Deptford New Town: A 19th century working class estate

Big Houses

There were two important houses in the area. The most distinctive and individual was Stone House. This still stands and is a large detached property on Lewisham Way built of soft white and grey stone.

It is an eccentric square composition with large curved full height bays on three of its sides and a cupola on the fourth. Stone House was called the Comical House on the 1836 tithe map.

A member of the Gibson family built it in 1771-3. Both George Gibson senior and George Gibson Junior were architects and there is an unresolved debate as to which was responsible for the house. George Junior was also responsible for St Mary’s church Lewisham, to which it has some similarity in fabric, and Woodlands in Mycenae Road, Blackheath, to which it could hardly be more different. Stone House still stands, recently and proudly restored.

The second house was originally called Brunswick House, now Kylefield House, 124 Tanners Hill. By contrast to Stone House it is sadly disfigured and lost amongst later 19th century additions. It was once a detached house set 50 yards back from Lewisham Way by its front garden, with its side immediately on to Tanner’s Hill. The garden was built on from 1850 both on Lewisham Way and down Tanner’s Hill, so today the house is surrounded and devoured by so many Victorian additions as to be barely recognisable.