(A) - Surrey Quays station was originally called Surrey Docks after the adjacent Surrey Commercial Docks which operated in one form or another from 1696 to 1969. 85% of the peninsula, an area of 460 acres (1.9 km²), was covered by a system of nine docks, six timber ponds and a canal. The area remained derelict for over a decade, with much of the warehousing demolished and over 90% of the docks filled in. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the docks were extensively redeveloped. The area and underground station were, renamed Surrey Quays.
(B) - The Dockers’ shelter originally provided shelter for dockers hoping for work, at the early morning ‘call-on’. (See information board for fuller details). Redriff or Redriffe is an old name for the Rotherhithe area.
(C) - Greenland Dock dates back to the 17th Century and was originally known as Howland Great Wet Dock. It was twice the current size and at the time one of the largest in the world. It was later renamed Greenland Dock in recognition of the whaling trade during the 18th Century. The whaling trade declined in the 19th century and gave way to timber and grain imports. As you walk around the quays you will notice foreign street names, old capstans, stairs and cranes. Watch out for information boards and plaques around this section of the walk.
(D) - Surrey Docks Water Sports Centre has sailing, canoeing and windsurfing facilities. It is also the home of the Tideway Sailability, a sailing club for sailors of all ages, both with and without disabilities, who sail every Thursday and Sunday throughout the year. The slipway is the entrance to the former Grand Surrey Canal and the dockyard timber wharves through to Peckham - the final stage to Portsmouth was never built.
(E) - South Dock (1807–1811) was used as temporary dry dock for building the mulberry harbour units used on D-Day in 1944. The former warehouses have been demolished and replaced with residential blocks. In 1994, the refurbished South Dock reopened as London's largest marina, with over 200 berths.
(F) - Circumsphere - (Chris Marshall and Steve Lewis 1998). This sculpture was created from more than a mile of galvanized steel rod. It shows the route of Sir Francis Drake’s circumnavigation of the globe which finished at this waterfront in 1581.
(G) - Aragon Tower, was built in 1965-5 as council housing, one of three twenty-six-storey tower blocks, on the1,324 home Pepys Estate, (named after Samuel Pepys 1633 – 1703 -see K below). The estate won a Civic Trust Award for its enlightened design in 1967, but gradually deteriorated. In 1999, Lewisham Council, sold Aragon Tower to Berkeley Homes who added 14 penthouse flats increasing its height to 91m with 30 floors.
(G) - Wall of the Ancestors. Sculptor: Martin Bond 1997. Constructed from cast stone, the sculptures celebrate the historical significance of the waterfront by portraying numerous protagonists alongside some contemporary characters. Famous names include: Sir Francis Drake; Tsar Peter the Great, who studied ship building at Deptford Royal Docks; Queen Elisabeth I; Catherine of Aragon and Olaudah Equiano, an 18th century former slave and abolition campaigner. Local residents include Dr Burnhart Gloss, a clown who was the last resident before rebuilding commenced.
(H) - Royal Victoria Victualling Yard - Established in 1742 and renamed in 1858, it supplied non-military provisions to Royal Navy ships. Extending to some 35 acres, there were warehouses and production plants for clothing, food, tobacco and rum. The Yard closed in 1961 and became the site of the Pepys Estate. The gates and a number of buildings still survive. The Grade II listed steps between the warehouses are reputed to be the site where Walter Raleigh threw his cloak into a puddle, for Queen Elizabeth to step on, as she was about to enter her barge.
(I) - Convoys Wharf, formerly called the King's Yard, is the site of Deptford Dockyard. Created, by Henry VIII, to build vessels for the Royal Navy, it was the first Royal Dockyard and some 350 Navy ships were built here over the centuries. Demand for new warships and repairs dropped after the Napoleonic Wars and the yard closed in 1869. More recently News International, used it to import newsprint. The wharf was sold in 2007 and it is now scheduled for re-development.
(J) - Royal Victoria Victualling Yard – Gateway and The Colonnade - The Colonnade (c 1788) was the former Officers Quarters. The Terrace dates from about 1791. Both are Grade II listed and now converted to flats. The Grade II listed gateway (c1788) is decorated with anchors and two ox skulls referring to the huge quantities of provisions which passed through the gateway. The bollards in front of gateway are four 18th-century cannons complete with cannonball on top. The two nearest the gateway have been leaning for over a century, according to old photos Note also, outside the gate, the Victorian letter box, set in wall and turnpike stone.
(K) - Pepys Park was named after Samuel Pepys, who was Secretary to the Admiralty in the reign of Charles II, and did much to reform the Royal Navy, as well as keeping, what is now a well known diary, from 1660-1669. Pepys Park is the only park in the borough, which directly faces the Thames.
(L) - Sayes Court Park. Sayes Court was Deptford’s manor house, situated at what is now Convoys Wharf. It once attracted throngs to visit its celebrated garden, created by the seventeenth century diarist John Evelyn. Sayes Court was demolished in 1728-9 and a workhouse built on its site. Part of the estate was purchased in 1742, for the Victualling Yard and this small park is all that remains.
(M) - Deptford Church. St Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors. The church, in existence since the 12th century, was visited by Sir Francis Drake and Captain James Cook before their world wide expeditions. The current building dates from 1697. Christopher Marlowe, the 16th century playwright, is buried in the cemetery. Note the Skull and Cross Bones sitting on the gateposts, to remind people of their mortality and the need to prepare for the afterlife.
(N) - Deptford Station - London's first passenger railway, the London and Greenwich, opened in 1836 initially providing services from near London Bridge to Deptford. A major engineering achievement, for the time, it ran on a viaduct of over 878 brick arches. Although the platform building at Deptford Station has been rebuilt, the railway arches to the east and west of the station are original and have been grade II listed since 1995.
(O) - Albany Theatre. The Albany is a performing arts centre. . It has four performance spaces, including a 300 seat theatre. Its programmes encompass music, theatre and dance, spoken word, exhibitions and comedy, as well as an array of educational, training and community-based projects. Other facilities include a café bar, rehearsal, workshop as well as meeting rooms for hire, office space and a pro tools studio.
(P) - Margaret Mcmillan Park. Margaret and Rachel McMillan, the pioneers of nursery education, established a nursery school in Deptford a century ago. Margaret later founded a training college for nursery teachers, named after Rachel. They believed that early years education could counter some of the effects of poverty.
(Q) - Fordham Park. Created in 1975, following wartime bomb damage and clearances, the park is named after Charles Fordham, the last Mayor of Deptford. The park, along with Margaret McMillan park, was refurbished in 2010 as part of the North Lewisham Links programme to provide a walking and cycling route between New Cross Gate and Deptford High Street.
(R) - Deptford Town Hall - The former Town Hall of Deptford Borough Council, which merged with Lewisham in 1965. It was built between 1903 and 1905 in a grand baroque style, featuring carvings emphasising Deptford's maritime heritage. The pediment shows an old naval battle and the clock tower has a weathervane of the Golden Hind. At the front are 3 famous admirals - Drake, Blake and Nelson and a modern admiral. The building is now part of Goldsmiths College.
(S) - Goldsmiths College was founded in 1891, in the former Royal Naval School, by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. Since 1904 it has been part of the University of London. It has as its focus, the study of creative, cultural and social processes. Disciplines include: visual, literary and performing arts; social behavioural and mathematical sciences; design, the humanities and educational studies. The art department is widely recognised as one of Britain's most prestigious and culturally important and has had over 20 Turner Prize nominees. Ben Pimlott (1945 – 2004), was a British historian of the post-war period in Britain. He made a substantial contribution to the literary genre of political biography.