Many people who live in SE16 know the area has been dominated by the Surrey Docks since about 1750. Rotherhithe became the centre of trade with the Baltic and so much of the timber that built the industrial supremacy of the UK was imported though this area. Whilst Rotherhithe was mostly under water, Bermondsey supplied [...]
We are pleased to welcome Mike Reardon – one of the contributors who keep this website going - as our guest writer today. Hi I’m Mike Reardon and I was not only brought up here, and have lived here all my life but I also have a real interest in Rotherhithe’s history. In the 1980s, [...]
London is full of statues to long forgotten generals and field-marshals. It's not very often that an ordinary lad from a poor background gets to be memorialized in our streets. And even more unusual is that this particular World War I hero came from Bermondsey and his memorial sculpture has just been made in Rotherhithe! [...]
SE16 is faced with an extraordinary number of development sites at present. Each one has it’s own group of interested parties but the overview is sometimes hard to maintain. Here we have brought together a selection of the major developments in SE16 to help you keep up-to-date with them. We have also listed at the [...]
The problem for Robert Hulse - Director of the Brunel Museum - was that everyone who came to the Engine House wanted to see the tunnel itself. Buried some hundred feet below the museum the Thames Tunnel (not remember the Rotherhithe Tunnel which carries cars in a twentieth century construction) now carries the London Overground [...]
Bermondsey’s past is often told in terms of the Thames-side wharves, where specialised food and spices arrived to fill ‘London’s Larder,’ from Britain's imperial trade. Whilst the riverside was the place of male employment, in summers past the women and children took a different path, travelling out to Kent for the Annual Hop. The hop [...]
By Seven Islands Leisure Centre is a short road that leads down to the gates of Southwark Park. The road is called Gomm Road and half way down on the wall of a modest terraced house is a blue plaque to Richard Carr-Gomm, founder of Abbeyfield and the Carr-Gomm Society. Who was this man? Why [...]
Each September, the whole city enjoys a month of Thames-themed celebration. The Totally Thames festival is run by the Thames Festival Trust and is billed as a collaboration between the river-side boroughs, the tourist agency London First, the Arts Council and the Mayor’s office. This year the offering is as spectacular as ever and with [...]
Claire Godwin has a winning smile. She warmly welcomed me to the Brunel Museum and offered me a welcome cuppa. Claire’s been there since April as Volunteer and Events Manager and says it’s been great to build on her previous experience. ‘When I moved to London to do my degree in arts management at London Southbank [...]
The community of Rotherhithe is facing a wide range of developments - small and large - at the present. Some are already underway, some have been given planning permission and are waiting to start and others again are making application to the planning authority. Here we bring you news on four of those developments. Each [...]
