Deptford

Deptford, a town on the south bank of the Thames, $4\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}$ miles below London Bridge, but practically a part of London, and represented in its council by two members. In 1885 it was constituted a parliamentary borough, returning one member. Of the two parishes, St Nicholas, wholly in Kent, and close on the river-bank, has a rateable value of upwards of £50,000, while St Paul's parish, which is to a great extent modern and residential, stretches partly into Surrey, and has a total rateable value of close upon half a million. A royal dockyard, dating from the time of Henry VIII., was honoured by repeated visits from Queen Elizabeth, who here knighted Captain Francis Drake when he returned from his voyage round the world. It was closed in 1869. Twenty-one acres of its site were bought by the corporation of London for £94,640, and were at a further outlay of £230,000 fitted up as a foreign cattle-market. Taking the year at 365 days, sheep and cattle are killed here at the rate of 93 every hour. The Royal Victualling Yard is also here, and as a specimen of its capacity, it may be stated that within a few hours of the official notification, 1500 tons of provisions were despatched for the relief of the starving inhabitants of Paris on the capitulation in February 1871. The Trinity House Corporation have property here; and for sixteen years before his death, the Duke of Wellington as Master went in procession to St Nicholas Church with the Elder Brethren. Since then the ceremony has been disused, and the annual celebration takes place at Trinity Hall, London. Deptford was long famous for horticulture, but the gardens have mostly been built over or used for railway purposes. There is little ship-building now, but the General Steam Navigation Company employ a great many men here, and there are large and famous marine engineering establishments. In 1888-89 the Electric Lighting Company spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in erecting buildings and laying down plant for supplying London with light. Peter the Great worked here as a shipwright. Lord Howard of Effingham, John Evelyn, author of the Diary, Admiral Benbow, Grinling Gibbons, Captain Fenton the associate of Frobisher, and other famous persons, lived here; and Christopher Marlowe the dramatist, was killed here, and is buried in St Nicholas churchyard. Deptford is divided from Greenwich by the Ravensbourne, and over the creek there is a bridge where formerly the depe ford crossed the river. The lower portions of Deptford were improved in 1888-89, at a cost of about £100,000; the upper portions, New Cross, Brockley, and Hatcham, abound in pleasant residences. The population has grown rapidly, from 27,896 in 1851 to 76,732 in 1881, and 101,326 in 1891.