Bermondsey Leather Trail
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- Bermondsey, in south London, was once the largest leather producing district in Britain. In this video, I walk around Bermondsey looking for traces of this former industry. The walk forms part of a project to tell the history of the leather trade in the United Kingdom. If you have any photos, documents, or memories that might be useful for that project, then please do get in touch in the comments below.
If you are interested in the history of London, you might like my blog: ianstone.london...
This was wonderful. Thank you Dr Ian Stone for these gems you produce. I'll count watching that as a quality investment of one hour of my life.
Loved this, thank you. My 3 x grea3t grandfather was a leather cap maker in Bermondsey. I've walked around the area but didn't catch all those sites. Will walk your route sometime soon.
Thank you. Do you have any photos or other items from his time?
@thehistoryoflondon I'm afraid not. I just have census info and a name, John Bennett. He was born in Poland ( Prussia when he was born). Presumably an anglicised name. Family legend that he was if Jewish descent though no-one else - his wife nor descendants were.
Could well have been. Lots of Jews worked in the leather trade in Bermondsey.
I used to live on Weston st. opposite Leathermarket st - I was aware of the history of the area, it's literally written everywhere in the street names & some pub names but I was surprised how extensive it was , going all the way down to the Grange & Neckinger - that was way bigger than I ever imagined.
Significant industry wasn’t it? All round Bermondsey St, Long Lane, the Spa, even down towards Peckham as well.
Great video - to think that every town would have had a tannery at some point as well. As some comments have said, other centres such as Walsall (Saddlery) and Northampton (shoes) were also synonymous with leather (I'm originally from Northamptonshire and can trace the "leather" trade back over 100 years) but Bermondsey was the real heart.
I think even as late as 1750, that every town and most large villages would’ve had a tannery. It’s only with the development of canals, railways and steamships that we really see consolidation in the larger towns.
I wanted to focus on leather production and distribution in this video. The shoemakers of Northampton and the saddlers of Walsall were users of that leather once it was made. They’ll definitely be part of the project.
Wow this was amazing. Thank you for posting. I had no idea of this history. Loved every minute.
!WOW, WOW, WOW THANKS!
Thank you
Very, very interesting.
Thanks for posting this. I was thinking of doing a walk that way this afternoon. Now I've got a proper plan!
Let me know how it goes!
Really interesting. Many names of the from the origins of the leather industry were still around when I joined it in the late 1970's, some even today. It great to know just how important and how large the leather industry was in its heyday. The second largest industry in the UK!
Do you have any photos or records from your time in the industry?
I think the evidence shows that the leather industry profits paid for Charles Booth’s social study of London and the big team he put together to help him with it. The leather industry had pretty steady and substantial profits in the USA and especially after they were feeding enormous volumes of Dongola leather into lightweight footwear needed in USA. The Booth CO history appears to confirm this but with “trade” and “manufacturing” seen by some of the family as a less worthy profession than owning ships we see very little mention of the Booth & Co leather business in even his wife’s writings.
It’s great to think that it was leather that paid for the first study of its kind in London’s history. I have been doing Booth and his survey with my students recently and I’m always struck by just how important and groundbreaking that work was.
I think you forgot about Walsall saddle makers
even the royals brought from walsall