Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Creekery - the canvas


The view from Ha'Penny Hatch footbridge looking south at lowtide (August 2010). The bridge seen here is the viaduct carrying the Docklands Light Railway from Greenwich to Deptford Bridge and on to Lewisham. The line was part of the second stage extensions to the DLR and was opened in 1999. 


The official opening of the new Ha'penny Hatch footbridge in 2002 (picture courtesy National Maritime Museum, London).
The footbridge crosses Deptford Creek alongside the railway bridge. The modern lift bridge replaced the old wooden Ha'penny Hatch toll bridge, which closed in the 1920s. It cost a ha'penny – half an old penny – to cross.

Some more history...

Deptford Creek is the last tidal stretch of the River Ravensbourne (Randisbourne) before it flows into a part of the River Thames known as Greenwich Reach. The Creek lies partly in the Borough of Lewisham and partly in the Borough of Greenwich.

The most famous industrial plant in Deptford Creek was the Power Station. It stood at the mouth of the Creek and supplied electricity to Central London. The river provided an unlimited supply of water for cooling and allowed coal from the North East to be shipped in easily.

The bridge over Deptford Creek was the site of the Battle of Deptford Bridge, 17 June 1497, the last battle of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497.

From the 16th century onwards until its closure in the 19th century, the proximity of Royal Dockyard created by Henry VIII at Deptford gave employment to many small shipbuilders on the creek. Queen Elizabeth I knighted Francis Drake on board the Golden Hind in Deptford Creek on Drake's return from his circumnavigation of the globe in 1580. The Golden Hind remained moored in the creek until it broke up.

The tidal Creek has been the site for three corn mills. The power of the tide would drive the machinery to mill the corn, which would be brought into the Creek by barge. The Domesday Book recorded eleven corn mills on the Ravensbourne in the 11th century. The 17th century London diarist John Evelyn bought one of these mills – Brookmills – in 1668 for "grinding colour".

From the early 19th century the Creek also hosted chemical works, engineering works, gasworks, soap and candle factories, sawmills, coal and timber wharves, paint works, breweries, food stores and verdigris works for the manufacture of copper sulphate.

Text gathered from wikipedia and portcities.org.uk

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