25 Sep Case study: Deptford Market Yard

From awe-inspiring artistic installations to awards for outstanding enterprises, it’s all part of the astounding rise of Deptford Market Yard as one of London’s leading creative hubs.

Set beneath Deptford’s railway arches, the Market Yard is home to an eclectic range of independent businesses, offering food, drink and lifestyle choices, from coffee to kickboxing, from tapas to taproom beer. It also offers pop-up events such as exhibitions and markets.

Since the beginning of September, Deptford Market Yard has been mentioned in Time Out and influential design magazine, Dezeen, after the South East Makers Club was held there to coincide with the first weekend of London Design Festival.

ByPlace, an exciting, immersive collaboration, (see below) was unveiled as part of the celebration on the carriageway. Deptford-based designers Giles Miller and Aldworth James & Bond jointly worked on the project, made from strips of birch plywood. The idea was to show how materials can be composed to create different visual effects.

Also, this month The Box has been announced as a finalist in The London Hair & Beauty Awards 2018 for “hair salon of the year”. And Secret London named Little Nan’s as one of the “coolest and most quirky bars in London”. This followed on from the Time Out Love Awards 2018 triumph when Little Nan’s won “most loved local club or party,” “most loved local bar or pub” and “most loved local late-night spot” in Deptford.

To crown an exciting month, AAJA Deptford officially opened in Arch 2 with a bar, radio station and community space. KICKS London also returned to Deptford in Arch 6 with London’s first independent female sneakerhead store.

The unique Deptford Market Yard has done much to foster the area’s quirky and trendy “new Shoreditch reputation”, and is all the more impressive considering the site only formally opened two years ago. Developer U+I and Lewisham Council began work back in 2008 to transform the derelict two-acre site, renovating the railway arches and restoring the Grade II listed carriage ramp which is the oldest railway structure in London. The year after it opened, Deptford Market Yard was awarded Best Heritage Led Project at the London Planning Awards and also the Placemaking award at the 2017 Property Awards.