Deptford

The previous entry was based on what was Deptford Strand, the fishing village, turned into Naval Dockyards. There was also the town just inshore based around a ford over the River Ravensbourne (Deptford = Deep Ford). Before they were all covered over and became sewers, the Thames was fed by numerous significant rivers.

Anyway this is St Nicholas Church which harps back to those rural village days, apparently being founded in the 12th century and the tower at least being 14th century, although repaired. 

The nice little graveyard's most prominent resident is playwright Christopher Marlowe who died while on bail for the then capital offence of being an atheist. You can see why Christianity did well, utterly ruthless murderous bastards defended God's love...

This is Deptford High Street. If you look above the rundown shops you see fine 18th century houses. This is apparently becoming a trendy area, ie people can find nice houses among the general rundown neighbourhood.

And the real gem is Albury Street with its terrace laid out in the early 18th century. The particularly notable feature is the fine set of carved doorcases (this is where a walking guidebook comes in handy as you could easily pass by this side street without noticing it, or overlook the door carvings).

A more obvious feature in the area is St Paul's Church. I am guessing this had problems with vandalism as it has high walls and the gates around are all padlocked. But it is a very impressive baroque church the architect apparently being a pupil of Sir Christopher Wren.

 

And finally at the other end of the design scale, the Laban Dance Studios. You can't get much more modern than this.

I will remember this for an encounter with a bloke from the studios as I took these pictures. He came out shouting at me that photos weren't allowed. But then he said actually he didn't mind me taking photos provided I didn't take photos of the students. Apart from saying I didn't actually want to to have people in the photos, there was also an extreme absence of students anyway, as photos show! He did say I might accidentally get a student in the shot. 

I do wonder at all this privacy nonsense. I mean he couldn't stop me waiting at the gate to take photos of students if that was his concern, so why it makes any difference that I went a few yards inside the drive, which is indeed open to the public. And while it might be different if one was trying to take photos of scantily clad dancers, what is the worry if some student in a coat might appear in the corner of a photo of the dance school as opposed to in the corner of a photo wandering down the street? I suspect most likely the poor bloke was just bored and had no one to talk to...He was, I should add, perfectly nice and really wanted to tell me how nice the building was. I guess security when there is absolutely no one about is a pretty dull job.