View of Convoys Wharf from the Thames Path

Convoys Wharf 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 ...

is a former commercial

wharf A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

on 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 ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, currently awaiting redevelopment. It includes the site of

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 ...

, built in the reign of King

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. ...

as one of the first Royal Dockyards. Convoys Wharf also covers most of the site of

Sayes Court Sayes Court was a manor house and garden in Deptford, in the London Borough of Lewisham on the Thames Path and in the former parish of Deptford St Nicholas, St Nicholas. Sayes Court once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden''John Ev ...

manor house and gardens, one-time home of the diarist

John Evelyn John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, ...

. The current name of the site dates from 1984, when the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

sold the wharf and adjoining land to Convoys Ltd (newsprint importers). Convoys Wharf was subsequently taken over by

News International News Corp UK & Ireland Limited (trading as News UK, formerly News International and NI Group) is a List of newspapers in the United Kingdom, British newspaper publisher, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the American mass media Conglomerate (c ...

, which used it to import

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has ...

and other paper products from

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

until early 2000. Having been sold by News International in 2008, it is now owned by

Hutchison Whampoa Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) was an investment holding company based in Hong Kong. It was a Fortune Global 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL was an international corporation with a dive ...

Limited and is subject to a planning application to convert it into residential units, although a large part of the site has safeguarded wharf status. The area to the south-east, adjoining Watergate Street, was Palmers Wharf; while to the north-west is the Pepys Estate, a 1960s

housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision (land), subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to count ...

built on the site of the Royal Victoria Victualling Yard.

History

Sayes Court

After the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

the manor of Deptford was bestowed upon one Gilbert de Magminot, a descendent of whom married Geoffrey de Saye (who gave his name to the manor house on the estate). After the Restoration, the lease on the estate was acquired by the diarist John Evelyn.

Royal Dockyard

The Dockyard, formerly known as the King's Yard, was established in 1513 by King

for the building, repair and maintenance of vessels for 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 ...

. Along with nearby

Woolwich Dockyard Woolwich Dockyard (formally H.M. Dockyard, Woolwich, also known as The King's Yard, Woolwich) was an English Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard along the river Thames at Woolwich - originally in north-west Kent, now in southeast London - whe ...

, it was one of the leading dockyards of the period and brought a large population and prosperity to Deptford.london-footprints.co.uk
Deptford Dockyard The dockyard is also associated with the knighting of Sir

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudor. Her eventful reign, and its effect on history ...

aboard the ''

Golden Hind ''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Ha ...

'', the legend of Sir

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebell ...

laying down his cape for Elizabeth, Captain

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

's third voyage aboard ''Resolution'', Frobisher's and

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

's voyages of discovery, despatching ships against the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

, as well as for Nelson's battles including Trafalgar. In 1698 Tsar Peter I of Russia aged 25, came to Deptford to learn about shipbuilding and seamanship. He was granted the use of

's Sayes Court, adjoining the Royal Dockyard, by William III. In three months he and his party caused considerable damage to the famous gardens, and also to the house, with "much of the furniture broke, lost or destroyed". Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

was instructed to survey the property and declared it "entirely ruined". At the mouth of Deptford Creek, on the Fairview Housing estate, there is a statue, designed by Mihail Chemiakin and gifted by

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

commemorating Peter's visit. By the 18th century, due to the silting of the Thames, the dockyard's use was restricted to ship building and distributing stores to other yards and fleets abroad. It was largely shut down from 1830 to 1844; shipbuilding then resumed on the site, but in 1864 a

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

Committee recommended that the Royal Dockyards at Deptford and Woolwich should be closed. Their recommendation was accepted and the Deptford dockyard was closed in May 1869, by which time it employed 800 people. It had produced some 450 ships, the last being the wooden screw

corvette A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloo ...

HMS ''Druid'' launched in 1869.

Foreign Cattle Market

Before

refrigeration Refrigeration is any of various types of cooling of a space, substance, or system to lower and/or maintain its temperature below the ambient one (while the removed heat is ejected to a place of higher temperature).IIR International Dictionary of ...

cattle had to be

import An importer is the receiving country in an export from the sending country. Importation and exportation are the defining financial transactions of international trade. Import is part of the International Trade which involves buying and receivin ...

ed alive, and the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 gave the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

exclusive local authority for foreign animal imports and processing subject to its opening a market before January 1872. The complete site at Deptford, including a lease on the LB&SCR docks, was acquired and the market opened in 1871.Supply Reserve Depot, Deptford. (Old Foreign Cattle Market). Skeleton Record Plan. Sheet No. 1 of a set of 4. Corrected to September 1938. By 1889 the site had been extended to . In 1907, 184,971

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

and 49,350

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

were imported through the market but by 1912 these figures had declined to 21,547 cattle and 11,993 sheep.''Sale of Deptford Market. Government to Pay £387,000.'' The Times, 13 March 1926, p.12, col F

During the War years

The Foreign Cattle Market was taken over by the War Department in 1914, on a tenancy agreement from the City of London Corporation, for use as the

Royal Army Service Corps The Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was a corps of the British Army responsible for land, coastal and lake transport, air despatch, barracks administration, the Army Fire Service, staffing headquarters' units, supply of food, water, fuel and do ...

Supply Reserve Depot. The War Department hired the Sayes Court area and almshouses, from the

from 19 September 1914 to use as a Horse Transport Reserve Depot at a rental of £90 per annum (), to enlarge its Supply Reserve Depot at the Foreign Cattle Market. On several occasions after the

Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...

traders and others urged that the market should be reopened; however, in 1924 the War Office exercised their option to buy it.''Future of Deptford Market. War Office decision to buy.'' The Times, 6 February 1924, p12, col B The

fee simple In English law, a fee simple or fee simple absolute is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. A "fee" is a vested, inheritable, present possessory interest in land. A "fee simple" is real property held without limit of time (i.e., pe ...

of the Foreign Cattle Market and of the Sayes Court property were purchased by the War Department, for £400,500 (), under

deed A deed is a legal document that is signed and delivered, especially concerning the ownership of property or legal rights. Specifically, in common law, a deed is any legal instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right ...

s dated 25 March 1926, 18 March 1927 and 25 July 1927 including the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

, tramway,

age and

jetty A jetty is a man-made structure that protrudes from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater (structure), breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French la ...

rights and

easement An easement is a Nonpossessory interest in land, nonpossessory right to use or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is "best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another, B" ...

s. The yard also served as a United States' Advance Amphibious Vehicle base and married quarters during the Second World War.Greenwich Industrial Histor
Proposal to list the remains of the Royal Dockyard at Deptford
6 January 2010 During the Second World War a bomb destroyed one of the storehouses in the adjacent Royal Naval Victualling Depot and killed a number of men; a plaque was visible in the early 1970s commemorating this tragedy. During the war, because of the Blitz some of the stores were dispersed to various locations including Park Royal.

Railways

From 15 December 1900 there was tramway access via Grove Street, to the Foreign Cattle Market, using their own Maudslay petrol locomotive. When the docks became an army depot the junction was relaid to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

for direct connection to the LB&SCR. There was as well, an internal narrow-gauge tramway system. When the War Department took over, they introduced

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, Fuel oil, oil or, rarely, Wood fuel, wood) to heat ...

s to work the tramways, purchasing between 1915 and 1917, twelve oil-fired Warril type gauge

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s from the

Hunslet Engine Company The Hunslet Engine Company is a locomotive building company, founded in 1864 in Hunslet, England. It manufactured steam locomotives for over 100 years and currently manufactures Diesel engine, diesel Switcher, shunting locomotives. The company ...

. In December 1920 the Government announced the sale of the equipment from the railway at the Deptford Meat Depot. In 1921 Sir Robert Walker purchased three locos and 75 wagons for the Sand Hutton Light Railway, and purchased a fourth 1927. By January 1938 of the remaining eight locos, seven were apparently still in existence at Deptford, but out of use.

Latter part of 20th century

On the closure of the Victualling Depot in the 1960s the establishment was renamed The Royal Naval Stores Depot and moved to a new building within what is now Convoys Wharf. The Depot was the main Air Freight hub for the RN and was particularly busy during the Falklands War. It also continued as the central RN Stationery Store and Joint Services Baggage operations. The Depot closed in 1981. The site was purchased by News International from the UK Ministry of Defence for £1,600,000 (), and a remainder in 1986, for £340,000 (). In 1993 the Greenwich and Lewisham (London Borough Boundaries) Order transferred the site from the London Borough of Greenwich to 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 ...

Archaeology

Most of the Tudor, Stuart, Georgian and Victorian structures above ground level that had survived until 1955 have since been destroyed. One structure that escaped the demolition is Olympia Warehouse, a unique cast-iron building constructed in the 1840s.Convoys Wharf London
, Richard Rogers Partnership, 2002 However,

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

surveys carried out by CgMs and Pre-Construct Archaeology in 2000 by Duncan Hawkins, in 2000 by Jon Lowe and in 2001 by David Divers, established that by far the greater part of the dockyard survives as buried structures filled in intact between 1869 and 1950. The structures of the yard proper, the docks, slips, basins, mast ponds, landing places and stairs, constitute a substantial architectural fabric that is currently extant, though largely invisible, being covered by superficial accretion or infill. As yet there has been no archaeological investigation of the garden area of Sayes Court, and only limited trial trenching of part of the manor house.CVW00, Convoys Wharf evaluation by CgMs Consulting on behalf of News International PLC by David Divers

International recognition

In October 2013 Deptford Dockyard and Sayes Court garden were added to the World Monuments Fund's 2014 watch list.

Redevelopment

In October 2000, 'Creekside Forum' set up the 'Convoys Opportunity'

umbrella group An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions who work together formally to coordinate activities and/or pool resources. In business, political, and other environments, it provides resources and iden ...

in response to the News International Ltd plan to sell the Convoys Wharf site. Convoys Opportunity, composed of community organisations, churches, businesses and others in Deptford and beyond,Select Committee on Transport Written Evidence
Memorandum by the Creekside Forum (TT 09)
by Bill Ellson, Creekside Forum, July 2004 campaigned to have the

scheme refused and the safeguarding order upheld. In 2002 News International applied to the

for outline planning permission to erect 3,500 residential units on the site. Lewisham councillors resolved to approve the application in May 2005. The

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

Olympia Warehouse would have to be preserved and refurbished as part of the redevelopment of the site. News International engaged Richard Rogers to develop a masterplan for the site.Planning Context
/ref> On 18 May 2005 a 50/50 joint venture company of Cheung Kong Holdings and Hutchison Whampoa entered into an agreement to acquire Convoys Wharf, to develop it as a mixed residential and commercial project, with News International retaining a profit share in the sale of the luxury homes proposed. In 2008 a new planning application was submitted by Hutchison based largely on the original Richard Rogers scheme. In July 2011 Hutchison Whampoa engaged

Aedas Aedas is an architectural firm founded by the Welsh architect Keith Griffiths. Aedas employs 1,000 staff in its twelve offices in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, Dubai, Riyadh, Delhi and Seattle and provides services in archite ...

to develop a new masterplan for the site and submitted an amendment planning application. Then in early 2012 Hutchison appointed Terry Farrell to revise the masterplan for the site and submitted a planning application in April 2013. The site of Sayes Court manor house in 2009

The site of Sayes Court manor house in 2009

In September 2011 a group of local residents launched a campaign, with the name ''Deptford Is...'' to oppose the masterplan proposed by the developers. They proposed two projects to connect to the history of the area and benefit the local community: the Lenox project (see below) and Sayes Court Garden. On 17 October 2013,

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

, the Mayor of London called in the application. In January 2014 Lewisham Council's strategic planning committee recommended that the outline planning application for Convoys Wharf in its current form be rejected. On 22 January 2014, Dame Joan Ruddock challenged the government to recognise the unique heritage features of the site. On 31 March 2014, Boris Johnson approved plans to build up to 3,500 new homes on the Convoys Wharf site that has been derelict since 2000. A planning application to build a first major residential block of 456 flats, the first of 22 plots in Hutchison's masterplan, was approved by Lewisham Council in June 2020. Future plans include a 1.5 acre park on an existing river pontoon, cultural, commercial and retail space, and 3,500 homes including three towers up to 40 storeys tall. A detailed planning application for plot P01, at the eastern end of the river frontage, was submitted in April 2023; it related to a 12-storey development containing 247 new homes, with ground floor retail/leisure floorspace and residential amenity space.

The Lenox Project

In 2013 the Lenox Project put forward a formal proposal to build a full-size sailing

replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

of HMS ''Lenox'', a 70-gun

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

originally built at Deptford Dockyard in 1678. The ship would actually be constructed on the dockyard site, and would form the centrepiece of a purpose-built museum which would remain as a permanent part of the development of Convoys Wharf. By late 2015 the project had gathered momentum, with more detailed plans fitting the building of the ''Lenox'' into the overall development of this part of Deptford. The 2015 Feasibility Study identified the Safeguarded Wharf at the Western end of the Convoys Wharf site as the most suitable place for the dry-dock where the ship herself would be built; the existing but disused canal entrance could then be modified to provide an entrance for the dock as well as a home berth for the finished ship. It is hoped that the ''Lenox'' will provide a focus for the regeneration of the area as the comparable replica ship '' Hermione'' did for Rochefort in France.

References

External links

Deptford Is...
blog about the proposed development of Convoys Wharf
Convoys Wharf development website
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20120313231705/http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/lewgreen/597284.no_more_penthouses/ No more penthousesNews Shopper, Lewisham & Greenwich, 17 May 2005
New look for old wharf
News Shopper, Lewisham & Greenwich, 31 May 2005
Include tribute in wharf scheme
News Shopper, Lewisham & Greenwich, 19 July 2005 *Convoys Wharf, Deptford a
GLIAS
Notes and news, December 2009
Safeguarded Wharves
- the official 2005 list and descriptions *Model of th
Royal dockyard at Deptford in 1774
{{Coord, 51.486, -0.027, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Archaeological sites in London Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lewisham London docks Military history of London Ports and harbours of the Thames Estuary Redeveloped ports and waterfronts in London Redevelopment projects in London Royal Navy bases in England Royal Navy dockyards in England Shipbuilding in London History of the London Borough of Lewisham Shipyards on the River Thames Port of London Wharves in the United Kingdom 18 in gauge railways in England Industrial railways in England Rail transport in London Deptford