Editing Woolwich (section)

==== Leisure ====
[[File:Service of Lieutenant R F T Foljoube With 120th Battery, Royal Field Artillery, 1910-1915 HU87114.jpg|thumb|Officers of the [[Royal Artillery]] playing polo on bicycles, {{Circa|1910|lk=no}}]]
In the 18th century, [[Woolwich Cricket Club]], later Royal Artillery Cricket Club, were well-known [[cricket]] clubs. Cricket and other sports were mainly played by military officers and students at the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich|Royal Military Academy]]. [[Arsenal F.C.]] was founded in 1886 by workers at the [[Royal Arsenal]]. Initially known as ''Dial Square'', then ''Royal Arsenal'' and then ''Woolwich Arsenal'', they soon drew large crowds to their ground in [[Plumstead]]. In 1913 they moved to [[Arsenal Stadium]] in [[Highbury]], North London. [[Royal Ordnance Factories F.C.]] was founded in response to Woolwich Arsenal joining the League but only lasted a few years.

Woolwich had several [[Theater (structure)|theatres]] and [[Movie theater|cinemas]]. The Theatre Royal in Beresford Street, later renamed Empire Theatre or Woolwich Empire, was the biggest. Dating from the 1830s, it was enlarged in the 1880s and 1890s, seating about 2,000. It both served as a variety theater and cinema, ending up as a strip-joint. It was demolished in 1960. Shortly after 1900, three new theaters opened with a combined capacity of 4,430. The Century cinema, which faced Beresford Square, was previously known as Premier Cinema and Royal Arsenal Cinema. It was built in 1913 with 669 seats, closed in 1961 and demolished for redevelopment in the late 1960s. The Grand Theatre in Wellington Street opened in 1900 as a variety theatre with a capacity of 1,680. It became the Woolwich Hippodrome in 1908 and a full-time cinema in 1923. Rebuilt in 1955 as the Regal Cinema, it closed in 1982, was then used as a nightclub and demolished in 2015. The [[Granada Cinema, Woolwich|Granada cinema]] and the [[New Wine Church|Odeon, later Coronet]], both seating around 2,500, are imposing buildings from the 1930s that have both been converted into [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] churches.<ref>Saint & Guillery (2012), pp. 15, 80, 228, 275–276.</ref>