1903 Bermondsey building
The Tanneries
Vintage Yard
Black Swan Yard frontage
old brick and sash
Tyers Estate sculpture
view from Carmarthen Place
Carmarthen Place
Black Swan Yard
hope it don't fall on them
Black Swan Yard street sign
old shops in Bermondsey
old tannery buildings
Tyers Gate
Tyers Gate street sign
incongruous textile museum
Woolpack pub sign
The Garrison at Bermondsey
Bermondsey Street bricks
Bermondsey Street buildings
Tanner Street
Al's Cafe
Bermondsey Street sign
Bell Yard Mews
Bell Yard Mews street sign
Royal Oak Yard street sign
Gemini House
Newham's Row tannery
Newham's Row buildings
Newham's Row street sign
southern end of Bermondsey St
Newham's Row
Old Rectory with signage clutter
Time and Talents Settlement
up Bermondsey Street
not another carbuncle, I hope
St Mary Magdalen and Shard
puke architecture at Bermondsey
Druid Street arches
Scotts Sufferance Wharf
messing up the South Bank
St John the Evangelist
Waterloo blocks
Waterloo street corner
Albert Arms pub
police at Purbrook Estate
Bermondsey arches
Tower Bridge Primary School
back of Devon Mansions
passing The Pommelers Rest
Devon Mansions
Gregorian Arms and church
Jamaica Road
night eye
County Hall lights
riverside night lights
grim view from the Tower
the tourists must love this!
Sad Khan's London lair
Tower Bridge 2014
Thames at Tower Bridge
old Ship & Camel
Dockhead end of Tanner Street
old Bermondsey shops
Thomson Bros ghost sign
Morocco Store
Morocco Street smithy
boring new blocks
churchyard drinking fountain
Hartley's chimney
The George, Bermondsey
ugly lebara shop front
Driscoll House
terrace on the New Kent Road
Elephant Park eyesores
urban roof garden
dismal urban landscape
rising carbuncle
Algar House shops
The Wellington Hotel
fish and chips beneath the bridge
Imax roundabout
Whitehouse, Waterloo
south bank carbuncles
eyesores ahead
Waterloo concrete
Waterloo Station bus stops
Algar House flats
St George's obelisk
former Duke of Clarence
Duke of Clarence building
Elephant blocks
another carbuncle going up
Strata hit or miss?
hit or miss carbuncle?
ugliest place on this planet?
depressing urban mess
Elephant scraper going up
urban overload
New Kent Road
Crown & Anchor pub
Driscoll House hostel
old Hartley jam factory
Shard and steeple
The George at Bermondsey
Brighton Buildings
Pagoda pub at Bermondsey
The Pagoda at Bermondsey
Pagoda pub sign
Bermondsey shops
Tower Gate House
Nat West building
Draft House at Bermondsey
Tower Bridge Hotel clock
crossing Tower Bridge
Horselydown
Courage Brewery chimney
Shad Thames weather vane
chimney and accumulator
Pommelers clock tower
Bermondsey school house
school house chimney
Fair Street
welcoming cafe?
cafe open sign
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"Bermondsey has been for many years the principal seat of the leather manufacture in England, and derives from this circumstance a character and appearance different from those presented by any other district in London. The cause to which this localisation seems to be most correctly assigned is the existence of a series of tide-streams, which twice in every twenty-four hours supply a large quantity of water from the Thames for the use of the tanners and leather-dressers.
The skins from nearly all the sheep slaughtered in London are conveyed to a Skin Market in the western part of Bermondsey, and there sold by factors or salesmen, who act for the butchers, to the fellmongers." (A Day in the Factories, 1843)
The writer says that although each type of leather worker was employed in very different tasks, the yards and buildings in which they worked looked very much the same; they would have lived 'over the shop' or very nearby. "The surface of the court or yard is in most cases intersected by pits, or square cisterns, in which the skins are steeped during some part of the manufacturing process." Henry Mayhew wrote of "a series of closely-adjacent pits, filled to the brink with a dark chocolate-coloured, thick liquid".
Leather prepared with Sumach (extract from a tannin-rich plant grown in Hungary) Goat, a thinner hide. This became Morocco leather, which took rich dyes well and was quicker to produce. It was used for coach linings and chair covers. An inferior type, made from split sheepskin - skiver - was used for book covers, hat linings, and pocket books.
Leather prepared with Alum - kid, imitation kid (made of sheepskin) and lamb. This process was called tawing, and the finished product was used for gloves and ladies' shoes. Kid was used for better products, and imitation kid for cheaper goods.
Curriers softened the hides, parchment makers created fine filmy sheets out of split sheepskins.
Leather prepared by tanning using solution of oak bark - oxen, bulls, buffaloes, cows - the strongest hides. These leathers took the longest to soak (up to two years) and were used for the soles of shoes and for saddles.
All leatherwork created foul smells. Alum was made partly of urine, and another essential ingredient for Alum preparation was 'pure' or dog faeces! Pure gatherers would be paid to pick it up from the streets and from pedigree kennels on the outskirts of London. (A 19th century public health inspection revealed that a railway arch was used to store the stuff in, giving the immediate area a very foul smell.)
Dickens remembers the Leather Market as full of evil smells from the hides and the substances they had been processed in.
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