Deptford is a corruption of the original name which was Depeford, because there was a deep ford here across the River Ravensborne which ran into the Thames. Travellers had to wade across. The area was also known as West Greenwich. Henry VIII’s Royal Naval Dockyard was centred in Deptford. The shipyard also built a yacht for Charles II and equipped Captain Cook’s ship’s before their voyages of discovery. There was a yard next to the dockyard called Royal Victoria Victualling Yard, which later became the foreign cattle market and is now Convoy’s Wharf. Peter the Great, the Czar of Russia, stayed at Deptford and studied shipbuilding there. (Hence, Czar Street). Trinity house was originally based at Deptford.

There are some original houses scattered around the centre of Deptford, although not much escaped bombing in the Second World War. Albury Street contains Georgian houses. Mainly there are new houses or converted flats. A 1960s council development called the Pepys Estate sits between Evelyn Street and the river.

Deptford is the site of a number of large recent developments. Millennium Quay on Deptford Creek contains 600 new flats and houses. Further south is the Meridian Gateway scheme beyond Copperas Street with 630 flats. On the Greenwich side 500 flats were contained in the OneSE8 development. The former distillery on Brook Mill Road has also been converted into flats.