A bar named for the great royal dockyard of Deptford – where Henry VIII built his warships and Drake was knighted aboard the Golden Hind
Arks of Deptford holds three hundred and thirty-four reviews and a 4.6 – a strong score on a good sample – and it carries a name rich with the extraordinary naval history of its place: Deptford, site of the great royal dockyard founded by Henry VIII, where England’s warships were built and where Drake was knighted aboard the Golden Hind.
The royal dockyard
Deptford has a genuinely extraordinary naval history – for it was here, on the Thames, that King Henry VIII founded the great Royal Dockyard of Deptford in 1513, one of the most important shipbuilding yards in English history. For over three centuries, the Deptford dockyard was a vital centre of English (and then British) naval power – building, repairing and fitting out the warships of the Royal Navy, from the age of Henry VIII through the great centuries of English sea power. It was one of the birthplaces of English naval might – the yard where the ships that defended England and built her empire were constructed. The whole district of Deptford grew up around this great royal dockyard, its life and history bound up with the building of ships and the service of the navy. It is a genuinely historic and important naval site, and the “Arks” of the name evokes it directly.
The great “Ark”
The “Arks” of the name evokes the great warships built at Deptford – and perhaps, specifically, one of the most famous: the “Ark Royal.” The original Ark Royal was a great warship of the Elizabethan navy (built around 1587), which served as the flagship of Lord Howard against the Spanish Armada in 1588 – one of the most famous ships of that famous victory. The name “Ark Royal” has been borne by a succession of great warships down the centuries, becoming one of the most famous and celebrated names in the Royal Navy. The word “ark” itself, of course, carries the ancient resonance of the great ship – Noah’s Ark, the vessel of salvation – giving it a deep and powerful meaning. So “Arks of Deptford” evokes the great warships built at the Deptford dockyard – the mighty vessels of English naval power, born on the Thames at Deptford.
Drake and the Golden Hind
Deptford’s most famous historical moment came in 1581, when Queen Elizabeth I came to Deptford to honour the great sea-captain Sir Francis Drake, who had just returned from his epic voyage around the world – the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe, in his ship the Golden Hind. The Queen came aboard the Golden Hind, moored at Deptford, and there she knighted Drake – “Sir Francis Drake,” the great sea-dog, honoured by his Queen aboard his own ship at Deptford, in one of the most famous scenes of the Elizabethan age. The Golden Hind was preserved at Deptford for many years as a monument to Drake’s great voyage. So Deptford witnessed one of the supreme moments of England’s great age of sea-exploration – the knighting of Drake aboard the Golden Hind, the ship that sailed around the world. It is a genuinely thrilling piece of history, rooted in this very place.
Between the royal dockyard of Henry VIII, the great warships (the “Arks”) built there, and the knighting of Drake aboard the Golden Hind, Deptford has as rich a naval history as anywhere in England – and “Arks of Deptford” evokes it all: the great ships, the royal dockyard, the age of Drake and the Armada and English sea power. It is a name of genuine historical richness, rooted in the extraordinary maritime heritage of its place. Its strong score marks it as a genuinely good and popular venue, worthily bearing its historic naval name. The Prat’s history desk salutes the great dockyard of Deptford, and raises a glass to Drake and the Golden Hind.
The bar
A strong, well-regarded venue doing a good 4.6 across a good sample, historically named “Arks of Deptford” – after the great royal dockyard of Deptford, where Henry VIII built his warships and Drake was knighted aboard the Golden Hind.
Verdict
Strong, well-regarded, and richly historic – Arks of Deptford, evoking the great royal dockyard where England’s warships were built and Drake was knighted by his Queen.
Have a drink at Arks of Deptford, and raise it to the extraordinary history of the name – the great royal dockyard of Henry VIII, the mighty warships built on the Thames, and the knighting of Drake aboard the Golden Hind.
Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]
