Borough Market West Notes

BOROUGH MARKET WEST NOTES

Start at coach drop-off point on Southwark Street. Walk back towards Borough Market.

59½ Southwark Street (London Councils). It is quite common for letters to be used where new buildings are inserted between existing ones, so that, say 8A could be used for a building, between numbers 8 and 10, and this avoids having to renumber the buildings upwards of number 10. In line with the terms of the London Buildings Act of 1939, fractions are permitted to number buildings in London where it is not possible, for whatever reason, to use letters.

Cross over Southwark Bridge Road

Pass the Menier Chocolate Factory. Built for production and warehousing by the French Menier firm in the 1870s it is Grade 2 listed. Menier was actually a pharmaceutical company and their manufacture of chocolate was initially as a medicinal product for improving digestion, and for weight gain in emaciated patients. It very quickly grew to be the mainstay of their activity. The company went out of business in 1960 but its premises in France are now occupied by Nestle. This building, closed for many years, was refurbished and opened as an Arts Centre in 2004.

West Walk Directions

Start on Stoney Street and go through the far left entrance of Borough Market

Walk diagonally left out of the back of the market and emerge on to Winchester Walk.

Turn right

The Rake pub to the left of the market exit is small but v. popular with real ale drinkers. Not all British ales by any means. Limited food on offer; mainly large pork pies.

Go left shortly afterwards, passing Southwark Cathedral to the right.

Fork left in Cathedral Street and head for TheGolden Hinde in St Mary Overie Dock (you can see it from just opposite the cathedral)

Golden Hinde: in St Mary Overie’s Dock. Overie means Over The River. Entrance to dock has notice saying” a free landing place at which parishioners of St Saviour’s parish are entitled to land goods free of toll”. The replica ship is of that in which Sir Francis Drake first circumnavigated the globe (1577-80). The replica has sailed round the world, too, clocking up over 140,000 sea miles. This is rather more mileage than the original, which rotted away in the late 17C, managed. Drake’s ship was originally called The Pelican, but Drake changed the name mid-voyage, to reflect the coat of arms of his major sponsor, Sir Christopher Hatton.

Old Thameside Inn, opposite the ship, is located in a former warehouse and just to the side is a viewing platform from which to see St Paul’s in the west (St Paul’s notes are later in this section) and in theory all the way along to The Tower in the east. London Bridge is very visible: see East walk fornotes. Depends on the weather but there may be lots of people at tables out there. If not, go on to the viewing platform. There is a map showing what can be viewed on the opposite side of the river.

The Gherkin can be seen. Officially it is 30 St Mary Axe. Its original name was the Swiss Re building. A Norman Foster design. Built on the site of the Baltic Exchange, which was demolished after being heavily damaged by an IRA bomb in 1992.

The gold-topped structure is The Great Fire of London monument. 365 steps up and down for those who want to go to the top.

Go back to Clink Street and turn right

Clink Street has lots of old warehouses. But, first, on the left are the remains of Winchester Palace, the London house of the Bishops of Winchester up to the mid 17C when it was sold and warehousing and factories built on the site. The Bishop needed a house in the capital to facilitate the fulfilment of his London governmental duties. Not much is left to see but part of the west wall with the remains of the rose window is still visible. The excavated remains came to light when a mustard factory on the site burned down in 1814.

From the 16C this area was known as “The Liberty of the Clink” under the Bishop of Winchester’s jurisdiction and therefore outside the rules operating in the City of London to the north of the river. It was a red light district. The local pubs were known as stews, the name being derived from the fact that the buildings all used to have steam rooms. Most were brothels and the prostitutes who plied their trade in them were nicknamed “Winchester Geese”. Surprisingly, Henry VIII closed a lot of the stews. Not surprisingly, the Puritans finished the job off. Lesson 1: how to tell a genuine pub from a brothel - pubs had their signs hanging outside at right angles to the street and brothels/stews had their signs painted directly on to the building frontage. Weird but true.

The Clink Prison Museum, in the basement of an old warehouse, can be found on the site where the prison used to be. Synonymous with imprisonment, the expression “being in clink” is still quite well known to people of a certain age. Called The Clink because, it is thought, of the noise made by the rattling chains worn by the prisoners. It was a prison from the 12C onwards but was burned down in 1780 during the Gordon Riots (anti-catholic protests which got out of hand). There were many local prisons, and public hangings were not uncommon.

Turn right after going under the railway

This is Park Street: the old Anchor Brewery used to be on the left. Closed in 1980 when owned by Courage. Not the best name, perhaps, for a cowardly decision. Southwark was always an important brewing centre from the Middle Ages onwards. The Hop Exchange building was seen earlier/will be seen later in this walk, where hops (and malt) were bought and sold.

Now walk along the Thames frontage passing The Anchor Inn on the left.

This is the only survivor of well over twenty that lined the river near here. It is a lot older than it looks; there is a minstrel’s gallery inside and lots of atmospheric oak beams. Press gangs, drumming up numbers for the navy, used to operate in the area and The Anchor has several places within its walls where people could hide to avoid being nabbed.

Note Cannon Street Rail bridge looking back. Scene of a disaster in 1989 when the Marchioness (a pleasure steamer which had been involved in the Dunkirk rescue operation) full of young people enjoying a birthday celebration cruise, was hit by the dredger Bowbelle. 51 were drowned and there is a poignant memorial tablet in Southwark Cathedral

Pass the Financial Times building on the left.

Carry on towards Southwark Bridge and go under

Built in 1921 and Grade 2 listed. Replaced a similar arched bridge from a century earlier. Frieze on the wall under the bridge refers to the famous Thames Frost Fairs. The last was in 1814; winters have been generally milder since then and the rate of flow of the Thames has been increased due to upstream riverside vegetation clearance. The worst winter was 1683/4 The Great Frost; Thames frozen for two months.

There are the remains of a set of Waterman’s steps under the bridge on the south side (look right just beyond bridge), where ferrymen used to moor their boats and wait for customers who wanted to cross over the river.

Turn left up the steps on the far side of Southwark Bridge

Go ahead on pavement, away from the bridge

The cream painted buildings on Southwark Bridge Road, beyond the FT, were used as exterior shots for the shared house in This Life, the twenty-something law graduate BBC series of the 90s.

The tall building ahead in the distance with the three wind turbines on top is Strata SE1, one of the tallest residential developments in London, containing over 1000 flats.

Turn right very shortly, at next set of steps, by a signpost, and go down the steps to walk to the right, along Park Street again.

At the base of the Rose Court Office Block, behind some unassuming metal doors, is The Rose Playhouse, a working theatre on the site of the Elizabethan Rose Theatre (opened in 1587, closed in 1605 when the lease on the land ran out). The foundations of the original Rose are open for visitors to view on Saturdays but much work remains to be done to fully save and conserve them. Rose Alley is named after the theatre. Bear Gardens is where bear baiting took place.

Turn right on New Globe Walk

The Sam Wanamaker Playhouse on New Globe Walk is the indoor candlelit version of The Globe Theatre. It opened in January 2014 and is supposed to be based on the 16C Blackfriars Theatre on the other side of the river. This was used in winter, the open-air Globe being used in summer. The current Playhouse has the same season as The Globe, which is April to October.

Turn left at end of New Globe Walk

On the left is the Globe Theatre on Bankside (opened 1997) next to the Thames, the building of which was inspired by Wanamaker. The original Globe opened in 1599 but burnt down in 1613 when the straw roof caught fire from a cannon shot used in a performance of Henry VIII. Only one man, whose trousers caught fire, was hurt. He was saved when other patrons threw ale over him and put out the flames. Shakespeare was a shareholder in The Globe Theatre, apparently. The theatre was rebuilt after the fire with tile roofing but the Puritans, who never much liked people enjoying themselves frivolously, closed it in 1642. The 20C rebuild is entirely of wood with a thatch roof surround, the theatre being open to the elements. Present-day customers either sit on wooden benches or stand in the pit (groundlings) as they would have done in the late 16/early 17C.

The Swan Theatre stood nearby in Elizabethan times; opened 1595 closed in the 1620s. The other local theatre was called The Hope.

The name Bankside, given to this section of the walk, comes from the embankment which was constructed to stop the Bishop of Winchester’s land from being flooded.

Cardinal’s Cap Alley is on the left. Led to the notorious Cardinal’s Cap Inn, a stew probably named after Cardinal Wolsey, who was Bishop of Winchester for a time. It is now full of upmarket houses and access from Bankside is no longer possible.

Walk out on to The Millennium Bridge to about the halfway point

The Millennium Bridge, opposite the Tate Modern, leads over the Thames up to St Paul’s. Opened in 2000, it closed almost immediately due to being inherently unstable. It reopened in 2002, with a better structural design!

Looking back is Tate Modern: the building is the last work of Sir Giles Gilbert. He also designed the chamber of the House of Commons.It was built as an oil-fired power station in 1948 but closed down in 1981 and was gutted and converted to house the Tate Gallery’s modern art collection. Tate is as in Tate and Lyle. Sir Henry Tate, a very rich sugar magnate donated £80k for the building of a new art gallery to house his collection and that of others. That explains the original Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain) on the other side of the Thames, in Pimlico.

St Paul’s Cathedral, seen ahead, replaced an earlier version, which was destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, it was consecrated in 1697, over 30 years after work started. It was officially declared complete in 1711, but the roof was not fully finished until the 1720s. Wren saw it finished; he lived into his early 90s. The design draws heavily on that of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Charles II, when visiting the construction site of St Paul’s described it to Wren as “ awful, amusing, pompous and artificial”. Wren was delighted, as it was a compliment. Awful = full of awe, Amusing = amazing, Pompous = full of pomp and majesty, Artificial: extremely artistic. All words that have changed their meaning since the 17C.

There is no Bishop of St Paul’s; the incumbent is The Bishop of London. Other buildings around St Paul’s have to be, by law, built at a lower height than the cathedral.

Walk back off the bridge (Tower Bridge visible in the distance) then carry on along the riverside walk.

Pass Bankside Gallery, the home of the Royal Watercolour Society.

Blackfriars road and rail bridges can be seen and are named after the old local Dominican Priory. The River Fleet emerges from a culvert on the north side of the river under the road bridge. The remains of the old railway bridge can be seen just beyond the new one. Abandoned because it was not able to take the weight of modern trains, it was demolished 30 years ago, although the pillars, and the abutment on the south side of the river (Grade 2 listed) remain.

Turn left after The Founders Arms (named after an old local iron foundry) and before the railway bridge, to walk down a ramp

Bear left across a cul-de-sac and then go right along Hopton Street. Cross over, passing a building on the left with a roof garden (development company)

Hopton Gardens are then seen on the left: almshouses built in the mid 18C and with associated gardens. Private but can be seen from the road. Still used as almshouses; for people of low income over the age of 60 who have lived in Southwark for more than 3 years. Renovated in 2013.

Go over Southwark Street at the first zebra crossing

Walk along Bear Lane

Another bear baiting area in Elizabethan times. The back of the Kirkaldy Testing Works (now a museum) is to the left. David Kirkaldy invented a hydraulic Universal Testing Machine in the 19C, for testing the strength of all sorts of materials in everyday use. After the Tay Bridge railway disaster, his company tested the strength or lack of it of the bridge components.

The social housing flats opposite have a Church Army plaque on them.

At the end go right along Great Suffolk Street, crossing Union Street, then carrying on

Parallel the railway to the right, with impressive arches, some now filled in and used for retail. Suffolk Street used to be known as “Dirty Street”. Immediately after the railway bridges, look for the Boxing Club 1910 sign on the left, in the arches of the railway viaduct. Now known as The Ring, it is still an Amateur Boxing Club.

The Union Jack pub is passed on the right. A jack is an old-fashioned naval name for a small flag. According to Parliament 1908, the Union Jack is the national flag whether on land or sea but a lot of people seem to talk about the Union Flag these days. Contrary to urban myth, it is not an arrestable offence to fly the Union Jack on your property although you used to have to pay a fee in some council areas but, culturally, we’ve never done it much. Unlike the Americans, for instance, with their flag.

Opposite is Gordon Ramsay’s Union Street Cafe, an old warehouse conversion.

Note the railway arch retail conversions on the right, down this road.

Turn left on to Pocock Street

Pass Blackfriars Crown Court

Turn left into Sawyer Street (Bob Sawyer, Pickwick Papers) then right along Copperfield Street

One of many local streets with Dickens’ character names. He lived locally, in Lant Street, when his father was in the Marshalsea Debtor’s prison, just off Borough High Street. It closed in the 1840s. The large building on the left in Copperfield Street is used by the London Fire Brigade

Near the end of Copperfield Street: All Hallows Church Garden is on the left. Go in through the entrance. The church was bombed in the Second World War and the garden is the former nave. It is looked after by local residents, who are opposing the Diocese of Southwark’s desire to sell the land for building. Go in to view and out at the end, on the right.

Opposite the garden are Winchester Cottages from the 1890s. Houses for the poor, their construction was inspired by Octavia Hill who was a social reformer and convinced the Anglican Church that such houses needed building. She was one of the three founders of The National Trust.

Go right at the end of the street (note the Commit No Nuisance sign to the left) then left, and cross Southwark Bridge Road at the first pedestrian crossing

Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel can be seen, looking back. Opened in 1870 and still operating as the HQ of Welsh Congregationalism in the capital. Bilingual services are held here on most Sundays in the month. So if you like extremely long sermons in Welsh, this is the place for you.

Go into Mint Street Park**

On the site of an old Children’s Hospital, the site was derelict and unkempt for years. As a result of a government initiative to “rescue” such sites, when John Prescott was Deputy PM, local people have improved the landscaping, access and lighting. The raised beds were created and planted by a single homeless people charity; St Mungo’s. The name “mint” is as a result of the fact that for a time the Royal Mint was operating in the area, at Suffolk Place, a house that had originally been given by Henry VIII to Jane Seymour. Demolished in the mid 16C but is the origin of the street name Great Suffolk Street, along which we walked a few minutes ago.