Woolwich could be getting a posh dog shop in the coming months, with council officers considering plans for a new outlet in one of the Royal Arsenal’s riverside guard houses.

Walter Hart London, a business based in the Arsenal that already sells leads, coats and treats online, has applied to convert the octagonal building into a “dog supplies and grooming boutique”. 

Applications for internal works and signage are currently with Greenwich Council.

The Grade II-listed Building 55 is over 200 years old. In 1888 it was used as the overnight resting place for the body of the Prince Imperial, Napoleon III of France’s son, before his funeral in Chislehurst.

Octagonal buildings
The building is one of a pair of guard houses. Image: The Greenwich Wire

More recently it has been a flower shop, and before that a recording studio. It is one of a pair, with the other guard house being used by the House of Denna café. 

The building is next to Woolwich Works and Peter Burke’s Assembly sculpture. There are no plans to add a dog to one of the men in the artwork.

Branch of Gail's next to sign saying "Woolwich"
Gail’s recently opened in the Royal Arsenal. Image: The Greenwich Wire

The prospect of a dog grooming boutique coming to Woolwich is a marker of how part of the area has changed in recent years. 

High-class bakery Gail’s recently opened up next to the Elizabeth Line station – in the recent election the Liberal Democrats targeted towns with branches of Gail’s to win over affluent voters.