A plaque on a planter commemorating beloved flower seller Flo Weller was moved from the Blue marketplace to stop builders from throwing it away.
The plaque was put up in 2012 to commemorate Ms Weller, who died in 2011 and sold flowers in the Blue for more than sixty years.
But some local residents have been up in arms on seeing that the planter with the plaque on was recently moved to the junction of Blue Anchor Lane and St James’ Road.
Russell Dryden, the fishmonger in the marketplace and the man behind the transformation of the Blue, said the planter was moved to stop builders from damaging it while renovating the marketplace.
“They were going to trash it, but we stored it and reinstated it up there. We kept Flo’s plaque on it.”
Mr Dryden pointed out that there is a sign next to the planter giving people directions to the Blue. “You know what people are like. Oh where’s Flo?… I quite like it [on St James’ Road], it gets the word out, it spreads it out there.”
Flo was seen as the great matriarch of a Blue market, the unveiling of the plaque in September 2012 saw a whole crowd of old friends, stallholders and customers from down the years attend.
Flo Weller, who was 91-years-old when she passed, she was the market’s longest standing stallholder and continued working right up her death in November 2011.
Her family had run the stall for more than 100 years.
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Known to some as the “Duchess”, Flo started work at the flower stall in the Blue Market with her dad before the Second World War.
Flo stayed on after the war and ended up being the longest serving trader – keeping the stall license in the family more 100 years.
The plaque to commemorate her life in the area was unveiled by her son John, her granddaughter Victoria Payne, and the MP for the area at the time Simon Hughes. Mr Hughes spoke about Flo and her family’s involvement in and around Bermondsey for well over a century, before reciting a poem written by Flo’s granddaughter.
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Builders trashing it? Really Russell? More like a convenient excuse to put up those ugly useless stalls that no one’s interested in.