Deptford is a dense riverside neighbourhood where green space is closer than the clichés about inner south-east London suggest. Most homes have a park or green space just a few doors away. The Thames and Deptford Creek are a short walk. A cycle route passes close to almost every home. There is no countryside here at all, but you can be in a park or by the water within minutes.
On average, the nearest public green space is about 84 metres from a Deptford home, and there are about 55 green spaces within a kilometre. Many are small squares, estate greens and churchyards. Greenwich Park and Southwark Park are both close enough for a weekend walk. For somewhere this built up, Deptford has a lot of green space.
The nearest water is about 250 metres away on average, and there are about 75 bits of water within a kilometre, from the Thames to Deptford Creek and the old dock edges. For three centuries the river was Deptford's main source of work. Now it is mostly somewhere to walk.
The National Cycle Network is about 190 metres from the average home, and about 97% of homes are close to it. There is no ancient woodland here. Getting out of Deptford by bike is easy, and the countryside is a long ride away.
The rating list shows what the high street is made of. Deptford has 317 shops, 14 pubs and 16 restaurants recorded as rated premises. Shops make up most of that list, and the street market brings in more trade. The street was built for shopping, with pubs and restaurants a small part of it.
Lewisham's average fine-particle pollution in 2024 was about 9 micrograms per cubic metre, a figure for the whole borough.
The rest of Deptford is a mix of very different periods. Bazalgette's Victorian pumping station is near Deptford Creek. The Albany Theatre has been part of local life for more than a century. Convoys Wharf is the former royal dockyard, closed in 1869, later the City's foreign cattle market and later still a newsprint terminal. St Johns, to the south, has a gentler feel, with its station and Victorian streets. Few London neighbourhoods have changed what they do as many times as Deptford has.
Private outdoor space is limited. There are about 10,600 square metres of private garden for every 1,000 residents, and with most homes being flats, much of that belongs to the few houses and ground-floor flats. For most people, the public parks are the garden.
The business rates list counts 1,105 premises in Deptford. That includes 316 shops and 201 offices, and much of the rest is workshops, industrial units and warehouses. These are premises on the valuation list, and some may be empty. Many of the workshops and warehouses date from when the area still worked for the river.
The Food Standards Agency has rated 228 food premises in Deptford. About 59% have the top score, and between 3% and 4% are at the bottom of the scale. Most of what's on offer is well run.
No protected landscape overlaps Deptford. There is no area of outstanding natural beauty, no site of special scientific interest and no ancient woodland. Deptford is a working riverside neighbourhood, and its green space is parks, squares and riverside, all of it meant to be used.
The surroundings are one of Deptford's real strengths. In a neighbourhood this dense, most homes are still within a short walk of a park, the water and a cycle route.