With A Smart New Hotel, An Iconic Designer Fashion Museum, Designer Shops, PR Agencies, Fancy Art Galleries, Fabulous Eateries, And Regular Live Jazz Sessions, Bermondsey of Old Is Now Beyond Recogniton! What The Dickens Is Going On?
Photo Gallery: Art By Cynthia Ngunjiri @_nyakiro – Halle Berry’s 2002 Oscar Dress By The Designer Elie Saab @eliesaabworld Was Donated To The Zandra Rhodes Textile & Fashion Museum In Bermondsey SE1 3XF The Following Year For Their First Exhibition @fashiontextilemuseum. It Now Lives At The Academy Museum @halleberry (Ms Berry Became The First Black Actress To Win A Best Actress Oscar For Her Role In Monster’s Ball In 2002); – A Suite Overlooking SE1 At The Bermondsey Square Hotel – Shoes By Kat Maconie katmaconie (Stores Include Bermondsey High Street SE1 3UB) – Designer Zandra Rhodes @ZandraRhodes – A Corner Terrace Room At The Bermondsey Square Hotel; The BBC’s 2007 Production of Dickens’ Oliver Twist Starring Sophie Okonedo (As Nancy), Timothy Spall (As Fagin) And Tom Hardy (As Bill Sikes); Bermondsey Project Space Art Gallery @BProjectSpace (Which Hosted The Inaugural Exhibition of Contemporary Kenyan Art In London, ‘Vision & Possibilities’ November/December 2023).
Building Bermondsey Back From The Del Boy’ Style Lincolns Inn Antiques Scandal of The Early 90s To A Swanky Area With A Fashionable Hotel In The 21st Century
Happily And Commendably Much Evolution Has Taken Place Over The Centuries, Decades And Years In Bermondsey, Which Is At The Heart of Dickens Territory. Resulting In A New Greater Sense of Consultation, Cooperation And Community Involvement Which Pervades The Area Today. Within This Atmosphere We Went To View A Special Kenyan Art Exhibition At The Bermondsey Project Space Art Gallery And For Dinner Afterwards At The Garrison Restaurant (See Our Seperate Reviews of Both Those Events In This December 2024 Issue).
Although Dickens Was An Advocate For Improved Working & Living Conditions For The Disadvantaged, The Downtrodden, The Disempowered, The Devastatingly Poor, And The Destitute Indigenous Working Classes of Nineteenth Century Britain, They Did Not Like The Way He Nor Other Observers And Social Researchers Like Henry Mayhew, Studied And Wrote About Them (As They Feared & Did Not Trust The Ruling Aristocracy & Middle-Classes).
As An Act of Self-Protection And Protestation In 1851 The More Articulate, Enterprising, Able, Bold And Courageous Amongst Them Formed The Street Trader’s Protection Association In Objection To Mayhew’s ‘Mis-Representation’ of Them In A Publication Called ‘London Labour & The London Poor‘. Their Objections Were Made In A Meeting With Mayhew At Westminister. But As Per Standard Procedure With The Ruling Classes of The Day, They And Thier Views Were Ultimately Dismissed.
During The Swinging 60s & The Age of The Beatles Change Was Very Much In The Air! In The West End Carnaby Street Was Cool. As Was The Kings Road In The Royal Borough of Kensington. In SE1 The Antiques Market Was Cool. As Was Nearby Petticoat Lane And The Bermondsey Street Association Was Now In Operation. In 1973 Bermondsey Street Was Designated An Official Conservation Area. In 1992 The Bermondsey Street Area Partnership Began Circa 1992 Chaired By Michael Davis (An Architect & Local Community Leader). In 2018 It Rebranded As The Online Community Group BermondseyStreet.London This Latest Iteration of Official Local Bermondsey Street Protection Operates With An Even More Modern, Flexible, Teamwork Framework, Which Includes Collaboration Between Property Developers, Local Businesses, The Local Council (Southwark), Local Residents, Local Tenants (Especially From The White Grounds Estate JMB – (Joint Management Board) And The Local Community.
After WWII The Previously Busy Tanneries & Leatherworks Born During The Industrial Revolution, When The Country’s Growing Population Demanded More Textiles And Leathers, Were Blitzed, Redundant And Eventually Replaced By Antique Stalls Which Relocated From Kings Cross, St Pancreas And Caledonian Road Area In 1947 (Two Years After The War Ended).
By The Mid-1950s The Antiques Trade Grew Significantly (Following The End of Rationing In 1954) And Boomed In The 80s & Start of The 90s (Especially With TV Characters Like Del Boy, Lovejoy, And Arthur Daly And of Course Shows Like The Antiques Road Show Adding To Their Popularity). For Over Forty Years It Steadily Grew Until A Legal Outrage Came Home To Roost And The Council Announced Plans To Close It Down In 2000 As Part of A Redevelopment Programme.
Art Stolen From Lincoln’s Inn Fields (Inns of Court) In The Early Ninties Was Traded At The Antiques Market Under A Legal Anomoly Known As ‘Le Marche Ouvert ( The Open Market)’. This Allowed Stolen Goods Were Traded Without Legal Intervention Between Sun-up & Sun-down (The Conservative Capitialist Concept of ‘Laissez Faire’ Operating At Street Level As It Were).
Livid Lincolns Inn Lawyers Drafted The Supply & Sale of Goods Act 1994 In Response And The Market No Longer Flourished In The Way It Used To Due To The Legal Re-Set With The Legal Concept of ‘Buyer Beware’!
Despite This Intitial Downturn Bermondsey Square Still Holds An Antiques Market Every Friday 6.00am-2.00pm As The Bermondsey Antique Traders Association Literally Stood Their Ground Throughout Various Consultantions And Insisted That The Market Remain Open Despite The Redevelopment Plans. They Succeeded And It Remains One of The Square’s Main Attractions (Domestically & Internationally) Even Though New Rules Are In Place And A New Property Company Now Manages It For Southwark Council.
The New ‘Bermondsey Square Hotel’ Opened Its Doors In 2008 And Now Stands On The Site That Was Once Bermondsey Abbey (Before It Was Demolished During The Reformation Under Tudor King Henry VIII). And Today It’s Not Lots of Priests But Lots Of Advertising, Marketing & PR Executives Who Frequent The Area. And There Has Been No Better PR For The Square Than The Annual December Vogue Supplement ‘Vogue: The Secret Address Book’ (2011) Declaring That “Bermondsey Square Is The Coolest Quarter In London.” This Was After It Was Voted Best Public Space At The City’s Annual Planning Awards Earlier In February That Same Year (2011). And That Was Even Before The (2015) Launch of The New ‘Bermondsey Works’ Apartment Complex By Property Developers Telford Homes And Architects ‘Stockwool’, Over In Rotherhithe New Road (SE16). As Part of The One Billion Pound ‘New Bermondsey’ Regeneration Project, It Included Improved Transport Links, Which Have Had An Inevitable Knock On Beneficial Effect For Bermondsey SE1. Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
Meet The Neighbours
Photo Gallery: Recognition By The Harden’s Food Guide, The Garrison Public House, Recognition By The Michelin Food Guide, Inside The Garrison, The Dame Zhandra Rhodes Textile & Fashion Museum @FashionTextileMuseum, What We’d Call Advocado Green Lush Yet Comfortable Heels From Kat Maconie, The Bermondsey Project Space Art Gallery @bprojectspace 185 Bermondsey Street, Where TO.P Checked Out The Inaugural Contemporary Kenyan Art Exhibition Curated By Kanazia @KanaziaGallery + Studio, What We’re Calling Advocado Art – From The Inaugural Contemporary Kenyan Art Exhibition At 185 Bermondsey Street, November-December 2023, By Artisit @_brianlein. (It It’s Official Name Is Radiant Flux.)
Hardens 100 Best UK Restaurants Guide2020 Included A No. of Fine Dining Pubs From Around Britain. That Was Quite Amazing Considering That Was The Year of The Covid Lockdowns. The Garrison Won A 2021 Hardens High Quality Food Certificate of Achievement. And A 2023 Michelin Food Guide Recommendation. The Harden Restaurant Awards Are Held Every Year. Hardens.Com Guide.Michelin.Com
When She Was A Mere Cool Quinquagenarian, The Now Immortalized Octogenarian, Textile Titan, Fashion Designer Dame Zandra Rhodes Moved Onto The Street In 1995 (Nearly 30 Years Ago) When There Was No Cool Restaurant Scene, Cafe Society or Culture Club Such As There Is Now. In Fact She Helped Build The New Cool Vibe. Virtually Eight Years After Selling Her House In Notting Hill And Buying A Former Warehouse That Had Become Available She Launched The Fashion & Textile Museum In 2003. Twenty Years On It Has Become A Landmark Teaching Establishment, An Esteemed Exciting Exhibition Centre, A Stylish Little Shop And A Fashion School With Students, Pros, Muses & Models @ZandraRhodes Working In Association With Newham College. And Also of Course, It Remains A Private Living Quarters.
In 2013 @EamesFineArt Opened Their New Gallery Ten Years Later. Two Years After Them Came The Art Bermondsey Project Space @BProjectSpace Which Opened In 2015 To Support Different Artists At Different Levels of Development Through Educational Programmes And Innovative Artistic Expression. Then White Cube @WhiteCube The Famous International Exhibition Centre Chose The Street For Their British Headquarters Four Years Hence In 2019. So There’s Now A Firmly Established Art Hub Here.
And That’s Why We Were There. We Reviewed The Inaugural Exhibition of Contemporary Kenyan Art In London, ‘Vision & Possibilities’ On Saturday December 2nd 2023 At The Bermondsey Project Space Art Gallery @BProjectSpace (Invited By Kezhia, The Kenyan Artist & Art Director @Okello_Orege_Art) And Then We Dined At The The Garrison.
See Our Seperate Art & Restaurant News & Reviews Also In This Month’s Issue
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