In message .com,
Mizter T writes

I'm still curious about how the railway company (the Millwall Extension
Rly, which may have been subsidiary of sorts to the London & Blackwall
Rly) gave North Greenwich station it's name. My leaky memory has just
this moment recalled reading something about this in the past - I think
the suggestion was that the North Greenwich station name was an
'aspirational' one, i.e. it was trading on the good name of Greenwich
to the south of the river.

I think that is probably true, but the name also associated the station
with the historic Greenwich ferry, which was subsequently purchased by
the railway (the foot tunnel came much later - opened in 1902).

On pre-railway maps the area was almost always labelled The Isle of Dogs
(a rather less attractive name for a terminus, and geographically not
very specific). On later maps, "North Greenwich" tended to be restricted
to the station name, the surrounding area being labelled Cubitt Town as
you mentioned.

However I'm unsure of the pedigree of the name 'North Greenwich' for
that peninsula, though I'm also unsure of the pedigree of the
'Greenwich Peninsula' name (perhaps it was in use by those on the river
though).

Describing the peninsula as "North Greenwich" is a modern invention.
Historically the northernmost part was known as Bugsby's Marshes (and
the bend in the river as Bugsby's Reach) - labels still in use on
Bartholomew's 1961 London Reference Atlas. The southern part was called
"Greenwich Marsh".

"East Greenwich" seems to have appeared in the 1880s, with the arrival
of the gas works, but doesn't seem to have been in widespread use to
describe the peninsula - it is more commonly used to describe the area
just to the south, around Westcombe Park.

--
Paul Terry