Bricklayers Arms goods depot

[kiwi]

Bricklayer's Arms Depot 1932.

[kiwi]

Bricklayers Arms Depot, crane hoisting a container during improvement works to the goods depot.

Wave to the man with the umbrella

[kiwi]

Bricklayers Arms, Crosse & Blackwells in background.

Bricklayers Arms Goods Station, 5 January 1932.

1954 >>>>>>>>

[kiwi]

Bricklayers Arms 1962, Southern Region Locomotive 31271.

Guinness's Buildings, Pages Walk in background, 1959.

[kiwi]

Bricklayers Arms Depot - two striking workers show a newspaper article to a uniformed police officer. The man on the right of the image wears on his coat which says 'strike picket'. 1923.

[kiwi]

Two vehicles like these are what I learnt to drive in when I worked at the Bricklayers Arms Depot.(late 1950s). They could turn on a sixpence but boy were they cold in the Winter,with holes everywhere. They Shook you to pieces, especially on cobble roads and the gear lever on the first vehicle was on the right, drivers side by the door. If you caught your wedding tackle, (and I did ) on that getting out of the cab it really made your eyes water.

Bricklayers Arms Goods Station, 5 January 1932.

[kiwi]

The Bricklayers Arms Goods Depot, Bermondsey, 1937, looking towards New Cross. Crosse & Blackwells left, Guinness Buildings are the four blocks slightly off centre at the bottom and Old Kent Road is to the right.

[kiwi]

These were the “white vans” of the time. These, along with carts from the other railway companies, would be seen across London, collecting, and delivering goods for transport on the railways.

[Norbury boy]

Whilst researching my late fathers life I found this section of the Bermondseyboy.
My father James Bowden (Jim) was a lifetime employee at Bricklayers Arms. Born in 1912, I assume he went straight to the depot from school. He worked there until being called up for the war in 1939, albeit he married in August 1939.
He returned to the depot, after the war, probably a lucky Jim, by surviving in one piece. He told me he learned to drive in the Army, but he never drove anything to my knowledge, unless something in the yard.
My mother was bombed out of Bermondsey and arrived in Norbury, my brother appearing in July 1943, so he must have had some home leave, before the final push.
From Norbury he would commute to South Bermondsey station or London Bridge. He saw Guys Hospital being built.
He was there when the freight was taken over by NFC, not taking any of the shares offered, but signing up for a pension. A few years later he took the offer of redundancy early sixties.
I remember his 90th and we took a photo which appeared in the NFC magazine.
He was never a drinker, but I know he did pre Xmas join the train at London Bridge, fell asleep and arrived beck at London Bridge, the loop line via Selhurst. He worked the overtime on the post pre Xmas.
My school had a skiing trip to Austria, I only managed to go because of the free rail ticket, in the 60’s.
After the Jubilee line was completed I took him on the tube to Bermondsey, it was like landing from a spaceship for him.
A Bermondsey boy and life at Bricklayers Arms story.

[kiwi]

In the background, at the end of the left wire is Pages Walk School. The building in the far distance is Peveril House in Prioress Street.

Bricklayers Arms Railway Depot, 1964. I Remember this well.