Deptford

Deptford, a parliamentary borough, now forming part of London, returning two members to the London County Council and one member to Parliament. It is in the counties of Kent and Surrey, which are separated by a creek, into which the Ravensbourne flows into the Thames upon the south bank. Its chief points of present interest are that it is the site of the foreign cattle market for London, and also of the central station of the Electric Light Company, who, from their magnificent installations at Deptford, profess to be able to supply London with electric light when the demand for it shall become general. An arsenal was founded here by Henry VIII., and there was an extensive Government dockyard, which only ceased to exist in 1869. There are many points of historical interest connected with Deptford. The old Elizabethan naval heroes were familiar figures in its streets. Here Kit Marlowe was killed; here Peter the Great served his apprenticeship in the ship-building art; and it was at the neighbouring Saye's Court that John Evelyn had reason to bewail the depredation that the Czar committed upon the well-trimmed hedges by employing a man to wheel him through them on a barrow. Of the two ancient parishes of St. Nicholas and St. Paul, the former is in Kent and the latter in Kent and Surrey, There is still a royal victualling yard in Deptford, besides a good deal of industry in pottery and the manufacture of chemicals.