The earlier submit of this stroll, Alma Grove & Grange Highway, Bermondsey, 1988, ended on Grange Highway.
Alaska, The Grange and Leather-based, 1988: The world of Bermondsey south and east of Bermondsey Road was often known as The Grange, although I believe now property brokers have re-christened it Bermondsey Spa. It was as soon as the farm or grange of Bermondsey Abbey which lined a lot of the locality from the Norman conquest till the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII. Bermondsey Priory was established by Cluniac monks round 1089 and enlarged into an abbey round 300 years later. Property brokers have renamed the realm Bermondsey Spa.
The gateway on Grange Highway with its carved seal was the works entrance to C W Martin & Sons Ltd who made merchandise from sealskins, primarily imported from Alaska and Canada. The Alaska manufacturing facility dated from 1869, although it was solely taken over by Martin and a companion 4 years later. The seal skins have been de-haired, dressed and died within the manufacturing facility, which employed round a tenth of all UK fur staff. In its remaining years till it closed within the Nineteen Sixties it was owned by Martin Rice Ltd.
Historically sealskin was used to make waterproof jackets and boots by the Inuit and different aboriginal individuals, and seal fur was used for heat coats. Sealskin made tobacco pouches for sailors and sporrans for Scotsmen. Though there are actually bans in lots of international locations on the export and import of seal pelts, the commerce continues, and seal fur remains to be used as trims by among the main style manufacturers.
The marketplace for seal merchandise diminished within the twentieth century and Martin’s more and more moved into different fur merchandise corresponding to sheepskin jackets and the cleansing of fur coats and so forth. In 1932 the manufacturing facility was rebuilt in a placing Artwork Deco design by Wallis, Gilbert & Companions and it was partially rebuilt after being damages in hearth injury. It closed within the Nineteen Sixties. At a while the legend MARTIN’S on the tower was changed by the ALASKA now current.
The constructing was redeveloped as places of work within the early Nineteen Nineties and transformed to residential use along with new improvement on the previous Grange Highway Baths website later in that decade. Like many former industrial and industrial buildings of advantage it displays a long-held prejudice of the itemizing authorities and is unlisted. For a few years too there was (and maybe it persists) a peculiar snobbishness amongst architectural historians and critics towards what the referred to as ‘moderne’ buildings.
Maybe surprisingly, this home at 8 Grange Highway with its neighbours in a row of 4 homes to the left of the image was Grade II listed in 1972. They date from round 1800.
What attracted me was after all the unlisted (and since eliminated) half automobile physique promoting the Jaguar Specialists above its floor flooring home windows. You’ll be able to simply see some marks left by this on the brickwork, however the identify board has gone with out hint. Above the archway at proper remains to be the discover GREATER LONDON COUNCIL PRIVATE ACCESS DO NOT OBSTRUCT and there may be not a gate throughout the doorway
Josiah Bacon who had change into rich as a leather-based service provider left an annuity in 1703 of £150 a yr to determine a Free College, at first in St Mary’s Church on Bermondsey St. It later moved to a constructing on Grange Highway which was changed by this one in 1890. The college moved to Pages Stroll in 1962, later changing into a Metropolis Know-how Faculty. It moved to Rotherhithe in 1991 and is is now co-educational secondary college and sixth type with academy standing since 2007.
I’ve written at some size earlier than concerning the London Leather-based, Conceal and Wool change in Weston Road. Leather-based merchants had moved from Leadenhall Road within the Metropolis to a brand new Pores and skin Market on an adjoining website in 1832-3 and 50 years later selected constructing a brand new headquarters for the Leather-based Business subsequent door, partaking famous native architect George Elkington. Maybe his flamboyant and eclectic design was made to please the committee accountable, and it was described as ‘an decoration to the district‘.
It’s overdone porch is supported by Atlas on both sides, with a head within the centre that jogs my memory of Outdated Father Thames. Above the bottom flooring home windows are 5 roundels representing varied phases of the preparation and sale of leather-based; fellmongering to scrape the skins clear, tanning to harden the leather-based, flattening the skins, storing them on the market and at last a buyer inspecting a disguise.
Initially on the rounded tower on the nook with Leathermarket road there was a clock and above this a balcony and cupola, however these weren’t changed after wartime injury. The constructing had a membership space for the leather-based retailers on its first flooring in addition to public rooms and a tavern on the rear, now a pub. The change closed in 1912.
Bermondsey had a lengthy historical past of tanning leather-based and in 1703 The Grasp, Wardens and Comonalty of the Artwork or Mistery of Tanners of the Parish of St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey of Surrey obtained a royal constitution making them a guild answerable for the coaching of tanners and the inspection of tanning inside a 30 mile radius of Bermondsey, which continued in power till 1835. Tanning was one of many main industries within the space, however the final tannery within the space closed in 1990. The guild nonetheless exists and awards bursaries and prizes and so forth to younger individuals within the space.
My stroll across the leather-based district will proceed in a later submit.
Tags: Alsska works, Bacon’s College, Bermondsey, Bermondsey Spa, C W Martin & Sons, automobile physique, fellmonger, fellmongering, fur, gateway, Grange Highway, Conceal and Wool Alternate, Jaguar Specialists, leather-based, Leathermarket, London, London Leather-based, London Photographs, peter Marshall, sealskins, Southwark, tanners, tanning, The Grange, Weston St
You’ll be able to depart a response, or trackback from your individual website.
