The site in about 1880.[2] Click for broader map and to enable varied magnification.
The upland heath, ridge, to the east was a meeting point since the Middle Ages, and was, in widespread recountings, a stopover of King Henry VIII when riding from Greenwich to Shooter's Hill with his first Queen and several Lords.[3] The present pub dates from around 1745[4][5] and its name comes from the sight of the setting sun amidst dust, kicked up by sheep herded by drovers from Kent headed to London.[6] It was soon an isolated inn on heathland, frequented by highwaymen in one period known as "the Trojans", who regularly pickpocketed.[7]William Hazlitt was known to visit the inn.[3]
The junction was built in stages, due to various 20th-century projects to bypass the old Roman Road between Blackheath and Dartford. The modern A2, parallel to this, forms the Shooters Hill By-Pass[8] which took most of the 1920s to complete.[9] The modern roundabout with side sliproad dates from the late 1960s.[10]
As well as the junction, the pub inspired the name of Sunfields Methodist Church[11] and the adjacent Sun Lane, a former caravan repair site which now hosts a garage;[12] it was previously a tiny passage, Sun-in-the-Sands Lane.[13]
Since 1995,[5] Greenwich Council has protected the appearance of a zone east of the junction, including the pub, as a Conservation Area,[14] defined as an area "of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance."[5]
