After World War II Camberwell Borough Council embarked on a vigorous programme of home building.

Some sites were generated by enemy bombing, but others were mainly through demolition of sub-standard housing.

The Denmark Hill Estate was unusual in being built on the site not of slums, but of some of the biggest residential houses built in the area, Henry Bessemer's Bessemer Grange and neighbouring properties, The Grange and Ruskin Manor.

Blanchedown is the main axis of the Denmark Hill Estate which is built on the site of the Bessemer Estate.

A number of the largest houses on Denmark Hill were demolished after World War II and replaced by smaller houses or flats.

At the time of its opening the Denmark Hill Estate was Camberwell Borough Council's biggest scheme, providing six hundred and eighty two homes.

A house in Blanchedown under construction. Copyright: Bell.