Old Houses in Bermondsey Street, ca.1881

From: Henry Dixon & Son

RA Collection: Art

""One cannot help speculating as to the origins of this singular group of houses, with their eight gables. Mr Rendle, who was good enough to take great pains - unfortunately fruitless- to glean something for me about the history of these houses, tells me that in the early part of this century, houses of this type were exceedingly common in the main thoroughfares and bye places of Southwark. They are good specimens of the houses of the time of Elizabeth and somewhat later; the frame of massive timber, else mere shells of lath and plaster; but though often out of shape and leaning in all directions, wonderfully durable.""

The above description, by Alfred Marks, was taken from the letterpress which accompanies the photographs. At this time Bermondsey was an area of goods yards, biscuit making, leatherwork and tanneries, with nearly all the tanneries of London situated within its borders. Dixon's photograph includes two such leatherworkers, either shoe-makers or cobblers, standing at the entrance to their establishment. In Old and New London Edward Walford comments that though the area was dirty and unsavoury, it was however, prosperous.

"But squalid as is their general appearance, they [Bermondsey and Wapping] abound in wealth, the fruits of industry and labour, no inconsiderable portion of it their own, while the remainder is stored up and warehoused within their boundaries for the convenience of their richer neighbours."