Charlton is an area in south-east London, in the London Borough of Greenwich, located between Greenwich and Woolwich. The core of the area is The Village, which is on a hillside overlooking the River Thames. Suburban sprawl has led to the name New Charlton being applied to a large area reaching down to the south bank of the river, roughly where the Thames Barrier crosses the river, although the barrier itself is located at Woolwich Reach. According to Daniel Lysons' Environs of London, Charlton - previously also known as Cerleton, or Ceorleton - takes its name from the Saxon word ceorle, meaning a husbandman or farmer. At one time, Charlton enjoyed a somewhat sordid reputation. In the 1720s, it was described by Daniel Defoe:

"Charleton, a village famous, or rather infamous for the yearly collected rabble of mad-people, at Horn-Fair; the rudeness of which I cannot but think, is such as ought to be suppressed, and indeed in a civiliz'd well govern'd nation, it may well be said to be unsufferable. The mob indeed at that time take all kinds of liberties, and the women are especially impudent for that day; as if it was a day that justify'd the giving themselves a loose to all manner of indecency and immodesty, without any reproach, or without suffering the censure which such behaviour would deserve at another time." (from A Tour through Great Britain)

Apart from the Barrier, the area's other most notable feature is Charlton House, a Jacobean mansion by architect John Thorpe, built for Sir Adam Newton between 1607 and 1612. Sir Adam was tutor to Prince Henry, son of King James I of England, and was also responsible for building nearby St Luke's Church — burial place of Spencer Perceval (1762-1812), the only British Prime Minister to be assassinated, and of murdered civil servant Edward Drummond. On the northern edge of the garden of Charlton House is a mulberry tree planted in 1608 by order of King James in an effort to cultivate silkworms. More on Charlton 

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