Alice Cicolini was commissioned by Futurecity to create the cultural strategy for Hutchinson Whampoa's proposed development on the site of the Royal Docks. Her essay for the strategy gets under the skin of what makes Deptford unique ...
'From Henry VIII’s Royal Docks to Michael Craig-Martin and Herzog de Meuron’s Laban building, Deptford embodies progress. "Deptford’s got this great ability, as in a lot of poor towns, to absorb and yet remain the same. It’s got a tremendous ability to defend itself... it will take on anybody. Any authority, any challenge. It will look it in the eye and give as good as it takes; it’s a fantastic place for that and always has been." Deptford Stories, 2006
Even just a cursory look at Deptford’s social history, as told by its people, its community historians, as well as through its ‘official’ history, reveals the extent to which this place is, while traditionally economically precarious, culturally rich and distinct.
Something about its boundaried nature, bordered as it is by the Thames and the Ravensbourne on two sides and a major high road and the railway on the others, amplifies the sense of distinction. It’s something that writer Seb Emina, in his article Seven Days in Deptford, describes as ‘town-ness’, and that Michael Ondaatje describes as a ‘port accent’ – but it could equally be called determined self-sufficiency.
There is an element of them and us that comes from centuries of surviving at the edge. However, it is equally a pride in being rooted in a place that has consistently married high and low culture, absorbed and then ultimately embraced the outsider (however painful a process that has on occasion proved) and been an engine of innovation for hundreds of years.