residential but that changed when the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society started its expansion here at the beginning of the new century.

From the early 1880s until 1908 trams ran along Powis Street.

By 1902, most buildings were now three or more storeys high with shops on the ground floor and tenants living above.

The freehold of the Powis estate, since 1812 in the hands of the Ogilby family, was passed on. Many of the leases given out in 1898 had been for sixty years - hence another round of redevelopment took place in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Cuffs in 1956 rebuilt in a modernist style. Others followed and ornate Victorian shops were replaced by modern blocks. Some smaller shops were not able to pay the higher rents and were replaced by chain stores.

The closure of the Royal Ordnance Factory in 1967 and the Siemens factory in 1968 proved to be a turning-point for Woolwich and decline set in. In Powis Street the effects became notable in the 1970s and 80s. Garrets closed in 1972; Cuffs in 1983; the RACS stores in 1985. Amidst the decline, the United Kingdom’s first branch of McDonald’s opened in Powis Street in 1974. Partial pedestrianisation came in the early 1980s.

During the 2011 riots, several shops were looted and one was destroyed by arson.

With the regeneration of the Royal Arsenal and other parts of the town, the street has seen some improvement. Marks & Spencer however, left Powis Street in 2014 after more than a century in order to open an M&S food hall at the Royal Arsenal two years later.

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Main source:	Wikipedia
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