page_title: Lewisham
section_title: Commercial area and amenities
hierarchical_section_title: Lewisham / Commercial area and amenities
caption_attribution_description: English: The Riverside Building at University Hospital Lewisham, London, UK.
context_page_description: Lewisham is an area of south east London, England, 5.9 miles south of Charing Cross. It is the principal area of the London Borough of Lewisham, and is also within the historic county of Kent. It is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Lewisham had a population of 60,573 in 2011.
  Lewisham was a small village until the development of passenger railways in the 19th century.
context_section_description: Lewisham's commercial area is one of the largest in south-east London. Lewisham Shopping Centre, opened in 1977, has 70 stores and is over 330,000 square feet. Shops include Marks & Spencer, W H Smith, Sainsbury's, H&M, TK Maxx, JD Sports, SportsDirect.com, Argos and Boots. The centre is between Molesworth Street (a dual carriageway section of the A21) and Lewisham High Street. Lewisham Market and the Central Library are outside the shopping centre in the High Street. Also part of the complex is the Lewisham House office tower, the tallest building in the borough and formerly occupied by Citibank. There are proposals to convert this brutalist skyscraper to flats.
  Lewisham has a bowling alley and the Glassmill Swimming pool and Gym.
  Lewisham has a number of parks, such as Hilly Fields and Lewisham Park.
  For 14 years between 2001 and 2015, Lewisham was the only London Borough not to have a cinema. Lewisham once had many cinemas, such as the Lewisham Odeon. In 1930 there were 30 venues showing films. As of 2019, there are three cinemas in the borough: Deptford Cinema; Curzon Goldsmiths, located inside the campus of Goldsmiths College in New Cross; and Catford Mews.
  Opened in 1894, University Hospital Lewisham is a National Health Service, acute hospital run by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust serving the whole London Borough of Lewisham as well as some surrounding areas. In July 2012 the government recommended that Lewisham's Accident & Emergency ward should be closed, with emergency provision transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital, London. However, there was a strong campaign in Lewisham against the proposed closure, including a march on 24 November 2012, and a successful legal challenge. In July 2013, the High Court ruled that the closure of Lewisham A&E could not go ahead. In October 2013, the Court of Appeal ruled that Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt did not have power to implement cuts at Lewisham Hospital.
caption: University Hospital Lewisham, Riverside Building
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