Emerging Panel Designs
This shows the latest draft design for the Ha'Penny Foot bridge panel. Also shown below in a more digital friendly format. Designs for the other panels will appear here as more move through planning.
Ha'Penny Bridge
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Designs to come in 2025 as part of phase 1.
Draft design as at 26 Feb 2025
Ha'Penny Bridge Panel
The CreekLink Heritage Trail brings the forgotten story of London’s Deptford Creek alive - and especially its remarkable burst of industrial activity in the 19th Century, as London’s population grew from 1 to 4 million.
A halfpenny to cross the bridge
Here by the Ha’Penny Hatch Bridge you can see where London’s first passenger railway crossed the Creek. The Ha'Penny Hatch footbridge was first built in 1836. At that time the just opened London Bridge to Greenwich Railway stopped at Deptford. The railway didn’t cross the Creek and reach Greenwich until 1838. For those two years it was the Ha'Penny Hatch footbridge that allowed passengers to complete their journey - on foot! If you didn't have a ticket, it cost you a halfpenny to walk across.
What’s under your feet?
The other side of the C10 pathway are the listed buildings of the 19th century Greenwich Pumping Station. It was opened in 1865 as part of Joseph Bazalgette’s London wide sewage system (one of the key construction projects of the nineteenth century, and still doing its vital job under our feet). The Pumping Station has recently been modernised for the 21st century. As part of the “Super Sewer” works, Thames Tideway Tunnel have completed the new Greenwich Connection Tunnel, to back up the old, still functioning Bazalgette sewers. The Greenwich Pumping Station is managed by Thames Water, and its sewers old and new help keep London healthy.
This shows the [proposed] location of the panel (i) with the key points of interest described below.
60 MILLION BRICKS
(1) The railway still runs to London Bridge on the original viaduct. It is the longest run of arches in Britain and took 60 million bricks to build. The Railway Bridge was built with a lifting span that allowed barges carrying coal for the Pumping Station steam engines to come in from the Thames on high tides. The barges also served the many steam-powered industries along the Upper Creek. In 1999 the DLR extension to Lewisham joined the London Bridge line alongside the Creek.
THE GREAT STINK
Greenwich Pumping Station started pumping London's sewage in1865. By the 1850’s there were over 2 million Londoners and no sewers. Raw sewage in the Thames had created such a smell that in1857 The GREAT STINK forced Parliament to close. The new Metropolitan Board of Works, under its chief engineer Joseph Bazalgette, was instructed to do something about it.
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(2) By 1865 Bazalgette had designed and built 82 miles of brick sewers and pumping stations, including Greenwich Pumping (then called Deptford) Pumping Station. His system gave London’s growing population proper sewage disposal and uncontaminated drinking water for the first time.
LONDON'S SUPER SEWER
(3) In the 21st century the Pumping Station has been part of London’s “Super Sewer” project. This scheme provides the Thames with more protection from sewage by intercepting overflow points in Bazalgette’s network which previously discharged into the river during heavy rainfall. The project included a 4.5 km-long connection tunnel running from Greenwich to Bermondsey, linking into the 25 km-long main Thames Tideway Tunnel. This vital infrastructure builds on Bazalgette’s legacy and ensures the Thames is cleaner than it has been for generations.
CREEK HABITAT
Creekside Discovery Centre is committed to maintaining Deptford Creek for people and wildlife and promoting ways we can all connect with urban wildlife.
Two nationally rare species of wasps have been found on the site; the spider-hunting wasp Auplopus carbonarius and the mason wasp Microdynerus exilis.
