We’re delighted to confirm that we’ll be opening the Master Shipwright’s House in Deptford for the weekend of London Open House on 22 and 23 September.

As usual there will be access to selected rooms in the house as well as the gardens, where visitors can relax and enjoy the river views.

Find out more about the house where the master shipwright of Deptford’s Royal Dockyard would have lived and worked, and discover more about the Lenox, the first of Charles II’s 30 ships, which was built in the double dock right next door.

See our restored Saker cannon and support us by buying refreshments or merchandise. Meet our volunteers and trustees and find out how you can help!

Saturday 22 September 10am-5pm
Sunday 23 September 10am-1pm
Master Shipwright’s House, Watergate Street, London SE8 3JF
Nearest stations: Deptford railway station, Deptford Bridge DLR
Buses: 47, 199, 188

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We’re delighted to be able to share with you a new cut of our film about The Lenox Project, made by Matthew Lynch and Anna Delaney and shown for the first time last weekend at St Nicholas’ Church as part of the New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival.

The Lenox Project – a short film can be watched online by clicking the link.

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Lenox Project director Julian Kingston was interviewed by BBC Radio London’s Jo Good on her show on Wednesday this week.

You can listen again on the BBC’s website – this episode will be available until the end of May and is online here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0637t3p

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Booking is now open for this year’s Docklands History Group conference which takes place on Saturday 12th May at the Museum of London.

The conference has a great programme of presentations on the theme of Shipbuilding on the Thames, including one by our historian Richard Endsor titled ‘The Deptford Master Shipwright’s Secrets’. For more details and to download the booking form, visit the website http://www.docklandshistorygroup.org.uk/page33.html

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The Lenox Project is taking part in the New Cross & Deptford Free Film Festival, supported by funding from Tideway, showing a swashbuckling adventure film that sets the historic context for the construction of Charles II’s thirty ships.

It is a beautifully-filmed adventure movie recounting the life of Dutch Admiral Michiel De Ruyter (Frank Lammers) from the 1653 start of the Anglo-Dutch wars to 1678, (the year Lenox was launched), via the unification of the provinces and birth of the fledgling republic.

It features spectacular and bloody sea battles with plenty of impressive wooden warships, as well as intimate scenes which are skilfully portrayed in the style of a Dutch Masters painting. In the atmospheric opening scene, the congregation in the church in the sand dunes at Huisduinen are terrified by the cannon-fire of the nearby battle of Scheveningen. Cast includes Charles Dance (King Charles II) and Rutger Hauer (Maarten Tromp).

Enjoy this unrecognised masterpiece in Deptford’s own dockyard church, a stone’s throw from where wooden ships of this era were built, and learn about the historic events that prompted Charles II to lobby for construction of a new fleet of warships, the first of which was the Lenox.

The event is sponsored by Tideway and the programme starts with a short film about The Lenox Project. Full details of the festival are available on the NXDFFF website.

Saturday 28th April
St Nicholas’ Church, Deptford Green, SE8 3DQ
Doors open: 6.30pm. Programme starts: 7pm.
Free entry. Refreshments and merchandise will be on sale.

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The Lenox Project has teamed up with Smashfestuk to carry out a series of workshops in Deptford schools as part of our outreach programme funded by Tideway.

We’ve been visiting local primary schools to introduce them to the history of Deptford’s former Royal Dockyard, tell them about the Lenox Project, and get them thinking about boat building, how vessels float and what makes them move across the water.

Each team gets a chance to choose what materials to use for their boat, think about what shape is best to keep it afloat and help it to move, and to have a go at building and sailing their own vessel.

Students also learn about the densities of different materials and try to work out what’s happening when you put water, oil and polystyrene in the same bottle together.We’ve had great fun going into our local schools and telling them all about the history of Deptford and getting them excited about boat building. As these students could be our future crew we need to get them on board (pun intended!) as young as possible!Smashfestuk’s annual science, technology, engineering and arts festival for families takes place at the Albany and the Deptford Lounge from 12-16 February – and it’s totally free! This year’s theme is flood and there’s plenty to do for all the family, including boat building – we hope to see you there!

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If you want to find out more about the Lenox Project, or meet some of the people involved, please come along to one of our upcoming events in the Deptford area.

Our director Julian Kingston will be giving a talk at Deptford Does Art on Friday 2nd February as part of the celebrations linked to the return of the anchor to Deptford High Street.

Some of the films we showed at Open House are playing in the cafe of Deptford Does Art and you can find out more about the long campaign by the Deptford Society and Deptford Is Forever to bring the anchor back.

There will also be a talk on Saturday 3rd February by our sister community project Sayes Court Garden CIC, whose work with landscape architects at Greenwich University in 2016 inspired the work by Max Barnes that is currently on display in the gallery on the lower floor of DDA.

To mark the maritime theme, a small fleet of ships has been hung in DDA’s window so you can’t miss it if you are walking by!
Julian will also be giving a talk at the Brookmill Pub on Cranbrook Road on 22nd April as part of a series of fund-raising talks for the Friends of Brookmill Park group.
Tickets for this talk will be £5 on the door; proceeds go towards promotion and enhancement of the park, its wildlife, planting and amenities. For more information about this and the other talks about the local area which take place in February and March, please see the group’s Facebook page.

Friday 2nd February, 7.30pm. Deptford Does Art, 28 Deptford High Street, SE8 4AF.

Sunday 22nd April, 6.45pm. The Brookmill Pub, 65 Cranbrook Road, SE8 4EJ. Tickets £5 on the door, doors open 6.15pm.

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This week we spent two hours filming on the Convoys Wharf site courtesy of the site owner Convoys Properties Ltd. Luckily we chose the sunniest day of the year, a far cry from the grey and wet weather which seems to have been the norm for January.

The Olympia building on Convoys Wharf where shipbuilding used to take place

Director Julian Kingston talking about our future plans

Patron Dame Joan Ruddock explaining her involvement with The Lenox Project

Anna Delaney and Matt Lynch filmed interviews with our patron Dame Joan Ruddock, who has been involved in the project almost since it started, and our architectural adviser David Graham, who explained where we plan to build our visitor centre and museum on the protected wharf site.

Architectural adviser David Graham standing next to the former canal entrance at the west end of the site

These interviews will be incorporated into our short film which we will share with you as soon as it is finished!

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Museum of London Archaeology has published a book about the excavations that took place on the site of the former Deptford Royal Dockyard over the 12 year period from 2000 to 2012.

This is essential reading for all those interested in the history of Deptford’s Royal Dockyard, and indeed British shipbuilding, and is likely to become one of our recommended, must-read publications alongside our ‘project bible’ The Restoration Warship by Richard Endsor. 

For more information about the new MOLA book, by archaeologist Antony Francis, visit the link https://www.mola.org.uk/deptford-royal-dockyard-and-manor-sayes-court-london-excavations-2000–12

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We are excited to announce the launch of a short film about the Lenox Project, which was made for us by two talented professionals; Matthew Lynch and Anna Delaney.

The film, which was mostly shot in and around the Master Shipwright’s House in Deptford, introduces our historian Richard Endsor and our directors Julian Kingston and Helena Russell, who explain a bit about the Lenox, the wider history of Deptford Dockyard, and a short overview of the aims of the charity.

Please feel free to share it widely on social media, and with your friends, family and colleagues to help us spread the word about our project. Publicity is just as valuable to us as donations, sometimes more!

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