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Biography

Neil Rhind is an authority on the social and historical development of Blackheath, and its residents, past and present and has been a vocal advocate for the preservation of its environmental qualities  since the 1970s.

Neil Biron Rhind (born Jan 9th, 1937) was born and has lived most of his life in Blackheath, London. He is the youngest of four siblings, Moray (dec), Claire (dec), and Alison born to Doris Pamela Rhind, and William Alexander, a naval officer. He married Elizabeth on the 3rd Sept 1960 and has two children. During the war Neil was evacuated and the siblings were separated for a time. He returned to Blackheath in 1951. He was educated at St Marylebone Grammar School.

From 1957-59 he served with the RAF in Air Traffic Control, mainly at Uxbridge.

From 1969, prompted by fierce local opposition to the Greater London Development Plan, 1969 ( London Ringways) and its adverse effect on Blackheath, he developed an interest in the social and architectural history of his home district, Blackheath and Greenwich.

He is a leading contributor to the architectural and social history of Blackheath and South East London through membership of local organisations like the Blackheath Society and the Blackheath Preservation Trust and through his books, photographic archive, walks and talks.

Career

He worked briefly as a librarian before joining the Odham Newnes Press where he worked as the Packaging Review Yearbook editor. From 1963 he was Assistant and then Managing Editor of the Good Food Guide, published by the Consumers' Association, working to Raymond Postgate.

In 1967 he became a freelance writer working as a Press Officer for the Consumers Association and Press Officer of the Greenwich Theatre, during and following its rebuilding and reopening. In 1969 he became Press Officer of the Blackheath Society.

Work on Blackheath History and Issues

Neil joined the Blackheath Society Committee in 1974 and succeeded Ken Bound as Chairman In September, 1993, resigning in May 1998. Since then he has collated an archive collection of over 15000 images Of Blackheath which are being digitized and made available online at www.blackheatharchives.org/. In 2016 he was appointed President of the Society.

In 1971 Neil joined the Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society (renamed The Greenwich Historical Society in 1991) and was elected to its Council in 1973. He succeeded Sir Leslie Monson as President in 1982, in turn being succeeded by Sir Robert Somerville in 1984. He gave two Presidential Addresses: ‘The Cator Estate and Blackheath: Some Sporting Myths’, and ‘Thoughts on Jack the Ripper, the Blackheath Connection’.

He was a leading contributor to the Blackheath Conservation Area Appraisal submitted to Lewisham Council in 2007.

He is a long-standing member of the Lewisham Local History Council, an advisory group set up by Lewisham Council and a member of the Greenwich Industrial History Society and the Lewisham Local History Society.

He was Director and Secretary of the Blackheath Preservation Trust from October 1972 until May 2001.

The Blackheath Preservation Trust was set up in 1938 to combat the demolition and destruction of buildings of architectural and historic merit. As Secretary, Neil was involved in the restoration of the Blackheath Art Club, Blackheath Halls, Blackheath Railway Station/Chapman House, Brigade House, Brooklands House, The Cedars, Eagle House (Lewisham), Martin House, Park Hall, Poplar Cottage, Vanbrugh Castle and The Woodlands. They remain important features of the local architectural and cultural landscape. His interest in the preservation trust movement led to a time as an advisor to the Vivat Trust.

As Secretary of the Blackheath Preservation Trust, Neil was central to the salvation and restoration of the Blackheath Halls. In 1977, the BPT bought the property when under threat of demolition by developers. The BPT retained the freehold until recently when it was acquired by Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Not all of Neil’s campaigns have been successful. As a supporter of NOGOE (No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events) his opposition to the use of an area of Blackheath just outside the Park gates, known as Circus Field, for the equestrian events failed.

Campaigners claimed that it would be unlawful for the London Borough of Greenwich to give planning permission from London 2012 to use the land because the enclosure of any part of the Heath, including Circus Field, would be contrary to the Metropolitan Commons Act 1866, which established the concept of metropolitan commons being available at all times for the benefit of members of the public. This argument was rejected  by the Borough of Greenwich.

He was President of the Greenwich & Lewisham Antiquarian Society (now the Greenwich Historical Society), Chairman of the Blackheath Schools of Art and Music Trust and founder of the Friends of Ranger’s House.

Neil was awarded an MBE in 1998 for services to the Preservation of the Historical Character of Blackheath.

He is an honorary life member of the Westcombe Society and a past Chairman of the London Borough of Lewisham Conservation Advisory Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in May 2005 and appointed an Honorary Fellow of the University of London, Goldsmith’s College for his work in the conservation and historic research of south east London.

Walks and Talks

Over many years, he has led walks in the Blackheath area demonstrating buildings of architectural or historical interest and given talks on local history.

1.      West Combe, 1984 walk – Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society

2.      ‘The Grand Axis – Greenwich Park to Blackheath’, walk, 19th and 20th Sept, 1998

3.      ‘The Meridian – from Ranger’s House to Belmont Hill’, walk, 19th and 20th Sept, 1998

4.      ‘Greenwich Park: The Early Years’, talk, 2002, Friends of Greenwich Park

5.      Unknown topic, talk, - Greenwich Industrial History Society, 20th January 2003.

6.      'William Webster, Builder of Crossness and the Thames Embankment', 16 May 2007, Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society AGM - St Bartholomew's Hospital Wednesday

7.      ‘The Soames Family of Blackheath’ - The Greenwich Historical Association - Wednesday 27th January 2010

8.      ‘P.C. Wren - a story of the French Foreign Legion’– Greenwich History Society’, talk, 23rd Nov, 2016

9.      ‘Jack the Ripper – the Blackheath Connection’ – talk, 1989, credited in   http://www.casebook.org/dissertations/dst-valentine.html

10.   ‘The Cator Estate and Blackheath: Some Sporting Myths’, talk, 1982-83, Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society

1.      ‘Thoughts on Jack the Ripper’, talk, 1983-84, Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society

2.       ‘The History of the Blackheath Football Club’, 1985, publication, Greenwich and Lewisham Antiquarian Society,

3.       ‘Transportation and the Blackheath Connection”, talk, 1991, Greenwich Historical Society.

4.       ‘Blackheath People and their Buildings’, talk, 1991, Lewisham Local History Society

5.       ‘P.C.Wren, a Lewisham teacher’, talk, 2007, Lewisham Local History Society

6.       ‘Blackheath’s Conservatoire of Music and the cultural complex ‘, talk, 2007, Conservatoire

7.       ‘Greenwich Revealed’ (with Julian Watson), talk, 2008, Lewisham Local History Society

8.       ‘Wyberton House, Lee Terrace – the Story of a Lee Mansion’, talk, 2010, Lewisham Local History Society

9.      ‘William Webster’, talk, Greenwich Industrial History Society

10.    ‘Scientists of Blackheath’, talk, Greenwich Industrial History Society

Written Work

1.       Sir John Gilbert, Art and Imagination in the Victorian Age, edited by Spike Bucklow and Sally Woodcock)

2.      The origins of the first semi-detached houses

3.       Roman remains in Greenwich Park

4.       ‘History of the Blackheath Football Club’, 1985,

5.       ‘Joseph Kay, the architect, and the re-development of Greenwich Town Centre in the 1830s’

6.       ‘Ideal Homes; A History of South East London Suburbs - Blackheath: A middle class estate of the 18th and early 19th centuries’

7.       ‘Merchant networks in the Pacific and the transportation of convicts to Australia’

8.       ‘The Good Duke Humphrey Tavern’

9.       ‘A History of the Cutty Sark Tavern’

10.    Old Ordnance Survey Maps of London - Alan Godfrey Maps – London Sheet 105.3 Blackheath 1914,

11.    William Wilberforce possible stay in Dartmouth Grove

12.    Blackheath Names: an index of the names of Blackheath people and their addresses, 1691-1940

Books and Articles

1.        ‘The consumer wakes up’ (Pergamon Press, 1968), ISBN 0080142087

2.        ‘Make me understand pregnancy and childbirth’

3.         ‘The Greenwich Theatre Book’ (with Hilary Evans)

4.         ‘Blackheath Centenary 1871-1971 – a short history of Blackheath from earliest times’

5.         ‘A Scottish painter and his world: Gordon Gunn’,

6.         ‘Martin House: A short history of the Blackheath Literary Institution’

7.         ‘Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol 1 – The Village and Blackheath Vale’,

8.         ‘Blackheath Village and Environs, Vol 2 – Wricklemarsh & the Cator Estate, Westcombe, Kidbrooke and the Angerstein Encroachment’

9.         ‘The Heath: a companion volume to Blackheath Village and Environs’

10.        ‘Blackheath Village & Environs, 1790-1990, Vol 1 – The Village and Blackheath Vale’,

11.        ‘The Paragon & South Row: 1794-1994 – Blackheath: A Triumph in 18th Century unintentional town planning’

12.        ‘2012 - Montagu House and the Pagoda’

13.        ‘Walking the Heath – An Introduction to its History’

14.        ‘Greenwich Revealed – an investigation into some early C18th line drawings of Greenwich’

15.        ‘Transportation and the Blackheath Connection’ - a study of a group of shipping merchants who lived around the Heath who had contracts for the transportation of convicts to Australia.

16.        Royal Blackheath. List of members of the Royal Blackheath Golf Club, 1766-1923