Two years ago as part of my ongoing series of articles for Greenwich Weekender which come out every week I undertook a site by site study Deptford Creek - up one side, down the other. I subsequently published the lot of it as a book ‘The industries of Deptford Creek’. However I have never done an overview and I guess I should do so.
The Creek is a fairly unprepossessing waterway which goes from the Thames to a crossing called ‘Deptford Bridge’ which is the tidal limit and becomes the river Ravensbourne flowing down from Lewisham and Bromley. When I wrote the series of articles I opted not to abandon the waterway at Deptford Bridge but to carry on upriver because of the interest of some of the industries in the stretch between Greenwich and Lewisham.
The Creek itself appears to have been considerably altered and rebuilt over the centuries and it is unlear what the original waterway was like. It also has a very dramatic tidal range and at low tide it’s possible to walk on the bed of the river and the local Creekside Discovery Centre organises such walks on a regular basis. At high tide quite substantial vessels can negotiate the waterway and once did so as far as Deptford Bridge.
These alterations to the waterway maybe to do with the needs of corn mills. In the Domesday Book and entry for Lewisham, which covers thus area, includes 11 mills,[1] some of were tide mills. One f these, on a site just down stream from Deptford Bridge was the Olde Floode Mill which lasted into the 20th century and was a tide mill with a history going back before the Normans.[2]
There are three major crossings of the creep up. In addition there are a number of modern foot bridges and the site of a rail crossing near Lewisham. The Docklands Light Railway also crosses and recrosses between the Greenwich Railway and Lewisham.
The oldest crossing and by far the most important is Deptford Bridge itself. It carries the Dover Road which means that most travellers going to and from Kent, Canterbury, Dover, Europe and the world would have had to cross the Ravensbourne here. It is known as Roman but undoubtedly predates them by many millennia. The Romans improved it with a proper foundation but over many centuries the area around the road going up Blackheath Hill was quarried for its chalk – which led to its collapse in 2002.[3] The chalk would have been used to make lime and there were lime kilns in the area from the 18th century using the Creek to ship it out.
I was and still am curiouse abour the stretch of river between Deptford Bridge and Lewisham It is straight and looks artificial and even more so now since it was rebuilt for the Docklands Light Railway in the 1990s. Until relatively recently a meandering stream ran east from Deptford Bridge curling round to the south and rejoining the main river near the current Elverson Road Station. The line of it still carries the boundary between Greenwich and Lewisham and it once formed the western boundry to the vast and world famous Penn engineering works, and its later car factory.[4] It had been suggested to me that the stretch of what is now the main river was built as some sort of mill pond.[5] Any such works must be pre mid-17th century since its present layout is on the ‘Travers’ plan[6]. If any archaeological work or study of it was done in connection with the construction of the Docklands Light Railway it has never been made public and may have been subject to a non-disclosure agreement
To return to the Creek’s major crossings. In addition to Deptford Bridge there are two other important crossings. Creek Road – the ‘lower road’ between Deptford and Greenwich - runs across a lifting bridge near the River Thames. The road, rebuilt several times, dates from around 1800 and replaced a ferry. The steps to the ferry still exist on the Deptford bank. Further upstream is the bridge carrying what was built as the London and Greenwich Railway, the first suburban railway in the world. The first bridge here, and Greenwich Station, were delayed for two years after Deptford Station opened in 1836. A ‘sail before rail’ agreement meant that commuters had to wait while a lengthy opening procedure allowed a vessel to pass upstream.[7] Today some remains of the original bridge are listed and the towering lifting mechanism of 1963 stands unused.
We can assume that the Dover Road was always busy and that from the earliest times various facilities were provided for travellers. The riverside too would have been busy as Greenwich developed as an important fishing centre – by the 19th century Greenwich fishing was deep sea in northern waters.[8] Things changed in the late 15th century as the monarchy began to move from Eltham to an estate on the Greenwich riverside. The Greenwich tourist offer is full of stories of Henry VIII and Elizabeth but their presence will have involved an enormous number of people working to service the court as well as hundreds of soldiers, and visitors of many kinds all ‘important’ with their entourages. All of these people had to be fed, have somewhere to sleep and kept warm – there must have been laundries, clerical support, maintenance workers, stables and much more. We know there was a Royal Slaughterhouse on what became Harold Wharf, 6 Creekside[9] - little else for a complex of work places which must have covered the whole area.
There is one site associated with the Palace. The site of the Armoury Mill was on the Greenwich bank close to Lewisham. Greenwich armour, encouraged by Henry VIII had a smart workshop at the Palace where courtiers could be fitted for their staggeringly expensive armour but the actual work of preparing the metal – with all the noise and pollution - was at the Armoury Mill. It served the Tudors and the Stuarts and as the demand for fancy armour died the mill continued to work, usually in the making of armaments with a variety of owners, public and private and sometimes closed. In the early 19th century a report by John Rennie said that the fall of water in the Ravensbourne would not support a new government mill. It was closed and the staffs, together with their families and their skills, were taken by barge to Enfield where the fall of water could support a new Royal Small Arms factory. The Deptford site became a silk mill and in the 20th century was credited has been credited with the invention of tinsel.[10] Inevitably it is now the site of new flats and it’s a shame that these modern buildings are named for the silk mill rather than its distinguished predecessor.
In the 20th century across the river from the Armoury Mill was the factory of Elliott Automation - one of the earliest and most successful of the high tech electronics factories of the 1950s and 60s.
In between this area just outside and Deptford Bridge lies Brookmill Park. It covers the site much of the 19th century waterworks – and there are many relics of it to see.[11] At the northern end the new Stephen Lawrence Centre covers the site of the corn mill which was joined by a water supply pumping device from the 17th century. It became the head office of the Kent Water Company and pumping from the Ravensbourne was replaced with extraction from deep wells from the 1860s,[12] which continues. It could be argued that some of the industrial success in Greenwich and Deptford can be attributed to the abundant supply of top quality clean water provided by the Brookmill works.
To return to the fifteenth century and to briefly mention the Deptford Royal Dockyard. The Dockyard itself was upriver of the Creek but its influence in terms of its need for a large and skilled workforcela must have been immense. I recall many meetings where we would hear a talk about some little works and its early role in the ’industrial revolution’. From the audience Professor Ray Riley would rise up to say that the speaker clearly knew nothing about the Royal Dockyards![13] However he never mentioned the industrial relations[14] – but the radicalism of the shiprights persists in Deptford to this day.
The 17th century brought many new initiatives. Some by those, like John Evelyn, who had sent time away from Britain under the Commonwealth. One of the new industries on Creekside was the manufacturer copperas - a chemical which produced various other other chemicals, dyes and Sulhuric acid. They were many copperas works around the estuary but the Deptford works had the advantage of being written up in a paper to the Royal Society.[15] This works was not alone and there were copperas works on both Deptford and Greenwich banks.[16] They were to last until the more sophisticated chemical works of the mid 19th century came to Creekside.
So, I should get back to writing about the Creek itself. The major import throughout the centuries was coal, mainly coming from Durham coalfields but also some from the Tyne. Wharf after wharf in the lower parts of Creek would have dealt with coal transhipment at some stage. Among all the new flats there is just one road name - Dowells Street – to refer to past use of unloading and distributing coal.[17]
On the other side of the Creek, at the entrance to it on the Deptford side - although not actually on Creekside - was the Ferranti’s Deptford Power station.[20] It was the first centralised power station in the world but totally ignored in the housing estate now on the site. There is however one relic – and one which remains in use. Further up the Creek and fronting on to Greenwich High Road is a transformer station with a sign on the frontage for the ‘LESC’ – the London Electricity Supply Company. [21]
This transformer station is on the edge of the grounds of the other most important public utility building on the Creek. Bazalgette’s Deptford (also known as Greenwich) pumping station built to lift the sewage from the lower level and pump it on down to Crossness.[22] It was the earliest facility in the scheme to be opened. For some years much of the site has been in use for construction of the Tideway Tunnel and the fate of the historic – and listed - buildings on site is still not clear.
There were many manufacturing industries on the Creek. One which was long established was pottery and there were a group of important Potteries largely producing the ‘red ware’ of drainage and chimneys. One set of Deptford pots were involved in the Mutiny on the Bounty. Some pieces of more recent pots can be found stuck in a wall in a Deptford park.[23]
Corn milling remained important and particularly so in the late 19th and early 20th century with the huge complex of Robinson’s mills at Deptford Bridge, eventually destroyed by fire in 1971.[24] Still extant, though turned into flats, is the huge and decorative granary of Mumford’s Mill - smaller than Robinsons – but with a more important architect in Aston Webb![25]
Almost the only remaining wharf not turned into housing is Brewery Wharf, just off Creek Road, which is still in use by the concrete distribution industry[26]. It was until recently in use by Priors bringing aggregate from Fingringhoe to Greenwich in their fleet of boats.[27] There was on site there a old crane – said to be the oldest in London and to be preserved at Fingringhoe, but its fate now is unclear. [28]
Why it is called Brewery Wharf is also far from clear. The nearest brewery was Lovibond whose buildings remain in Greenwich High Road but, like a number of older breweries, were not on the Creek. The Norfolk Brewery at Deptford Bridge had a variety of owners going back to the mid eighteenth century – and probably before that.[29] What remains are the buildings of an associated distillery which had over the door "Established 1779. Holland and Co's Distillery and Bonded Store." [30] It has been described as having been ‘one of the great gin factories of London”.[31] In the 19th century it was owned by a George Wheelhouse who left his fortune to charities in Scarborough. [32] It was taken over by Hollands and subsequently Seagar Evans.[33]
The Anchor Brewery was on the site of what is now Tesco’s Lewisham supermarket in the Creek. Some brewery buildings remain on site[34].
There was also a brewery on Hope Wharf – now the site of Hope House flats in Greenwich High Road. This brewery was associated with the Corder and Haycraft maltings which was on Hope Wharf – along with their better known maltings in Stockwell Street.[35] It was taken over by Baird’s Maltings in 1910 and they closed it in 1960. I was amazed to discover that they still made Greenwich Crystal Malt at their Witham factory – although sadly they have now discontinued it.[36]
Deptford Creek was also the site of a number of important chemical works. Predominant must be John Bennet Lawes first superphosphate works – the result of his researches at Rothamstead. [37] It was to be joined by several more manufacturers of artificial fertilisers.
[1] https://opendomesday.org/place/TQ3875/lewisham/
[2] Philpotts. Archaeology of Deptford Creek (unpublished MS)
[3] https://btckstorage.blob.core.windows.net/site2569/The%20Blackheath%20Hole%20-%20February%2004.pdf
[4] Hartree. John Penn & Sons
[5] Thanks Malcolm Tucker for discussing possibilites.
[6] A
survey of the Kings Lordship or Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent.
1695
[7] Thomas.
London’s First Railway.
[8] Ludlow, Greenwich, fish and Billingsgate Dock. GIHS Newsletter Nov.2000
[9] Phillpotts, Harold Wharf, LB Lewisham. Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment. 2000
[11]
https://brookmillpark.com ›
a-walk-in-brookmill-park
[12] Dickenson.
The Water Supply of Greater London
[13] Riley.
The First Factory. Was it in Greenwich or Woolwich?
https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=riley
[14] Dobson.
Masters and Journeymen
[15] Colwall Account of the Deptford
Copperas Works", Phil Trans 1677
[16] Deeds
Surrey Record
Office, other material in private hands.
[17] Creek
Bridge Wharf. Greenwich Weekender. 15th May 2021
https://issuu.com/southwark.news/docs/glw209
[18] Mills.
The Advent of Gas Street Lighting in Greenwich.
Jrnl Greenwich Historical Soc 2017/18
[19]
Sturt. Greenwich Railway Gas Works. GLIAS Newsletter June
1986 & Feb 1999
[20] Cochrane. Cradle of Power
[21] Greenwich Industrial History 2007 9/6
[22] https://www.thameswater.co.uk/media-library/home/about-us/responsibility/thames-days-out/sites/heritage/greenwich-pumping-station.pdf
[23] Garrod, Research into the Deptford Potteries.Kent Arch Review No.97.
[24] https://greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2019/11/robinsons-flour-mills-deptford-bridge.html
[25] Clarke. Mumford’s Mill
[26] https://www.tarmac.com/products/concrete/
[27] https://thameshighway.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/j-j-prior-a-brief-history/
[28] Greater London. Industrial Archaeology News Autumn 2007
[29] http://breweryhistory.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thomas_Norfolk_%26_Sons_Ltd
[30] https://historicengland.org.uk/advice/heritage-at-risk/search-register/list-entry/92737
[31] Philpotts
[32] https://deptfordmisc.blogspot.com/2011/04/george-wheelhouse-1772-1864.html?m=1
[33] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seager_Evans_and_Co.
[34]
https://runner500.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/the-lewisham-anchor-brewery/
[35]
Bower K/2010/Recording of buildings on Land at Stockwell
Street, LB Greenwich. Pre-Construct Archaeology
[36] https://www.bairds malt.co.uk/heritage/
[37] http://resources.rothamsted.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Sir%20John%20Bennet%20Lawes.pdf
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