Reasons for Designation
The bollards and lamp post at Green Dragon Lane are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The bollards are a particularly early example of the type, cast in an unusual form and bearing an inscription that relates them to the ongoing history of Borough Market.
* The lamp post is an ornate and well-preserved example of its type, still with its original gas fittings, bearing its casting date and the name of a local foundry.
* The bollards and lamp post have group value, both with each other and with the adjacent Globe public house and 16 Borough High Street (both Grade II listed).
Details
636-1/0/10134 GREEN DRAGON COURT
17-DEC-09 Borough Market
Six bollards to entrance of Green Drag
on Court, and three bollards and one l
amp post to rear of the Globe public h
ouse
GV II
Nine bollards dated 1813, with gas lamp post dated 1884 by Bailey Page & Co., Bankside
MATERIALS: Cast iron (and glass for the lamp post lantern).
DESCRIPTION: There are two groups of bollards: one row of six at the entrance to Green Dragon Court from Borough High Street, and another of three to the rear of the Globe public house. The lamp post adjoins the latter group. The bollards are cast-iron posts about 1m high, square at the base but tapered and chamfered to form an octagon at the top; each bears an inset panel with the legend '1813 BORO MARKET' in raised lettering.
The lamp post is of more elaborate design, with an octagonal lower section (inscribed 'Bailey Page & Co. 81 Bankside London 1884') rising through a series of elaborate torus mouldings, some with acanthus decoration, into a slender curved neck; it retains its original gas tap, feeder pipe and lantern.
HISTORY: Green Dragon Court, a small alleyway in the angle between the western side of Borough High Street and the northern side of Bedale Street, has been in existence since at least 1746, when John Rocque's map shows it under that name (the eastern part being called Frying Pan Alley). Shortly after this the Borough Market, which had been held in the High Street since medieval times, was moved to its present location to the south of the Priory (now Cathedral) church. By the early C19, when the present bollards were installed, the market area was already covered by a canopy. In the 1860s the area was transformed by the construction of the great triangular railway intersection connecting London Bridge, Waterloo and Cannon Street Stations. The market continued to operate beneath the arches of Sir John Hawkshaw's viaduct complex, taking its present form as a specialist fine foods retail market in the late 1990s.
SOURCES:
Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of London 2: South (1983).
John Rocque, A Plan of London, Westminster and the Borough of Southwark (1746).
Survey of London, volume 22: Bankside (the parishes of St. Saviour and Christchurch Southwark), entry for Borough High Street (1950).
Sarah Freeman, 'Borough and the Bridge: A Brief History of Borough Market', at www.boroughmarket.org.uk/index.php?pid=15 (accessed on 20 May 2009).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
The bollards and lamp post at Green Dragon Lane are designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The bollards are a particularly early example of the type, cast in an unusual form and bearing an inscription that relates them to the ongoing history of Borough Market.
* The lamp post is an ornate and well-preserved example of its type, bearing its casting date and the name of a local foundry.
* The bollards and lamp post have group value, both with each other and with the adjacent Globe public house and 16 Borough High Street (both Grade II listed).
