About Us

Chamberlain’s Wharf

The present Victorian Chamberlain’s Wharf building, which houses the London Bridge Hospital’s Main Building, was built as a warehouse in the 1860s. It replaced earlier warehouses, which had been rebuilt several times and dated back to the seventeenth century. Before that time, the site had been occupied by one of the splendid ecclesiastic palaces, the Inn of St Augustine’s Abbey, which was turned into warehouses after Henry VIII closed down the monasteries and sold off church property. The previous Chamberlain’s Wharf buildings were destroyed in the disastrous Great Fire of Tooley Street, which burned out many hundreds of square feet of warehouses in 1861. Chamberlain's was then rebuilt as a single building, with the ground plan of the old multiple building lending to its particular shape on the entrance front.

The earlier buildings were spared a fire in 1843, which destroyed all the buildings upstream, including St Olave’s Church. The warehouses were built anew with the church being restored to its eighteenth century condition. The warehouse was used for tea storage and goods from the Baltic.

St. Olaf House

St Olaf House, which houses the London Bridge Hospital’s Consulting and Administration Rooms, was built as the Headquarters for Hay’s Wharf in 1931. This fine example of an Art Deco building was designed by the famous architect, H.S. Goodhart - Rendel, and is one of his best known works. It is a listed building with its well-known river façade and Doulton faience panels by Frank Dobson, showing dock life and the unloading of goods, ‘Capital, Labour and Commerce’. It’s boardroom, the heart of this Pool of London Wharfage Empire, has been used in several television commercials, including British Airways.

The Chairman of Hay’s Wharf, Sir David Burnett, was also an artist who drew several scenes on the docks, including the Chamberlain’s Wharf area. As the docking industry moved downriver to Tilbury, it was Sir David who started the move to a commercial development of the area, with offices, shops, housing and the founding of the London Bridge Hospital.

The site of St Olaf House had been occupied for many centuries by the historic St Olave’s Church, which was the parish church for the area and which remained through all the changes to the district right up to 1928. The tower has always been a landmark in the area through medieval times, and was replaced by a fine new tower as part of its rebuilding in the eighteenth century to the designs of Henry Flitcroft, a well-known architect of the period.

Emblem House (Incorporating Denmark House)

Emblem House and Denmark House, which house the London Bridge Hospital’s Outpatient Centre, were both built in 1900 as shipping and general offices. The larger Emblem House has an interesting façade all in faience, and Denmark House has a large intricate stone sculpture at roof level showing a merchant ship. This is typical of the offices that served the adjacent wharfs, all bringing in many varieties of food products, so much so that this side of the Pool of London was known as the ‘Larder of London’.

The extensive cellars were used for storage, including the Czar of Russia’s silver reserves, and later that of Lenin’s, which were shipped out of the building when necessary in a plain-looking bread delivery van.

29-33 Tooley Street

Nos. 29-33 Tooley Street, which house the London Bridge Hospital’s Women’s Centre, were built in 1860 as shipping offices. Through much of the later nineteenth century, most of Tooley Street was fronted by very similar four-storey buildings.

These were progressively replaced by the end of the century with huge six-storey warehouse fronts on the north side of Tooley Street, and on the south side by the ever-widening railway viaduct to the busy London Bridge Station.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Tooley Street progressively became a dock road, serving the giant warehouses of the Pool of London, whereas before it had been a route of pilgrimage to Bermondsey Abbey, crossing various fish-filled streams, fronted by a whole series of large church palaces and the riverside town houses of the church dignitaries.

•  
• 27-29 Tooley Street, London SE1 2PR
• Tel: 020 7407 3100
• more contact details »