Deptford Market

I found this totally unexpectedly, although I do now realise it's advertised pretty well too. I had been just going for a walk on a lazy day out of the office, and happened upon this fantastic little market down Deptford High Street.

Although a bit tatty around the edges, it had a good atmosphere, and the traders supplied copious banter alongside their wares. There was a really impressive range of items for sale - from fresh fruit and fish to whole wooden bedframes and luggage. Apparently, there are three seperate markets that specialise in different things although I didn't spot that, and it runs on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Deptford High Street has a pretty wide range of shops on it too behind the canvas stalls, although mainly on the cheaper end of the spectrum (Poundland "heaven"!), and is also home to the Deptford Arms pub (pictured here at the top). The Deptford Arms is apparently is pretty good for local bands, although a bit scruffy, and the hand-scrawled signs on the door telling non-customers to pee elsewhere are a little off-putting.

So this is what my tax goes on

I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, and actually pay attention to local authority propaganda, *ahem* I mean information and updates, that drop through my door.

Lewisham Council have a quite nicely produced glossy called Lewisham Life. My geography of the area is still very poor, and I can barely find my way to Sainsburys yet, so I may use this resource to find my feet a bit more. This really is a place full of green-spaces - something not immediately apparent on the usual dreary trek down New Cross Road on the commuter route. There are a number of 'festivals' planned in Lewisham's parks and fields in the coming month that definitely deserve a peruse.

The other article that piqued my amateur interest in regeneration, was advice for businesses suffering in the down-turn. People's perceptions of New Cross is really not helped when they stroll down the main high-street between train stations and see every other shop shuttered up and closing down sale signs everywhere. It's easy to see that this area could spiral downwards as people stay away from a dying area and compound the problems for those surviving businesses.

The other thing to drop through my door from the council was from the Safer Neighbourhood Team announcing that because it's war on street robbery was going well, it would now be diverting it's attention to street-drinking, drug-dealing, and youth disorder. After speaking to a friend of mine who was bottled whilst walking back from a nearby pub the other day, this does make me hope that higher-profile policing will be used, rather than being tempted to take their foot off the pedal.

New Cross small-pox hospital

I'm a big fan of maps me.

I just got bought a map of central and south east London from about 1890 that shows my neck of the woods on it. The picture here is centred on the quasi-conservation area north of the New Cross Road to the west of New Cross Gate station; this shows the full extent of the old hospital which was erected in the late nineteenth-century initially as a small pox hospital for paupers.

Hansard has a small interesting question and response on the topic of land that had just been bought in 1873 for the purpose of building a hospital: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1873/jul/21/metropolis-small-pox-hospital-at-hatcham

Evidently, some residents who had the ear of a local MP were not to keen on the idea of diseased patients roaming within spitting distance of their part of suburbia.

It has been known as Deptford Hospital in 1877 when it opened, the South East Fever Hospital from 1885, and then New Cross General Hospital in 1949 before dropping the 'general' in 1964. It closed in 1991 and huge parts of it were demolished to make way for residential buildings, with some out-buildings such as nurses accommodation being listed and also being converted to small flats.

Other hints also exist as to it's use as a hospital, such as the close proximity to the Deptford Ambulance station which exits onto New Cross Road just near where it meets the Old Kent Road. The Medical Toxicology Lab and Poisons Unit is still is in use, it's entrance on Avonley Road just down from the old hospital entrance - conveniently located for Hong Kong City just opposite!