please empty your brain below
South London? But what about the dragons?

martin | 19.04.21 - 7:03 a.m. | #

Thanks DG, that is fantastic! All this time I have been pronouncing the "d" and pronouncing the "s" as if it were a "z"...

cau1khead | 19.04.21 - 7:31 a.m. | #

Thanks DG for my morning giggle:)

I knew nothing about Bermondsey until 2007 when I started at a cycle training company in the Biscuit Factory. They closed in 2017 & the same office is now the Green Party HQ!

Cycling to work over Tower Bridge was always a buzz given that some tourists had travelled 000’s of miles to see it. I’d stop for a fag break at St Saviour's Dock. Lunchtimes (& some teaching) in Southwark Park.

Good memories of co-op meetings, & late evening rides back to civilisation on the North side;) An amazing team of hard-working idealists. The only job I’ve had where men & women worked on equal terms, the girls getting their hands as dirty as the boys from doing & teaching bike maintenance. Happy days:)

Toni | 19.04.21 - 7:34 a.m. | #

I have a friend who lives in an enormous flat within the Alaska Factory and is forever complaining about the astronomical service charges that residents have to pay.

fishislandskin | 19.04.21 - 7:34 a.m. | #

Slightly surprised that there's no mention of the difficulty that North Londoners experience in trying to take a taxi "south of the river"

Rob Gullen | 19.04.21 - 7:41 a.m. | #

I lived in Rotherhithe for more than 6 years and never knew Bermondsey (next door) had such a majestic Town Hall!

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 19.04.21 - 7:43 a.m. | #

I can concur with you on the inadvisability of walking through the Rotherhithe tunnel. I did it once (in 2012) and never again - I could taste the exhaust fumes for days afterwards!

Steve

Steve Conway | 19.04.21 - 8:15 a.m. | #

My Dad was a North Londoner through and through, but he would occasionally venture south of the river. He told me that Bermondsey's streets of warehouses still smelled strongly of spices in the 1950s. I visited in the late 1980s and it was still true then.
I learned how to pronounce Bermondsey by listening to the national media coverage of the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, which was a big story.

JonathanC | 19.04.21 - 8:18 a.m. | #

Oh, how thrilling! The exotic South (of the River)! But that manor house looks a bit small for Edward III. If I remember right he had quite a large family.

Leuconoe | 19.04.21 - 8:19 a.m. | #

Well I 'ad been thinking all these years that i' be pronounced Berm-on-Sea but a' least it's full of treasure me old mate.

daveid76 | 19.04.21 - 8:28 a.m. | #

Your photo of Bermondsey square, made me think of AD&D games.
As a tourist we never really travel south of the river often. This will change the next opportunity I get.

Michael | 19.04.21 - 8:40 a.m. | #

So-called North London is actually a colony. Just look which side of the river City Hall stands.

Malcolm of Kent | 19.04.21 - 8:41 a.m. | #

...but City Hall is planned to move to N of the river near Excell.

Rob Gullen | 19.04.21 - 8:56 a.m. | #

Alas, no mention of "Going down the Blue", a phrase I first heard when teaching in a school backing onto Southwark Park.

H SE18 | 19.04.21 - 9:17 a.m. | #

Since I used to work in the area when they redeveloped it, I can confirm that Bermondsey Square has always been a depressing vacuum.

Hopefully the Hand & Marigold across the street remains a proper boozer.

Chz | 19.04.21 - 9:56 a.m. | #

The Peek Freans factory was famous, or at least well-known, over much of South East London.

The smell of biscuits told you your train was approaching London Bridge. In the 1960s it was also notable by not only having a large digital clock visible from the railway but having a clock that, for its era, was amazingly accurate.

Pedantic of Purley | 19.04.21 - 9:56 a.m. | #

Icosahedra.

Not often one gets a chance to use that word. Even within mathematics it is rarely used in the plural.

Pedantic of Purley | 19.04.21 - 9:59 a.m. | #

Oooh, how exotic! I can't wait to hear more of your forays into the Deep South.

Cornish Cockney | 19.04.21 - 10:10 a.m. | #

Thinking of the live Pathe news commentary spoken by the voice of the upbeat 50s - Bob Danvas Walker..later seen in the 60s on TVs Take your Pick.

Rick | 19.04.21 - 10:32 a.m. | #

On behalf of South Londoners everywhere, can I point out that all you entitled northern barstewards are grudgingly welcome, so long as: 1. You spend a vast amount of money, and 2. You return over the river before sundown. Trust me, you wouldn't like it after dark.

Arlu | 19.04.21 - 10:40 a.m. | #

In my brief time as a commuter I also (in common with Pedantic) remember the Peek Freans factory, both for the smell of biscuits and the clock which would give a reliable idea of how late I was going to be for work.
If I'm not completely mistaken, I believe there also used to be a jam factory in the area.
It's long gone now, but my favourite view from the train was an impressively large scrapyard between the railway lines and Southwark Park.

RogerW | 19.04.21 - 10:57 a.m. | #

I found i always suffered from nose bleeds whenever i ventured south of the river and it was costing me a fortune in tissues so i gave it up.

Milo | 19.04.21 - 11:02 a.m. | #

Born and raised in Bermondsey I thought this post was showing interest. Then I got the feeling of mickey taking. Not nice. I hope you will do a similar job on Stepney.
Btw the "splendid"Town Hall was built in the 50s to stand alongside the ruins of the old building,blown to pieces in the blitz.

Jo W | 19.04.21 - 11:19 a.m. | #

The most unfortunate thing about Bermondsey is what the north-of-the-riverers did to it by placing that drunken Walkietalkie thing behind Tower Bridge.

I remember the spicy air and biscuits too. One time-honoured and revered aroma remains: the St. Saviours mud at low tide.

NickW | 19.04.21 - 2:08 p.m. | #

H - my wife was brought up around the corner from the Blue. It's still there, I pass by occasionally.

My ma-in-maw used to work in the Peek Frean factory, you could take home loads of broken biscuits apparently. Little did she know as she laboured there that her future son-in-law was passing by on the train from further south loving the baking biscuit smell!

And Roger, there was a Jam factory and it has indeed been converted into flats with the plot being named....The Jam Factory. It was Hartleys Jam btw.

Chris | 19.04.21 - 4:38 p.m. | #

I'd argue the Edward III Manor House/Angel pub is in Rotherhithe, despite the road name being Bermondsey Wall East. John Betjeman once stayed with Princess Anne's other half Anthony Armstrong (?) in a house next door that the council later demolished. Betjeman loved his stay apparently. Also Southwark Park I think was originally to be named Rotherhithe Park, but it more or less straddles the two areas so perhaps they couldn't agree. If I was less lazy I'd look for an official boundary map.

SJM | 19.04.21 - 9:41 p.m. | #

I’m sad that you missed the leaning tower of Rotherhithe, just next to The Angel pub.

Rob | 20.04.21 - 8:07 a.m. | #

Cheers, Chris. Hartleys was great... they were the ones who made pineapple jam

RogerW | 20.04.21 - 8:28 a.m. | #

Pineapple jam?

No wonder it had to close!

Chris | 20.04.21 - 2:05 p.m. | #

No mention of Tommy Steel? Not like DG to slip up on his research.

Colin Whiting | 21.04.21 - 11:50 a.m. | #

It's not a 'slip', it's editorial judgement.

Please don't be the picky reader who starts their comment...

"But what about...?"
"No mention of...?"
"Alas, no mention of...?"
"Slightly surprised there's no mention of..."
"I’m sad that you missed..."

A record number of those today, alas.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 21.04.21 - 12:09 p.m. | #











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