Featured local business - Clubtek

Forest

SE23

Hill

I was already a regular visitor to Clubtek’s DJ shop when it was in Penge, but now they're even handier in Stanstead Road, just a few doors down from Shannon’s Garden Centre - another old favourite. It’s by no means just for DJs and bands...
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Deptford Slavery Map Launch

Feb

9

2022

A campaign group has been set up with the goal of establishing a Museum of Slavery and Freedom (M ō S a F) on the site of the old Royal Naval Dockyard on the bank of the River Thames at Deptford:  'The museum will focus on the role of Deptford, London and the Royal Navy ...
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Deptford · slavery and empire · Transpontine

An Anti-Slavery Speech in Deptford, 1830

Oct

18

2021

In November 1830 one B.C. Challis gave a lecture that was published shortly after as 'The Substance of a Speech on Negro Slavery. Delivered at the Rev. Mr. Barker's Chapel, High Street, Deptford, on Tuesday Evening, 2nd November, 1830'. The whole text is available to read online and while some of the language is archaic, ...
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1830s · Deptford · racism · slavery and empire · Transpontine

Haberdashers, Hatcham and Slavery

Mar

16

2021

[UPDATE - September 2021 - Haberdashers schools have now confirmed that they are removing the Aske part of their name, as well as dropping their archaic motto of 'serve and obey'. The New Cross school will 'seek to re-purpose the statue of Aske at Hatcham College... and aim to contextualise it in a way that ...
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Black History · Haberdashers' Askes · Robert Aske · Robert Browning · slavery and empire · Thomas Clarkson · Transpontine

Blood and Sugar – ‘Deptford is a slaving town, is it not?’

Jan

12

2021

'Blood and Sugar' by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Pan, 2020) is essentially a murder mystery set in late eighteenth century Deptford - 1781 to be precise.  Without giving too much away of the plot, a slavery abolitionist is brutally killed and his friend sets out to investigate. He is obstructed in his enquiries by the local magistrate ...
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Deptford · novels · slavery and empire · Transpontine

‘South London and Negro Emancipation’ – 1863 anti-Slavery meeting at the Elephant & Castle

Jul

17

2018

Events in the last few years have reminded us that there is still a lot of unfinished business from the American Civil War. The flag of the defeated Southern states is still a rallying point for racists, and since the start of the Black Lives Matters movement Confederate statues have been a  renewed focus of ...
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1860s · American Civil War · Elephant and Castle · Lambeth Baths · London College of Communication · slavery and empire · Taylor's Depository · Transpontine

History Corner: John Evelyn of Deptford

May

22

2013

John Evelyn (1620-1706) has cropped up a few times for me in the last week. The seventeenth century diarist, writer, gardener and government official is remembered in the names of the local Evelyn Street and Lewisham's Evelyn Ward, among other places.Portrait of Evelyn by Robert WalkerLast Saturday I gave a history tour of the Deptford riverfront to ...
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17th century · Convoys Wharf · Deptford · John Evelyn · Royal Dockyard · slavery and empire · Transpontine