In the Printers Yard

West 180, Block K. ©Niall Connolly

Standing on the terrace of Block K quite recently, I wished that I had thought to make more panoramas of Bermondsey 'back in the day'. This panorama, looking generally west from Block K, would have looked dramatically different were you able to see the same view in, say, 1998. Large chunks of what is visible today simply didn't exist even 10 years ago.

The only two 'original' buildings in this view are on the extreme edges of the image. On the far left there is McNeill's warehouse with the white glazed brickwork and, on the far right, the lower (original) part of the building was the home of Sangorski&Sutcliffe and Zaehnsdorf, one of Britain's foremost bookbinders.

Above Sarson's

A view made from above Sarson's Vinegar Works showing the vats in the left foreground and, in the middle distance to the left of the Sarson's chimney, you can see the wasteland that was White's Grounds, formerly known as Artillery Row. The building in the immediate foreground was a pub but, for the life of me, I can't remember its name.

This is a view of the buildings on the corner of Tanner St and Tower Bridge Road, where I made the 'high' view at the top of the page. I must have made the views of Sarson's from the roofs to the right of the right hand chimney stacks.

Statistics

Somewhere in the dim and distant past, I read that a building which was empty and subject to a planning application was 600 times more likely to catch fire than any other.............

The Bermondsey Girls School at the junction of Griggs Place and Grange Walk, 17th July 2000

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

1996

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

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.

Tower Bridge Road 1934

The triangular island at the junction of Tower Bridge Road and Grange Road, looking north.

In the background it is possible to make out a warehouse carrying the 'Rankin Bros' identity. Rankin Bros were importers of cork and occupied premises in the middle of what is now the redeveloped Bermondsey Sq and also on Bermondsey St and in Tanner St.

A close-up view of the notice-board in the centre of the image is available here. The notice-board reflects the then Bermondsey Borough Council's commitment to public health.

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?