Albury Street is a road in

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, in the Royal Borough of Greenwich and London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a Ford (crossing), ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century ...

in the

London Borough of Lewisham Lewisham ( ) is a London boroughs, London borough in south-east London, England. It forms part of Inner London. The principal settlement of the borough is Lewisham. The local authority is Lewisham London Borough Council, based in Catford. The ...

, England. It runs east to west between the A2209 Road and Deptford High Street. The road was laid out in the very early 18th century, when Deptford was a village to the south of the capital. The street was developed as an enclave for officers and senior staff working at the

Deptford Dockyard Deptford Dockyard was an important Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard and base at Deptford on the River Thames, operated by the Royal Navy from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. It built and maintained warships for 350 years, and man ...

. It contains ten Grade II* listed buildings, and a further two listed at Grade II.

History and description

Deptford (deep ford) developed as a crossing over the

River Ravensbourne The River Ravensbourne is a tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. It flows north from near Bromley into the tidal River Thames at Deptford, where its tidal reach is known as Deptford Creek. Geography The Ravensbourne is ...

, a tributary of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in south London. It is referenced by

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

in the

Prologue A prologue or prolog (from Ancient Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier st ...

The Reeve's Tale "The Reeve's Tale" is the third story told in Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales''. The reeve, named Oswald in the text, is the manager of a large estate who reaped incredible profits for his master and himself. He is described in the ...

in his series,

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

. In 1513,

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

began the development of

which grew to become one of the main victualling yards of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. In 1706, Thomas Lewis, a local

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

, undertook the construction of Albury Street, then called Union Street to celebrate the

Acts of Union 1707 The Acts of Union refer to two acts of Parliament, one by the Parliament of Scotland in March 1707, followed shortly thereafter by an equivalent act of the Parliament of England. They put into effect the international Treaty of Union agree ...

. By 1717 he had built some forty houses on the site, provided superior accommodation for officers and officials engaged at the dockyard. The houses were of two storeys, and built of London red brick with brick dressings. The early

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

ist John Gast (1772–1837) worked as a

shipwright Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces i ...

in the Deptford Dockyard and later ran the ''King of Belgium'' (then the ''King of Prussia'')

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

at No. 6, Albury Street. The street survived largely intact until the 1950s when a programme of conservation by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

was commenced.

Bridget Cherry Bridget Cherry (born 17 May 1941) is a British architectural historian who was series editor of the Pevsner Architectural Guides from 1971 until 2002, and is the author or co-author of several volumes in the series.Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, in their ''London 2: South'' volume in the

Buildings of England The ''Pevsner Architectural Guides'' are four series of guide books to the architecture of the British Isles. ''The Buildings of England'' series was begun in 1945 by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, with its forty-six original volumes pub ...

series revised and reissued in 2002, describe the result as an example of "appalling bureaucratic bungling". By the early 1970s, most of the houses on the south side had been demolished and replaced by local authority housing, while many of the elaborate doorcases, which had been removed for safe storage, were lost to theft. As at 2024, only four intact houses remain on the south side, while the northern run is in a better state of preservation. Dr Anthony Quinney, professor of Architecture at the

University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along wi ...

describes the remaining run of houses on Albury Street as; "among the few survivors in the whole of London from the first two decades of the eighteenth century and ... as one of the most important treasures architecturally and historically among domestic buildings in London". The listed buildings on the street, all at Grade II* except No.s 39 and 41, and 45 which are listed at Grade II, comprise: No.s 13 and 15; No.17; No.s 19 and 21; No.s 23–27; No.s 29 and 31; No. 33; No.s 34–40; No. 35; No. 37; No.s 39 and 41; No. 43 and No. 45.*No.s 13 and 15 Albury Street: *No. 17 Albury Street: *Nos. 19 and 21 Albury Street: *Nos. 23-27 Albury Street: *Nos. 29 and 31 Albury Street: *No. 33 Albury Street: *Nos. 34-40 Albury Street: *No. 35 Albury Street: *No. 37 Albury Street: *Nos. 39 and 41 Albury Street: *No. 43 Albury Street: *No. 45 Albury Street:

Notes

References

Sources

* {{cite book , first1=Bridget, last1=Cherry, author1-link=Bridget Cherry, first2=Nikolaus, last2=Pevsner, author2-link=Nikolaus Pevsner , title=London 2: South , url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/1460672733 , volume=2 , year=2002 , series=

, location=New Haven, US and London , publisher=

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

, isbn=978-0-300-09651-4 Albury Street Streets in the London Borough of Lewisham Shipbuilding in London Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Lewisham Georgian architecture in London