Born a year after World War II in Borough, amid the bombed-out buildings and industrial landscape of the area, George Nicholson went on to ensure local people were given affordable homes while transforming the fortunes of Borough Market.
The 79-year-old recently died on 1 February. A campaigner and local politician he fought tirelessly to get ‘homes for ordinary folk built’ in Coin Street on the South Bank and as the area went from being dominated by docks and factories to offices he took Borough from a wholesale market to the internationally renowned destination that it is today.
The whole of North Southwark was in the throes of redevelopment in the 1980s and except for a brief period spent sailing around the world as a ship’s engineer in the 1970s, George spent much of his life here. He lived for a period on Copperfield Street, and later on Great Suffolk Street.
George was pivotal in the Coin Street Campaign – a 1980s movement to prevent a 13-acre plot of land on the South Bank from being turned into offices. The campaign successfully purchased the site in 1984 and today it is run by a social enterprise and home to housing co-operatives, gardens and shops.
“The area flooded regularly at the start of the 20th century,” said Iain Tuckett, a Director of Coin Street Community Builders who got to know George through the campaign in the 1980s.
“It had all the works and warehouses and was made up of housing for the poor. Often people would work in the docks or in the print.”
But Iain explained in the 1970s and ’80s there was a “change in the function of the area” driven by a push to relocate the City of London and the West End onto the southern bank of the River Thames.
“George’s particular passion was to keep a residential community,” he said. “Shops, schools, everything was closing. He wanted to get housing for ordinary folk built.”
In 1978 George waded into local politics, securing election to Southwark Council as a Labour councillor representing Cathedral ward until 1982. In 1981, while still a councillor, George was also elected to the Greater London Council – the predecessor of the GLA – to represent Bermondsey and would go on to become chairman of the GLC’s planning committee until it was abolished by Prime Minister Margret Thatcher in 1986.
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He used his political influence to champion the causes he was passionate about, pushing the GLC and council to build more affordable homes for families in central London.
Sir Simon Hughes, who incidentally was George’s opponent in 1981 GLC election, paid tribute to the Labour politician he lost out to before he became the MP for the area two years later. He said: “George Nicholson was a great Southwark and London politician and campaigner. George did a huge amount to enable greater social housing, a fairer London, a safer and more prosperous River Thames, strong London county government and a successful Borough Market.
“Though we were once opponents and from politically different traditions, I respected, liked and worked with George on many campaigns. Our borough and London owes him much.”
Borough Market was George’s other great achievement – he served on its Board of Trustees for more than 30 years rising to become its Chair and worked tirelessly to turn around the ailing market’s fortunes.
He drove the idea of transforming it from a dying wholesale market supplying produce to London’s greengrocers into a farmer’s market where shoppers could buy food directly.
“George Nicholson was instrumental in shaping Borough Market into the renowned food destination it is today,” said Shane Holland, chair of Borough Market. “Serving first as a trustee and then as Chair for 11 years until 2006, he played a pivotal role in securing the Market’s future and defining its modern identity. Without his vision, dedication and leadership, the Market as we know it simply would not exist.
“He will be greatly missed, and his legacy will continue to be felt by the traders, visitors and local community who bring Borough Market to life every day.”
Iain Tuckett added: “He had a really wide range of interests. You could know him for years and then find out something else about him. He was interested in jazz, very interested in photography and held a number of exhibitions and published a couple of books. He was passionate about issues around community and neighbourhood, but also about the River Thames.
“He was a very good writer and he was very funny. He was what you would call the life and soul of the party.”
Ruth Gee, the Deputy Leader of the Inner London Education Authority between 1982-86, which George sat on while he was a member of the GLC, said: “Civic duty” ran through George’s bloodstream, like sugar in seaside rock; he wanted positive change for ordinary working people. He once wrote of his determination to “look at the world afresh, unburdened by previous convictions and training”.
“It made him a good friend with whom to debate the latest copy of the Guardian, FT Weekend or the Economist. While his body grew weaker, his intellectual capacity remained. I’ve cherished his friendship and that of his partner Julia Smith, who survives him, since those days of County Hall in 1981.”
There will be a celebration of George’s life at Coin Street Community Centre,108 Stamford St, London SE1 9NH, on 7 June in the afternoon.
