The Royal Military Academy, Officers’ Quarters and Garrison Church of St George were restored and taken off Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register on 15 October after having been on it for between 20 and 28 years!  

The Heritage at Risk programme identifies sites across the country that are most at risk of being lost because of neglect, decay or inappropriate development. Twenty London sites were removed this year, the three in Royal Greenwich making up 15 per cent of those, and 44 were removed across England.  

Sarah Merrill, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Growth said: 

“It is a great relief that these buildings have had such work carried out on them, that they are now in a good enough condition to be categorised as not at risk. This is a testament to the work of organisations like the London Historic Buildings Trust.”  

Royal Military Academy, Academy Road SE18   

Built between 1805 and 1808 for cadets at the Royal Arsenal, the Royal Military Academy is Grade II listed. Cadets who attended the academy included the sons of Queen Victoria and Napoleon III.  

It was designed by James Wyatt, a leading Georgian architect and modelled on the Tower of London. The Tudor-Gothic style building has been described as one of the most important pieces of military architecture in the country. 

Suffering from extensive damp and dry rot inside, the site was put on the Heritage at Risk Register in 1995. Works began on large scale residential conversion in 2008 and were finally completed this year. 

Officers' Quarters, Royal Arsenal (Building 11)  

This Grade II listed barrack block was built for the Royal Regiment of Artillery between 1717 and 1720 and accommodated 200 soldiers with officers' houses at each end.  

Added to the Heritage at Risk Register in 1992, the site was protected by sheeted scaffolding and a temporary roof for over 10 years. The interior and 18th Century roof structure were in very poor condition and there was timber decay throughout.  

In 2017 planning permission and listed building consent was granted and it was successfully repaired and restored by Berkeley Homes in 2020. 

Garrison Church of St George, Grand Depot Road SE18  

Now Grade II listed, St George’s was built as a chapel for the nearby Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1862. It is significant for its ornate Italianate Romanesque style and surviving mosaics by Victorian mosaic artist, Antonio Salviati. 

It was bombed in both World Wars, and almost destroyed in 1944 by a V1 flying bomb. It was put on the Heritage at Risk Register in 2000 and finally removed in 2020 after completion of a complex 8-year conservation project by the London Historic Buildings Trust.  

The church is home to the Victoria Cross Memorial commemorating the losses of the Crimean War through to the middle of the Second World War, with Salviati’s mosaic of St George slaying the dragon as its centrepiece.  

This valuable historic site is open to the public every Sunday. Visit the St George’s website to find out more.