Deptford Dockyard, London.

River Logistics, Plantation Imaginaries: De-sedimenting Deptford

This event has been postponed by Goldsmiths.

In the 15th and 16th centuries significant effort was made to reclaim or ‘inn’ the marshes on the edges of the river Thames. Banks of earth or ‘walls’ were constructed and the land behind was drained by ditches. Here the Deptford Dockyard was built, sedimenting not only swampy perimeters, but the groundwork for colonial ‘adventures’ and the plantation system. Today the Dockyard is becoming a luxury development threatening to displace local human and non-human ecologies. This walk  considers how contemporary urban struggle can be staged conjuncturally, reading its historical foundations of the present in both environmental and social terms. It is drawn from Visual Cultures’ multi-year research project The Dockyard Dispositive, which works with scholars and local communities of resistance.