Deptford – A Town in Transition

This set of photos investigate the changing urban landscape in Deptford, representing my interest in urban regeneration, gentrification, local history and the anticipation of changing identities within the urban space. My initial encounter with Deptford occurred during the International Urban Photography Summer School in 2012, followed by several visits to the area in 2013. Most of these photos were incorporated into my final visual project at the end of Summer School, with some additional work carried out the following year. The project is not complete and I envisage a slow, continuation of the work over the next few years as changes in Deptford take place.

My practice is embedded in walking which, with its sensory approach to the environment, allows me to experience life on the street, thus enabling a critical engagement with the urban landscape. Furthermore, through engagement and participation, activities become comprehensible (de Certeau, 1984), thereby avoiding an approach that only observes the city as spectacle (Bourdieu, 1977). I have talked to market traders and their customers, local residents on the Pepys Estate, and whenever photographing, engaged in conversations. My research about the area has included the use of the Lewisham website to establish the plans for regeneration, attendance at the Convoys Wharf presentation and consultation organised by the architects of the site, and attendance at, ‘Has the Tide Turned? “Regeneration” Then and Now: 21 Years of Urban Change in Deptford’.

The title, ‘A Town in Transition’ has been chosen to reflect the fluidity of the landscape in terms of planning, architecture and the identities of people who occupy the space. My research has revealed an area rich in history whose wealth was associated with the docks. A combination of socio-economic decline and severe bombing during the Second World War, resulted in two eras of regeneration; the first, during the 1960s/70s, attempted to create modernist and utopian social housing, whilst the second and current regeneration, reverses some of the previous planning policies, and concentrates on the creation of exclusive riverside developments in conjunction with the gentrification of the town centre.

One of the key themes addressed through my photography is that of the urban space as a ‘palimpsest’ (Harvey, 2000, p77), in which elements of different historical eras become superimposed upon each other, revealing the influence of different identities and cultures on the landscape. Awareness of the palimpsest, encourages me to consider the layers of the city that shape our urban experience, noticing that we don’t totally erase what has occurred before. Deptford’s distant and more recent past is revealed throughout the town and riverside area, so for example, my attention was drawn to its cobbled streets and elegant architecture, suggesting an era of prosperity, juxtaposed against pound shops, pawnbrokers and betting shops, reflecting the current economic climate. Through my visual project I have attempted to convey some of these juxtapositions.

Observing the urban landscape through the prism of different eras, it becomes possible to understand how space is ‘a process’ (Lefebvre, 1991, p34), which is actively produced through social and political interventions. Evident in my project is the process of urban renewal and gentrification within the town centre that suggests an anticipation of a new type of resident. My experience of walking through these areas, particularly Giffin Square, has been of well used spaces that engage the public through a variety of activities. Places where drinkers previously congregated have been cleaned up and made safe, although as Zukin (1995) observes, the displacement of those considered undesirable, moves the problem to other less policed areas. A new large apartment block is currently being built at the Deptford Project, promoted to investors and city workers as ideal for access to the city. Indeed, the block offers a private route into the station. The promotional videos show nothing of the Deptford I’ve experienced in my work; people who use the High Street and market for instance have been totally erased. Instead, the new gentrified spaces are accentuated with the promise of more to come.

Spatial inequalities are important to my visual project, underlining the polarisation of wealth between some of the new developments, contrasted against the day to day activities within the town centre and market area. I thoroughly enjoy photographing within the town centre because people are friendly and the area is vibrant and diverse. It is simply not possible for me to take out a camera to photograph without engaging in conversations and participating in banter. Some of the new, regenerated spaces however, with their clean lines and transparent facades have an illusory feel to them; perhaps they represent an illusory space which contrary to their visual transparency, are not transparent at all (Lefebvre, 1991)? They look empty and remote, lacking the vibrancy that is so apparent in the town centre. When I photograph in these spaces I tend to feel conspicuous, rather like an uninvited guest.

The approval to build the Convoys Wharf riverside development with the inclusion of three towers rising to 40 storeys, will further add to the disparity as the town attracts a new elite. Atkinson and Bridge (2005) propose that ‘those who come to occupy prestigious central city locations frequently have the characteristics of a colonial elite’ (ibid, p3), changing the terminology of the gentrification process within the town centre into one of colonisation which sharpens the context of the spatial inequalities within my project.

My work in Deptford continues slowly. I am following the developments at Convoys Wharf and intend to document changes within the town centre periodically over the next few years. The project has the potential for long term further work; the notion of colonisation suggests an opportunity for the creation of a detailed visual project examining the ‘improved’, gentrified spaces whilst documenting the erasure of a cultural identity that currently still exists.

Bibliography

Atkinson, R. and Bridge, G. (2005). Gentrification in a global context. London: Routledge.

Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge, U.K. New York: Cambridge University Press.

De Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Harvey, D. (2000). Spaces of hope. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Zukin, S. (1995). “Whose Culture? Whose City?” In: Oakes, T. & Price, P. (2008) (eds). The cultural geography reader. London New York: Routledge.