A local historian has made a fascinating documentary about Bermondsey’s leather industry.
‘Bermondsey Leather Trail’, available on YouTube, explains how the area became the UK’s most prominent leather manufacturer in the 19th century.
Ian Stone, the King’s College London research fellow behind the documentary, told the News: “I’ve been asked to write a book about the leather industry and Bermondsey is a big part of that.
“The documentary was a way of collecting my thoughts on the early period and getting it out to a wider audience.”
Ian has urged people to comment on his YouTube documentary, especially if they have memories or photos of relatives who worked in the trade.
Bermondsey began producing leather as far back as the fifteenth century when it would have been exported to Hanseatic League trading posts – a confederation of market towns across Northern and Central Europe.
By the 1790s, with industrialisation gathering steam, Bermondsey was producing a third of the UK’s leather.
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The area was perfect for leather-making. It was a stone’s throw from the docks but also downriver, meaning the manufacturing process’s unpleasant smells wouldn’t waft over the City.
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The Great North Wood, a sprawling forest stretching from Bermondsey to Bromley, provided ample oak bark needed for tanning.
The River Neckinger, the name-sake of the modern-day Neckinger Estate, also provided leather workers with a reliable source of fresh water.
By 1833, trade had outgrown Leadenhall Market and the leading tanners of Bermondsey erected the Leathermarket on Weston Street.
In 1878, having raised a behemoth £50,000, merchants and leathermakers built the grand London Leather Hide & Wool Exchange.
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The building included a private gentlemen’s club on the first floor – now home to The Leather Exchange pub.
Central to the industry’s success was Colonel Samuel Bourne Bevington, who set up the Worshipful Company of Leather.
The Bevingtons plied their trade at the Neckinger Mills in 1806, and a statue of the colonel is on Tooley Street today.
Bermondsey’s industry declined with the invention of the motor car as less leather was needed for saddles and horse-riding gear.
The nail in the coffin came in the 1960s when plastic provided a cheaper alternative to many leather-made products.
