EAW043425 ENGLAND (1952). Flour Mills at Deptford Creek, Deptford, 1952. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing.

Text: 'J & H Robinson Ltd'

Text: 'Mumford's Greenwich Flour Mills' plus dates. By Deptford Bridge

At 07:53 on Friday, 16th June 1944, a V1 slammed into Reginald Square, killing twenty-two people.Often (wrongly) touted as the first Buzz-bomb to hit Deptford*, this V1 struck in the heart of Reginald Square, landing in the Square itself and became one of the most destructive of the entire campaign. The entire square of small terraced houses, built in 1870, collapsed from the explosion and the damage further extended into Deptford High Street, Deptford Bridge, Deptford Church Street and a number of small turnings nearby. The Odeon on Deptford Broadway was so badly damaged it had to close. Of the dead, seventeen were killed outright, while a further five died later of their injuries in the nearby Miller Hospital. The ARP damage log also noted: ‘Nearly every shop in Deptford High Street was damaged, with the destruction spreading to the Broadway, Deptford Church Street and Deptford Bridge... The All Clear didn’t sound until 9:23 am, after ten hours of bombardment, but at 9:46 am the sirens blared a fresh warning; and again at 1pm 2pm and 3pm’. The area between Reginald Road and Frankham Street was subsequently cleared apart from the school which received minor damage. * It was actually the second. The first one to hit Deptford fell earlier that day (about midnight)on no 85 Albyn Road, killing two people and causing extensive damage.

This is Deptford Odeon, designed by George Coles and opened in 1938on the site of a former the cinema, the Palladium. One of Lewisham’s largest cinemas, the Deptford Odeon had a capacity of c.1700. To those like me who were raised in the final years of Deptford Odeon’s life –a period when it added new and vivid colour to the term ‘flea-pit’- contemporary photos of the new cinema's sumptuous interior come as something of a shock: it’s Deco extravagance seems luxurious beyond belief for Deptford and it must have been quite the place to go when it first opened. The building had a good war, although it was damaged by the V-1 that devastated Reginald Square, directly behind it and reopened in the early 1950s with Petula Clark as the guest of honour. After just over thirty-one years doing business, the Odeon closed in 1970 then stood for almost twenty years in a slow death by dereliction before finally being put out of its misery in May 1988, replaced by more of the cheap and nasty post-war urban architecture that so blights the borough.

New Cross Station, New Cross Road, 04/08/2014

New Cross Road, Deptford, 04/08/2014

New Cross Road, Deptford, 04/08/2014

New Cross Road, Deptford, 04/08/2014

Deptford Broadway, 04/08/2014

Greenwich Magistrate's Court, Blackheath Road, 04/08/2014

Blackheath Road at Greenwich High Road, 04/08/2014