Deptford, Kent : Place names

Names from historical writing:

The following appear as names for Deptford. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

• The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
• Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
• References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.

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Names for administrative units:

These names were used for units associated with Deptford. Click on the links for details of the units and their names:

Name	Unit Type	Source
DEPTFORD	Ancient District (AD_Town)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
	Constituency (BCon/PBCon)	Richard H.A. Cheffins, Parliamentary Constituencies and their registers since 1832 (London: The British Library, 1998)
	Local Government District (MetB)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 645.
	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
	Parish-level Unit (ParPart/CP)	1961 Census of England and Wales, Table 3, 'Acreage, Population, Private Households and Dwellings', for 'LAA, Wards, CP in RD, Con, NT'.
	Rural Deanery	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 783.
	Urban Labour Market	Great Britain Historical GIS Project
DEPTFORD AND GREENWICH	Urban Labour Market	Ministry of Labour, Local Unemployment Index (Ministry of Labour)
DEPTFORD CENTRAL	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Annual Report (HM Stationery Office)
DEPTFORD CHRIST CHURCH	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD EAST	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
DEPTFORD NORTH	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
DEPTFORD SOUTH	Registration sub-District	1911 Census of England and Wales, Table 5, 'Registration Counties, Districts and Sub-districts with their constituent civil parishes. - Urban or Rural District in which each parish is situated; Area; families or separate occupiers, and population, 1901 and 1911; and population enumerated in Institutions, large establishments, and on vessels, &c., 1911'.
DEPTFORD ST JOHN	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST LUKE	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST MARK	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST NICHOLAS	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST NICHOLAS WITH CHRIST CHURCH	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST PAUL	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
	Parish-level Unit (ParPart/CP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 478.
DEPTFORD ST PAUL WITH ST MARK	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
DEPTFORD ST PETER	Ecclesiastical Parish (EP)	F. Youngs, Local Administrative Units: Southern England (London: Royal Historical Society, 1979), p. 268.
E05013719	Modern (2024) Ward	Office for National Statistics, Open Geography Portal (Wards (December 2024) Names and Codes in the UK)
LONDON DEPTFORD	Constituency (BCon/PBCon)	Boundary Commission for England, First Periodical Report (London: H.M.S.O., 1954)
LONDON/DEPTFORD	1841 Occupation reporting area	1841 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Occupation Abstract'.
NICHOLAS ST	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
PAUL ST	Parish-level Unit (ParPart/CP)	1831 Census of Great Britain, Table [1], 'Population Abstract'.
ST NICHOLAS DEPTFORD	Parish-level Unit (CP/AP)	1871 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area; Houses and Inhabitants, 1861 and 1871, in the Parishes and Places comprised in each Superintendent Registrar's District'.
	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Annual Report (HM Stationery Office)
ST PAUL DEPTFORD	Parish-level Unit (ParPart/CP)	1881 Census of England and Wales, Table 4, 'Area, Houses, and Population of Civil Parishes in the several Registration Sub-Districts in 1871 and 1881'.
	Registration sub-District	Registrar General, Annual Report (HM Stationery Office)

NB: These are all the names of all the administrative units which we have associated with Deptford, and you must judge whether all or even any of them are variant names for the place. They may well include the names of other locations or areas:

• For cities, the associated administrative units will usually include parishes, especially ecclesiastical parishes, one of whose names is the name of the city followed by a saint's dedication, with just the saint's name as another variant. Parish names will sometimes also include "places" within towns.
• Districts usually contain more than one settlement, and some districts had their names changed to take the name of a completely different settlement. As we link each administrative unit to just one of our "places", usually the last place the unit was named after, in these cases the name for a completely different place will appear on this page.
• Similarly, a unit may sometimes be named after a particular settlement it contains and sometimes to indicate its location within a higher level unit. This was very common among British parliamentary constituencies in rural areas, one name referring to their main town and another indicating that they were in, say, the southern part of the relevant county.



Every name listed here is linked to the particular historical source in which it appears, but we cannot claim that these are all the historical names of Deptford, or that our references are to the first usage of the names. Similarly, we have tried to ensure that names included here are not transcription errors by ourselves, but it is possible they are the result of errors made when the historical sources were printed, or the result of visiting authors or census officials mis-hearing local names.