The Great War - Housing the workers

A field of huts in Well Hall, Eltham

The wartime expansion of the Arsenal soon strained local housing capacity around Woolwich to the seams. In addition to several thousand single women to be housed, the Arsenal also employed up to 7,700 boys. Many lived with their parents, but 1,000 or more had been sent from homes far away. Whole families also waited to move to Woolwich; many spread roots in the area at this time, and their descendents remain today.

The Ministry of Munitions not only built huts and hostels by the thousand to house the workers, but also built a model estate that stands today, now a green and leafy suburban area; the Progress Estate, nearly 1,300 homes on a 100 acre site, would have taken about 3 years to build in peacetime. The Ministry managed it in just 9 months. Of the hostels, perhaps the most poignant was the boys' hostel on the Churchfield Estate. Five blocks held 750 boys. Pictured on the right, in a candid early-morning photo, the youngest looks about 13, yet these lads worked 62 hours a week in the Arsenal, mostly in making and filling small-arms cartridges. They typically earned slightly more than an adult "civilian" labourer, and to avoid temptation the hostels looked after their money, making regular reports to the boys' parents or guardians. Conditions in winter in the flimsy timber huts must have been apalling.

Hostels for adult men and women were also built in Abbey Wood, Plumstead, Belvedere and on either side of Archery Road in Eltham. The Ministry also constructed nearly 2,600 timber huts to house whole families - but they were less than imaginative when it came to naming the grids of roads that surrounded the hutments; "Torpedo Terrace", "Ammonal Avenue" and "Rifle Road" were typical.

The Ministry was also practically modern with regard to child-care. From 1917, they paid three-quarters of the initial cost of new nurseries for the children of workers, and an allowance of 7d per attendance. The Woolwich Nursery for the Children of Munitions Workers was opened in May 1917 in St Mary's Street; it is still open today in the same building, now known as Cyril Henry Nursery. It was painted (right) by Sir John Lavery, more famous for his formal regal and imperial portraits than this type of endearing scene. The Nursery was instigated by Julia, Lady Henry, in memory of her only son, Cyril, killed at the age of 22 at the Battle of Loos. He has no known grave.

Pubs like the Royal Mortar (far right) were popular with Ordnance workers of both sexes, but absenteeism due to over-indulgence was a real concern for the Ministry. Before the war, pubs in Woolwich were open for 19½ hours a day; after Licencing was introduced in London from October 1915, this was limited to 5½ hours a day. Spirits like Whisky, Gin and Rum, which used to be much stronger, were also diluted down to their present day strength.