Who would have thought that amid the fug of the tanneries, the tea warehouses and the breweries, a sophisticated bookshop once thrived?
This was a place where grubby little kids could come and read fairy stories; where the wharfingers and lightermen could hear talks by literary giants of the 1920s.
The concept of the Bermondsey Bookshop was that of Ethel and Sidney Gutman, two educated people from West London.
At twenty-four, young Ethel Lion was already a journalist and author who lived in a leafy part of Maida Vale with her stepmother and sister, in a rather grand house. She met and married Sidney Gutman, apparently “something big in shipping”, although, in the 1911 census, he is more humbly described as a manager to grain merchants.
It may be assumed that Ethel’s connection to Bermondsey was through her late father, Henry Lion, who had been an affluent boot and shoe manufacturer and was no doubt very familiar with the tanneries.
It was here that the Gutmans found a rather decrepit shop on Bermondsey Street, which they saw as perfect to set up their new venture into the world of books.
It must be noted that 1920s Bermondsey Street was not the fashionable, swanky hangout it is today – rather it was a place for leather business and warehouses for tea and spices.
The Bermondsey Bookshop was more of a club
Through her journalism, Ethel already had some pretty “big name” contacts who pulled together to form this new literary association.
Authors Pett Ridge and Gilbert Frankau sponsored the opening of the shop, along with Alexander Paterson, who would later be known in the area for his work with the youths of Bermondsey (Paterson Park is named after him).
The bookshop was more of a club than anything; people paid sixpence per month to use the reading room, which was tastefully furnished and decorated with blue and orange stencilling. Fringed lampshades and artwork were dotted between the bookcases filled with the best literature of the age. After six months, those that had paid their dues could choose a book to take home and keep.
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The shop even had its own publication, the Bermondsey Book, which was filled with short stories, articles, poems and drawings by Max Beerbohm, another friend of the couple. Another supporter of the bookshop was Aldous Huxley, whose sister Maria taught at Bermondsey Central School when it was on Monnow Road.
In the evenings, there were talks by such notables as Virginia Woolf, Alfred Noyes and Sir Walter de la Mare – poetry and bluestockings in smoky old Bermondsey!
However, in 1925, tragedy struck when Ethel died suddenly. Poor Sidney carried on for another five years, even moving to bigger premises along the street, but finally closed it all down in 1930. He died in 1955 and was laid to rest next to his wife in Golders Green cemetery.
The original bookshop returned to its previous shabby state and was demolished in the 1980s.
However, its memory lives on through another Bermondsey author, Mary Gibson, who has devoted a whole novel, The Bermondsey Bookshop, to the Gutman’s work – and it is a fascinating read.
- This article is brought to you by our sister publication The Bermondsey Biscuit & Rotherhithe Docker click to see digital editions
