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.

St Mary Magdalene's Churchyard

Back in 2003, as a result of a phone call from a concerned member of the public, Southwark Council visited St Mary Magdalene's Churchyard and examined what lay behind a very fine hoarding at the northern boundary of the Churchyard.

The hoarding itself was perfectly legitimate, having been covered by an agreement between Southwark Council and the adjacent owner/developer. What wasn't quite so legitimate was what lay behind the hoarding.............................

Behind the hoarding was a concrete terrace which was an extension, into the churchyard, from the adjacent development. The terrace was some 27m by 4m and extended downward by more than 2m. To construct this structure, an equivalent cubic amount of the churchyard had been removed and with that went what are known as 'disaggregated remains' ie skeletal remains of those buried in the churchyard in the years before the churchyard was deconsecrated. (As I understand it, the disturbance or removal of 'disaggregated remains' is a criminal offence.) 

This was a good example of the conflict between development and public spaces, particularly when public spaces, such as churchyards and parks, no longer have the attention of staff who know their boundaries. Developers understand this.

The new millenium

One of the large sites on the west side of Tower Bridge Road was, originally, a privately owned antiques market which ran in parallel with the more formal market on Bermondsey Sq. In 2001 the site was in the process of redevelopment
Copyright Niall Connolly.

Simon the Tanner, on Long Lane, was, at one time, a free-standing building. This image shows the beginning of the process whereby Simon the Tanner was subsumed into the canyon that is now Long Lane.
Copyright Niall Connolly

At the far end of Royal Oak Yard, on the south side, stands a concrete decked building which was originally a meat processing building. This was converted into apartments and in 2001 the owner added an additional three floors.
Copyright Niall Connolly

A view of Tower Bridge Road during the demolition of the building adjacent to The Raven public house.
Copyright Niall Connolly

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.