The Garrison at Bermondsey
Tanner Street
southern end of Bermondsey St
Newham's Row
attic rooms in Jericho
corner of St Mary's Road
Bucks & Oxon Union Bank
Mabledon corner
Old Bank Court
Bermondsey Street cafe
former Wheatsheaf Inn
Church Road corner
half-timbered inn
Park Street corner
Balderton Street corner
Lumley Street corner
Davies Street corner
Dering Street corner
Harewood Place corner
Museum Tavern
Gilbert Street corner
North Audley Street corner
Lumley's spoiled by new development
Mount Place in May
Worcester Place corner
autumn gold in an urban street
more snow in the night
zebra crossing on a snowy night
snowy night in Jericho
Albert Street bus stop
Cranham plane
Cranham corner
remains of an old corner shop
October at Mount Place
Manos food bar
end of terrace corner (X)
old corner shop that was
corner of Albert
Berners Street corner
Bloomsbury Street crossroads
Carpenters Arms, Fitzrovia
Cleveland Street flats
King & Queen at Fitzrovia
Wells Street corner
Mortimer Street corner
Margaret Street corner
Market Place corner
corner of Moreton
Beacon House
Thomas Earnshaw building
Theobalds corner building
old pub or corner shop?
Marathon Restaurant
Goodge Street corner
Berwick Street, Soho
Soho camping
Oxford Street corner
Lumley's corner lost its character
Broad Street Judas tree
Chester Street street sign
Leamington architecture
Brook Street corner
inspiring architecture
Morocco Store
Chancery corner
corner of Great Queen Street
Crown & Anchor pub
The George at Bermondsey
Nat West building
Station Road corner
Holywell corner
Mathers Farmhouse
Windmill Road corner
Headington clock
The Britannia, Headington
rounding the Cape of Good Hope
722027
Botolph Alley street sign
Shipwrights Arms at Bermondsey
The Rose at Snowsfields
corner of Snowsfields
Wild's Rents corner
urban ghost
Fir Tree pub
Ed VII pillar box
Great Clarendon corner
corner of Ship Street
Co-op Swift Shop
corner of Temple Street
The Waterman's Arms
old signs in Jericho
demise of Jericho's tea and coffee
Edward VII double post box
Royal London Homeopathic
Perseverance corner
Perseverance pub
Dombey Street corner
Gage Street corner
Waterloo street corner
pie and mash shop
The Holly Bush at Osney
pony at the corner shop
Jericho sundown
Holland Park shops
Buck House Corner
The Queen's Larder
South Street corner
Baltic Wharf corner
Marlborough House
Old Bookbinders at Jericho
Chilswell Road corner
Lyons' corner shop
James Street bus stop
Princes Street bus stop
Beaumont Place corner
Summerfield street sign
corner of Blacksmiths Hill
Nokia shop
Oxford Job Centre
Broad Street post box
Imperial Night Club
Oriel Square post box
Waterstones bookshop
Temple Street corner
East Oxford Community Centre 2004
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"Bermondsey has been for many years the principal seat of the leather manufacture in England, and derives from this circumstance a character and appearance different from those presented by any other district in London. The cause to which this localisation seems to be most correctly assigned is the existence of a series of tide-streams, which twice in every twenty-four hours supply a large quantity of water from the Thames for the use of the tanners and leather-dressers.
The skins from nearly all the sheep slaughtered in London are conveyed to a Skin Market in the western part of Bermondsey, and there sold by factors or salesmen, who act for the butchers, to the fellmongers." (A Day in the Factories, 1843)
The writer says that although each type of leather worker was employed in very different tasks, the yards and buildings in which they worked looked very much the same; they would have lived 'over the shop' or very nearby. "The surface of the court or yard is in most cases intersected by pits, or square cisterns, in which the skins are steeped during some part of the manufacturing process." Henry Mayhew wrote of "a series of closely-adjacent pits, filled to the brink with a dark chocolate-coloured, thick liquid".
Leather prepared with Sumach (extract from a tannin-rich plant grown in Hungary) Goat, a thinner hide. This became Morocco leather, which took rich dyes well and was quicker to produce. It was used for coach linings and chair covers. An inferior type, made from split sheepskin - skiver - was used for book covers, hat linings, and pocket books.
Leather prepared with Alum - kid, imitation kid (made of sheepskin) and lamb. This process was called tawing, and the finished product was used for gloves and ladies' shoes. Kid was used for better products, and imitation kid for cheaper goods.
Curriers softened the hides, parchment makers created fine filmy sheets out of split sheepskins.
Leather prepared by tanning using solution of oak bark - oxen, bulls, buffaloes, cows - the strongest hides. These leathers took the longest to soak (up to two years) and were used for the soles of shoes and for saddles.
All leatherwork created foul smells. Alum was made partly of urine, and another essential ingredient for Alum preparation was 'pure' or dog faeces! Pure gatherers would be paid to pick it up from the streets and from pedigree kennels on the outskirts of London. (A 19th century public health inspection revealed that a railway arch was used to store the stuff in, giving the immediate area a very foul smell.)
Dickens remembers the Leather Market as full of evil smells from the hides and the substances they had been processed in.
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