| Deptford | |
|---|---|
 An anchor at the southern end ofDeptford High Street links Deptford toits dockyard history | |
  Deptford Location withinGreater London | |
| OS grid reference | TQ365775 |
| • Charing Cross | 4.7 mi (7.6 km) WNW |
| London borough | |
| Ceremonial county | Greater London |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LONDON |
| Postcode district | SE8 |
| Dialling code | 020 |
| Police | Metropolitan |
| Fire | London |
| Ambulance | London |
| UK Parliament | |
| London Assembly | |
| 51°28′41″N0°01′35″W / 51.4780°N 0.0265°W /51.4780; -0.0265 | |
Deptford (/ˈdɛtfərd/DET-furd)[1] is an area on the south bank of theRiver Thames in southeast London, in theRoyal Borough of Greenwich andLondon Borough of Lewisham. It is named after aford of theRiver Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home toDeptford Dockyard, the first of theRoyal Dockyards. This was a major shipbuilding dock and attractedPeter the Great to come and study shipbuilding. Deptford and the docks are associated with the knighting ofSir Francis Drake byQueen Elizabeth I aboard theGolden Hind,[2] the legend ofSir Walter Raleigh laying down his cape for Elizabeth,[3]Captain James Cook's third voyage aboardHMSResolution,[4] and the mysterious apparent murder ofChristopher Marlowe in a house along Deptford Strand.[5]
Though Deptford began as two small communities, one at the ford, and the other a fishing village on the Thames, Deptford's history and population has been mainly associated with the docks established byHenry VIII. The two communities grew together and flourished during the period when the docks were the main administrative centre of theRoyal Navy, and some grand houses likeSayes Court, home to diaristJohn Evelyn, andStone House on Lewisham Way, were erected. The area declined as first the Royal Navy moved out, and then the commercial docks themselves declined until the last dock,Convoys Wharf, closed in 2000.
AMetropolitan Borough of Deptford existed from 1900 until 1965, when the area became part of the newly created London Borough of Lewisham.[6]
Deptford took its name from a ford across theRavensbourne (near what is nowDeptford Bridge DLR station) along the route of theCeltic trackway which was later paved by the Romans and developed into the medievalWatling Street.[7] The modern name is a corruption of "deep ford".[8]
Deptford was part of the pilgrimage route from London toCanterbury used by the pilgrims inChaucer's late 14th centuryCanterbury Tales, including a mention in the prologue to "The Reeve's Tale".[9] The ford developed into first a wooden then a stone bridge, and in 1497 saw theBattle of Deptford Bridge, in which rebels fromCornwall, led byMichael An Gof, marched on London protesting against punitive taxes, but were soundly beaten by the forces of KingHenry VII.[10]
A second settlement,Deptford Strand orDeptford Strond, developed as a modest fishing village on the Thames untilHenry VIII used that site for a royal dock for repairing, building and supplying ships, after which it grew in size and importance, shipbuilding remaining in operation until March 1869.[11]
Trinity House, the organisation concerned with the safety of navigation around the British Isles, was formed in Deptford in 1514, with its first Master beingThomas Spert, captain of theMary Rose. It moved toStepney in 1618. The name "Trinity House" derives from the church of Holy Trinity and St Clement, which adjoined the dockyard.[12]
Originally separated by market gardens and fields, the two areas merged over the years,[13] with the docks becoming an important part of theElizabethan exploration.[14]Queen Elizabeth I visited the royal dockyard on 4 April 1581 to knight the adventurerFrancis Drake.[15] As well as for exploration, Deptford was important for trade – theHonourable East India Company had a yard in Deptford from 1607 until late in the 17th century,[16] later (1825) taken over by theGeneral Steam Navigation Company. It was also connected with theslave trade,John Hawkins using it as a base for his operations,[17] andOlaudah Equiano, the slave who became an important part of the abolition of the slave trade, was sold from one ship's captain to another in Deptford around 1760.[18][19]
DiaristJohn Evelyn lived in Deptford atSayes Court, the manor house of Deptford, from 1652 after he had married the daughter of the owner of the house,Sir Richard Browne.[20] Afterthe Restoration, Evelyn obtained a 99-year lease of the house and grounds,[21] and laid out meticulously planned gardens in the French style, of hedges andparterres. In its grounds was a cottage at one time rented by master woodcarverGrinling Gibbons. After Evelyn had moved to Surrey in 1694,Peter the Great, the Russiantsar, studied shipbuilding for three months in 1698 while staying at Sayes Court.[15] Evelyn was angered at the antics of the tsar, who got drunk with his friends who, using a wheelbarrow with Peter in it, rammed their way through a "fine holly hedge". Sayes Court was demolished in 1728-9 and aworkhouse built on its site.[21] Part of the estates around Sayes Court were purchased in 1742 for the building of theNavy Victualling Yard, which was renamed theRoyal Victoria Victualling Yard in 1858 after a visit by Queen Victoria.[22] This massive facility included warehouses, a bakery, a cattleyard/abattoir and sugar stores, and closed in 1961. All that remains is the name of Sayes Court Park, accessed from Sayes Court Street off Evelyn Street, not far fromDeptford High Street. ThePepys Estate, opened on 13 July 1966, is on the former grounds of the Victualling Yard.[23]
The Docks had been gradually declining from the 18th century; the larger ships being built found the Thames difficult to navigate, and Deptford was under competition from the new docks atPlymouth,Portsmouth andChatham.[24]
When theNapoleonic Wars ended in 1815 the need for a Docks to build and repairwarships declined; the Docks shifted from shipbuilding to concentrate onvictualling at theRoyal Victoria Victualling Yard, and the Royal Dock closed in 1869.[25] From 1871 until 1913 the shipyard site was theCity of London Corporation'sForeign Cattle Market, to which live animals were brought by cattle boat from four continents and from whence came about half of London's meat supply.
The yard was taken over by theWar Office in 1914,[26][27] and was an Army Supply Reserve Depot in theFirst andSecond World Wars.[28][29] The site lay unused until being purchased by Convoys (newsprint importers) in 1984, and eventually came into the ownership ofNews International.[30][31] In the mid-1990s, although significant investment was made on the site, it became uneconomic to continue using it as a freight wharf.[32] In 2008 Hutchison Whampoa bought the 16ha site from News International with plans for a £700m 3,500-home development scheme.[33] TheGrade II listed Olympia Warehouse will be refurbished as part of the redevelopment of the site.[31]
Deptford experienced economic decline in the 20th century with the closing of the docks, and the damage caused by the bombing duringthe Blitz in theSecond World War – in November 1944 aV-2 rocket destroyed aWoolworths store in New Cross Gate, killing 160 people[34][35] - contributing to the 703 civilian deaths caused by enemy action within Deptford Metropolitan Borough throughout the war.[36] High unemployment caused some of the population to move away as the riverside industries closed down in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[37]
The local council have developed plans with private companies to regenerate the riverside area,[38] and the town centre.[39]
The Manor of Deptford or West Greenwich was bestowed byWilliam the Conqueror uponGilbert de Magminot or Maminot,bishop of Lisieux,[40] one of the eight barons associated with John de Fiennes for the defence ofDover Castle. Maminot held the head of hisbarony at Deptford[41][42] and according to John Lyon writing in 1814, he built himself a castle, or castellated mansion at Deptford. The location of the building is not known, but ancient foundations found on the brow of Broomfield, near the Mast Dock and adjacent toSayes Court may be the remains of the building.[41][42][43]
Deptford was mostly located in theBlackheath Hundred of the county ofKent, with theHatcham part in theBrixton Hundred ofSurrey.[44]
In 1730 Deptford was divided into the two parishes of St Nicholas and St Paul.[21] It was also referred to as West Greenwich, with the modern town ofGreenwich being referred to as East Greenwich until this use declined in the 19th century.[45] The whole of Deptford came within theMetropolitan Police District in 1830 and was included in the area of responsibility of theMetropolitan Board of Works in 1855.
It was transferred to theCounty of London in 1889. Originally under the governance of the ancient parishes of St Paul and St Nicholas, in 1900, aMetropolitan Borough of Deptford was formed out of the southern parish of St Paul,[46] with St Nicholas and the area around the Royal Dockyard coming under the governance of theMetropolitan Borough of Greenwich.[6][47]
Under theLondon Government Act 1963, the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was absorbed in 1965 into the newly created London Borough of Lewisham,[48] with the Deptford St Nicholas area becoming part of theRoyal Borough of Greenwich, with both these new boroughs now forming part of the newGreater London body. In 1994 the bulk of the northern part, including the former Royal Dockyard area, was transferred to Lewisham, an adjustment of about 40 hectares (99 acres),[49] leaving only the north eastern area, around St Nicholas's church, in Greenwich.
Deptford is split between twoelectoral wards -Evelyn in the north and part ofNew Cross to the south.[50] Following public consultation, theLocal Government Boundary Commission for England recommended in June 2020 that the Deptford wards (Evelyn and New Cross) should be unified and renamed Deptford.[51]
Deptford borders the areas ofBrockley andLewisham to the south,New Cross to the west andRotherhithe to the north west; theRavensbourne river divides it fromGreenwich to the east, and theThames separates the area from theIsle of Dogs to the north east; it is contained within the LondonSE8 post code area.[52] The area referred to as North Deptford is the only part of theLondon Borough of Lewisham to front the Thames and is sandwiched between Rotherhithe and Greenwich. Much of this riverside estate is populated by the former Naval Dockyards, now known asConvoys Wharf, thePepys Estate and some southern fringes of the oldSurrey Commercial Docks.
The name Deptford – anciently written Depeford meaning "deepford"[21] — is derived from the place where the road from London toDover, the ancientWatling Street (now theA2), crosses theRiver Ravensbourne at the site of what became Deptford Bridge at Deptford Broadway. The Ravensbourne crosses under the A2 at roughly the same spot as theDocklands Light Railway (DLR) crosses over; and at the point where it becomes tidal, just afterLewisham College, it is known as Deptford Creek, and flows into theRiver Thames at Greenwich Reach.[53]
Deptford's population has been mainly associated with the docks since the establishment of the Royal Docks by Henry VIII, though there has also been some market gardening and potteries.[54] When the docks were thriving as the main administrative centre of the British Navy, so the area prospered, and fine houses were built for the administrative staff and the skilled shipbuilders, and a few grand houses likeSayes Court andStone House on Lewisham Way were erected.[55]
There was a start of a demographic shift downwards when the Royal Navy pulled out of Deptford, and the docks moved into storage and freight.[56] The downward shift continued into the 20th century as the local population's dependency on the docks continued: as the docks themselves declined, so did the economic fortune of the inhabitants until the last dock,Convoys Wharf, closed in 2000.[57]
In common with neighbouring areas of South East London, immigrants from the Caribbean settled in Deptford in the 1950s and 1960s.[58]
Deptford's northern section nearest the old docks contains areas of council housing, with some concentrations of people experiencing the forms of deprivation typically associated with the poverty of Inner London. Northern Deptford near the Thames, along with neighbouringNew Cross, has been touted as "the newShoreditch" by some journalists and estate agents paying attention to a trendy arts and music scene that is popular with students and artists.[59] To the south where Deptford rolls into the suburban spread ofBrockley, the previously multi-occupancy Victorian houses are being gentrified by young city workers and urban professionals.[60] Deptford has a growing Vietnamese community reflected in the number of restaurants in the area.
Deptford contains a number of student populations, including those ofGoldsmiths College, theUniversity of Greenwich,Bellerbys College andLaban Dance Centre. Goldsmiths College's hall of residence, Rachel McMillan, in Creek Road was sold in 2001 for £79 million,[61] and was subsequently demolished and replaced with the McMillan Student Village which opened in 2003 and provides accommodation for approximately 970 students of the University of Greenwich, Trinity Laban and Bellerbys colleges.[62]
Deptford's economic history has been strongly connected to the Dockyard - when the Dockyard was thriving, so Deptford thrived; with the docks now all closed, Deptford has declined economically.[25][37] However, areas of Deptford are being gradually re-developed and gentrified - and the local council has plans to regenerate the riverside and the town centre.[39] A large former industrial site by the Thames calledConvoys Wharf is scheduled for redeveloping into mixed use buildings. This will involve the construction of around 3,500 new homes and an extension of the town centre northwards towards the river.[38]
The site of a former foundry (established in 1881 byJ. Stone & Co in Arklow Road) which closed in 1969 is being redeveloped for commercial and residential use.[63]
Much of the area along Creek Road, close to Greenwich, has also been redeveloped, with the demolition of the old Deptford Power Station andRose Bruford College buildings.Aragon Tower on the Pepys Estate was sold by Lewisham Borough to fund regeneration plans for the estate; the award-winning refurbishment into privately owned accommodation was featured in theBBC One documentary, "The Tower".[64][65]
Deptford Market, a street market in Deptford High Street sells a range of goods, and is considered one of London's liveliest street markets.[66] In February 2005, the High Street was described as "the capital's most diverse and vibrant high street" byYellow Pages business directory, using a unique mathematical formula.[67]
TheAlbany Theatre, a community arts centre with a tradition of "radical community arts and music" including holding 15 "Rock Against Racism" concerts,[68] has its roots in a charity established in 1894 to improve the social life of Deptford's deprived community.[69] The original building, the Albany Institute, was opened in 1899 on Creek Road, changing its name in the 1960s to the Albany Empire. It was burnt down in 1978, but rebuilt on Douglas Way, with Prince Charles laying the foundation stone, and Diana, Princess of Wales opening it in 1982.[69]
Deptford Cinema is a volunteer run, not-for-profit,communitycinema,art gallery, and occasionalmusic venue, open since late 2014 and located at 39 Deptford Broadway. At the time of opening it was the borough ofLewisham's only functioning cinema.[70]
Creekside, a regeneration area beside Deptford Creek,[71] is used for educational and artistic purposes,[72][73] such as theLaban Dance Centre, which was designed by Swiss architectsJacques Herzog andPierre de Meuron, and opened in February 2003; and theArt in Perpetuity Trust (APT) gallery and studio space.[74] In 2002 theCreekside Discovery Centre was established to retain some urban habitat that was being destroyed through the area's regeneration.[75] A record label,Deptford Fun City Records was set up byMiles Copeland III, brother ofStewart Copeland, in the late 1970s as an outlet for Deptford bands such asAlternative TV[76] andSqueeze.[77][78]
The area has several pubs, including theDog & Bell which has a reputation for serving a range ofcask ales,[79][80]The Royal Albert which is aGrade II listed building from the mid-19th century[81] that was previously known as The Paradise Bar and saw early gigs byBloc Party andArt Brut,[82][83] andThe Bird's Nest which has live music, film and art performances from local bands and artists.[84][85] Thetown hall of the formerMetropolitan Borough of Deptford, built in 1905 with decorative sculpture byHenry Poole,[86] lies just outside Deptford, on the New Cross Road inNew Cross. It was purchased byGoldsmiths College in 2000.[87]
There are several green spaces in the area, the largest beingBrookmill Park,Deptford Park,Ferranti Park, Pepys Park andSayes Court Park.[88] In 1884William John Evelyn, a descendant ofJohn Evelyn, sold ground then being used asmarket gardens in Deptford, to theLondon County Council for less than its market value, as well as paying toward the cost of its purchase. It was officially opened to the public as Deptford Park on 7 June 1897.[89][90] In 1886, he dedicated an acre and a half of the Sayes Court recreation ground in perpetuity to the public and a permanent provision was made for the Evelyn estate to cover the expense of maintenance and caretaking, this was opened on 20 July 1886.[91][92]
Deptford is served byNational Rail andDocklands Light Railway services. The National Rail service is operated bySoutheastern andThameslink on the suburbanGreenwich Line atDeptford railway station,[93] the oldest passenger-only railway station in London.[94][95] Deptford station was redeveloped during 2011 and 2012. The works included the demolition of the original 1836 station building and its replacement by a new station to the west in the former station yard.[96][97] Deptford's DLR station is atDeptford Bridge on the DLR's Lewisham branch.[98][99]
There are two main road routes through Deptford: theA200 which runs along Evelyn Street and Creek Road,[citation needed] and theA2 which runs along New Cross Road, and is the modern version of theCeltic trackway which was later paved by the Romans and developed into the medievalWatling Street.[7] TheA20 marks the southern boundary of the area, along Lewisham Way and Loampit Vale.[citation needed]
Since June 2016, Deptford has been on the cycling route of the LondonCycleway route C10 that starts in Greenwich and ends in Euston in central London.[100] A second Cycleway route, C14, between Waterloo and Thamesmead, passes through Deptford's riverfront.[101] A third Cycleway route,C4, was opened in September 2022 and runs along Evelyn Street (A200) and provides protected cycle links to Tower Bridge and Woolwich.
Since 2024, Lewisham Council has been trialling a timed pedestrianisation of part of Deptford High Street on market days. In April 2025, the council announced[102] plans to make the section between New Cross Road and Hamilton Street pedestrian-only seven days a week. The scheme includes new planting, public realm improvements and support for outdoor trading, with exemptions for residents, businesses, Blue Badge holders and essential service vehicles. The proposals are intended to improve air quality, safety and accessibility while encouraging footfall and local spending.
There are fiveprimary schools in the area.[103] There are no localsecondary schools directly in Deptford, however there are two secondary schools near the border betweenNew Cross and Deptford:Deptford Green, regarded byOfsted as "needing improvement",[104] andAddey and Stanhope, regarded by Ofsted as "good".[105] A branch of thefurther education college, Lewisham College incorporating Southwark College (known asLeSoCo), is located on Deptford Church Street; the college was regarded as "inadequate" in the 2014 Ofsted inspection.[106]
Deptford railway station is one of the oldest suburban stations in the world,[107] being built (c.1836-38) as part of the first suburban service (theLondon and Greenwich Railway), betweenLondon Bridge andGreenwich. Close to Deptford Creek is aDeptford pumping station, aVictorianpumping station built in 1864, part of the massiveLondon sewerage system designed bycivil engineer SirJoseph Bazalgette.[108]
The formerDeptford Power Station, in use from 1891 to 1983, originated as a pioneering plant designed bySebastian de Ferranti, which when built was the largest station in the world.[109]
In 2008, Lewisham Council granted permission for the last remnants of the DeptfordRagged School known as The Princess Louise Institute to be demolished and replaced by flats.[110]
Albury Street (previously Union Street) contains a fine row of early urban houses largely dating from 1705 to 1717 which were once popular with naval captains and shipwrights.[111]
Tanners Hill in the St John's or New Deptford area to the south ofNew Cross Road,[112] is part of an Area of Archaeological Priority due to the longevity of settlement and early industry,[113] and contains a set of commercial buildings from numbers 21 to 31 which are survivors from a row of 31 which were built in the 1750s on the site of cottages dating from the 17th century.[114]
These timber-frame buildings have aGrade II listing fromEnglish Heritage[115] and are home to established businesses such as bicycle makerWitcomb Cycles.[116] Of Deptford's two important houses,Sayes Court no longer exists, but theStone House inSt Johns, built around 1772 by the architect George Gibson the Younger, and described byPevsner as "the one individual house of interest in this area", still stands byLewisham Way.[117]
Deptford'sAlbany Theatre has a history stretching back over 100 years and is a prominent feature of the South-East London arts scene.
Deptford Dockyard was established in 1513 byHenry VIII as the firstRoyal Dockyard, building vessels for theRoyal Navy,[123] and was at one time known as the King's Yard.[124] It was shut down from 1830 to 1844 before being closed as a dockyard in 1869,[125] and is currently known asConvoys Wharf. From 1871 until theFirst World War it was theCity of London Corporation'sForeign Cattle Market. In 1912,The Times reported that over 4 million head of live cattle, and sheep, had been landed.[citation needed]
From 1932 until 2008 the site was owned byNews International, which used it to importnewsprint and other paper products fromFinland until early 2000. It is now owned byHutchison Whampoa Limited and is subject to a planning application to convert it into residential units,[126] though it hassafeguarded wharf status.[127]
Other notable shipyards in Deptford were Charles Lungley's Dockyard and theGeneral Steam Navigation Company's yards at Deptford Green and Dudman's Dock, also sometimes referred to asDeadmans Dock atDeptford Wharf.
.jpg)
The Elizabethan playwrightChristopher Marlowe was killed during an alleged drunken brawl inEleanor Bull's house in Deptford Strand in May 1593. Various versions of Marlowe's death were current at the time.Francis Meres says Marlowe was "stabbed to death by a bawdy serving-man, a rival of his in his lewd love" as punishment for his "epicurism and atheism".[128] In 1917, in theDictionary of National Biography, SirSidney Lee wrote that Marlowe was killed in a drunken fight. Some modern theories posit that he was assassinated.[129] It is commonly assumed that the fight took place in a Deptford tavern.[130]
The scholarLeslie Hotson discovered in 1925 thecoroner's report on Marlowe's death in thePublic Record Office which gave fuller details.[131] Marlowe had spent all day in a house owned by the widowEleanor Bull, along with three men,Ingram Frizer,Nicholas Skeres andRobert Poley.[132] Witnesses testified that Frizer and Marlowe had earlier argued over the bill, exchanging "divers malicious words." Later, while Frizer was sitting at a table between the other two and Marlowe was lying behind him on a couch, Marlowe snatched Frizer's dagger and began attacking him. In the ensuing struggle, according to the coroner's report, Marlowe was accidentally stabbed above the right eye, killing him instantly.[131] The jury concluded that Frizer acted in self-defence, and within a month he was pardoned. Marlowe was buried in an unmarked grave in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Deptford, on 1 June 1593.[133]
Among people associated with Deptford areChristopher Marlowe, who was stabbed to death at Deptford Strand;[134] diaristJohn Evelyn (1620–1706), who lived atSayes Court,[135] and hadPeter the Great (1672–1725) as a guest for about three months in 1698;[136]Sir Francis Drake, who was knighted byQueen Elizabeth I aboard theGolden Hind in Deptford Docks;[137] andEmperor Norton (Joshua Abraham Norton), the San Francisco eccentric and self-proclaimed "Emperor of the United States", who was born in Deptford in 1818.[138]
Other people who have lived in Deptford range from the first governor of theEast India Company and ambassador to the court of Russia,Thomas Smythe, whose magnificent house was destroyed by fire in 1618;[21] to early members of theChartist movement,John Gast[139] andGeorge Julian Harney;[140] and the Cleveleys,John Cleveley the Elder and his sonsJohn andRobert, a family of marine artists who also worked as tradesmen in the Dockyard.[141] Another artist born in Deptford isHenry Courtney Selous,[142] who is known forThe Opening of The Great Exhibition, painted in 1851.[143]
Members of rock groupsSqueeze andDire Straits lived on the Crossfield Estate in Deptford in the late 1970s,[144][145] along withMark Perry, founder of the punk fanzineSniffin Glue and punk rock bandAlternative TV.[146] The DJ and music journalistDanny Baker lived near the Crossfield Estate, where he was born and brought up.[147]Steve Harley, frontman of theglamrock bandCockney Rebel, was born in Deptford.[148]
Children's authorRobin Jarvis wrote two trilogies of books:The Deptford Mice (and a couple of spin off books calledThe Deptford Mouselets series) andThe Deptford Histories, set in and around Deptford and featuring many of its landmarks.[149][150]
Deptford-bornRapman (Andrew Onwubolu) is a British rapper and filmmaker who gained fame through YouTube storytelling series like "Blue Story Trilogy" and "Shiro's Story." His unique style blends rap with visual narratives, addressing London's urban life and social issues. RapMan's success led to a record deal with Island Records andRoc Nation. In 2019, he directed the critically acclaimed film "Blue Story," which became the highest-grossing British urban film.[151] His work continues to influence UK grime and hip-hop culture, spanning music, film, and television.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)Deptford Fun City Records.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
History
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Geographic | |
| Other | |
