Hi All,
I've always had an interest in the area around the Surrey Canal, especially where it intersected with Ilderton Road.
In the early 70's, it was our playground!
By then, it hadn't been used for its intended purpose for many years and had become a semi drained dump!
I think I've mentioned it before, but pretty much every hazardous material that you could think of was dumped there... countless drums leaking foul smelling liquids, tons of building site waste including piles of asbestos, etc!
The main area that we used to play in, is what is now the Orion Business Centre.
By the early 70's, this triangular plot of land was surrounded on its three sides by the canal, railway tracks and a footpath.
It was a short hop from Senegal Fields (now the site for Millwall FC) and was used by kids as a rather dangerous playground.
Apart from the piles of rubble, the area had been mostly cleared of any signs of it's industrial past... apart from a few strange concrete structures.
These consisted of various old building floors, three donut shaped structures, about 8ft across and a row of four, waist height walls, about 30ft long.
I'd often wondered what the site had been used for in it's industrial past and did wonder about access, because apart from the canal, it seemed access was pretty limited?
Then, a few weeks ago, I read that many old aerial photos were now available to view on the Historic England Website (
http://www.historicengland.org.uk) and decided to have a look...
It's well worth having a browse!
There are some very interesting aerial photos, right back from the early 1930's... Bermondsey is very well covered!
The first image I've attached shows the area taken around 1930... it looks very busy, with the strange concrete structures I mentioned earlier seemingly being used as bases for large cylinders or tanks!
What I never knew, was that there was access to the site via a tunnel through the railway embankment... That has long since disappeared!
The second image shows the area after the war, from around 1947.
By then, the area had been pretty much cleared, apart from a few buildings.
So, presumably, it must have been cleared before or during the war?
I was once told that anti aircraft guns were placed in that area during the war, but I've never found any evidence of that.
The third image show the site as it is now... with the Orion Business Centre in situ... and of course, no canal!
The only real question now is, what was the site used for before the war?
My guess is, given its fairly remote location, is something pretty unpleasant!
I know there was a leather tannery close by, but I think that was further down the canal, towards Ilderton Road?
Answers on a post card!