Units 7 and 8, Bermondsey Leather Market

Reasons for Designation

Units 7 and 8, the Leather Market, two early C19 warehouse buildings, are recommended for listing at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: the buildings are early surviving warehouses associated with Bermondsey's leather industry. * Group value: the buildings form part of the Leather Market, the most important and concentrated survival of industrial buildings in the area; * Architectural interest: despite having undergone alterations, the buildings retain their simple industrial character, typical of early C19 buildings of this type.

Details

636-1/0/10149 WESTON STREET 10-AUG-10 Units 7 and 8, Bermondsey Leather Market

II Former warehouses, c1833, now in office use. Some C20 alterations.

MATERIALS: Yellow stock-brick construction with pitched slate roofs, windows are generally six-over-six timber sliding sashes. Internally, timber T-shaped posts support the floor joists. The roof structures of light-weight steel are likely to late from the late C19 to early C20.

PLAN: Units 7 and 8 form a short range to the south of the Leather Market. Both buildings have three storeys and are rectangular in plan; unit 8 is located to the immediate east of unit 7, but slightly further north. Both buildings have stairs to the west.

EXTERIOR: Unit 7 has five bays, the central bay has a solid timber double door at ground floor and loading doors on the floors above. To the left of the top loading door is a pivot hoist. To the far right at ground floor is a panelled timber personnel door with a rectangular fanlight above. A continuous stone lintel runs above the ground floor window heads, broken by a timber lintel which runs above the central door. The third floor windows are square steel casements. Most of the flat gauged-brick arches over the upper floor windows have been replaced with soldier-courses.

The west elevation of unit 8 has three bays; the central bay matching that of unit 7. At ground floor there are timber panelled personnel doors in the flanking bays. The first floor windows have flat gauged-brick arches, whilst the top floor windows have arched segmental heads.

The north elevation of unit 8 has five bays and is very close in character to the west elevation. There are two pivot hoists by the loading doors in the central bay; one at first and one at second floor, both have curved braces with circular bracing in the spandrel. A continuous stone lintel runs above the ground floor window heads, the first floor windows have flat gauged-brick arches, and the top floor windows have arched segmental heads. To the south elevation there are two bays, however the majority of the windows have been bricked-up or greatly reduced in size.

INTERIOR: Internally both units have been partially subdivided at ground and first floor, but retain large open plan spaces on the top floor, where in both cases the roof structure is exposed.

HISTORY: Units 7 and 8, the Leather Market, form part of the early-C19 leather and skin market, which was the commercial hub of the Bermondsey leather industry.

The abundant supply of water from tidal streams and ditches, and its location apart from the cities of London and Westminster, made Bermondsey a centre for leather production and associated industries from the medieval period. During the late C18 and C19, with the development of new industrial techniques and machinery, these industries grew into large, organized, operations.

The Leather Market was established in the early 1830s and originally comprised two main parts: to the west, a quadrangle of warehouses, and to the east, a narrow oblong of ground with semi-circular ends and a covered arcade which ran around the edge. In the warehouses to the west, leather factors sold the leather produced by the Bermondsey tanneries on to curriers and leather sellers. The arcaded area to the east was where skins from the butchers were sold on to be processed for wool, leather and parchment.

The eastern part of the market was badly damaged during the Second World War and has subsequently been redeveloped. The western part of the Leather Market survives. Parts date to the early 1830s, while other elements are later, dating from the late C19; it is believed that units 7 and 8 date from the earlier phase.

SOURCES: E. Walford, Old and New London: Volume 6, Chapter 10 (1878) British History Online, www.british-history.ac.uk [accessed on 15 April 2010]

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Units 7 and 8, the Leather Market, two early C19 warehouse buildings, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: the buildings are early surviving warehouses associated with Bermondsey's leather industry; * Group value: the buildings form part of the Leather Market, the most important and concentrated survival of industrial buildings in the area; * Architectural interest: despite having undergone some alterations, the buildings retain their simple industrial character, typical of early C19 buildings of this type.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

508052

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.