I bicycled to St. Luke’s, Charlton (between Greenwich and Woolwich) to see the tomb of Brigadier Richards, a friend and neighbour of Vanbrugh and recipient of the Duchess of Marlborough’s long letter of complaint about Vanbrugh’s malpractices at Blenheim, which caused Vanbrugh to resign in November 1716.

The church is just to the north of Charlton House and dates from the 1630s:-

It must have been a prosperous suburb in the early eighteenth century, attracting at least two prominent figures associated with Vanbrugh – James Craggs, the Postmaster General, who the Duchess of Marlborough blamed for recommending Vanbrugh as architect for Blenheim:-

And Brigadier Richards, who had been Commander-in-Chief on an expedition to Newfoundland in 1696 and, after serving in the army under the Duke of Marlborough at Blenhein and Ramillies, was appointed Surveyor of the Ordnance to King George I.  He may have been involved in the design of buildings for the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich.

His monument is pretty elaborate, attributed to Guelfi:-