Steve Hunnisett - who leads guided WW2 walks - writes about this little known structure
The Wardens' Post is the former "Park 20" Post and is located in the car park of "Bernard's Club" at 12 Charlton Road, close to the Blackheath Standard. ARP (Air Raid Precautions) Wardens are perhaps best known to us nowadays through the performance of Bill Pertwee at Chief Warden Hodges in the TV series "Dad's Army". In real life, they were responsible for the enforcement of the Blackout and when air raids were in progress, would change role to become Incident Officers, who would coordinate the response required to any bomb incident. The wardens were controlled on a municipal basis, with each borough having a Chief Warden located at the HQ, which in the case of Greenwich, was beneath the Town Hall in Greenwich High Road (where the Borough Hall is). There was a network of Wardens' Posts across each borough, sometimes in existing buildings but more usually in purpose-built structures such as this. As far as I am aware, this is the only surviving such building in the borough and deserves a mention as a reminder of our wartime history.