diff --git a/datasette/app.py b/datasette/app.py
index c3d802a4..b53144d1 100644
--- a/datasette/app.py
+++ b/datasette/app.py
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ from .views.special import (
     PermissionsDebugView,
     MessagesDebugView,
 )
-from .views.table import TableView, TableInsertView
+from .views.table import TableView, TableInsertView, TableDropView
 from .views.row import RowView
 from .renderer import json_renderer
 from .url_builder import Urls
@@ -1276,6 +1276,10 @@ class Datasette:
             TableInsertView.as_view(self),
             r"/(?P<database>[^\/\.]+)/(?P<table>[^\/\.]+)/-/insert$",
         )
+        add_route(
+            TableDropView.as_view(self),
+            r"/(?P<database>[^\/\.]+)/(?P<table>[^\/\.]+)/-/drop$",
+        )
         return [
             # Compile any strings to regular expressions
             ((re.compile(pattern) if isinstance(pattern, str) else pattern), view)
diff --git a/datasette/default_permissions.py b/datasette/default_permissions.py
index 151ba2b5..3c781317 100644
--- a/datasette/default_permissions.py
+++ b/datasette/default_permissions.py
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ import time
 @hookimpl(tryfirst=True)
 def permission_allowed(datasette, actor, action, resource):
     async def inner():
-        if action in ("permissions-debug", "debug-menu", "insert-row"):
+        if action in ("permissions-debug", "debug-menu", "insert-row", "drop-table"):
             if actor and actor.get("id") == "root":
                 return True
         elif action == "view-instance":
diff --git a/datasette/views/table.py b/datasette/views/table.py
index fd203036..1e3d566e 100644
--- a/datasette/views/table.py
+++ b/datasette/views/table.py
@@ -40,6 +40,10 @@ LINK_WITH_LABEL = (
 LINK_WITH_VALUE = '<a href="{base_url}{database}/{table}/{link_id}">{id}</a>'
 
 
+def _error(messages, status=400):
+    return Response.json({"ok": False, "errors": messages}, status=status)
+
+
 class Row:
     def __init__(self, cells):
         self.cells = cells
@@ -1147,9 +1151,6 @@ class TableInsertView(BaseView):
         return rows, errors, extra
 
     async def post(self, request):
-        def _error(messages, status=400):
-            return Response.json({"ok": False, "errors": messages}, status=status)
-
         database_route = tilde_decode(request.url_vars["database"])
         try:
             db = self.ds.get_database(route=database_route)
@@ -1181,7 +1182,8 @@ class TableInsertView(BaseView):
                     rowids.append(table.insert(row).last_rowid)
                 return list(
                     table.rows_where(
-                        "rowid in ({})".format(",".join("?" for _ in rowids)), rowids
+                        "rowid in ({})".format(",".join("?" for _ in rowids)),
+                        rowids,
                     )
                 )
             else:
@@ -1192,3 +1194,33 @@ class TableInsertView(BaseView):
         if should_return:
             result["inserted"] = rows
         return Response.json(result, status=201)
+
+
+class TableDropView(BaseView):
+    name = "table-drop"
+
+    def __init__(self, datasette):
+        self.ds = datasette
+
+    async def post(self, request):
+        database_route = tilde_decode(request.url_vars["database"])
+        try:
+            db = self.ds.get_database(route=database_route)
+        except KeyError:
+            return _error(["Database not found: {}".format(database_route)], 404)
+        database_name = db.name
+        table_name = tilde_decode(request.url_vars["table"])
+        # Table must exist
+        db = self.ds.get_database(database_name)
+        if not await db.table_exists(table_name):
+            return _error(["Table not found: {}".format(table_name)], 404)
+        if not await self.ds.permission_allowed(
+            request.actor, "drop-table", resource=(database_name, table_name)
+        ):
+            return _error(["Permission denied"], 403)
+        # Drop table
+        def drop_table(conn):
+            sqlite_utils.Database(conn)[table_name].drop()
+
+        await db.execute_write_fn(drop_table)
+        return Response.json({"ok": True}, status=200)
diff --git a/docs/authentication.rst b/docs/authentication.rst
index 233a50d2..e0796bc8 100644
--- a/docs/authentication.rst
+++ b/docs/authentication.rst
@@ -559,6 +559,18 @@ Actor is allowed to insert rows into a table.
 
 Default *deny*.
 
+.. _permissions_drop_table:
+
+drop-table
+----------
+
+Actor is allowed to drop a database table.
+
+``resource`` - tuple: (string, string)
+    The name of the database, then the name of the table
+
+Default *deny*.
+
 .. _permissions_execute_sql:
 
 execute-sql
diff --git a/docs/json_api.rst b/docs/json_api.rst
index 01558c23..cf7eaefc 100644
--- a/docs/json_api.rst
+++ b/docs/json_api.rst
@@ -539,3 +539,20 @@ To return the newly inserted rows, add the ``"return_rows": true`` key to the re
     }
 
 This will return the same ``"inserted"`` key as the single row example above. There is a small performance penalty for using this option.
+
+.. _TableDropView:
+
+Dropping tables
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+To drop a table, make a ``POST`` to ``/<database>/<table>/-/drop``. This requires the :ref:`permissions_drop_table` permission.
+
+::
+
+    POST /<database>/<table>/-/drop
+    Content-Type: application/json
+    Authorization: Bearer dstok_<rest-of-token>
+
+If successful, this will return a ``200`` status code and a ``{"ok": true}`` response body.
+
+Any errors will return ``{"errors": ["... descriptive message ..."], "ok": false}``, and a ``400`` status code for a bad input or a ``403`` status code for an authentication or permission error.
diff --git a/tests/test_api_write.py b/tests/test_api_write.py
index 4a5a58aa..79f905f7 100644
--- a/tests/test_api_write.py
+++ b/tests/test_api_write.py
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ def ds_write(tmp_path_factory):
     db.close()
 
 
+def write_token(ds, actor_id="root"):
+    return "dstok_{}".format(
+        ds.sign(
+            {"a": actor_id, "token": "dstok", "t": int(time.time())}, namespace="token"
+        )
+    )
+
+
 @pytest.mark.asyncio
 async def test_write_row(ds_write):
     token = write_token(ds_write)
@@ -188,9 +196,39 @@ async def test_write_row_errors(
     assert response.json()["errors"] == expected_errors
 
 
-def write_token(ds):
-    return "dstok_{}".format(
-        ds.sign(
-            {"a": "root", "token": "dstok", "t": int(time.time())}, namespace="token"
-        )
+@pytest.mark.asyncio
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("scenario", ("no_token", "no_perm", "bad_table", "has_perm"))
+async def test_drop_table(ds_write, scenario):
+    if scenario == "no_token":
+        token = "bad_token"
+    elif scenario == "no_perm":
+        token = write_token(ds_write, actor_id="not-root")
+    else:
+        token = write_token(ds_write)
+    should_work = scenario == "has_perm"
+
+    path = "/data/{}/-/drop".format("docs" if scenario != "bad_table" else "bad_table")
+    response = await ds_write.client.post(
+        path,
+        headers={
+            "Authorization": "Bearer {}".format(token),
+            "Content-Type": "application/json",
+        },
     )
+    if should_work:
+        assert response.status_code == 200
+        assert response.json() == {"ok": True}
+        assert (await ds_write.client.get("/data/docs")).status_code == 404
+    else:
+        assert (
+            response.status_code == 403
+            if scenario in ("no_token", "bad_token")
+            else 404
+        )
+        assert response.json()["ok"] is False
+        assert (
+            response.json()["errors"] == ["Permission denied"]
+            if scenario == "no_token"
+            else ["Table not found: bad_table"]
+        )
+        assert (await ds_write.client.get("/data/docs")).status_code == 200