Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England Survey Report; Deptford Houses: 1650-1800

Abstract

This report centres on about twenty sites in and around Deptford High Street. Broadly, the buildings on these sites are small lower-status 18th century houses. Though extensively altered and nearly all unlisted they deserve this attention because they are rare survivals of an understudied class of domestic buildings,early-modern town houses for artisans and labourers. As such their significance is wide reaching, with implications for our understanding of Georgian London, as well as that of towns across England and across the Atlantic. This reflects back onto Deptford and is indicative of the wider historic importance of the place. Although long part of London, Deptford grew up a place apart. It still retains some of its historically autonomous urban character; poverty and neglect have inhibited wholesale redevelopment, as the buildings studied here show. The houses and the place are separately and together markedly fragile. The historic evidence that inheres in the houses is threatened, by decay and alteration, and Deptford as a place is under growing regenerative pressures.