Not so secret history: Turning The Tide

It seems as though there was no one in Deptford who didn't watch The Secret History of Our Streets last night and wasn't moved by its content in one way or another.

Some were moved to tears, others were furious at the council and some were angry with the programme makers. A great many people who had been interviewed, even handed over family photos and talked at length about their love of the place, were naturally disappointed to have ended up on the cutting room floor. The rector of St Paul's was one such – there wasn't even a shot of his beautiful church. Old Archie – who obviously had a great life story to tell – stayed in the cut but Harry Hayward of DAGE got dropped, and where was Johnny's Hardware store and Fred's auntie and (fill in your own missing people)?

Others wondered why there was no mention of the positive things that are happening right now – why paint such a negative picture? (Answer: The clue is in the word "history"). Anyway, we hear John Price didn't really want to take part but was pleaded with when the programme makers 'uncovered' the evidence of the unneccessary 'slum clearance' which provided the hitherto missing glue for their narrative. Of course, a fairly prosperous family background of market trading promised useful cine footage as well (you had to be moderately well off to have a cine camera in those days).

By missing a lot out or skimming over broader issues (pre-war poverty, war damage, industrial decline, immigration etc), the programme delivered a powerful message about a singularly devasting episode in Deptford's history.

But much of the story which unfolded can already be found towards the end of Jess Steele's excellent book on Deptford, "Turning The Tide, The History of Everyday Deptford", first published in 1993 and essential reading for any Deptfordian. (ISBN 1-898536-00-7)

On page 195, Steele says "Perhaps most upsetting is the admission that by no means all of the streets cleared for the estates were slums...". Steele did not print a picture of the same report that was shown in the film nor lend it the same weight, but it was obviously not a secret in 1993, so could not have been that difficult to track down in 2012.

Of course the vintage and home cine film footage included in the Secret History film engaged our senses in a way a history book cannot. But going back to the book reveals a different picture and most strikingly shows how film can manipulate your senses beyond your reason. A particular casualty of truth in the film would appear to be Nicholas Taylor, the architect and councillor involved in the demolition of so many of Deptford's homes. Taylor is portrayed, through some clever editing, as a man with no heart, in league with the dystopian London planners, made to hang (as a commenter on the BBC's blog suggested) for the crimes of the past. Turning The Tide, on the other hand, reports a man who was extremely unhappy with the process. (See below).

The film also gives the impression Deptford was prosperous from Booth's day all the way to the full employment of the 50s then suddenly took a turn for the worse when idealistic planners wrecked the place. In truth, Deptford's fortunes have ebbed and flowed. Somewhere along the way in this tale-telling, the truth was lost.

People debated on the BBC blog, and on local blog Brockley Central, Shipwright's Palace pointed out further inaccuracies:  

"Wholesale clearance of individual dwellings for London County Council blocks began in Deptford as early as the 1890s around Watergate Street, Hughes Field, Deptford Green "For the Erection of Dwellings for the Working Classes". A second wave occurred in the 1930s such as Crossfields Estate and again immediately post-war in Tanner's Hill. The 1950's-70's clearance was a third wave.
The High Street (Butt Lane) was originally a residential street, largely developed during the eighteenth century, not Victorian as described."

However, the main point to be made here is that the programme makers presented us with "a secret" that came across to many viewers as a shocking 'big scoop'. But if we'd only read our history books, we'd know this stuff already. In the process, they have also tarnished the reputation of a man still living, Nicholas Taylor, whose heart may have been truer than the filmmakers'.

Nevertheless, if anyone has been woken up into realising how plans are made for us whilst we're asleep, then the film team must be congratulated for raising the profile of an issue that is central to Deptford at this time.

As Jess Steele points out "Lewisham does not even have a museum...If our history had not been treated with such indifference and ignorance we would have less need of full-scale regeneration...We have to turn this tide of neglect." p222

Turning The Tide
 
Steele admits at the beginning of her penultimate chapter that in trying to cover the history of Deptford from Roman times onwards, a topic as huge as the slum clearances and the building of council estates could only be roughly sketched and really demanded another book.

An historian born and bred locally, she was also an activist involved in ensuring the regeneration funds pouring into the area in the 90s went in the right direction. She found Nick Taylor to be a useful guide.

Nicholas Taylor, a young architectural journalist and Lewisham councillor in the early 1970s, had been writing polemical articles against tower blocks for a decade. Now he looks back at his fellow-councillors and remembers a kind of old Labour machismo which was excited by the scale of the buildings, by their 'phallic penetration of the skyline'....Taylor points out that "these little gardens and yards, full of washing and children and animals and all the stuff of daily life, were ruthlessly eliminated".  (p.193)

Taylor also defended the residents who had moved into Milton Court in 1971: "this estate is horrendous; there is a madness in the design". Old Deptford councillors "never understood why people weren't grateful for these estates. How dare they form a TA and start attacking the council when they'd hardly moved in?". (p.194)

Taylor had, however, been in favour of demolishing some of the old houses in the area Milton Court was built on, since they were so badly built – cracking apart and subsiding on poor foundations – and were in danger of falling down anyway. Not because they were 'slums'. Steele goes on:

Nevertheless "the replacement of companionably unhygienic slums by soulless tower blocks with broken lifts" (Macgregor 1987) has haunted the memories of Deptford people and planners. Perhaps most upsetting is the admission that by no means all of the streets cleared for the estates were slums...How many other houses were lost in Deptford through the ignorance and indifference of Lewisham planners? Cllr Taylor tells of taking other Lewisham councillors on a Saturday morning coach tour round Deptford, a part of their borough some of them had never ventured into...(p195)

Steele quotes a piece in the The Sunday Times (Peter Way): "Having destroyed a community, devastated trade, and broken up a good deal of workable low level housing the planners have just completed one of the alternatives: an awesome complex in which people are refusing to live..."

Steele also goes into the politics of how Deptford became part of Lewisham (rather than Greenwich), quoting the Deptford MP Sir Leslie Plummer, who said, "When Deptford was a civilised borough and community, the people of Lewisham were practically running around in woad...(whereas) we launched ships, and brought an empire to Elizabeth 1. We were not common scullions and cooks (like those in Lewisham who claimed King Alfred had burnt his cakes there); we were navigators who girdled the globe and brought riches and treasure to this country." p.197

Another chapter is devoted to the two World Wars where she describes how the area was affected through its proximity to the docks – from which one can gather that a process of rebuilding and rehousing had been going on for some time. She also details the economic ups and downs that occurred between Booth's time and the late 20th century which caused Deptford's fortunes to rise and fall accordingly – with focus on the charitable work and voluntary efforts that helped to shape the positive places and things we see today (The Albany for instance).

In her final chapter Steele tackles the subject of racism which also has a resonance that this film could not tackle, and which she describes as "an elastic and manipulable ideology, surviving by adaptation to specific circumstances. Its logic is filled with useful blindnesses and justifying amnesia". (p211)

Epilogue ('History dying and demolished all the time')

In her epilogue (written in 1993), Steele quotes another local activist of that time, Richard Walker:

The main question...is "whether inherent design faults and the continuing ghettoisation of the inner city underclass can be addressed by capital investment, administered through Lewisham Housing Department, major architectural consultants and big construction firms. Are these not merely the 1990s version of the agents who built these estates in the first place?" (p228)

The problem of housing the underclass was handed over a few years later to Lewisham Homes aka Lewisham Council (Crossfields chose this option in consultation) and to various Housing Associations, but the present call to 'build new housing' has the same ring of the old triumvirate: a local authority (whose planning committee has no training in planning), and architects working with giant construction firms.

Clearly an update from Jess Steele, or her equivalent, would be welcome.

In some ways the neglect of Deptford has been a blessing. We have many beautiful buildings in the High St...Other buildings all over the borough have scraped past the redevelopers precisely because the area was deemed so worthless...(p225)

If anyone has other books or useful resources on this topic they can recommend please leave a comment.

UPDATE 12-06-2012
See Deptford Misc 

UPDATE 14-06-2012
Thanks to Deprford Misc for link to Martin Taylor speaking about his father in Guardian letters. 
Also, copies of Turning The Tide are available at Creekside Centre at normal retail price.

UPDATE 19-06-2012
Thanks to Deptford Misc for this link: www.dfpbooks.co.uk/index.html

UPDATE 19-06-2012
South London Press carries a story from Nick Taylor himself in their Tuesday paper. Unfortunately it's not available to view online without subscription. Taylor says:

"I had nothing to do with these decisions. I was one of the first campaigners in England against the 1960s policy of bulldozing houses and replacing them with tower blocks....the first thing I did when I was elected to the council in May 1971 was to stop the demolition of the houses in Gosterwood Street, Etta Street, and the remaining half of Rolf Street. When I was elected in 1971, the High Street was in a terrible state and I played a major part in saving the street, bringing it back to a flourishing life, bring the market back into it in 1975, so that it is now renowned as one of the best places in London for its vibrant and varied shops and stalls." (Er, steady on, Nick).

Nick's son, Martin, is quoted as saying, "My father and I are furious and extremely upset. He has spent his life working for the good of Deptford and is devastated at the way in which the film makers have portrayed him."

A BBC spokesman says: "The film includes a line which clearly stated the contributor in question wasn't on the council when the decision to demolish Reginald Road was taken."

Secret History of Our Streets airs tonight on BBC2

'Creek Street' residents were labourers, poorer artisans and street sellers. What has changed since 1889?

Back in January 2011, Crosswhatfields posted that it had been contacted by Century/Halcyon Heart Films, with a request for us to help them find people they could interview for their documentary series on six London streets – one of which was Deptford High Street.

We had already posted quite a bit about Charles Booth's 1889 Poverty Maps of London (see links below), which the producers were using as a starting point to base their enquiry on. They wanted to know: how have these streets changed in the past 120 years?

Whether we were any help or not (we were slightly concerned that people's stories might end up on the cutting room floor), they have now finished making their series, and the first episode of The Secret History of our Streets airs tonight on BBC2 at 9pm – and it's all about Deptford High Street.

To give you a flavour, Time Out previewed the Deptford episode last week – the programme looks set to reveal an interesting story about slum clearance and social engineering. Also see the short clip on the BBC 2 website.

Meanwhile, here's what Marmoset wrote on Crosswhatfields about Booth's Poverty Map of Deptford:

A brief history of Deptford-Greenwich borders October 2010
Putting the clock back in Deptford (1) October 2010
Putting the clock back in Deptford (2) November 2010
Putting the clock back in Deptford (3) November 2010

You can view Booth's Poverty Map at the Charles Booth Online Archive, courtesy of the London School of Economics.

A Walking Tour of Deptford - Monday 2nd May

Marmoset has written a lot on this blog about Charles Booth's Poverty Map of Deptford. If you're interested in the history of Deptford and wondering what to do on Bank Holiday Monday, actor and writer Sean Patterson is leading "an unconventional walk that combines architecture, literature, social history and psychogeography to bring this rich story to life".

The walk starts at 10.30am on Monday (there was also a walk today and yesterday) and costs £10 (£8 concs). The walk is two and three quarter hours long including a short stop at a pub. Meet outside the Deptford Deli cafe on Tanners Hill SE8. For more info go to charlesboothwalks.com.
To book call 07957 222070, or email sean@west367.demon.co.uk.

"Booth's Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London, undertaken between 1886 and 1903 was one of several surveys of working class life carried out in the 19th century. It is the only survey for which the original notes and data have survived and therefore provides a unique insight into the development of the philosophy and methodology of social investigation in the United Kingdom." (booth.lse.ac.uk/)

Putting the clock back in Deptford.(3)

To avoid a bit of disorientation, it might be useful to note that where we now have, working south, 3 parallel roads - Giffin Street, Frankham Street and Reginald Road - in Booth's day there were 5 parallel roads - Giffin Street, Regent Street, Stanhope Street, Hale Street and Reginald Road.  Looking at this map:

it appears that Regent Street - or Stanhope Street -  has been re-named  Frankham Street, and Hale Street has disappeared apart from the High Street end where there's the remains of a narrow road behind the Shaftesbury Centre (or whatever that churchy-chapelly thing is called).

The next part of Booth's walk takes him from  Mechanics Path/Resolution Way.

 On the west side by the railway is a passage leading to High Street. Ground on south side is taken for Builder's Yard. (Holloway's), one house occupied by foreman. Two and three storied houses; a few shops,

On the site from Browne House and further south, he notes:

opposite Giffen Street and south of that point, people are poor. Barefoot girl came out of one house. Group of women talking in doorway near Hale Street.

For Booth, the sight of a ''Barefoot girl'' is a clear indication of poverty. Women standing in doorways are another.  And

Men sitting on pavement outside publichouse with feet stretched across footway. Pony cart standing on road – chalked for sale. Few shops are comfortable. German baker etc.

hardly makes the area seem more prosperous.  

W along Giffen Street. 3 storied, about 6 rooms. Many of the houses at the east end are dilapidated and boarded up. Slatternly women standing about; some shoeless children. Low class, some prostitutes, hawkers, etc. Some houses let in furnished rooms. Street Roadway has been made up – covered with tar paving and shingle.

All this sounds very attractive.  Low classes, poverty, prostitutes and hawkers. And again, women standing around talking, though this time they're ''slatternly.''  Though there were fewer ''charges'' therefore the area had improved.

Linking Giffin Street and Regent Street there appears to have been a connecting street, Bevill Street.  

S along Bevill Street. Deptford Ragged school – a large square at W. corner of Giffen Street. Three 3 St houses on east side – like Giffen St. Dark blue. E along Regent Street. Two storied houses – broken windows. Some street sellers. Two women talking in roadway as we entered. ''Well known prostitutes'' said the Inspector. The women moved off quickly, evidently recognising him. Board School extended to W. Dark Blue as map. S and W along Hale Street. Narrow crowded street. 2 st houses. Broken windows, sills broken away. Street doors open into room. Beds seen through ground floor windows. When visiting with Inspector in the morning the women were standing about the doors, criticising their visitors. At an afternoon visit I found them sitting on groups on the foot path, one on a chair, more on the edge of the curbstone whilst one woman completed a small circle by sitting in the road with her feet toward the kerb. Costers driving home on their pony carts. Candle factory at west end of street, emitting very evil smells. Not much crime. Dark Blue rather than Dk B lined as map. N into Stanhope Street. 2 st houses, flush with pavement. Broken windows, cemented roadway blocked with barrows. Two men breaking up some gas fitting and putting the metal in a sack. A few Italians; some costers and prostitutes; shoeless children running about and frowsy women gaping at the doors. Board School takes greater part of north side. The west end of the north side is more open and the people a little cleaner, approximating to LB. Dark blue lined black as map.

It seems odd that the only reference I can find to him returning somewhere for an ''afternoon visit'' happens to be to where there are well-known prostitutes.  I wonder why he returned.

(I've placed a transcription of Booth's walk onto the Backtalk page - if you are interested in his observations for the rest of his journey followed by his conclusions, please visit it.)

Putting the clock back in Deptford.(2)

That was a bit naughty of me yesterday - though I put in a link to the map, I didn't put in a link to the notebook from which I had transcribed a couple of extracts.  So let's put that right.

The next stage in Charles Booth's journey brings him closer to Crossfields Estate but might be a little confusing because he goes walking up streets that no longer exist.  Here's a map to give you some bearings - the online quality is not great but you can make out Addey Street (which Booth occasionally calls Addis Street) running parallel to Church Street with a further unnamed street running to the east.  Much of Addey Street appears to have been retained as the estate road running from behind Wilshaw House north to the railway.  The unnamed street was Hosier Street and where the entrance to the north side of Holden house now stands, there was Leonidas Street. 

Booth walks from the Broadway towards Creekside and Reginald Road noting:

N up Church Street (to Reginald Rd). Poor class of shops near the Broadway, 3 storied and old fashioned private houses, a few let in tenements but most look comfortable. Poorer as you go north. Pink as map. Portion of colour on east side gone – houses taken for mineral water factory. Lease for sale.

Though the south end of the Broadway has been rebuilt, there are once again a handful of very small shops at the Broadway end, and the mineral water factory must have been situated more or less where the car parking area behind Lewisham College now lies.  I do hope that they didn't get their water from the nearby Creek.

On into Creek Street (now Creekside)

East along Creek Street. With exception of two, the houses on south side are gone. Taken for business premises. On north side 2 st. houses. People look comfortable, work on the creek. Pink rather than purple of maps. Portion of street going north is poorer. East side nearly all gone. West side 2 storied houses. Purple (as map) to LB. Prefer latter.

Now the south side of Creekside only has one house left but the houses-into-businesses progression seems familiar as industrial use replaced housing. This continues north along Creekside/Creek St where there is housing on the west side (now Wilshaw and Holden Houses) but no housing on the east (Faircharm)

By the S side of railway is a passage eastward leading to the railway bridge across the Creek. Known as the ''Halfpenny Hatch.'' Toll of 1d charged for crossing.

Inflation clearly is not a recent phenomenon - already it costs twice as much as its name suggests.

W into Leonidas Street. 2 st. 4 rooms, flush with pavement. Paint good, clean and well kept. Decent people mostly one family in a house. Purple rather than LB of map. Colour omitted on south side, Light Blue. S down Hosier Street. 3 rm'd cottages, poor labouring class. Some broken windows. Part of SE end of street taken for factory. LB as map. Colour to come off west side south of entry into Addis Street. Ground plan of street wrong at south end. Street runs into Creek Street near Addis Street. Several houses between Hosier Street and turn in Creek Street.
 The recurrent references to colour reflect the colour coding Booth used to show levels of affluence.  Leonidas Street is roughly where the estate entrance opposite the Creekside Centre is.  Hosier Street has left no trace of itself though.  Its old route would take you through Holden and Wilshaw and and back out onto Creekside.

N along Addey Street. Small 2 St houses like Hosier St. south of the passage into Hosier Street. LB in character. Between the entry into Hosier Street and Leonidas Street is a row of old houses on E. side. 4 rooms and attic in roof. Footway leading to houses is about 2 ft below level of roadway and is protected by iron railing. Some prostitutes and criminals. Low rough class: reckons this the worst part of Deptford. Went into a house here to arrest a man at 5am. Found father, mother and 5 children in one room. All rooms are small. This piece should be D.Blue lined. Houses opposite are 2 st. D.Blue in character. Northern part is 2st and Light Blue except 3 shops and publichouse north of Leonidas Street. 





His route so far would seem to be along the lines of this:

As they walk back north up Addey Street the inspector remarks that he ''reckons this the worst part of Deptford.'' which Booth marks out here.

Addey Street, the buried heart of Crossfields is not a place of luxury.  ''Some prostitutes and criminals. Low rough class: reckons this the worst part of Deptford. Went into a house here to arrest a man at 5am. Found father, mother and 5 children in one room. All rooms are small''

So, prostitutes, 7-to-a-room overcrowding and criminals - the low rough class.  I think we may have become slightly more gentrified since Booth's day.

(Next section to include the hawkers and slatternly women standing about on the ''Poor Patch east of High Street/Giffen Street)

Putting the clock back in Deptford.(1)

Why put the clocks back just one hour when we can go back over a century?  On 18 July 1899, Charles Booth was out and about in the local streets revisiting the area to evaluate the changes since his Poverty Map of London had been created 10 years earlier.  This is the area he walked, accompanied by police officers from the local Nick - which at the time was at the junction of Blackheath Road and Greenwich High Road:

So, Crossfields estate is splat bang in the middle of the area he surveyed.  The Broadway in the south, the Thames in the north, Deptford High Street in the west and the Creek in the east.

First, a note on who accompanied him.   Booth's accounts of his survey companions are not always as neutral as you might expect for a sociological survey.  He has been known write such sentences as ''Sergeant Vann is a solid, stolid character...'' and though they're not too objective they do provide little caricatured impressions of what he means.  His return to our neck of the woods was done with Inspector Gummer at his side.

Inspector Gummer is a small well dressed portly man. Jacket suit and straw hat. Has over 10 years service at Blackheath Road and knows the district well. We started about 10am, Sergeant Goddard having instructions to relieve the Inspector at noon as he was due at Woolwich Police Court.

Sergeant Goddard, who relieved the inspector at noon didn't come in for such a flattering portait.

At this point Sergeant Goddard relieved the Inspector. He is a thin man of about 40. Face mottled, the result of bad digestion or too close application to the worship of Bacchus. Walks slightly lame, owing to rheumatism. Has been over 10 years in the sub division but for last 18 months at Blackheath Road.

At the beginning of the walk, starting at Deptford Bridge he notes Gardiners, the ''large establishment'' which still stood in the 60s, with its imposing, ornate but predominantly soot-stained brickwork, before it was replaced by the imposing, plain and predominantly bland characterlessness of Lewisham College.  And thence to Deptford Broadway, a...

Triangular open space, paved with cobble stones. Stand for barrows and the meeting place of the neighbourhood. Political and other meetings held here. Men standing about. Good three storied shops to High Street, slightly poorer near Church Street. 


The cobblestones have long since gone, but it's interesting to note that the Broadway was once a place for political and other meetings.  Any gathering there now would be the 999 club, where the unemployed can get themselves a free cup of tea and maybe even a bit of company.  And the police would soon be along with insistent ''move along, please!'' commands if more people than the fingers on your hand gathered together there now.

(Next instalment - Booth follows Church Street past Deptford's answer to Evian water along  to Creek Street, which of course is now known as Creekside.  ''Poorer as you go north....'' and we may meet prostitutes on the way.)

A brief history of Deptwich-Greenford borders.

I noticed the other day that we have 3 new street names in the neighbourhood.  It's something that hasn't happened for a while, but it's by no means a recent phenomenon.  Back when this map was drawn in 1850, the western end of Evelyn Street was still called  Broomfields Place and Creek Road was New Road, Copperas Lane linked up with Deptford Church Street (more like Berthon Street)  -  and Creekside wasn't even a glint in the developer's grandchildren's eye.

In less than 2 decades, however, the whole local landscape had undergone a fairly dramatic reshaping.  The Bridge has been rebuilt and Creek Road has appeared, along with Evelyn Street, though the two don't yet join up.  The street that marked the western boundary of where Crossfields now stands, has appeared under the name Creek Street, now Creekside. But instead of joining up with Deptford Church Street, Creek Street joins up with the attractively named ''Slaughterhouse Lane.''  If you come onto what's now Creekside from the Bird's Nest roundabout, where the road turns left there's still a trace of a road continuing straight on into the APT yard.  This is pretty much the line of Slaughterhouse Lane.

By 1898, when Charles Booth was drawing up his poverty map, Copperas Lane has moved westward to where Copperas Street now is, and Berthon Street has appeared.  Curiously, where Crossfields estate now is, was not then in St Paul's Parish, but was in the Christchurch Parish.  Creek Road has now joined up with Evelyn Street, cutting diagonally across Queen Street

Incidentally, the different colouring of the housing indicates poverty levels.  Black, as seen next to Giffen Street, for example, marks the poorest areas.  Booth classified these households as occupied by:

''The lowest class which consists of some occasional labourers, street sellers, loafers, criminals and semi-criminals. Their life is the life of savages, with vicissitudes of extreme hardship and their only luxury is drink''

So, it's the old Anchor club!

Dark blue, such as where Cockpits Arts/Drake House now is and between Berthon Street and Bronze Street, denoted:

''Casual earnings, very poor. The labourers do not get as much as three days work a week, but it is doubtful if many could or would work full time for long together if they had the opportunity. Class B is not one in which men are born and live and die so much as a deposit of those who from mental, moral and physical reasons are incapable of better work''

Where Crossfields now stands, there's a slightly ''better'' class, shown in light blue:

'' Intermittent earning. 18s to 21s per week for a moderate family. The victims of competition and on them falls with particular severity the weight of recurrent depressions of trade. Labourers, poorer artisans and street sellers. This irregularity of employment may show itself in the week or in the year: stevedores and waterside porters may secure only one of two days' work in a week, whereas labourers in the building trades may get only eight or nine months in a year.''

Charles Booth is almost sympathetic to our plight.

And moving north, to where our new street names are, we see the area is colour coded in red.  We should be reassured to learn that returning to this area will be...

''Lower middle class. Shopkeepers and small employers, clerks and subordinate professional men. A hardworking sober, energetic class.''

These sober and hardworking people moving into ''Creekside Village'', however, might be surprised to learn that ''Creekside is perfectly located within Greenwich...''

Anyhow, here are our new streets.  I bring you....Harmony Place

 And Bridge Walk...

 And Doing the Laban Walk....

 And finally, if you think Creekside is perfectly located within Greenwich, you've just moved from here, haven't you?

-0-

If you're interested in browsing these old London maps here is where they can be found:

The top 1850 map, ''Cross' New plan of London,'' is here

The second map, Stanford's Map of London (1862-1871),'' is here

Booth's Poverty map (1886-1903) can be found here