Tag Archives: London Walks

A New Walk: Bermondsey – The Associations and Features of this Ancient and Interesting Borough

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Firstly, an update to the second part of the Rocque Ring walk: I have been away for the last couple of weeks with very limited Internet access, so have been unable to correct an error I made in the post on the 30th of August. I stated that the memorial in Christchurch Gardens was to Chopin, where I should have stated that it is a memorial to Henry Purcell. Another example of a disconnect between brain and fingers as I had written Purcell in my notes when I walked the route. Thanks to those who pointed this out, and the post is corrected.

Now to a new walk exploring the Ancient and Interesting Borough of Bermondsey.

I can remember the first time I heard the name Bermondsey. It was in the early / mid-1970s (cannot remember the exact year), and the radio was on at home. It was Good Friday, and they were broadcasting a feature about events on the day in London.

Part of the feature was on the Widow’s Son pub in east London, when on Good Friday, a bun is added to the net hanging over the bar.

The other part of the feature was about an event in Bermondsey. I cannot remember what the event was, but the name Bermondsey, an area in south London, and whatever the event was, sounded fascinating and rather exotic (I was very young at the time).

Over the years, I have been to various places in Bermondsey more times than I can remember, it is a fascinating place to explore, but that early memory of somewhere a bit different has always stayed.

The title of this walk comes from a 1930s edition of a guidebook produced by the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey, and highlights that whilst in the 1930s Bermondsey was a centre of industry, with a population of over one hundred and eleven thousand, it was also a very old and historic borough.

The industry which was so much a part of 1930s Bermondsey and described in the guidebook, is also now part of that long history.

This walk explores Bermondsey’s transformation from a land of marsh and water, and includes the historic Abbey, London’s first railway terminus, industries such as the production of leather and processing of seal skins and furs, a ground-breaking charity that supported girls who worked in factories, Jacob’s Island, the slum made famous by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist, pubs, Thames river stairs, the remains of a medieval manor house, and much more.

The walk starts from London Bridge Station (southern exit from the concourse of the railway station (not the underground) into St Thomas Street, next to Café Nero) and ends at the Angel pub, which is about a 7 minute walk from the Bermondsey Jubilee line station.

The walk lasts around 2 hours 30 minutes and covers just under two and a half miles.

The Angel, where the walk ends, photographed by my father in 1951:

All dates for this new walk can be found on my Eventbrite page at the following link:

A London Inheritance Walks

I will be adding some more dates for this walk (and my other walks), so if a convenient date is not available, click the Follow button at the Eventbrite page, and you should get a notification when new dates are online,

A small sample of images from the 1930s guide, including a Street Plan of the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey:

Old houses in Grange walk:

Municipal Offices, Spa Road:

Bermondsey Parish Church with Recreation Ground Adjoining:

As well as a detailed history of Bermondsey and description of the borough in the early 1930s, the guide book includes numerous pages of adverts for the businesses that manufactured, exported, imported, and traded in Bermondsey.

A small sample which gives an idea of the breadth of industry and business in Bermondsey, which included the Oriental Confectionary Manufacturers Limited:

Celebrity Gramophones:

Anglotan Ltd. – the All-British House for Reptile Skins:

Kelly & Sons – High Class Book Binding:

H.T. Enthoven & Sons Limited – Metal Manufacturers and Refiners:

Adams Brothers – Suit Cases, Attaché Cases, &c. It will pay you to Buy British:

Bermondsey today is a very different place to that described in the 1930s guide book, but these adverts show only a small snapshot of the long history of an Ancient and Interesting Borough.

Booking for all dates at the following link: A London Inheritance Walks

Limehouse – A Sink of Iniquity and Degradation. A New Walk.

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(Dates for my new walk at the end of the post) The following photo was taken by my father from the eastern end of the King Edward VII Memorial Park in Shadwell. It is looking east along the Thames towards Limehouse:

Limehouse

The photo shows this stretch of the river as it was in the late 1940s. A busy place with docks, wharves and cranes, with barges and ships along the river.

The tall chimney is that of Limehouse (also called Stepney) power station. An electricity generating station that ran on coal transported along the river. The power station was built in 1907, however the tall chimney was added 20 years later in 1927 due to complaints about the amount of pollution that was being spread around Limehouse by the much smaller original chimneys. At the time of building, it was the tallest chimney in London at a height of 351 feet.

The power station was closed in 1972 and demolished soon after.

Just in front, and to the right of the power station chimney is the entrance to the Regent’s Canal Dock (now Limehouse Basin). Although the entrance is hard to see, the warehouses with the name of the dock, on the east side of the entrance to the dock from the river can be seen in this extract from the above photo:

Limehouse Regent's Canal Dock

The title for the walk “Limehouse – A Sink of Iniquity and Degradation” came from the book “Limehouse through Five Centuries” written in 1930 by the Reverend J.G. Birch of St. Anne’s, Limehouse. He used the phrase in his introduction to the book, and also added that he hoped that the book would help dispel this myth.

Limehouse has always had an air of mystery and intrigue, an exotic and dangerous place to those who did not live or work along the river.

The 1916 book Limehouse Nights by Thomas Burke featured a number of short stories centred on Limehouse, the opium dens and the Chinese community, which were also the background to the stories of Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer. The works by Burke and Rohmer featured appalling stereotypical views of the Asian community then living in Limehouse.

Stories about Limehouse exploited themes of violence, crime, sex and drugs and how the import of opium resulted in the exploitation of English women, often to sell opium in the fashionable West End.

The image of Limehouse as a place of intrigue and mystery continues to this day, with the 1994 book Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd, on which the 2016 film The Limehouse Golem was based.

Whilst there were opium dens, crime and violence, Limehouse was a hard working place, based around the trade and industry that grew along the Thames. The Chinese population were frequently sailors who had settled in Limehouse and married local women, along with a temporary increase in numbers when ships with Chinese crew docked. Their numbers though were relatively low, not as large as popular literature of the time might suggest.

Limehouse was an early site of ship building. From Limehouse, sailors and traders set out along the Thames to cross the oceans of the world. Industry, warehouses and docks lined the river, with cramped housing alongside polluting factories.

Limehouse provided access to the Thames for the inland waterways, with the Limehouse Cut and the Regent’s Canal providing access to the river from the rest of the country. In the Regent’s Canal Dock (now the Limehouse Basin), ships unloaded all manner of cargo, including coal, timber, fruit and ice.

There was technical innovation, hydraulic power and an electricity generating station running on coal delivered via the river. The London & Blackwall Railway cut through Limehouse on a brick viaduct, paving the way for the Docklands Light Railway.

The decades after the 2nd World War were not kind to Limehouse as trade along the river slowly declined and industry closed or moved away.

From the late 1980s onwards, Limehouse was transformed, with some major projects being driven by the developments on the Isle of Dogs just to the east.

I have long been fascinated by Limehouse, a place that for centuries was shaped by the relationship between the land and the river. Whilst today that contact is maintained by Limehouse Basin, the rest of Limehouse is now just a spectator to the activity on the river.

This walk will explore the history and development of Limehouse from the 15th century to the present day. The people, those who settled in Limehouse, the relationship with the River Thames, trade, waterways, tunnels, streets, pubs and church, along with some of the reality of the opium dens.

As with the Reverend J.G. Birch, my aim with the walk is to dispel some of the myths about Limehouse and focus on the real history of this fascinating part of east London.

The walk will start at Limehouse DLR station and end at Westferry DLR station. It will take around 2 hours 30 minutes and is a walk of slightly over 2 miles.

The schedule of walks is listed below. Click on each date to get to the Eventbrite booking page:

Just added a couple of new dates as the original set sold out:

Or for an overview of all the walks on Eventbrite, then click here.

I look forward to showing you around this fascinating part of east London.

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