historyDeptford (Deep Ford) is located to the west of a creek where the River Ravensbourne enters the Thames. The Roman road from Dover to London forded the creek where Deptford Bridge is now located and a Saxon cemetery existed on the site of the Dover Castle public house, Deptford Broadway.
When Henry VIII established the Royal Naval Dockyard in 1593, Deptford grew from a small fishing village into a busy dockyard town, serving as England's principal dockyard.
Many of the great voyages of Discovery began at Deptford. Drake, Frobisher, Raleigh and much later, in his ship the Endeavour, Captain James Cook sailed from here to Australia and New Zealand
Outdated and unsuitable to launch ships, the dockyard closed permanently in 1869, with the loss of many jobs. A number of workers fortunately gained employment with the newly opened Foreign Cattle Market, which replaced the old shipyard. In 1913 it became Convoy's Wharf.
Population expansion in the 1800's led to the development of Deptford New Town but, with the rapid growth of the railways, this was swamped by London's suburban development.
The history of Deptford in the 20th century is mainly a story of economic decline, suffering depression in the 1930s and severe bomb damage in Word War II.
Redeveloped in the 1950s and 1960s, many of the large firms in Deptford closed down in the late 1960s and early 1970s, resulting in a high level of unemployment in the area.
In 1965 the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford was merged with that of Lewisham to form the new, larger London Borough of Lewisham.
Famous personalities associated are: John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys (17th century diarists), Christopher Marlowe (Elizabethan poet and playwright, murdered here in 1593) and Grinling Gibbons the famous sculptor and woodcarver who worked on the royal palaces and St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1698 Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, spent several months studying shipbuilding in Deptford, where he stayed at Sayes Court (which belonged to the Evelyn family).
Links: (thanks to Mathew Gore)
7 images of the Deptford area from 1982Deptford Creek (at bottom of page)
Demolition of the Deptford Power Station in 1992
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Source: http://www.lewisham.gov.uk/data/yourarea/data/lah_dept.htm
Source: http://www.surfnet.co.uk/surfnet/deptfo.htm
Source: http://schoolsite.edex.net.uk/239/history.htm
