St Paul's Churchyard, Deptford

The petition to the New Churches Commission by the Vestry of St Nicholas Deptford (q.v.) for a second church at Deptford was accepted in 1711, and the new parish of St Paul's was created. The parish of St Nicholas had grown and by then covered the whole of the former borough of Deptford with a population of c.11,000-12,000 people. The site chosen was land originally owned by the Royal Gardener Henry Wise (1653-1738), who had sold it in 1710 to his brother Richard, a Master Caulker in Deptford Royal Dockyard. Richard sold the land to the Commission for New Churches for £640. At that time it was in use as a market garden by Samuel Preistman, who was compensated £80 for loss of fruit trees, asparagus plants and dung. Five houses along Church Street boundary were also demolished. St Paul's Church was designed by Thomas Archer in 1713, with a circular tower; the steeple was added as an afterthought. The church was not consecrated until 1730. It was later restored in 1856, 1883, the 1930s, 1970s and most recently in 2002-04. Bridget Cherry has described it as 'one of the most moving C18th churches in London: large, sombre, and virile'. Inside the church are monuments to seafarers.

The Estate map of 1744 recorded the area to the east of the church as the 'best burial ground'. It was a requirement of the New Churches Commission that the burial ground was to have stone walls and iron gates in order to keep grave robbers out. Among the fine monuments are several table-tombs and an obelisk to the Stone family of 1807, and the grave of Mydiddee, a Tahitian who came to England with Captain Bligh on HMS Providence and who died in Deptford on 4 September 1793. By the time the 1852 Burial Act was passed St Paul's churchyard was crowded, presenting a health risk; the Act and its subsequent amendments enabled the vestry to elect a Burial Board. The churchyard closed for burials in October 1854, although it temporarily re-opened in June 1856 due to delays in establishing the Burial Board's new Deptford Cemetery, later renamed Brockley Cemetery (q.v.). Between 1854 and 1856 burials for the parish took place in Nunhead Cemetery (q.v.). St Paul's churchyard was finally closed in 1858. In 1910 an Act of Parliament enabled the former burial ground to be converted into public gardens, and in 1912 St Paul's was the first churchyard to do so. The Burial Board had already carried out some tree planting in the 1890s prior to conversion to a public garden; in 1912 the headstones were moved to the perimeter, walks were laid out and railed, trees were planted along the walks and it was opened as a public garden in 1913.

The garden has not changed substantially since opening, and the path layout, with some changes, is still dominated by straight walks, which were dictated by the constrained triangular site. The eastern area has been made less formal with the introduction of serpentine paths. The southern boundary has planes and limes, and there are older plane trees along the north boundary. The whole site is walled with railings and gates at the western entrance, and other built features include the former charnel house east of the church now used as a store, and a drinking fountain erected by the MPGA is in the south-east corner. There is some bedding, shrubberies to the east and serpentine paths, and outside the churchyard walls to the east and west are open spaces, with open access to the churchyard on Diamond Way.

A landscaped area at the church forecourt on Deptford High Street consists of gates and a piazza designed by Alan and Sylvia Blanc as part of improvement works to the High Street, which was opened by the Mayor of Lewisham, Ernest J Rowing, and Dick Emery on 17 June 1973 to mark completion of the first stage of the Deptford High Street improvement scheme.

The Rectory designed by Thomas Archer on Crossfield Street had been demolished c.1885 after it had been sold to the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company in 1882 and the tenements and cottages built on the site were later destroyed during WWII and the land now augments the churchyard as public open space. Demolition also cleared an open space to the east of the churchyard. The gravelled area behind the church has good ferns, including a colony of wall-rue on the south side of the church by the Crypt, rare in London. Between Crossfield Street and the churchyard is Crossfield Open Space, once formally landscaped until it became a wasteland following road building across it in 1998. The churchyard at one time had 3 mature weeping elms, 1 of which remained in 1999.

In 1985 the First World War memorial located at the Sandford Estate, Hornshay Street, New Cross was relocated to St Paul's Churchyard. It had been unveiled by Colonel Sandford on 24 May 1920, in a ceremony presided over by Mr W Bettall. The memorial is a low granite obelisk set on a plinth and single-stepped base, which stands in an area of paving with a concrete bollard at each corner. The obelisk has the following inscription: SANDFORD ESTATE / WAR MEMORIAL / IN HONOUR OF ALL THOSE / WHO RESPONDED TO THEIR / KING AND COUNTRY'S CALL / DURING THE GREAT WAR / 1914-1919; the dates 1939-1945 have been added to the west face.