What do you know about the history of our area? Where did it all start and what can we learn from our recent past? This quarter's issue of I Live in SE16 magazine brings you a selection of the best articles from this website that focus on the heritage of our community. We look back [...]
We are pleased to welcome Michael Daniels - Vice President of the Rotherhithe and Bermondsey Local History Society - as our guest contributor today. He gives us an introduction to the Society's life and future. Do you ever wonder what life was like in the SE16 of yesteryear, when Canada Water was Canada Dock [...]
Making historic buildings beautiful is the task of the original architect and specialists in stone restoration. Stone Edge have been part of SE16 for four years now, a conservation and restoration company working on listed buildings, stately homes, churches, government buildings and ancient scheduled monuments. I went to their office in Rotherhithe to meet up [...]
Both Bermondsey and Rotherhithe are going through a period of huge redevelopment. The Canada Water Masterplan will bring a massive increase to the local population with over 3,500 new homes being built in the one consolidated 46-acre development. British Land is the principal developer bringing over £2bn of investment to the project and are in [...]
We are pleased to welcome Neil Bright, historian of London's Blitz as our contributor. Here he tells us the story of the first day of the Blitz and its impact on SE16. 7 September 1940 was to be a fateful day for Rotherhithe’s Surrey Docks. For many families on that day, their lives were changed forever. [...]
We are delighted to welcome Germander Speedwell as our contributor today. She led a recent project with local people and volunteers to investigate the history of the Farm's site. Surrey Docks Farm occupies a riverside site with a fascinating history. There have been at least six different uses of the land over the last three [...]
The Brunel Museum in Rotherhithe has been given a make-over. With an investment of £176,000, the museum can now host 120 people in its new accessible display space, the Grand Entrance Hall. A pre-fabricated staircase gives audiences access to the unique space that was once a pioneering engineering project. In the hands of Marc Brunel, [...]
Painting and writing have accompanied the development of SE16 through the centuries. The pictures of the past painted both by wordsmiths and artists give us a rare glimpse of their world. The author offers us in words the image that is helped by the painter’s pictures. The life of our forebears in SE16 was very [...]
In 1620, a typical English merchant ship of the early 17th century called The Mayflower – like many similar cargo vessels of its day – sailed from Plymouth for America. It was not particularly well designed for Atlantic journeys as it sported a 30-foot high square aft-castle that made sailing into the wind nigh on [...]
Today we explore the origins of Bermondsey in the settlement around Bermondsey Abbey, the origin of much of the shape and form of SE16 as well as giving names to key locations. The beginning of history If we stretch our imagination back to a time before SE16 even existed, before indeed Rotherhithe or Bermondsey existed, [...]
