Who we are
The Bermondsey Street Area Partnership (BSAP) is an independent and
non-political voluntary group; its aim is to positively promote the interests of
all sectors of the community, both business and residential, and to support the
traditional mixed-use character of the area.
The BSAP provides a forum of discussion for those who live and/or work
locally and are affected by issues raised by the changing face of the
neighborhood, consisting, loosely of the Bermondsey Street Conservation Area,
designated by Southwark Council in 1973.
Meetings for all members are held usually on the first Thursday of every
other month.
Visiting speakers are invited to address a wide range of subjects, such as
council and planning matters, conservation, traffic, local history, archaeology
and architecture, parks, open spaces and green routes, community capacity
building and, currently, the redevelopment of Bermondsey Square.
The BSAP planning sub-committee meets separately to consider local planning
applications and associated aspects such as street lighting, parking, parks,
paving and improvement of the railway arches. This committee reports back to the
main BSAP meeting in cases of particular significance or concern.
Agendas and Minutes of BSAP meetings are circulated to members and will be
posted on the web site. Information, Agendas, Minutes and meeting venues are
also displayed on the BSAP notice board at the corner of Bermondsey Street and
Tanner Street.
The BSAP arranges social events throughout the year and welcomes new
members.
A brief history of Bermondsey Street Area Partnership
(BSAP).
The original
Bermondsey Street Conservation Area promoted by the Bermondsey &
Rotherhithe Society, and was established in 1972.
Following is an extract from
Southwark's Planning & Development Committee meeting on
18th April 1972, which is interesting (thanks to Niall
Connolly).
BERMONDSEY STREET,
PROPOSED CONSERVATION AREA
The
history and character of the area.
Bermondsey street was originally the main track
through the Thames-side marshes to Bermondsey Abbey, founded in 1082. The
Abbey rose to become second only to Westminster in importance, and played
an important part in the history of England, as well as South London where it
owned vast estates including the manors of Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and
Dulwich. The Abbey was subsequently dissolved in the reign of Henry
VIII.
Until the nineteenth century Bermondsey Street
remained the south-eastern extremity of built-up London, when there was a
rapid growth of population and new roads. Tower Bridge Road and Abbey
Street were constructed about this time. As a result, Bermondsey street, which
retained its original line, lost its importance as a north-south
thoroughfare.
It
is now the centre of a large industrial/commercial area containing a mixture of
warehousing, light industry (printing, tanning, food), housing and local
commerce, befitting its role as the heart of
Old Bermondsey.
The
present character of the street to a large extent derives from its Mediaeval
origins - small building plots with a diversity of building age and style,
narrowness, irregular building lines and heights. A further aspect of
Mediaeval character is the large number of courts and alleyways leading
from the street to properties at the rear.
The
composite character of these individual features nevertheless has a unity,
although some cohesion has been lost as a result of demolition and vacant
sites. Though absorbed in the greater metropolis the original village
character still survives, as a result of the intimacy of scale and
the sense of enclosure.
At
the southern end of the street, behind and to the side of St. Mary Magdalene,
lies St. Mary's Churchyard. It is now laid out as a park, with well
maintained flower beds and some fine trees, but the retention of some of
the older monuments, as well as the watch house, preserves to some extent
the character of the Churchyard.
The
form of Bermondsey Square derives from the perpetuation of the site of the
Abbey, though some disruption was caused by the construction in the
nineteenth century of Tower Bridge Road. The Abbey Church lay on the line
of the present Abbey Street. Bermondsey Square itself marks the site of the
inner court and the opening of Bermondsey Square into Abbey Street the site
of the inner gate house. The outer gate house spanned part of Abbey Street
where it joins Long Lane. Parts of the East Gatehouse still remain in 6, 7
and 8 Grange Walk and the crooks for the hinges of the gate still project
from the wall and are visible from Grange Walk.
There are a number of listed buildings in the area,
the most important being the church of St. Mary Magdalene (largely built in
1680, but refaced in a Gothic style in 1830), the Watch House, the group of
late 17th Century and early 18th Century buildings at 68-78 Bermondsey Street
and 5-11 Grange Walk (built in the late 17th
Century).
After being dormant for several years the BSA was reconvened
in 1991 when businesses and residents came together to oppose the adaptation of
an empty warehouse in Newham's Row to provide accommodation for 98 homeless
people. The area was down at heel and a large number of local business people
and residents came together to protest to the Council that the scale of this
proposal would make it even worse. The Bermondsey Street Association was
re-launched to positively promote the area with its unusual mix of businesses
and residents association, working together to positively promote the
area.
