I can’t remember when I first went to Deptford, though it was possibly in 1982, the date of my earliest pictures in my ‘Deptford to Woolwich‘. I’d certainly been to neighbouring Greenwich much earlier in my life, first on the only school trip from my primary school back in the mid 1950’s, when I will have seen its industrial shoreline from the river, but then few of us could have afforded a pencil, let alone a camera, and any impressions were solely on our young minds.
After my walk in 1982, I returned in 1984 to take more pictures, again on my own, but in 1985 went on a group outing led by members of the Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society, GLIAS, to which I still belong. I had come across GLIAS in 1977 on a family outing to the Kew Bridge Engines, and immediately joined up – and many of my pictures reflect an interest in the area, though I’ve done very little actual detailed recording work.
With GLIAS we went into Convoys Wharf, walking through their listed Olympia sheds to the riverside and on to the jetty where giant paper rolls were being unloaded from the ship for the Murdoch press, as well as into the rum cellars of the former Royal Navy Victualling Yard. The wharf has now been derelict for around 18 years, a huge 18.5 hectare site in the middle of London’s housing crisis, one of London’s many housing scandals down to private developers. Outline planning permission for around 3500 homes was rushed through around five years ago by Boris Johnson against the wishes of the local council but the first more detailed plan for a small part of the area was only put in six months ago.
Of course I’ve returned numerous times since then, more recently walking along the Thames path and visiting the lively Deptford High St, photographing along the DLR and the river Ravensbourne and more recently to Deptford Cinema on Deptford Broadway, and it was time for me to go again. And I wrote a post here in 2012, Views of Deptford.
I’d been aware of the fight by local residents to save the Old Tidemill Garden and neighbouring council at Reginald House, and of the occupation of the garden which had begun on August 29th, but partly because I’d been away on holiday hadn’t found the time to visit. So I was keen to go on the Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk organised by Tidemill occupiers during the Deptford X Festival – I’d missed a first such walk earlier in the year as I was busy photographing elsewhere. The route had been published and I could see there were some places I’d like ot photograph it would not go to, so I arrived a couple of hours earlier for my own walk beforehand.
On My London Diary you can see pictures from my own walk and the organised walk, as well as a set of panoramic images made during both of these. As usual these images have a horizontal angle of view of around 147 degrees (some needed to be slightly croppped.)
Deptford Walk
Deptford Art & Gentrification Walk
Deptford Panoramas
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My London Diary : London Photos : Hull : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated, are taken by and copyright of Peter Marshall, and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
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