HM Victualling Yard, Deptford

Deptford's proximity to the food markets of London made it especially convenient for victualling, and it served the requirements not only of its own neighbouring Dockyard but also those of Woolwich, Sheerness and Chatham, as well as of the fleet and vessels based in the Nore (which was one of the Navy's principal anchorages).[3] In the 17th century the Navy Board's victualling operation was based on Tower Hill in a complex of offices, residences, storehouses and manufactories which had been established in the reign of Elizabeth I.In 1742 the Victualling Commissioners, supported by the Admiralty, proposed to purchase 11 acres of the Sayes Court estate (including Red House) with the intention of establishing their main depot there.[8] Behind a row of riverside storehouses, the yard's various activities were accommodated in a variety of purpose-built manufacturing areas and specialised storage buildings, arranged around a central open space.Certain provisions were purchased locally and then stored on site, including butter, cheese, peas and fish, as well as malt and hops for brewing and flour for baking.There were also separate storehouses for sugar, tea, rice, raisins, wine and tobacco, all of which were purchased in London and stored in Deptford prior to being distributed for use elsewhere as required.[1] In the late-18th and early-19th centuries, during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Deptford's main task was to maintain a steady provision of victuals (either by manufacture or purchase) with which to supply the smaller yards on the south coast and overseas where the fleet was principally based.Furthermore, a complex network of pipes carried water from the Ravensbourne Waterworks into various parts of the yard, including the brewhouse, the bakehouse, the pickle-yard and the cooperage.Plugs were installed at various points, in case of fires, and attachments on the wharf-side cranes allowed water to be delivered directly to ships moored alongside.In the 20th century a whole variety of stores were kept on site, including drugs and medical supplies, soap, lubricating oil and acid, as well as sizeable stocks of tea, sugar, jam, salt, raisins, split peas and preserved milk (each kept in their own dedicated storehouse).Port wine was provided in quarter-pint bottles for Communion services; it was also supplied as a 'medical comfort', along with 'beef essence, oxtail soup, chicken broth, calf's foot jelly' and assorted other consumables.By the 1870s, machinery for cask-making had been installed by Greenwood & Batley;[14] but certain types of cask and other items were still hand-crafted, and in addition to barrels, the cooperage supplied 'all the wooden paraphernalia of the ship's kitchen'.From 1869 the Admiralty Compass Observatory was located in the yard, housed within a small wooden hut erected for the purpose on the lawn at the centre of the site.A. Cecil Hampshire wrote in the early 1970s:[16] By the end of the Second World War the yard had become less and less of a storehouse, the functions of its staff being chiefly confined to inspecting and checking the quality.. of victualling stores.. all of which are today supplied by commercial firms.