3-101-127 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

Old Houses in Bermondsey Street, c1881. Shops in south London. '...in the early part of this century, houses of this type were exceedingly common in the main thoroughfares and bye places of Southwark. They are good specimens of the houses of the time of Elizabeth [I] and somewhat later; the frame of massive timber, else mere shells of lath and plaster; but though often out of shape and leaning in all directions, wonderfully durable. At this time Bermondsey was an area of goods yards, biscuit making, leatherwork and tanneries, with nearly all the tanneries of London situated within its borders. Dixon's photograph includes two such leatherworkers, either shoe-makers or cobblers, standing at the entrance to their establishment. In Old and New London Edward Walford comments that though the area was dirty and unsavoury, it was however, prosperous. "But squalid as is their general appearance, they [Bermondsey and Wapping] abound in wealth, the fruits of industry and labour..."' Description by Alfred Marks. Signs for: W. Pettitt, wool rug manufacturer...Daily Chronicle...Daily News World-Wide...Standard - largest daily paper. A grocer's shop advertises butter and tea.