dockyard was closed in May 1869, by which time it employed 800 people. It had produced some 450 ships, the last being the wooden screw corvette HMS Druid launched in 1869. Foreign Cattle Market Before refrigeration cattle had to be imported alive, and the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1869 gave the City of London Corporation exclusive local authority for foreign animal imports and processing subject to its opening a market before January 1872. The complete site at Deptford, including a lease on the LB&SCR docks, was acquired and the market opened in 1871, By 1889 the site had been extended to . In 1907, 184,971 cattle and 49,350 sheep were imported through the market but by 1912 these figures had declined to 21,547 cattle and 11,993 sheep. During the War years The Foreign Cattle Market was taken over by the War Department in 1914, on a tenancy agreement from the City of London Corporation, for use as the Royal Army Service Corps Supply Reserve Depot. On several occasions after the Armistice traders and others urged that the market should be reopened; however, in 1924 the War Office exercised their option to buy it along with the adjacent the Sayes Court property for £400,500 () under deeds dated 25 March 1926, 18 March 1927 & 25 July 1927 including the railway, tramway, wharfage and jetty rights and easements. The Royal Naval Victualling Depot operated here which included a rum store. During the Second World War a bomb destroyed one of the storehouses and killed a number of men, a plaque was visible in the early 1970s commemorating this tragedy. During the war, because of the Blitz some of the stores were dispersed to various locations including Park Royal. The yard also served as a United States' Advance Amphibious Vehicle base and married quarters during the Second World War. Latter part of 20th century On the closure of the Victualling Depot in the 1960s the establishment was renamed The Royal Naval Stores Depot and moved to a new building within Convoys Wharf. The Depot was the main Air Freight hub for the RN and was particularly busy during the Falklands War. It also continued as the central RN Stationery Store and Joint Services Baggage operations. The Depot closed in 1981. The site purchased by News International from the UK Ministry of Defence for £1,600,000 (), and a remainder in 1986, for £340,000