Borough - Bermondsey borders
Because of the size of the file for this dense inner city area, the square has been divided into four. This is the north east quarter
The north west corner is Borough
The south west corner is Borough Newington
The south east corner is Borough Newington and Trinity
Post to the north Bankside
Post to the west St,George and Waterloo
Post to the south Walworth
Post to the east Bermondsey
Angel Place
It is named after a 16th pub which was on its north side. However the current Angel Place would have been inside the Marshalsea prison
Marshalsea Prison Remains. A brick wall which was the southern boundary of the prison runs along the alleyway. There is also a small garden area. There are six memorials in the alleyway – a circular stone with a quotation from Little Dorritt; an information plaque including work done by BOST; a plaque about Little Dorritt; a circular stone about Little Dorritt; a plaque about Dickens’ father and a stone plaque about the site of the Marshalsea Prison.
White Lion prison. From at least 1580 prison facilities were provided by the White Lion Inn. It was on the south side of Angel Court and Angel Alley (which no longer exist) and was used for the site of the rebuilt Marshalsea. It was known as the Borough Gaol and was succeeded by the Surrey County Prison at Newington Causeway, built in 1791.
Borough High Street
173 Blue Eyed Maid. Pub which dates from at least the 1820s and which is now partly an Indian restaurant.
211 John Harvard Library. This is a London Borough of Southwark public library. It is named after John Harvard, the Southwark clergyman who emigrated to Massachusetts and bequeathed his estate and nooks to what became Harvard University.
211 Southwark Local Studies Library opened in 1978 at the rear of John Harvard Library. It included collections had been partly inherited from the predecessor councils accumulated since public libraries had opened in the 1880s. In 1972 Mary Boast was appointed first Local Studies Librarian.
Marshalsea Prison. This was a building used by the Marshal (hence the name) of the King's Bench as a prison. It had evolved from a Court to which Marshalsea rulings could be appealed and was jurisdiction of the royal household, but later held unconnected religious and criminal prisoners but mainly debtors.It had originally been a 14th establishment further north on Borough High Street. Around 1800 it was rebuilt here on the site of what is now the John Harvard Library. . It was technically private property, with shareholders and by the 18th was a debtors' prison with separate areas for those who could afford to rent rooms and the common or poor side. It had its own bar and shops run by inmates. Conditions were very bad with many suffering torture and extortion and dying of disease or violence. It was rebuilt following an enquiry in 1811. The 1811 building is that described by Dickens and it too was overcrowded and squalid with internal arrangements made by a committee of prisoners. There was a separate section for Admiralty Prisoners
Saint George's Churchyard. (The church itself is in the quarter square to the west). . The churchyard of the predecessor church had been where prisoners from Marshalsea and other local jails were buried and also some Civil War leaders. Bishop Bonner had been buried here in 1569 late at night. The current church’s yard was on the north side of the church and was extended in 1817. It closed in the 1850s and was laid out as a garden in 1882. In 1905 the London County Council acquired part of it for a new road between Tabard Street and Borough High Street but added other land in compensation. An extended garden is accessed from Tabard Street (below). A garden area is also to the north of the church with some memorials in flower beds and a few gravestones against the church wall. The churchyard also shares a wall with Angel Place.
134-138 Maya House. Office block Blue men with musical instruments climb up the outside of the building – this is an artwork by Ofra Zimbalista
Bowling Green Place.
This was previously Bowling Green Lane
An internal road into a London County Council style estate featuring Kentish place names on the blocks
Chapel Place
Chapel Place was the predecessor street to Hankey Place, on a slightly different alignment at the south west end
Crosby Row
Wesley’s second chapel in Southwark. This stood at the northern end of Crosby Row. It is described as one of Wesley's octagon and built for him by Samuel Butcher, a Bermondsey leather merchant in 1764. By 1818 the congregation had moved to Long Lane to the south, and this church became a Sunday school.
St Hugh Charterhouse Mission Church. The Ark. This was on the site of Wesley’s second Bermondsey Chapel. Charterhouse Ark was built in 1892-8 by Carpenter & Ingelow. It was later described as a “queerly-shaped building, with church and clubrooms combined”. This church closed in 2011 and the church is now the ground floor of a block of flats.
32 Charterhouse-in-Southwark settlement. This had been established in 1885 by old boys of Charterhouse School as a city mission to provide education and amenities to the deprived people in Bermondsey, originally in Tabard Street. Funds were raised to build St Hugh’s Church and a building here. In 2008 the charity decided to close here in favour of becoming a grant-giving body. The site was sold to the Family Mosaic housing association and it is now a housing scheme called the Murano Building Designed by local architect Michael Trentham. The church has been rebuilt on the ground floor
Beormund Primary School. This is a special school for children who have social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. Opened as a purpose built facility in 1975. It appears to be partly on the site of what was Laxon Street School. This opened in 1874 by the London School Board, was remodelled in 1909 and became Laxon Secondary School for Girls in 1951. Laxon Street was a turning off Long Lane, now under Beormond School. Laxon Street School merged with other schools in 1968. Beormund may now be demolished for housing
Beormond Hostel. This was attached to the school and built with it. It took 20 boys who were pupils at the school.
37 Whitesmiths Arms, dated from at least the 1840s but closed in 2013 and turned into flats
39 Arc Day Nursery. This was Charterhouse Girls Club set up in the 1930s. Latterly Charterhouse in Southwark ran this as Arc Nursery until 2009 when was leased to an unrelated charity. The building appears originally to have been a mission hall.
Globe Street
Persian Silk Tree – rare tree grown as a street tree
Wall painted sign for C.Wallin Tin Box maker. Wallin were here from at least the 1920s until at least the 1980s. Their address was actually the corner house in Trinity Street, no 45 with the works to the rear in Globe Street.
Great Dover Street
190 Marathon House. This was until recently County House, a government building housing the Immigration Advisory Service. Sold off, it now appears to be about to be converted to the House of Sport.
Surrey Dispensary. The Dispensary was set up as a charitable foundation in the 18th century to provide medical services to the poor. During its history it moved many times in the area. It moved here to Great Dover Street in 1840 where it stayed until 1927. The site appears to have been bought by Upsons who traded as Dolcis. The charity still exists as a body giving grants to sick people in need.
7-14 Dolcis House. This was originally the headquarters of Upson’s ‘the great boot provider’. They had been started in 1863 by John Upson, in Plumstead who sold shoes in Woolwich market. By the early 20th the company had branches throughout London and south-east England. They acquired Barron & Coin 1925 and the head office was here. By 1927 they had 135 shops with nine of them on Oxford Street. The head office moved to Leicester in 1967. The Great Dover Street building has since been demolished
7-14 SPIE Matthew Hall. This was a facilities building for this international construction company.
7-14 Can Mezzanine. The building now offers office space to charities and others
Great Maze Pond
This road – although still a public road – is essentially an internal road for Guys Hospital (detailed in the post to the north). Before 1900 the east side of the road was taken up with hop warehouses and, at the south end, Holcombe Buildings
Holcombe Buildings. In the 1890s Booth reported that these tenements belonged to Guys and used to house their employees
Guy Street
Guy Street Park. This was opened as a recreation ground in 1899. It had been a burial ground for Guy’s Hospital who had bought the site in 1789 but closed it in the 1850s. It was then a builder's yard until 1896 when Bermondsey Vestry and the London County Council bought the site from Guy’s with financial help from other local vestries and the Guinness Trust and the Metropolitan Public Gardens Trust for layout and maintenance. It was then called the Nelson Street Recreation Ground and later Kipling Street Park. In the 1990s a friends group was set up and the par was renovated with new planting and a shrubbery, a ball court, a play area and a rope climbing frame.
2 Guys Arms. Pub which closed in the 1990s and is now flats. It dated from at least the 1880s and a Courage’s sign remains above the corner door.
Hankey Place
This was Chapel Place, slightly realigned and rebuilt following the London County Council’s changes to the Tabard Street area. It was named for Donald Hankey who worked in a mission here before the Great War, and then, having enlisted, became well known through publications about military service in the war,
3-5 Richer House. Head office of media and audio equipment retailer. Julian Richer began buying and selling hi-fi separates at school when he was 14 and in 1978, aged 19, he opened his first shop on London Bridge Walk. They now have 53 stores nationwide and online.
Tabard Community Hall. This is also called Hankey Hall. Community facility for the Tabard Estate. It probably dates from 1924.
Wesleyan Southwark Chapel. The Chapel was built in 1809 and able to seat a congregation of 1,500. It faced onto what was then called Chapel Place. The Chapel closed in 1918 and demolished a few years later. It, or its ancillary buildings became used as a billiard hall in the 1920s and were later taken over by the Stansfield Club, part of a Bermondsey youth mission.
Vicarage. What appears to be the vicarage of St. Stephen’s Church remains on the corner with Tabard Street.
Kipling Street
This is said to be on the approximate site of Meeting House Walk. It was also previously called Nelson Street.
NCP Car Park
St Paul. This was built in 1848 and designed by S.S. Teulon. The parish had been established in 1846 out of the parish of Saint Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey. It closed in 1956 and was used as the Diocesan furniture store until demolished in 1961. The site was sold to Guy's Hospital and is now occupied by flats
Vicarage. This was the vicarage to St. Pauls and is still a Cathedral property
St Paul’s National School. Buildings for boys and girls schools lay behind the church to the west. They appear to have closed before 1900.
Wesley chapel. This was taken over in 1743 from Unitarian Baptists. • Twenty years later he moved to a new site in Crosby Row. The chapel was on the west side of" Meeting House Walk and the chapel was probably south of the Miller of Mansfield pub. It had been built in 1736 by. Elizabeth Ginn, for a Unitarian Baptist preacher
Long Lane
Connected churches of Bermondsey and Southwark. It allegedly was created by Bermondsey Abbey around 1104 to connect its lands and buildings in Bermondsey to those at the southern end of Borough High Street and its manor to the west, later called St George's Fields. This stretch of Long Lane was called White Street in the 19th
25-33 Harding’s Tinplate. This works was demolished before the 1990s. A building belonging to the company still remains in Tabard Street
74-84 Selected Rug Co. Warehouse building with distinctive green bricks. This was part of the wire weavers Bedford, Steer, End & Co, founded on this site as the original Southwark Wire Works in 1824. In the 1890s they were workers of copper, brass, iron, steel, tinned, and galvanized wire of all kinds by steam power. By the 1950s they were making brush parts for dynamos as well as wire baskets sacks and containers of all sorts. The factory and buildings were reconfigured and partly rebuilt in the 1960s. The building is now being turned into flats,
109 The Old School Yard. This was the George pub and now claims to be a cocktail bar. The current number of the building is 109 but other nearby numbers are given for it in the past. The pub is said to date from the 1880s from licensing records but is not shown on maps before the Second World War. On all maps except the most recent this now kerbside building is shown as being smaller and to the back of the site. A broken sign on the front, now removed, indicates that it dates from the 1930s but it seems possible that the pub and its licence moved, perhaps as part of changes to the school buildings to which it is adjacent.
171 Valentines. This was previously the Valentine and Orson. The licence dates from the 1860s but this ultimate building – now demolished – looks post Second World War. Pub has now gone and flats and supermarket built on the site – which are called The Valentine. Valentine and Orson is apparently a French medieval romance where Orson is raised by bears – and the pub sign here (from Edith’s memory) was of a man with a bear. The story was turned into a popular theatrical event in the 19th. This pub too seems to have been moved down the street from its original site and rebuilt.
Manciple Street
Manciple Street is the result of a regeneration scheme from the early 1920s undertaken by the London County Council. . This quarter square covers only a short northern section of the street (the rest is in the quarter square to the south). The area within this quarter square covered St Stephens Square, plus a rope walk, and Wickham Place on the south west side, and the north east Chapel Place.
Harbledown House. One of the original early 1920s blocks belt as part of the Tabard Street scheme
Rochester House. One of the original early 1920s blocks built as part of the Tabard Street scheme
Hankey Place Gardens. It had previously been the burial ground attached to the Wesleyan Southwark Chapel which closed for burials in the 1850s. It was cleared by the London County Council in 1938 and the remains transferred to Nunhead Cemetery. The site was partly to the Church Army, and otherwise left as open space and laid out as a rose garden, which remains.
Mermaid Court
Partly an internal road in London County Council estate with Kentish place names on the blocks. In the 19th this was lined with hop warehouses. The original Marshalsea Prison lay along the north side
Mural. This is at the west end of the road and embodies the lettering ‘nomad’.
The Art Academy. Independent art school
Mulvaney Way
This road goes north/south through what is now the Kipling Estate. In the past this area contained a number of industries. Some of these were on Richard Street (detailed below) and Weston Place (also below)
Nebraska Street
Elgood House. Flats originally built for the Church Army
Southwark Telephone Exchange. At the corner with Great Dover Street, this had HOP numbers until the late 1960s. Now it has 0207-234,357,378,397,403,407 and 939 numbers.
Newcomen Street
The street developed from the yard of a pub, the Axe, which was there in the 16th. In the 17th Axe Yard, belonged to two charities, - John Marshall's and Mrs. Newcomen's. John Marshall had founded Christ Church and left his Axe Yard properties to trustees and, like Mrs. Newcomen who died in the 17th, left the property here for charitable purposes. Building here continued in the 17th and 18th and in due course the inn yard was opened up into Snow’s Fields to the east.
67 This was the property of the Newcomen charity and bore the charity’s as well as a Royal Insurance fire mark. In the mid-19th this was used as George Mansell as a printing works. This was the press for first the early South London Press. This no longer seems to be there
66 offices of the John Marshall Trustees. This is said to be on the site of John Marshall's house and was built in 1853. It is decorated with four carved stone heads
65 King's Arms this was rebuilt in the 18th and incorporated the royal coat of arms, as used by George II. They are those removed from the gate at the south end of London Bridge. The house was rebuilt as a pub, the King's Arms. This was once King Street with the old Marshalsea on its south side, possibly because of the presence of the royal coat of arms. It was renamed Newcomen Street in 1879
24/26 John Doyle. In the 1820s Doyle was a scale maker at Steelyard in the Borough and from 1840 in what was then King Street. The firm was Doyle & Son from about 1865. They made standard weights in 1826 and bronze cup weights marked and were in business when they were sold to Avery. Their works was said to have been designed by Wallis Gilbert in 1923
18 Nuffield House. Entrance to the private hospital which is part of Guys Hospital.
Bollards. There are two cast iron cannon adapted into bollards, one at each end of the street
Pilgrimage Street
This street was built in the early 1920s as part of the redevelopment of the area and the building of the Tabard Estate by the London County Council.
Porlock Street
Porlock Hall. Now Southwark Inclusive Learning Centre aka the Pupil Referral Unit.
Richardson Street
This street is now covered by the Kipling Estate.
18-20 Sam Wright. Buyer of leather by products. Present in the early 20th
49 The Brazon Serpent. This pub was in the street from the 1850s to the 1890s
Moore. Leather merchants, present in the early 20th. There were others in the leather and tannery trade – Barclay had a tannery in the 19th, as did George Wigglesworth in the 1860s.
British Road Services Depot. 1950s.
Snowsfield
96 The Miller pub. This was called the Miller of Mansfield. It is a modem pub although it originated at least in the 1830s and was once on the other side of the road. It now has a comedy club and hosts other events, plus rehearsal space.
123 Rose Pub. This dates from the 1850s
Staple Street
Staple Street was the address of Pink's Jam factory. The factory itself is in the square to the south.
St. Stephens Square
Now under Tabard Gardens and Manciple Street
St.Stephen's Church. This church, was built in 1850 with a massive tower to the designs of S.S.Teulon. It ceased to be used for worship in 1961 and demolished in 1965. The organ was sold for £100 to Christ the King church, Salfords but it is thought other furnishings and the bells were sold for scrap. The site was sold to the Diocese as a site for a new St George's Rectory.
Church Hall. This was bombed in the Second World War and replaced by a Tenants Hall.
Tabard Street
This is what was originally called Kent Street, the old road to Greenwich, Canterbury and Dover. It is thought that this is on the alignment of a Roman road. From 1565 it was paved with hard stone after 1814 through traffic went down Great Dover Street, and Kent Street was re-named Tabard Street in 1877.
St George’s Gardens. The larger part of the churchyard it on the east side of the street, separate from the church. It was laid out as a public garden in 1882. The churchyard was laid out as a public garden and twenty years later Part of the south side was removed for the widening of Long Lane and it was reopened in 1902. The north wall dates from the 18th and there are with 20th wrought iron gates. The area was originally the southern boundary of the Marshalsea Prison and a plaque in the garden explains this. There are a number of trees including a plane with seating around it. A few gravestones are located in one corner. A drinking fountain, the gift of J. A. Pash and William Bear in 1859, once stood near the gate.,
Churchyard. There is an area of churchyard which remains alongside the church with a brick wall, railings and a pair of gate piers fronting a small triangular garden.
Empire Square. This development is on the site of a goods depot belonging to Pickford’s, carriers and removers. It is one of several sites which this old established, and still extant, company had in Southwark.
19 frontage of tower of Harding & Sons with inscriptions and ‘jappaners’ over the central door. They were also based in Long Lane (above)
40 London Christian School. This is another private fee paying school.
56 London Bridge Study Centre. This is an ‘independent’ fee paying higher education centre. It undertakes courses on management, and the like,
Tabard Green Estate. This is the housing area around Tabard Gardens. It was an ambitious scheme of the London County Council for slum clearance planned in 1910 for 2,450 people, and opened in 1916. Most of the blocks are in the earlier standard type of municipalised neo-Georgian style.
44 Royal Oak. The pub dates from 1825 when the address was Kent Street. The brewers are Harvey’s of Lewes.
Tabard Gardens. (The bulk of the gardens and sports facilities are in the quarter square to the south). The northern end is largely open green space.
Tennis Street
Tennis Street is now a road running between Newcomen Street and Long Lane which appears to date from the 1950s. It covers what was Tennis Court and Colliers Rents.
Southwark Coroners Court. This is a modern timber clad buildings but it replaces a predecessor
Weston Place
This road is now covered by the area of the Kipling Estate
5 George Morris. Kid leather tannery. This works was present in the 1920s.
Weston Street,
55 Greenwood Theatre. The Theatre belongs to Kings College London and used for student productions. It was built in 1975.
Imperial Emery Works. This was owned by W.J.Davies in the early 20th who were developing a number of applications and uses for emery – for example in concrete.
72 George Harker and Co. The company dated to the 1820s as a drysalters and stationers operating in dried fish, oil and spices in central London. Later they specialised in rice, pulses, dried fruit, canned goods, spices, and nuts. The factory was destroyed in Second World War bombing. After the war they were able to take advantage in the growth of individual packaging and supply to supermarkets.
72 The Grainstore. Flats
75 Vos leather merchants, brick and stucco offices of the mid 19th. The firm also had a base in Northampton
132 Lord Wellington. This pub is now a betting shop
Sources
Aldous. Village London
Bankside Open Spaces Trust. Web site
Bermondsey Churches. Web site
Biblical Studies. Wesley Historical Society. Web site
British History On line. Web site
Brewery History Society. Web site
British Listed Buildings. Web site
Byrne. Prisons and Punishments of London
Closed Pubs. Web site
Clunn. The Face of London
Dehilster. Web site
Diocese of Southwark. Web site
Dolcis. Web site
Exploring Southwark. Web site
Field. London Place Names
GLIAS Newsletter
Grace’s Guide. Web site
Greater London Council. Home Sweet Home
Historic England. Web site
Ideal Homes. Web site
London Borough of Southwark. Web site
London Encyclopaedia
London Gardens Online. Web site
London Metropolitan Archive. Web site
London Remembers. Web site
Lucas. London
Pevsner and Cherry. South London
Pub History. Web site
SE1. Web site
Skinner. Form and Fancy
Street Trees. Web site
Summerson. Georgian Buildings in London
Thorne. Old and New London
Wikipedia. As appropriate
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