Blackheath, London, England

Blackheath is a place in London, England in the London Borough of Lewisham, whose name derives from the dark colour of the soil, and not, as was popularly believed for many years, from the burial of victims of the Black Death on the heath in the 14th century.

Settled by Romans as a stopping point on Watling Street, Blackheath was also a rallying point for Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Cornish rebels were defeated at the Battle of Blackheath Field in 1497.

Blackheath is perhaps most famous as the home of the Blackheath Football Club, founded in 1858, which was the first Rugby club in the world without restricted membership. It is also well known as the start point of the London Marathon and has strong associations with the campaign for womens' suffrage - the suffragette movement.

• James Callaghan, British Prime Minister 1976-1979, lived at Blackheath in the 1950s and 1960s.
• James Glaisher (1809-1903), who pioneered modern weather forecasting techniques, lived in Dartmouth Row.
• Sir James Clark Ross, who in 1831 located the magnetic north-pole, and whom after the Ross Island and Ross sea are named, lived on Eliot Place.
• Montague John Druitt, for many years a popular suspect in the Jack the Ripper murders, lived in Blackheath during the 1880s.

Nearest places:

• Greenwich
• Kidbrooke
• Deptford
• Catford
• Crofton
• Brockley

Nearest railway stations:

• Blackheath
• Greenwich[?]
• Lee[?]
• Lewisham[?]
• Maze Hill[?]