ROYAL DOCKYARD DEPTFORD

I have been working away at all sorts of early local industry for another project and doing a lot of work on the history of the Royal Dockyards – because they are so early and so huge both in their output and in their number of staff.  I don’t think I have ever done a proper article about Deptford Royal Dockyard. To be honest I’ve done so many of these articles that I’m not sure what I have done!

I should start with a disclaimer. The site of Deptford’s Royal Dockyard is now entirely within the London Borough of Lewisham - but I feel I should include it as a Greenwich site. The whole of the Dockyard area was originally in Kent and would have been in St Nicholas parish. Half of it remained in the Metropolitan Borough of Greenwich but eventually it was handed over to Lewisham in the 1970. This was mainly so that the London County Council constructed Pepys Estate could be administered as a single body by Lewisham Council.

The Greenwich area is remarkable in having two Royal Dockyards. This area had had a Royal presence since the Middle Ages. In the late 15^th/early 16^th century the Court gradually moved from Eltham Palace to Greenwich and it was the ambition of the monarch – Henries VII and VIII to build a Navy.  It must have seemed obvious that nearby areas on the riverside could be used as site. Henry VII had a storehouse here in Deptford and the site was greatly expanded under Henry VIII.

There is a vast amount of information on Deptford Dockyard – and this is only a briefest summary. The archaeological report produced in 2014 is a substantial volume and there are many other articles and blogs. For many years I have been a Member of the Naval Dockyard Society which is based in Portsmouth, but which produces regular volumes many of which refer to Deptford. In 2013 the Dockyard featured in a special conference at the Maritime Museum and which was opened by Joan Ruddock who was then the Member of parliament for Deptford hello

The Society’s web site is https://navaldockyards.org/   and their front page shows a grand picture of the launch of the Lenox in 167 0 8. Followers of Deptford’s voluntary sector will know about the ‘build the Lenox campaign.’  https://www.buildthelenox.org/ https://www.buildthelenox.org/ but I really don’t know what has happened to them and I’m afraid they might just have given up in despair.  Perhaps somebody would let me know

The Dockyard itself was built around a naval store house built in 1517 to which moorings and a dock basin were added. But it may have been sited here at first as the result of a natural pond which may have been used since the 13^th century to moor Royal ships and where repairs and maintenance could take place

The Tudor 'Great Store-house' lasted for a century after the Dockyard closed but was demolished by the Admiralty in 1951. Following some agitation the foundation stone was preserved and given to University College, London in 1953 by the London County Council. The University managed to cover it up and forget they had it.  It was discovered a few years ago by Chris Mazieka from Shipwrights Palace and is now back on display.  The storehouse building was parallel to the river and the Great Dock - a double-length dry dock - lay next to it. At the same time as docks were built there were also offices, stores and other amenity buildings. These included large houses for senior officers.

Deptford was the most important of the Royal Dockyards, and, as The Kings Yard, it was visited on occasion by the monarch to inspect new ships building there.  Under Elizabeth the yard was expanded and it was associated with Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind and ships which opposed the Armada. Elizabeth is said to have knighted  Francis Drake there in 1581.

By the 17th century the yard covered a large area and included several storehouses. The Great Dock was lengthened and enlarged in 1610, several slipways were remodelled and in 1620 a second dry dock was built, with a third was authorised in 1623.  After 1688 a Great New Storehouse was built.

Diarist Samuel Pepys was Clerk to the Navy Board 1660-1689 and Deptford was well within his remit. In 1675 he said that 305 shipwrights were needed to build one ship and Deptford Dockyard  had a huge workforce of tradesmen, labourers and clerks with a Master Shipwright at their head.  A century later on 14^th September 1755 there were 1,066 workers at the yard. Industrial action was far from unknown and I have written an an earlier article about the constant disputes and an action which was not then known as ‘a strike’ but came to the same thing.

In 1698 Tsar Peter the Great in 1698 came to learn about work in the yard and the damage done to Evelyn’s Sayes Court by his entourage –‘right nasty’ –is well known.  A group of rather strange statues on the Deptford riverside is said to commemorate his visit.

Clearly many important and very beautiful ships were built at Deptford. I am not going to try to describe them at all - after all that’s what the Maritime Museum is here to do and I am sure that whatever I say will look very silly compared to what they have to say.

As warfare increased through the 18^th century so there was a massive growth in naval power and the Royal Dockyards were at the heart of foreign policy.  They were not only massive industrial complexes in themselves but generated many additional industries. But as the smallest Dockyard, upriver Deptford was difficult to access by large vessels but convenient for Navy Board officials based at Somerset House. Deptford was increasingly used as a depot for the distribution of naval supplies. In the Hanoverian period, voyages by James Cook, Martin Frobisher and George Vancouver began here.

After 1763 Britain’s naval perspective altered and was less concerned with foreign wars. “There was a more competent bureaucracy, a thriving maritime economy .. and British maritime ascendancy”.  From Deptford were launched several ships for Nelson’s Navy including ships which fought at Trafalgar. As well as the site of the launching of over three hundred ships it was the point of departure for countless journeys of exploration, voyages of discovery and naval battle

Machinery and steam power were becoming important. The second steam dredger was built at Deptford in 1807 and the navy’s first steam vessel, Congo, launched here in 1816. But it was in Woolwich and other yards that the steam Navy was built.

River walls were constructed in the early 19^th century including work by John Rennie, with Jolliffe and Bank as contractors, dating from 1815-16. These are now listed along with the eastern boundary wall along Upper Watergate which is also the current borough boundary.

The yard was closed in 1830 – but reopened in 1843 with a restriction on the size of vessels. Some of the largest roof structures of the time were built in iron over the ship building slips. One remains on site known as the Olympia warehouse. The yard finally closed, along with Woolwich, in 1869 as part of a general government cost cutting exercise. Its 800 remaining workers were transferred elsewhere.  This site was used as City of London’s foreign cattle market and then by a number of military and naval bodies. In 1984  was sold to Convoys paper warehousing for News International

What remains are many great paintings of important ships under construction or repair, reflecting their glamour and fame.  There is also an exact model of the yard prepared for George III now in the National Maritime Museum.  The bell tower of the quadrangle storehouse is now a feature of a supermarket in Thamesmead. 

At the extreme downriver end of the dockyard site is a large and rambling building. It dates from 1708, but was added to and used as the Master Shipwright’s house and offices.  It was sold separately by Convoys to two young men who have since restored the building - as The Shipwrights Palace and they have undertaken much meticulous research on the site. The Former Master Shipwright's House, Olympia  and the former Office Building are both Grade II* listed. 

In 2025 the remaining Dockyard site still remains largely derelict and awaiting development. I am very aware of a number of people who have projects they would like to undertake on the site and I am also unaware of the very lively and involved local community Many of whom have had great ideas about the future of this important site. Constant delays by developers and others still mean is future is unknown.