I have today made a submission to the Boundary Commission to rename the Constituency as “Deptford” and not “Lewisham North and Deptford”. I said, “Deptford has a proud maritime history to be remembered by the Convoy’s Wharf heritage projects. The recent and planned house building, moves the population centre of gravity towards Deptford as does the proposed loss of Hither Green and Crofton Park. Transport links within the constituency are predominately East/West to the West End, City and Kent. No one uses the name Lewisham North to describe the area, or any area.” I suggested that my second choice would be Deptford and Brockley.
I found the location of the comment submission form at London | BCE Consultation Portal (bcereviews.org.uk). If you agree with me, you can add your comments too.
I added the following text as a supporting letter.
I believe that the constituency you propose to call Lewisham North and Deptford should revert to its previous name of Deptford. This is for reasons of history, population location, transport links and popular usage.
Deptford has a proud maritime history to be remembered by the Convoy’s Wharf heritage projects. The recent and planned house building moves the population centre of gravity towards Deptford as does the loss of Hither Green and Crofton Park. Transport links within the constituency are predominately East/West to the West End, City and Kent. No one uses the name Lewisham North to describe the area, or any area.
History – Deptford has a proud history as a location in London, being the site of the Stuart royal dockyards and the location of the 1st railway station in London. Before its incorporation into the London Borough of Lewisham when it was renamed Lewisham Deptford for purposes of tidiness it had a Town Council called Deptford. In Lewisham town hall, the chain of the Mayor of Deptford is still held, and on occasion worn. Deptford is a real town with a real history which is planned to commemorate with the heritage projects on Convoys Wharf.
Population – One effect of the proposed boundary changes is to remove Crofton Park and Hither Green wards from Lewisham Deptford and to add Blackheath which itself is not well connected to Lewisham. The removal of these southern wards and polling districts reduces the claim that the name Lewisham has on the remaining constituency. The proposed housing developments at Convoy’s wharf & New Bermondsey will shift the centre of population gravity of the constituency towards the Thames and Deptford.
Transport – The main roads and trainlines connect Deptford to London & Kent and not to Catford nor Lewisham, although one of the London Overground routes connects via New Cross to Lewisham, none of the other train routes connect Deptford to Lewisham. There is no A road from Deptford or New Cross to Catford, Lewisham’s town centre. It is planned that the development of Convoy’s Wharf will create a new “Thames Clipper” quay in the constituency, reinforcing its connections with the City, Westminster and Greenwich.
Finally, no-one calls this area or any area North Lewisham. If it were to be used it would be made up for Parliament. There is no ward and never has been called Lewisham North and the one ward with Lewisham in its name is now a small ward returning only two councillors. If it were felt that the true footprint of Deptford was insufficient to justify it being the sole name, then I would suggest Deptford and Brockley.
Dave Levy – in supporting correspondence to the BCE
Image credit: Deptford 1815, from”British History Online”, cropped, stored and processed for the usual reasons and also this is be a digital representation of 2D art and thus its use may be fair use/dealing.