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10
Back-to-Back Houses.
There are very few houses of this class in the district and
practically no houses built in courts.
Site, Sub-Soil and Drainage of Deptford.
The physical features and character of the Borough are better
described by considering the whole of London, but generally speaking
we may say that the town is situated on one side of a long ridge,
at the top of which ridge we find Telegraph Hill, and extending in a
South-East direction we have Hilly Fields. From this ridge we get a
wide sweep down into the Thames valley, until in the North and East
we get very low-lying land.
In the Southern district the soil is practically all clay, but the
gradual slope forms an ideal drainage area.
In the South-West we find gravel to the north of New Cross,
and clay to the South of it. In the South and South-East we have
all clay. So much clay has a serious effect on the houses and drains
after a very dry or very wet season, in which the clay shrinks or
expands, the foundations being seriously interfered with. There is also
an interference with the foundations owing to the sliding movement
which takes place on a big slope.