Place Name
Originally Woolwich Road. The Royal Military Academy was near here between 1741 and 1939. It was, as the name gives away, a British Army military academy for the training of, as its first charter stated, “good officers of Artillery and perfect Engineers”. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps. RMA Woolwich was commonly known as “The Shop” because its first building was a converted workshop of the Woolwich Arsenal. It closed in 1939 and in 1947 the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst was formed on the site of the former Royal Military College at Sandhurst (which had previously only trained officers for the Infantry and Cavalry). It’s been claimed that as well as turning out first class officers it also introduced two phrases into the wider English lexicon “talking shop”, meaning “to discuss subjects not understood by others” and Snooker, was also said to be invented by a former cadet of the RMA, where the members of the junior intake were known as “snookers”, from a corruption of “les neux” (the new guys). Developers Durkan Group bought the Woolwich site by public tender in 2006. The Woolwich buildings have since been converted and extended into 334 houses and apartments.
