page_title: Foots Cray
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Foots Cray / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Historic houses at 180-188, Rectory Lane in Foots Cray, London Borough of Bexley. This is a photo of listed building number 1188531.
context_page_description: Foots Cray is an area of South East London, England, within the London Borough of Bexley and the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Sidcup.
context_section_description: It took its name from Godwin Fot, a local Saxon landowner recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, and from the River Cray that passes through the village. It lay on the old Maidstone Road (now bypassed by the A20 road) leading from London to north Kent. Until the 20th century, Foots Cray dominated the nearby, less ancient hill-top hamlet of Sidcup.  The combined area was designated as the Urban District of Foots Cray in 1902. Soon, however, the two settlements' fortunes were reversed, as Foots Cray's traditional industries declined after the First World War, and Sidcup grew rapidly as a commuter town after a railway was built linking it to central London. In 1921 this change was reflected in the renaming of Foots Cray Urban District to Sidcup Urban District. In 1965 both areas became part of the London Borough of Bexley.
  William Walsingham (died 1534), of Foots Cray, second son of James Walsingham, lord of the Manor of Scadbury in Chislehurst, Kent, was the father of Sir Francis Walsingham (c.1532-1590), Principal Secretary to Queen Elizabeth I, popularly remembered as her "spymaster".
  The estate of Foots Cray Place was rebuilt about 1754 for Bourchier Cleeve, on the site of the manor, as a Palladian mansion that was attributed to Isaac Ware; it was illustrated in this form in Vitruvius Britannicus iv (1777, pls. 8-10). Foots Cray Place was remodelled for Benjamin Harenc (1792) by the minor London architect Henry Hakewill, who further remodelled it in 1823 for Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Further works were carried out for Lord Bexley by another London architect of equally modest reputation, John William Hiort, who also built Bexley's London house in Great George Street, Westminster. After a fire in 1949, it was demolished in 1950. Now only the stable block remains, but the grounds, known as Foots Cray Meadows, provide a valuable public green space in this south-eastern suburb of London. This 89-hectare park was formed in the early 19th century from two mid-18th-century landscaped parks. It is listed by English Heritage as a Grade II historic park and is a Local Nature Reserve. The "London LOOP" walk passes through Foots Cray Meadows on its way from Old Bexley to Sidcup Place and Petts Wood.  There is some industry in an area next to the meadows and bordering the river.
  The naval wireless engineer and short-story writer F. G. Loring died at the Old House, Foot's Cray on 7 September 1951, aged eighty-two.
  Foots Cray stable block and adjacent walled garden were placed on the English Heritage 'at risk' register but have now been rescued following redevelopment to form a luxury home that was for sale in 2008 at £3.5 million.
  The town gave its name to the suburb and former city of Footscray, now part of the metro area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Footscray is now part of the City of Maribyrnong.
caption: Historic houses in Foots Cray
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