CHARLES H. WELCH
24
`Strange isn't it, how much of real London still lies South of the river, just as it did in Shakespeare's day, and in
Chaucer's day before him? It is as though across the Thames - in London's Deep South - times and manners
have not changed so much as in the Parliamentary North'
(Norman Collins).
However fascinating this ramble may be, we must exercise restraint, retrace our steps and at the foot of London
Bridge turn left and make our way along Tooley Street to Horsleydown, Bermondsey. `Tooley Street', a corruption
of `St. Olave's Street' is a street of warehouses, wharf entrances and somewhat poor dwellings. To quote the author
of `Below London Bridge'
`Funny smells here ... yes distinctly curious! A funny blended odour of the wood and straw of boxes of eggs,
and of tea, cheese, butter and bacon. It was merely Tooley Street. Some people could name it blindfolded. You
come out of the smell of the Borough - and everyone knows the whiff of hops - and in the street below, where
begin the paths that follow the south shore to Woolwich, the cargoes to spread London's breakfast table are
discharged. Soon there were close above us sooty precipices of brickwork. Now and then in these heights there
were perforations, as Hole-in-the-Wall, or Horsleydown Stairs. Here and there (in times past) it was convenient
to land amid sedges from coracles and canoes. London has lasted longer than Tyre and Sidon' (Tomlinson).
Horsley Down, Horseydown or Horsedown, adjoins Bermondsey Abbey Church, (see drawing opposite) founded by
Cluniac Monks and was used as a pasture ground for the Horse Fair, perpetuated in the name Fair Street, to which
spot our steps have all the while been directed. Tooley Street was made famous by a petition sent to the House of
Commons by `three tailors of Tooley Street' who opened their petition with the proud words `We the People of