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{{Infobox UK place
|country = England
|region = London
|official_name = Bermondsey
|static_image_name = Bermondsey mary magdalen 1.jpg
|static_image_caption = St Mary Magdalen Church, Bermondsey
|latitude = 51.4986
|longitude = -0.0757
|os_grid_reference = TQ335795
|london_borough = Southwark
|post_town = LONDON
|postcode_area = SE
|postcode_district = SE1, SE16
|dial_code = 020
|london_borough = Southwark
|constituency_westminster = [[Bermondsey and Old Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)|Bermondsey and Old Southwark]]
|charingX_direction = WNW
|charingX_distance_mi = 2.5
}}
'''Bermondsey''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|ɜr|m|ə|n|d|z|iː}} is a district in south [[London]], and a part of the [[London Borough of Southwark]]. To the west of Bermondsey lies [[Southwark]], to the east [[Rotherhithe]], and to the south, [[Walworth, London|Walworth]] and [[Peckham]]. To the north is the [[River Thames]].
==History==
===Toponomy===
Bermondsey may be understood to mean <nowiki>'</nowiki>''Beornmund'''s island'; but, while "Beornmund" represents an [[Old English language|Old English]] personal name, identifying an individual once associated with the place, the element "-ey" represents Old English "eg", for "island", "piece of firm land in a fen", or simply a "place by a stream or river". Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, and is as likely to have been a higher, drier spot in an otherwise marshy area.<ref>Ekwall, E., ''The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names'', 4th edn., Oxford University Press, 1960, pp. 39, 161 (for "eg").</ref> Though Bermondsey's earliest written appearance is in the [[Domesday Book]] of 1086, it also appears in a source which, though surviving only in a copy written at [[Peterborough Cathedral|Peterborough Abbey]] in the 12th century, claiming "ancient rights" unproven purporting to be a transcripton of a letter of [[Pope Constantine]] (708-715), in which he grants privileges to a monastery at ''Vermundesei'', then in the hands of the abbot of [[Medeshamstede]], as Peterborough was known at the time.<ref>See e.g. Stenton, F.M., 'Medeshamstede and its Colonies', in Stenton, D.M. (ed.), ''Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton'', Oxford University Press, 1970, and Blair, J., 'Frithuwold's kingdom and the origins of Surrey', in Bassett, S. (ed.), ''The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms'', Leicester University Press, 1989.</ref>
===Anglo-Saxon and Norman period===
[[File:Joris Hoefnagel Fete at Bermondsey c 1569.png|thumb|left|''A Fête at Bermondsey'' by [[Joris Hoefnagel]] c. 1569, with the [[Tower of London]] in the distance.]]
Bermondsey appears in Domesday Book as ''Bermundesy'' and ''Bermundesye''. It was then held by [[William the Conqueror|King William]], though a small part was in the hands of [[Robert, Count of Mortain]], the king's half brother, and younger brother of [[Odo of Bayeux]], then earl of Kent. Its Domesday assets were recorded as including 13 [[hide (unit)|hide]]s, 'a new and handsome church', 5 [[plough]]s, {{convert|20|acre|m2}} of [[meadow]], and [[woodland]] for 5 pigs. It rendered £15 in total. It also included interests in London, in respect of which 13 [[Burgess (title)|burgess]]es paid [[£sd|44d]] (£0.18).<ref>Williams, A. & Martin, G.H. (eds.), ''Domesday Book A Complete Translation'', Penguin, 2002, pp. 72, 80.</ref>
The church mentioned in Domesday Book was presumably the nascent [[Bermondsey Abbey]], which was founded as a [[Cluny Abbey|Cluniac]] [[prior]]y in 1082, and was dedicated to St Saviour. Monks from the abbey began the development of the area, cultivating the land and embanking the riverside. They turned an adjacent tidal inlet at the mouth of the [[River Neckinger]] into a dock, named [[St Saviour's Dock]] after their abbey. But Bermondsey then was little more than a high street ribbon (the modern Bermondsey Street), leading from the southern bank of the Thames, at Tooley Street, up to the abbey close.
The [[Knights Templar]] also owned land here and gave their names to one of the most distinctive streets in London, [[Shad Thames]] (a corruption of "St John at Thames"). Other ecclesiastical properties stood nearby at Tooley (a corruption of "[[Saint Olaf|St Olave's]]") Street, located in the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]'s manor of Southwark, where wealthy citizens and clerics had their houses, including the priors of [[Lewes Priory|Lewes]] and [[St Augustine's Abbey|St Augustine's]], Canterbury, and the abbot of [[Battle Abbey|Battle]].
===14th century===
[[Edward III of England|King Edward III]] built a manor house close to the Thames in Bermondsey in 1353. The excavated foundations are visible next to [[Bermondsey Wall East]] close to the Famous Angel public house.<ref>Staff. [http://stage.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.8932 The London Borough of Southwark] [[English Heritage]]. ([http://web.archive.org/web/20110827210311/http://stage.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/nav.8932 cached]) "This page provides an overview of the Borough’s fascinating archaeology..."</ref>
===17th century===
[[File:AlaskaBuildingsBermondsey.jpg|thumb|Former Alaska factory in Bermondsey]]
As it developed over the centuries, Bermondsey underwent some striking changes. After the [[Great Fire of London]], it was settled by the well-to-do and took on the character of a garden suburb especially along the lines of Grange Road, as Bermondsey Street became more urbanised, and of Jamaica/ Lower Road. A pleasure garden was founded there in the 17th century, commemorated by the [[Cherry Garden Pier]]. [[Samuel Pepys]] visited "Jamaica House" at Cherry Gardens in 1664 and recorded in his diary that he had left it "singing finely".
Though not many buildings survive from this era, one notable exception is the church of [[St Mary Magdalen (Bermondsey)|St Mary Magdalen]] in [[Bermondsey Street]], completed in 1690 (although a church has been recorded on this site from the 13th Century). This church came through both 19th-century redevelopment and [[The Blitz]] unscathed. It is not just an unusual survivor for
Bermondsey; buildings of this era are relative rarities in [[Inner London]] in genera
===18th century===
In the 18th century, the discovery of a spring from the [[river Neckinger]] in the area led to Bermondsey becoming a spa leisure resort, as the area between Grange and Jamaica Roads called Spa Road commemorates.<ref>[http://bermondsey.org/bermondsey-spa-gardens/ Bermondsey Spa Gardens], Sean Spurr, Bermondsey.org, Accessed 5 August 2012</ref> A new church was built for the growing population of the area, and named [[St John Horsleydown]].
===19th century===
It was from the Bermondsey riverside that the painter [[J.M.W. Turner]] executed his famous painting of ''The Fighting "Temeraire" Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up'' (1839), depicting the veteran warship being towed to [[Rotherhithe]] to be scrapped.
By the mid-19th century parts of Bermondsey, especially along the riverside had become a notorious slum — with the arrival of industrial plants, docks and immigrant housing. The area around St Saviour's Dock, known as [[Jacob's Island]], was one of the worst in London. It was immortalised by [[Charles Dickens]]'s novel ''[[Oliver Twist]]'', in which the principal villain [[Bill Sikes]] meets a nasty end in the mud of 'Folly Ditch' an area which was known as Hickmans Folly — the scene of an attack by [[Spring Heeled Jack]] in 1845 — surrounding Jacob's Island. Dickens provides a vivid description of what it was like:
: "... crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud and threatening to fall into it — as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations, every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage: all these ornament the banks of Jacob's Island."
Bermondsey Town Hall was built on Spa Road in 1881.
The area was extensively redeveloped during the 19th century and early 20th century with the expansion of the river trade and the arrival of the [[railway]]s. London's first passenger railway terminus was built by the [[London to Greenwich Railway]] in 1836 at [[London Bridge station|London Bridge]]. The first section to be used was between the [[Spa Road Station]] and Deptford High Street. This local station had closed by 1915.
[[File:London Leather, Hide & Wool Exchange.jpg|thumb|Leather, Hide and Wool Exchange, Bermondsey]]
The industrial boom of the 19th century was an extension of Bermondsey's manufacturing role in earlier eras. As in the [[East End]], industries that were deemed too noisome to be carried on within the narrow confines of the [[City of London]] had been located here — one such that came to dominate central Bermondsey, away from the riverfront, was the processing and trading of [[leather]] and [[hides]]. Many of the warehouse buildings from this era survive around Bermondsey Street, Tanner Street, Morocco Street and Leathermarket Street including the huge Leather, Hide and Wool Exchange; virtually all are now residential and small work spaces or offices). Hepburn and Gale's [[Tanning|tannery]] (disused as of early 2007) on Long Lane is also a substantial surviving building of the leather trade. The Leather, Hide and Wool Exchange had a fine private club, effectively a [[Gentlemens Club]] for the leading merchants and manufacturers. In 1703 they had acquired a Royal Charter from [[Queen Anne]] to gain a monoploy of trading and training of [[apprentice]]s for witin 30 miles of the ancient parish, similar to a City [[livery company]], the [[Bermondsey tanners|Bermondsey Tanners]].
[[Peek Freans|Peek, Frean and Co]] was established in 1857 at Dockhead, Bermondsey by James Peek and George Hender Frean. They moved to a larger plant in Clements Road in 1866, leading to the nickname 'Biscuit Town' for Bermondsey, where they continued baking until the brand was discontinued in 1989.<ref>{{cite web | title =Peek Frean's Biscuit Factory - The location of the old sweet smelling biscuit factory! | publisher =The Shady Old Lady | url =http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=764 | accessdate =27 February 2012 }}[http://www.shadyoldlady.com/location.php?loc=764 Peek Frean's Biscuit Factory in Bermondsey, London]</ref><ref>{{cite web | last =Hibbert | first =Colette | title =Biscuit factory makes 'comeback' | work =BBC News | publisher =BBC | date =8 February 2005 | url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4213787.stm | accessdate =27 February 2012 }}[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4213787.stm Biscuit Factory Makes 'Comeback', BBC News, 8 Feb 2005]</ref><ref>{{cite web | title =Bermondsey blue plaques | work =Blue Plaques | publisher =Southwark Council | date = | url =http://www.southwark.gov.uk/info/200160/blue_plaques/2201/bermondsey_blue_plaques/1 | accessdate =27 February 2012 }}</ref>
===20th century===
[[File:Courage Brewery, Horseleydown - geograph.org.uk - 1411712.jpg|thumbnail|Butler's Wharf and [[Anchor Brewhouse|Courage Brewery]], 1971]]
To the east of Tower Bridge, Bermondsey's 3½ miles of riverside were lined with warehouses and wharves, of which the best known is [[Butler's Wharf]]. They suffered severe damage in [[World War II]] bombing and became redundant in the 1960s following the collapse of the river trade. After standing derelict for some years, many of the wharves were redeveloped under the aegis of the [[London Docklands Development Corporation]] during the 1980s. They have now been converted into a mixture of residential and commercial accommodations and have become some of the most upmarket and expensive properties in London. In 1997, US President [[Bill Clinton]] and Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] visited the area to dine at the Le Pont de la Tour restaurant at Butler's Wharf.
[[File:Bermondsey fashion museum 1.jpg|thumb|left|Bermondsey Fashion and Textiles Museum (March 2007)]]
[[Millwall F.C.]] moved to a [[The Den|new stadium]] on Coldblow Lane in 1910, having previously played in Millwall, but have kept their original name despite playing at the opposite side of the [[River Thames]] to the [[Millwall]] area. They played at The Den until 1993, when they relocated to the [[New Den]] nearby. A public sports centre is also included in their stadium.
Bermondsey had been host to London's first railway, from Spa Road, as part of the London Bridge to Greenwich line, and the junction of lines from Croydon and Kent at South Bermondsey, the Brunel's Rotherhithe foot-tunnel was converted into part of the East London Railway with original connections from Liverpool Street Station via Whitechapel to New Cross and New Cross Gate. However, reorganisation of lines and closure of stations left Bermondsey's transport links with the rest of London poorer in the late Twentieth Century. This was remedied in 2000 with the opening of [[Bermondsey tube station]] on the [[London Underground]]'s [[Jubilee Line Extension]] and the East London Line forms part of the new [[London Overground]] system reopening direct links with the City and north London.
[[Wee Willie Harris]], known as "Britain's wild man of [[Rock and roll|rock 'n' roll]]", came from Bermondsey<ref name=rockabilly>[http://www.rockabillyeurope.com/artists/weewillieharris.htm Wee Willie Harris, Rockin' At The Two I's]</ref> and had worked as a pudding mixer at [[Peek Freans]].<ref name="NME Rock 'N' Roll Years">{{cite book
| first= John
| last= Tobler
| year= 1992
| title= NME Rock 'N' Roll Years
| edition= 1st
| publisher= Reed International Books Ltd
| location= London
| page= 49
| id= CN 5585}}</ref> He is usually credited as the first [[British rock and roll]] player.<ref name=Unterberger>R. Unterberger, [{{Allmusic|class=explore|id=essay/|pure_url=yes}} "British Rock & Roll Before the Beatles"], ''Allmusic'' retrieved 24 July 1209.</ref>
===Local government===
[[File:BermondseyAntiquesMarket.jpg|thumb|Bermondsey Antiques Market]]
The first 'Bermondsey' is that known as the location of an [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon]] [[monastery]], and known from later charters to be the area around the [[Norman conquest of England|post-Conquest]] [[Bermondsey Abbey]] and its manor, which was in turn part of the medieval parish. References in the Parliamentary Rolls describe it as "in Southwark".[<ref>''en Bermondeshey en Southwark'' entry 1381- 82 referring to location of a tenement in ''Rotuli Parliamentorum'' III, 130: and in John Stow's ''Survey of London'' II, 142, 66-68 he describes [[St Mary Magdalen Bermondsey|St Mary Magdalen Church]], Bermondsey as lying ''in the borough of Southwarke''</ref>] A later, Victorian [[civil parishes in England|civil parish]] of Bermondsey did not include Rotherhithe or St Olave's; this was the arrangement under the Metropolis Management Act of 1855. The Southwark parishes of St Olave's and [[St John's Horsleydown]] (the latter a 'daughter' of the former) with St Thomas's formed a parish union ('District Board of Works') known as 'St Olave's' from that date. This was the arrangement within the London County from 1889. In 1899 St Olave and St Thomas's District was created as a single civil parish and the next year, following London government reorganisation, this was merged with Rotherhithe and part of Deptford to form, with Bermondsey civil parish, the [[Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey]]. The Borough's first Mayor was Samuel Bourne Bevington (1832-1907), leather producer and one of the area's largest employers; his statue still stands in Tooley Street.<ref>Farrell, Jerome: ''Big in Bermondsey: Colonel Sam Bevington'', in the ''Leathersellers' Review'', 2009-10, pp 16-17</ref> This Borough disappeared into the London Borough of Southwark, in the Greater London reorganisation of 1964.
==Governance==
Southwark London Borough Council has divided the borough into a number of community council areas. The wards of Grange, Riverside and South Bermondsey form the Bermondsey Community Council area.<ref>{{ cite web | url=http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourCouncil/communitycouncils/YourCommunityCouncil/Bermondsey.html | title= Welcome to your Bermondsey Community Council | publisher=Southwark London Borough Council | accessdate=3 March 2010 }}</ref>
Bermondsey's parliamentary representation has fluctuated with its population. Since at least the 13th century, it had formed part of the [[Surrey]] County seat until the 1868 Reform Act when it became part of [[Southwark (UK Parliament constituency)|Southwark constituency]]. From 1885 to 1918, a separate [[Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)|Bermondsey constituency]] existed, which included part of the older Southwark constituency. 1918 saw the seat split between two new constituencies: [[Rotherhithe (UK Parliament constituency)|Rotherhithe]] and [[Bermondsey West (UK Parliament constituency)|Bermondsey West]], both of which were in place until the 1950 general election when the old Bermondsey seat was recreated.
In 1983, the area played host to the famous [[Bermondsey by-election, 1983|Bermondsey by-election]] in which Labour's [[Peter Tatchell]] lost the previously safe Labour seat to the Liberal [[Simon Hughes]] on a [[swing (politics)|swing]] of 44%. Hughes has represented the area ever since, although parliamentary boundaries (and constituency names) have changed since then. At the 1983 general election (which took place several months after the by-election), a new [[Southwark and Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)|Southwark and Bermondsey constituency]] was created, becoming [[North Southwark and Bermondsey (UK Parliament constituency)|North Southwark and Bermondsey]] in 1997, and in 2010 [[Bermondsey and Old Southwark]], (although a small part of south east Bermondsey is transferred to [[Camberwell and Peckham]] in the 2010 changes).
==Sport==
[[Millwall F.C.]], who were formed in 1885 and played on the northern side of the [[River Thames]] before moving to [[New Cross]] in 1910, have been based in near [[South Bermondsey]] station since 1993, when they moved into their [[The Den|New Den]] stadium at Zampa Road, the team has a strong local following but has never been based anywhere other than in [[Deptford]] in the [[London Borough of Lewisham]].<ref>[http://www.londontown.com/LondonInformation/Recreation/Millwall_FC/125d/]</ref>
==Geography==
[[File:MandelaWayT34.jpg|thumb|[[Mandela Way T-34 Tank]]]]
===Places of interest===
* [[Bermondsey Market|Bermondsey antiques market]]
* [[Fashion and Textile Museum]]
* [[Shad Thames]]
* [[Mandela Way T-34 Tank]]
* [[Miloco Studios]]
* [[Bermondsey Spa Gardens]]
* [[Kagyu Samye Dzong London|Kagyu Samye Dzong, Tibetan Buddhist Centre]]
===Nearest places===
* [[City of London]]
* [[Shad Thames]]
* [[Southwark]] (AKA The Borough)
* [[Peckham]]
* [[Canary Wharf]]
* [[Deptford]]
* [[Rotherhithe]]
* [[New Cross]]
* [[Millwall F.C.]]
* [[Tower Bridge]]
* [[HMS Belfast (C35)|HMS Belfast]]
* [[London Dungeon]]
* [[The Shard]], [[London Bridge]]
==Transport==
===Nearest stations===
* [[Bermondsey tube station]]
* [[South Bermondsey railway station|South Bermondsey station]]
* [[London Bridge station]]
* [[Borough tube station]]
* [[Rotherhithe station]]
* [[Canada Water tube station]]
* [[Surrey Quays station]]
==See also==
{{commons category|Bermondsey}}
*[[List of people from Southwark]]
*[[List of schools in Southwark]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.southwark.gov.uk/YourCommunity/Bermondsey/ Southwark London Borough Council - Bermondsey]
* [http://se16london.co.uk/ SE16 community forum]
{{London Borough of Southwark}}
{{Boroughs and districts of London}}
[[Category:Districts of London listed in the Domesday Book]]
[[Category:Districts of London on the River Thames]]
[[Category:Areas of London]]
[[Category:Districts of Southwark]]
[[Category:Port of London]]{{Usedwps}}