The White Cube Gallery

Last weekend I visited Bermondsey Street and, thanks to 'running man', found out that the White Cube was taking over the ex-Recall warehouse as a gallery space for the next 15 years. The site was originally (late 1800s) a 5 or 6 storey warehouse in the style of the Shiva building (originally Tempo Leatherworks). In the mid 1970s a warehouse was built on the site which originally housed the Radio Times Distribution Centre. The building was empty for some years until (from memory) 1992 when it was taken over by 'Sol Beer', the people who invented the slice of lime in the neck. Sol went bust in the mid 1990s and the building was taken over by Recall.

In 1979, Denyer Associates envisaged a more open courtyard than the one that was built and, some 40 years later, the White Cube will open the yard out to embrace the street.

Some places change

This building no longer exists on Long Lane. There is an interesting photograph held by the John Harvard Library of the Socialists and Oswald Moseley's blackshirts fighting outside this building in the 1930s.




The Thom Paperworks on Long Lane was, in the late 1990s, the production site for 'London's Burning'.




And now this is Trocette Mansions...........




.....and this is what Bermondsey Square was in 1985...........




......and a lost gem, 88/90 Weston St, not far from the junction with Guy Street.

Tower Bridge Road 1934

In the background it is possible to make out a warehouse carrying the 'Rankin Bros' identity. Rankin Bros were importers of cork and they obviously had premises right in the middle of what is now the redeveloped Beromdsey Sq.

Denyer Associates

In 1979, Southwark Council commissioned a town planning practice, Denyer Associates, to do an extensive study of Bermondsey Street. The work was part of a programme intended to reverse the industrial decline of parts of north Southwark. As part of that study, Denyer Associates created drawings of the street elevations. This drawing shows what was the Yorkshire Grey and No.103 Bermondsey Street as they were in 1979.


At that time, the building to the right (south) of No.103 was a single storey warehouse.

Crash 1990

The property crash of 1990 had some interesting effects on Bermondsey Street. The block of houses at the corner of Leathermarket and Bermondsey St were bought immediately before the crash and then, after the crash, suffered a series of arson attacks. The original post office (next door to Goode Foodes) was a victim of the arsonists but Goode Foodes survived - against the odds.





After featuring in 'Private Eye' the block was rebuilt as it stands today.

Regards.

Niall

Bermondsey Photographs

Between 1988 and 2006 I lived in Bermondsey, London SE1 and, in a very haphazard manner, made some photographic records of the area and, more specifically, the buildings.

Bermondsey is an area of London that has seen huge change over the last decade and these photographs give some insight into the area's history.

Over time I will add the images to this blog and I hope that the current residents in and around Bermondsey Street, will enjoy seeing what the area was like in the 1980s and just how far it has come.

One of the most striking images comes from around 1980. Do you recognise this as the entrance to Tanner St park at the junction of Bermondsey St and Tanner St?


Regards and best wishes.

Niall Connolly