The Lost Burial Ground of Hughes Fields, Deptford
By olddeptfordhistory.com
Deptford has always been a place where London’s past meets the present. Dockyards, merchants, sailors, revolutionaries — their stories lie in the streets and buildings around us. But there’s one story almost invisible today: the burial ground that once lay beneath or beside Hughes Fields.
This is the tale of a field, a forgotten graveyard, and a changing city.
📍 A Field with a Name and a Past
Hughes Fields (sometimes written “Hughs Field”) lay on the western edge of old Deptford, between Watergate Street, Benbow Street, and Evelyn Street. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this was open land — fields on the fringe of a growing riverside village. By the end of the 19th century, it became the Hughes Fields Estate, built to house working-class Londoners.
Long before that transformation, the land had another identity:
locals referred to a burial ground within or adjacent to Hughes Fields — a piece of parish ground that quietly disappeared from maps as development advanced.
🗺️ A Glimpse on the Old Maps
Stanford’s Library Map of London, 1862.
Ordnance Survey, 1890s. By the late Victorian period, this part of Deptford had changed dramatically. New housing covered the field, and the burial ground strip referred to in local accounts was no longer marked. This was common: small burial extensions were often absorbed into building plots, unrecorded except in parish registers or local memory.
Hughes Field 1895
⛪ St Nicholas & St Paul’s: The Overflowing Churchyards
Deptford’s population grew rapidly in the 18th and 19th centuries. Its two main Anglican parishes — St Nicholas (medieval) and St Paul’s (Georgian) — had busy churchyards that soon filled.
When burial space ran short, the parish acquired new land:
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St Paul’s expanded into what became Deptford Cemetery (now known as Brockley Cemetery) in 1858.
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Before that, smaller strips of ground were used for extra burials, likely including the Hughes Fields plot.
Nonconformist chapels in Deptford High Street also maintained small burial yards, adding to the patchwork of sacred ground in the area.
1850
Local oral history and older written guides refer to “a strip of burial ground parallel to the new streets through Hughes Field.”
This suggests:
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It was probably an overflow plot associated with the parish church.
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It may also have included pauper graves or burials of those without family plots — common in Victorian London.
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The site was likely unfenced or minimally marked, unlike larger cemeteries.
When the Hughes Fields Estate was developed in the late 19th century, the burial strip was absorbed into the urban fabric. Many such plots across London were either cleared or simply built over, leaving no headstones and little trace above ground.
Additional ground, Wellington Street
This was
consecrated and a wall built in 1765 (there is a commemorative tablet in the
wall of Charlotte Turner gardens which incorporates the old ground). The ground
was extended to the N in 1897 and widened to the West in the 20th c It is now a
level park, north of MacMillan St.
¾ acre. This
ground, belonging to the parish of St. Nicholas, was laid out in 1884 by the
Kyrle Society, and is very well kept up by the Greenwich District Board of
Works, who have lately acquired a piece of adjoining land to be added to the
recreation ground. (Holmes)
🏡 What Lies Beneath
Today, Hughes Fields Estate is a residential area. The quiet lawns and walkways give no hint of what once lay here. But archaeological sensitivity remains:
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St Nicholas and St Paul’s churchyards are protected heritage sites.
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The wider area is listed by Lewisham Council as having archaeological potential.
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Any major groundworks would require watching briefs, in case human remains or burial structures are encountered.
For many, this is a poignant reminder: Deptford’s layers run deep. Beneath our feet are centuries of lives lived, and lives remembered.
🕯️ Remembering the Unmarked Dead
The burial ground of Hughes Fields may be unmarked, but its story is part of Deptford’s fabric:
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It reflects a time of rapid urban growth, public health pressures, and parish expansion.
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It speaks to the lives of ordinary people — sailors, dockers, and families — whose graves may no longer be visible.
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It reminds us how urban development can bury not only ground, but memory.
As local historians, our task is to keep that memory alive.
🧭 Visiting the Area Today
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Hughes Fields Estate lies between Benbow Street, Evelyn Street, and Watergate Street.
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St Nicholas Church and St Paul’s Church are a short walk away and open to visitors at certain times.
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Brockley Cemetery (originally Deptford Cemetery) offers an evocative sense of the scale of Victorian burial grounds.
When you walk these streets, remember: the ground beneath you once held a burial ground — a quiet resting place on the edge of a growing town.
📚 Sources & Further Reading
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Stanford’s Library Map of London (1862)
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Ordnance Survey Maps (late 19th century)
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Mrs Basil Holmes, The London Burial Grounds (1896)
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London Picture Archive & Layers of London
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Lewisham Council: Archaeological Priority Area reports
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OldDeptfordHistory blog and local oral accounts
