Bermondsey is that bit of London tucked below Tower Bridge which is hemmed in by Southwark in the west , Rotherhithe to the east and propped up against the Thames by Walworth and Peckham to its south.
It used to have an Abbey until Henry VIII purloined it in the 1530’s and gave it to Robert Southwell, who knocked it down put up a big show off house in its place and then flipped the house to a wealthy goldsmith from the City. Such is London life. And endless series of property plays.
The gatehouse of the old Abbey remains in situ as part of a higgledy-piggledy row of old houses in Grange Walk. It has two hinges still embedded in the front of the house on which hung the old gate. The row dates from the late seventeenth century, each house is individual and rather beautiful in its own way and these days each has different coloured, jaunty paintwork.
Just up the road is the Bermondsey United Charity School for Girls which is a more recent addition to the area, dating from 1830 and beyond that a row of late Georgian cottages, sturdy and uniform.
The Gatehouse to the old Abbey – with two gate hinges embedded in the wall on the left hand side
