The cottages date from 1801 and were sited on an existing lane to a large house called ’East Lodge’ which stood beside the river. The land had been owned by George Russell who was a London soap manufacturer with works near to Blackfriars Bridge. William Johnson of Bromley in Kent had patented a new design of tide mill - a mill powered by the tide. In 1801, Johnson met Russell who agreed to finance the mill. As a result, construction of the mill and the workers’ cottages of Ceylon Place began. Ceylon had recently become part of British jurisdiction. The road gained the name but the cottages were called River Terrace.

The ’Pilot’ public house also came onto the scene. It is almost certainly named after the politician William Pitt who was described in a contemporary song as "The Pilot who weathered the storm".

For nigh on one hundred years, the cottages, mill and the big house with gardens were bordered by six acres of millponds with meadows beyond. To the north the Greenwich Peninsular industrialised.

Around 1900, extensions were built on the back of the cottages eating into their garden. Meanwhile East Lodge - home of the Davies sisters - was demolished.

The mill became a chemical works, itself replaced by a power station. On the meadows behind, a steel works was built. This in turn left the scene, leaving the old cottages and the pub. Most of River Terrace - the cottages beyond the terrace next to the pub and leading to the river - was demolished. All around, everything has changed with the redevelopment south of the O2 Millennium Dome.

But Ceylon Place clings onto life.