A gap in Leathermarket St - surely not.

Bellway Homes were partly responsible for the re-invention of Bermondsey Street through their redevelopment of what was the British Telecom depot on Leathermarket Street. The development, designed by architects CZWG, was heavily advertised in the Evening Standard with illustrations showing a couple, in evening dress, dancing the night away.  Wishful thinking for Bermondsey in the early 1990s! However, the advertising raised Bermondsey's profile and marked the start of the mainstream development of Bermondsey. Today, the phrase 'a gap in Leathermarket St' would raise howls of protest about multi-nationals paying no tax but 'back in the day' there were other types of 'gap' in Leathermarket St.

From memory, the Bellway development was originally intended to carry on to the south, through to Long Lane. The owner of the adjacent industrial site (was the company called Dairymaid?) would not sell so the resultant Bellway scheme was rather more limited than the original vision.

A gap in Leathermarket St!

Before the construction of 105 Bermondsey St

During the conversion of Britz Brothers/Hepburn & Gale, Long Lane.

When Blue Lion Court was another antiques warehouse.

Just before the infill at the junction of Tyers Gate and Bermondsey St

Bermondsey Wall. Now a completely impossible view.

1996

1996 - From Bermondsey St looking east, Magdalene St on the left and Holyrood St on the right.
Copyright Niall Connolly

More images from 1984

Tyers Gate, 1984. Arpino Gibbs had not yet rebuilt the left hand corner
and the right hand corner would wait another 15 years. Photographer unknown.

1, 3, 5&7 Tanner St, 1984. The fading sign-writing for 'Bermondsey Wireworks' is visible on the left. Neon Signs occupied No.1 with Arthur Smart (flags and banners) at No.3 and 5&7 was called 'Zincography House' and was used as a printworks. Photographer unknown.

9 Tanner St (John Adams, Printers) showing the mural depicting aspects of Bermondsey life. At the time, this building had recently been purchased from Rankin Bros who had used it as a cork warehouse. The mural was created as part of Southwark Council's 'Industrial Improvement Area' programme of the late 1970s. Reading clockwise from bottom left, the mural illustrates: the Queen's Jubilee; sheep shearing; Bermondsey Abbey; 3 Day Printers; Turtle & Pearce; Rankin Bros & St Saviour's Wharf; wash day; the local antiques business (featuring the late Neil Anderson); Hop picking; bonfire night and, in the middle, the Leather Exchange and leather working. Photographer unknown.

Bermondsey St. from what was the Midland Bank, just visible on the right, to what was 3 Day Printers on the left. Photographer unknown.

The original location of the Bermondsey Street Post Office, near the corner of Bermondsey St and Morocco St. The radical 'Bermondsey Lamp-post', a free school for local truanting children, was located in the upper floors of the grocery store. In the aftermath of the property crash of 1989/90, the grocery store (which had become Goode Foodes) and the Post Office were the focus of arson attacks and largely burned out, although Goode Foodes survived. Photographer unknown.

There was always a cafe somewhere on this block and, in 1984, it was Gino's. This terrace, 132 - 140, was demolished and redeveloped in the late 1980s by the same developer who later purchased and started the redevelopment of Sarson's Vinegar Factory. Photographer unknown.

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.

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.

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?