My Deptford ancestors and old Church Street

My great great grandmother, Sarah Reed, was born in Deptford in 1839. On the 1851 Census she is shown living at 101 Church Street, with her parents John (a 'carman') and Elizabeth (born Elizabeth Say), and her siblings John, William, Charles, Emma, Jane and Warren. Her parents had got married at St Paul's Church in Deptford in 1831, where Elizabeth had been baptised in 1808. Elizabeth's parents, Thomas Say (a bricklayer) and Francis Blackwin (born 1771), also lived in Deptford. They would have been my great great great great grandparents. So while I have only been living in New Cross for 15 years, I can say I have local ancestors going back more than 200 years!

Some parts of Deptford today would still be recognisable to them - St Paul's and St. Nicholas' Churches and much of the High Street. But Church Street itself, the earliest actual address I have for my relatives, has very little left from the 19th century with the exception of the Birds Nest pub, with older buildings also on the Broadway near the Church Street junction.

The street seems to take its name not from St Paul's, which was built in the 18th century, but from its older function as the route from the original Deptford settlement near to what is now Deptford Bridge to the parish church of St Nicholas', dating back to the 14th century.

Ideal Homes states that that in the 19th century Church Street was a main shopping street, and as late as the 1970s there were seemingly still significant shops there at the Broadway end (see final photo), but the last remaining older buildings (other than those mentioned above) were demolished in that period, making way for the Lewisham College building and some newer housing on the opposite side of the street. We can though get a sense of pre-demolition Church Street from photographs and paintings.

At the British Library site, there's a picture of the Old Roman Eagle pub and Assembly Rooms in 1841. Richard Carlile's The Republican magazine reported in 1825 that: 'A numerous meeting of the mechanics of Deptford was lately held at the Roman Eagle, for the purposes of establishing a Mechanics' Institution in that town, Dr Olinthus Gregory in the chair'. This led to the setting up of the Deptford Mechanics Institution on the High Street.

Ideal Homes has a picture of Deptford Theatre, which stood on the east side of Church Street, backing onto the creek (note windmill), and was at is peak in the early nineteenth century and closed in the 1860s. The theatre was next door to the Oxford Arms pub, which is still there today in its current incarnation as The Birds Nest.

Also from Ideal Homes is this 1922 painting of Deptford Church Street by Evacustes A. Phipson.

At the always useful Dead Pubs there are these two photographs of a Free House and Off License at 165 Church Street in around 1920. I think the dog might be my dog's great great great grandparent!

Matt Martin has a couple of great old shots at his True Londoner's Flickr photostream. The first shows the fire brigade in action at The Druids Head pub, located at 8 Church Street near the Broadway end. The pub was there from at least as early as 1840 through to the 1970s.

Finally there's this fine 1970s image of a policeman helping kids across the road, with Church Street stretching out behind them from the Broaway end. On the right is Gardiners store, and the chimneys of The Oxford Arms (now Birds Nest) can be seen behind.

Any other stories, memories or pictures of old Church Street very welcome - still can't even work out the 19th century numbering to guess where number 101 might have stood.

Obviously my detailed knowledge of Deptford geography before I moved round here is sketchy - where was the Deptford Odeon in relation to the photograph with the policeman?

(updated 13 April 2011 - see also Deptford Church Street 1881)