Borough

Dodging the rain showers I went out this morning to visit the 15th station on the Northern Line. I wasn't sure that I would find any new places to research as the station is between London Bridge and Southwark stations which I covered a couple of years ago when I was travelling on the Jubilee Line. However, you never know until you look.

 

There are lifts to and from the northbound platform but the southbound platform is one level below the northbound one and you have to access it via a narrow staircase.

The station was opened in Dec 1890 as part of the first deep-level tube railway, known as the City and South London Railway. Little remains of the original surface building as it was rebuilt in 1922 when the tunnels were enlarged. During the Second World War the tunnels were used as a large air raid shelter. The shelter had six entrances along Borough High Street. It opened on 24th June 1940 and closed on 7th May 1945.

Diagonally opposite the station is the church of St George the Martyr. It used to be referred to as the Little Dorrit church. Charles Dickens spent some of his childhood worshipping in this church and living in parish accommodation. Dickens's novel, Little Dorrit, was first published in serial between 1855-57. The title character of the book, Amy Dorrit was born and raised in Marshalsea prison which was next to the church. At the time, families of the prisoners would be imprisoned alongside them. When Charles was 12, his father John, was sent to Marshalsea Debtors Prison. The whole family joined him with the exception of Charles and his sister Fanny. Charles had to leave school and work in a shoe blacking factory. The whole experience was traumatic for him and he used its impact in his writing where imprisonment is a recurring theme.

St George the Martyr church is mentioned many times in 'Little Dorrit'. She is christened and married at the church and it also provides her with shelter and warmth when she is locked out of the prison one night.

At the back of the churchyard is a large brick wall with a sign saying:

Beyond this old wall is the site of the old Marshalsea Prison which closed in 1842. This sign is attached to a remnant of the prison wall. Charles Dickens, whose father had been imprisoned here for debt in 1824, used that experience as the Marshalsea setting for his novel Little Dorrit.

On the other side of the wall is an alleyway with quotes from Little Dorrit written onto  some of the paving stones.





The alleyway brought me out onto Tennis street and this very bright, modern building. Not a pleasant place to be attending as this is the coroner's court.

Walked through this new development.

At the other end of the new development I found myself at the corner of Pilgrimage Street and Tabard Street. 

 The street names are a reference to Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote The Canterbury Tales. Written in the 1380s, the tales begin with a 'Prologue' where Chaucer describes the meeting of 29 people in the Tabard Inn before they set off on a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas a Becket. The Tabard Inn was one of many inns on Borough High Street. The inn was rebuilt in the 1630s and remained on the site until it was demolished in 1873.

The buildings on Tabard Street are blocks of flats built in 1916 as part of an ambitious scheme for slum clearance by London County Council.

Surrounding Becket House are these black mesh railings which have an interesting history as they are part of our post war history. The railings are actually WW2 stretchers. They were produced in large numbers to be used for air raid casualties during the Blitz on London during WW2. The stretchers were made from a metal mesh making them easier to clean than the traditional wood and canvas stretchers. After the war the UK had a shortage of metal. Railings had been removed and melted down and used in the war effort. So it made sense to make use of the huge surplus of these stretchers by welding them together to make fencing. They can be seen in many parts of London.

They are easy to spot by the curved ends, built to avoid putting patients directly on the floor.

On the other side of Tabard Street is Tabard Gardens. A small but welcome green space in a densely populated area.

A much sadder sight was this mosaic decorated seat in memory of a 14 yr old boy who was stabbed to death in the park in 2007.

The memorial is to David Idowu, a local teenager who loved the park. His killer was given a life sentence in 2009.

The Surrey Dispensary was founded in 1777 to administer advice and medicine to the poor. It moved to this purpose built building in the early 19th century. It was one of the earliest charitable dispensaries in London. The dispensary closed in 1971 after which the dispensary existed only as an endowed charitable fund.

Close by is Trinity Church Square which was constructed between 1824 and 1832. The Square was built around the church which was erected in 1824. 

  
The church is no longer a church. It was closed as unsafe in 1961. London orchestras were looking for a rehearsal space and the church seemed to be suitable for conversion. In December 1972 a full scale test rehearsal was held in the church with both the London Philharmonic and the London Symphony orchestras. The players sat in the old church chairs wearing protective helmets playing a selection of Bach, Elgar, Brahms etc whilst recording and acoustic engineers tested the sound quality. Everyone was convinced that it would make an ideal rehearsal space. It took another two years to convert the building and make it safe. It is now known as the Henry Wood Hall. It is not used for performances but for recordings and rehearsals.

There has been much debate about the age and history of the statue in the church garden. It was referred to as a statue of King Alfred of unknown origin. Some thought it was from Carlton House garden and dates around 1735. The true origin of the statue was revealed in 2021 as a result of conservation work when it was discovered that the core of the statue is nearly 2000 years old. Much of the lower half is Roman and from a colossal ancient sculpture dedicated to Minerva. The upper half of the statue, the broad shouldered bearded man with a crown and robe was created in the early 19th century. It was added to the Roman sculpture to create a figure of Alfred, the Anglo-Saxon King of England. 

Walking out of the square and into Cole Street you can see that the area used to be very industrial with all these  warehouses. Once home to a pickle factory and tin makers they are now mainly residential.

 

Round the corner from Trinity Square is this sign for Tin Box Makers. A trade common in this area right up until the 1960s. The company manufactured all kinds of tins from tea canisters to biscuit tins. The warehouse was originally used for hops before being taken oven by Wallins and converted to a tin box factory.

I noticed a couple of utility boxes had been decorated, brightening up the dull street furniture we are so used to seeing.

  
I came back out onto Borough High Street where I noticed a blue plaque by the side of the library

John Harvard was the son of a Southwark butcher and inn keeper. who emigrated and settled in Charlestown, near Boston in 1637. I didn't realise that the first benefactor of Harvard University was English.

I turned off the High Street and came across a small public garden. There is not that much green space in this area, so this well designed garden was a pleasant surprise. Known as Red Cross gardens, it was laid out in 1887. The land was bought for £1000 by Octavia Hill, a social reformer and founder of the National Trust. She wanted to create a park in one of the worst slum areas in London at that time.   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  She also replaced very poor quality houses with these cottage type buildings, which overlook the gardens. They are not almshouses. They were built for the 'working poor' of Southwark who paid rent. Octavia provided individual small scale homes and demonstrated that such housing could be well managed and offer homes that people would want to live in. These houses are still managed as social housing and are apparently very popular.

Next to the cottages is a hall which Octavia Hill established. It was part of her vision to give local people activities like acting, dancing, gymnastics, crafts, reading, lectures and parties.


Octavia Hill was an amazing woman. Born in 1838 she went on to co-found the National Trust; lead campaigns to protect open spaces; found one of the earliest housing trusts; pioneered social work; developed the early Army Cadet movement and even staged anti-pollution exhibitions. She died in 1912 and was given a large memorial service in Southwark Cathedral which is just up the road from here.

Around the corner from the gardens is another street of Octavia's houses.

                                            
An interesting sign on this building which dates back to Victorian times. A request to behave yourself was not the meaning behind these signs.

In Victorian times this would have been read as a warning not to urinate against the wall. It was a frequent problem in a time before public toilets existed. Despite the number of public toilets now available it still appears to be a problem and one not solved by signage. Westminster City Council are treating walls with a 'pee paint'. The paint creates a water repellent layer so that urine and other liquid bounce back onto the perpetrator leaving them soaked. 

Much of this area was overcrowded and considered a slum area. A contemporary of Octavia Hill was Sydney Waterlow, a stationer and printer who in 1863 founded the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company. These flats were built in 1886 as part of a slum clearance scheme on Mint Street.

 At the end of Mint Street is another green space. Just a decade ago this  garden was a semi derelict open space with a reputation for crime and anti social behaviour. Bankside Open Spaces Trust brought together the local community, which included groups of homeless people, parents and young people, to work out what was needed. Today it is a beautiful space cared for by volunteers.

                                                                                                    This eye catching building is the Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel. the mother chapel of the Welsh church in London.

                       

Behind the Welsh Chapel is Copperfield Street with its row of terraced cottages. These were built by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1893-95 under the influence of  Octavia Hill.

On the other side of Copperfield Street is All Hallows Churchyard

The original All Hallows Church was built be George Gilbert Scott Junior in 1879. It was almost entirely destroyed during the Blitz and only fragments of the building remain including two stone archways and a chapel. What was the nave and the body of the church has been restored to create a walled garden. Although owned by Southwark Cathedral, the garden has been managed voluntarily by a local group, the Copperfield Street Community Gardeners for over 40 years and is supported by Bankside Open Spaces Trust.

On my way back to the station I walked past this eye catching building, the Hop Exchange.  It was built in 1867 as the Hop and Malt Exchange, designed by RH Moore. The Exchange was intended to be a central hub for the buying and selling of hops in this area of London that was dominated by brewing. Hops were an integral part of the brewing process. As London Bridge was the only bridge across the Thames until the 18th century, it meant that Borough High Street was the main route for the hops, which were grown in Kent, to be stored in warehouses along here. The warehouses were run by hop factors who charged the growers commission and then sold the hops to merchants, who in turn sold them to the brewers. The Hop Exchange was meant to centralise and regulate local traders. 

Under a glass roof, galleries overlook a large central space. Sellers would exhibit their hops from these offices to potential buyers. Trading took place on the large central floor which was flooded with natural light from the glass roof. However, local traders refused to relocate. Most of the Hop Exchange's offices were initially empty and then let to other businesses. Within a few years of opening, the building was sold. There were more than 50 hop related traders in 1878 but by 1920 there were only five.

Above the main door is a black eagle and underneath is a sculptured scene of a family involved with the hop picking. Men and women picking the hops whilst a child loads them into a basket. The seasonal work of hop picking attracted poor families from London to travel to Kent as a kind of working holiday.

 

There was so much to see in this area around Borough station that despite the rain, it has been a very enjoyable and fascinating walk.