
Think you know Deptford? Don't think you know Deptford? Either way, this eccentric guidebook is for you.
Deptford. It gets its name from a deep ford over the River Ravensbourne. The river still meanders through the area as, irresistibly, will you if you pick up a copy of this delicious new guide book from Matt Haynes.
The area is plastered with history (as well as street art, tags and posters). From its days as a naval dockyard to the arrival of London's first railway, to years of abject poverty and on to its reinvention as one of London's cool quarters (mixed in with lingering poverty), Deptford is a place full of human stories. And construction machinery:

Unchartered Streets is your all-encompassing guide. But it's not cast to the usual formula. Working your way through the book's six-mile route is like having an eccentric, anecdote-prone friend whispering in your ear. Expect witty asides, visual gags, protracted puns that continue into the footnotes, and forms of sub-joshing that would normally be quashed (incorrectly) by an editor. It's a joy.

If the writing style and the author name are familiar, then it's because you remember Smoke: A London Peculiar. This occasional fanzine, co-founded by Matt in 2003, was a compendium of essays, poetry, erudite nonsense and photographs of pigeons in puddles — all inspired by the capital. It's sadly been defunctified for over a decade now, but the Smoke spirit lives on through this new book of similar learned irreverence.
Idiosyncratic the guidebook may be, but it all hangs together very well. Every page is a blaze of imagery, maps and those ever-present footnotes. Discover wartime air raid shelters, a murdered playwright, a crassly named pub, the difference between cruffins and cronuts and an anamorphic skull... and that just from pages 22-23.

This is the second book in a glacially scheduled series. The first volume, Unchartered Streets Leyton, came out in early 2021, when we were too furloughed to do much with it. Having now read both volumes, we can recommend them with all the heartiness of a salty old seadog receiving his Christmas rum bonus — which we imagine was once a common sight in naval Deptford.
A truly original, erudite and well-researched guide to this area of south-east London, Unchartered Streets puts the "ept" back into "Deptford".
Unchartered Streets Deptford (and Leyton) are available direct from the publisher and, we're told, in "all good book shops in New Cross".
All images courtesy of Matt Haynes.
