It is a bold act to take up arms against old proverbs-those condensed epitomes of worldly wisdom, which charm by their brevity quite as much as by their truth: yet to the dictum that

two

of a trade can never agree

of

one

trade

agree

local habitation

There are, however, other features which render modern a remarkable spot. It has been said that

there is a greater variety of trades and manufactures carried on in this parish than in any

one

parish besides throughout the kingdom ;

It would not perhaps be far from the truth to say that may be regarded as a region of manufacturers, a region of market-gardeners, a region of wholesale dealers, and a maritime region, according to the quarter where we take our stand. Were we indeed to confine ourselves strictly to the parochial limits, the features would include little of the latter; but we are not so strictly limited, and shall perhaps include a little of , and of or other parishes, in our remarks on generally.

To the dwellers north of the Thames it is perhaps generally known that lies south-east of , while the burghers of can define the spot more closely. The parochial boundary embraces a portion of the banks of the Thames eastward of ; extends from thence in an irregular

Perhaps no part of the metropolis has suffered greater changes of appearance in modern times than that at which we begin the survey of . The southern approaches to the required such a large increase to be made in the elevation of the roadways, that the west end of would have been sunk in a valley, had not a reconstruction of that part been made. The only mode of carrying the roadway continuously from the towards was by an inclined plane; and on the northern side of this plane the houses have been rebuilt in an elegant and substantial manner, forming a striking contrast, both in appearance and in elevation, to the houses which previously occupied that portion of . A still greater change has occurred on the southern side: for here we meet with the terminus to the Greenwich Railway, which is also the terminus to the Croydon and the Brighton Railways. At present, the chief feature which this terminus presents is that of a large, scantily occupied, and somewhat inelegant area of ground, rendered busy and bustling by those peculiar scenes which distinguish the terminus of a Railway; but it is not improbable that this spot may be more diversified by buildings in a few years.

After passing or large wharfs, and the high building on which the London station of Watson's telegraphic line is erected, we enter fairly upon the old and unaltered portion of , whose name is a strange corruption of the former appellation, Street, and whose shops exhibit a singular mixture of the features which are found separate in other parts of the district :--wharfingers, merchants, salesmen, factors, and agents; store-shippers, biscuit-bakers, outfitters, ship-chandlers, slop-sellers, block-makers, and ropemakers; engineers and other manufacturers; together with the usual varieties of retail tradesmen-all point to the diversified, and no less busy than diversified, traffic of this street.

Here,

the crane and the pulley seem never to be idle.

If we turn out of this leading thoroughfare into any of the narrow streets which bend towards the river, we find still greater indications of the warehousing and wharfing system; and singular indeed are the contrasts which some of these streets have exhibited at different times. , for example, which leads down to Battlebridge Stairs, occupies the site of the London manor-house, or

inn,

Maze

the big warehouse built,

Rais'd the strong crane, chok'd up the loaded street

With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Thames,

Large, gentle, deep, majestic, King of Floods!

Chose for his grac'd resort!

In advancing towards , a short inlet between the river and , we leave on the right a few streets which collectively form what is termed Horsleydown-once

Horse-down,

Rookery,

Holy Land

Jacob's Island

terra firma

Jacob's Island

A stranger, standing on

one

of the wooden bridges thrown across this ditch in

Mill Street

, will see the inhabitants of the houses on either side lowering, from their back doors and windows, buckets, pails and domestic utensils in which to haul the water up; and when his eye is turned from these operations to the houses themselves, his utmost astonishment will be excited by the scene before him. Crazy wooden galleries, common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from whence to look on the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud, and threatening to fall into it, as some of them have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations-all these ornament the banks of Folly Ditch.

warehouses are roofless and empty, the walls are crumbling down, the windows are now no windows, the

doors are falling into the street, the chimneys are blackened, but they yield no smoke; and, through losses and Chancery suits, it is made quite a desolate island indeed.

Rough and wild as the spot appears when the ditch is filled at high tide, yet, if we visit it hours afterwards, when mud usurps the place of water, more than organ of sense is strongly and unpleasantly appealed to. Wilkinson gave a view of this spot in the

Londina Illustrata

The history of this ditch or tide stream is connected, in a remarkable way, with the manufacturing features of . When the Abbey was at the height of its glory, and formed a nucleus to which all else in the neighbourhood was subordinate, the supply of water for its inmates was obtained from the Thames through the medium of this tide. was probably at time very little better than a morass, the whole being low and level: indeed, at the present time, manufacturers in that locality find the utmost difficulty in obtaining a firm foundation for their buildings, such is the spongy nature of the ground. In the early period just alluded to, the spot, besides being low, was almost entirely unencumbered with buildings; and thus a channel from the Thames, although not many feet in depth, was filled throughout the entire district at every high tide. There was a mill at the river-side, at which the corn for the granary of the Abbey was ground; and this mill was turned by the flux and reflux of the water along the channel. When the Abbey was destroyed, and the ground passed into the possession of others, the houses which were built on the site still received a supply of water from this water-course. In process of time tanneries were established on the spot, most probably on account of the valuable supply of fresh water obtainable every hours from the river. This seems to be an opinion entertained by many of the principal manufacturers of the place. There appears reason to believe that the Neckinger, the name which the ditch formerly held, was by degrees made to supply other ditches, or small watercourses cut in different directions, and placed in communication with it; for, provided they were all nearly on a level, each high tide would as easily fill a dozen as a single . Had there been no mill at the mouth of the channel, the supply might have gone on continuously; but the mill continued to be moved by the stream, and to be held by parties who neither had nor felt any interest in the affairs of the Neckinger manufacturers. Disagreements thence arose; and we find that, about years ago, the tanners in the central parts of instituted a suit against the owner of the mill for shutting off the tide when it suited his own purpose so to do, to the detriment of the leather-manufacturers. The ancient usages of the district were brought forward in evidence; and the result was, that the right of the inhabitants to a supply of water from the river, at every high tide, was confirmed,to the discomfiture of the mill-owner. Since that period there have been occasional disagreements between the manufacturers and the owners of the mill (now a lead-mill), respecting the closing of sluice-gates, the repair and cleansing of the ditch, and the construction of wooden bridges across it; but

New River

This stream has somewhat detained us in our circuit walk, but it is so closely connected with the establishment and advancement of the staple manufacture of the district that we have felt it proper not to omit these details. The interest which the older inhabitants of the parish still take in the decision of indicates the importance attached to it.

When we have passed , in our ramble eastward, we see that the region of wharfs and granaries, of warehouses and factories, has in part given place to features of a more maritime character. We are approaching towards . We meet seamen-sauntering, jovial, careless, light-hearted seamen--in the streets. We meet with rope-walks, anchor-smitheries, boat-builders; with outfitters, slopsellers, sea-biscuit bakers; with dealers in all the knick-knacks to which

Jack

profitable nuisance,

The belt of houses which skirts the Thames at the junction of and- does not extend far from its banks before we obtain glimpses of the nursery-grounds and market-gardens--the feature in this district. Here, too, we meet with another of those streams which seem at time to have been so plentiful in this locality. Contiguous to a narrow street called , which we believe separates the parishes, is a stream, or ditch, communicating with the Thames, and sending out a number of minor branches, which, turning and winding, and commingling with each other, form a number of little islands in the open fields of . These islands were formerly used as bleaching-grounds; but they now present rather a desolate appearance, and the streams are muddy and ill ordered.

Such a curious intermixture of agricultural and manufacturing labour, of nature and art, of open ground and close factories, we do not know in any other part of London, as in the district intersected by the Greenwich Railway in the mile of its length. We may go to many parts of the metropolis and see groups of black chimneys and large buildings, symbols of the operations conducted within; we may visit many other districts in which the nurseryman or the

The Roman Catholic Convent, noticed in our last Chapter,--is situated at the spot where the maritime and the agricultural districts may be said to meet. It is at the corner of a street called Parker's Row, the north end of which belongs to the former, and the south to the latter. Nay, the Convent is associated with another circumstance which still more disturbs those notions of seclusion and romance which we in England are accustomed to entertain in respect to such establishments: the site on which it is erected was previously a tan-yard, supplied with water from the tide-stream, which passes close to the Convent in its progress from the Folly to the neighbourhood of the Neckinger Mills. At a short distance from this Convent is the pleasantly-situated New Church of .

In proceeding southward from the

water-side division

Mount Heclas

Mount Vesuviuses

under the sun.

suggested various improvements, and among others he entertained the public with an excellent representation of the siege of Gibraltar, consisting of transparencies and fireworks, constructed and arranged by Mr. Keyse himself; the height of the rock was

fifty

, and the length

two hundred

feet; the whole of the apparatus covering about

four

acres of ground.

On the east of the nursery-grounds are the docks, ponds, and reservoirs belonging to the Commercial, the Greenland, and the Grand Surry Docks; and also the buildings which constitute the town of Deptford. These collectively separate the nurseries from that bend or

reach

If we draw a line from New Church to the intersection of the with the , we shall find to the west, or rather the north-west, of that line nearly the whole of the factories connected with the leather and wool trade of London. A circle mile in diameter, having its centre at the spot where the Abbey once stood, will include within its limits most of the tanners, the curriers, the fellmongers, the woolstaplers, the leather-factors, the leather-dressers, the leather-dyers, the parchment-makers, and the gluemakers, for which this district is so remarkable. There is scarcely a street, a road, a lane, into which we can turn without seeing evidences of or other of these occupations. narrow road-leading from the to the Kent Road--is particularly distinguishable for the number of leather-factories which it exhibits on either side; some time-worn and mean, others newly and skilfully erected. Another street, known as , and lying westward of the church, exhibits nearly distinct establishments where skins or hides undergo some of the many processes to which they are subjected. In , in , in , upper and lower, in , and , and , and others whose names we cannot now remember in all of these, leather, skins, and wool seem to be the commodities out of which the wealth of the inhabitants has been created. Even the public-houses give note of these peculiarities, by the signs chosen for them, such as the

Woolpack,

Fellmongers' Arms,

Simon the Tanner,

there is nothing like leather,

It might at seem that the connexion between leather and wool is not very apparent, the nature, uses, and preparation of the being so very dissimilar; but when we remember that both are taken from those animals whose flesh

The extent to which these branches of manufacture are carried on at has never, as far as we are aware, been ascertained; but it must be enormous. The following remarks of Mr. M Culloch (

Statistical Account of the British Empire

At an average of the years

1833

and

1834

, no fewer than

304,279

cwt., or

34,079,248

1

bs., of foreign cow, ox, and buffalo hides were entered for home consumption, exclusive of vast quantities of lamb-skins, goat-skins, &c. The total quantity of all sorts of leather, tawed, tanned, dressed, and curried in Great Britain may at present be estimated at about

65,000,000

; which, at

1s. 6d.

per pound, gives

4,875,000l.

as the value of the leather alone.

Supposing those employed as shoemakers, saddlers, glovers,

8

&c., to make,

one

with another,

30l.

a-year, the total number of such persons will be

203,000

. This, however, does not give the total number of persons employed in the leather-trade, inasmuch as it excludes the tanners, curriers, &c., employed in dressing and preparing the leather. But if, from the value of the prepared leather,

4,875,000l.

, we deduct

1,500,000l.

for the value of the hides and skins, and

2,300,0001

, for tanners' and curriers' profits, including the expense of bark, lime, pits, etc, we have

1,075,000l.

left as wages. Now, as the wages of tanners, curriers, leather-dressers, &c., may, we believe, be taken at

35l.

a-year at an average, we shall have

30,700

as the number employed. in these departments; and, adding these to the persons employed in manufacturing the leather, we have a grand total of

233,700

employed in the various departments of the business.

These are high numbers, and point to the vast importance of this department of manufacture. The nature of our publication does not admit details of manufacturing processes, nor descriptions of particular factories; but the topography and general features of are so dependent on the subdivision of

In the Chapter relating to

Smithfield,

skin-salesmen,

fell-monger,

It may next be asked whether these skins, thus taken away in carts from the butchers and slaughterers, are conveyed to factories, to storehouses, or to markets? If the

fell-monger

leather-factors,

Skin Depository,

bay.

bays,

It is necessary here to mention a distinction which is made between and . The transactions alluded to above relate to skins only, that is, the coverings of sheep and calves, whereas the skins of oxen and horses are known in the trade as . It was supposed, when the New Skin-Market was built, that the dealings in hides would, in part at least, be carried on there as well as that in skins. But nearly all the ox-hides, from which the thicker kinds of leather are made, are still sold at Leadenhall Market, which has long been the centre of this trade. It is not difficult to see why this is the case, for cattle are generally slaughtered, not on the premises of the butcher, but in slaughter-houses near the flesh-markets, and therefore in the vicinity of Leadenhall hide-market. The grass-plot now existing in the area of the larger quadrangle of the Skin-Market is intended to be covered with additional warehouses or depositories, whenever the traffic may render such a step desirable. Nearly all the leather manufacturers in are proprietors in this Market.

There is, then, this difference between the earlier operations of the fellmongers and the tanners of , that the former purchase sheepskins at the Market from salesmen who act as agents to the London butchers, and then prepare the skins for the leather-dressers and parchment-makers; whereas the tanners purchase ox, cow, and calf skins at Leadenhall Market, from the hide-salesmen, as also horse-hides from the persons known as

knackers,

All the tanneries in London, with, we believe, exception, are situated in ; and all present nearly the same features. Whoever has resolution enough to brave the appeals to his organ of smell, and visit of these places, will see a large area of ground-sometimes open above, and in other cases covered by a roof-intersected by pits or oblong cisterns, whose upper edges are level with the ground: these cisterns are the tan-pits, in which hides are exposed to the action of liquor containing oak-bark. He will see, perhaps, in corner of the premises, a heap of ox and cow horns, just removed from the hide, and about to be sold to the comb-makers, the knife-handle-makers, and other manufacturers

In the , and or other places in the vicinity, may be seen instances of of the purposes to which tan is appropriated. A large plot of ground contains, in addition to heaps of tan, skeleton frames about or feet in height, consisting of a range of shelves above another; and on these shelves are placed the oblong rectangular pieces of

tan-turf,

ten

or

twelve

for a penny,

The whole of the fell-mongers belonging to the metropolis are congregated within a small circle around the Skin-Market in . It forms no part

The produce of the fellmongers' labours passes into the hands of or other classes of manufacturers, such as the wool-stapler, the leather-dresser, and the parchment-maker. The wool-staplers, or in number, are, like the fell-mongers, located almost without a single exception in . They are wool-dealers, who purchase the commodity as taken from the skins, and sell it to the hatters, the woollen and worsted manufacturers, and others. They are scarcely to be denominated manufacturers, since the wool passes through their hands without undergoing any particular change or preparation; it is sorted into various qualities, and, like the foreign wool, packed in bags for the market. In a street called , intersecting , the large warehouses of these wool-staplers may be seen in great number; tiers of ware or store rooms, with cranes over them; waggons in the yard beneath; huge bags filled with wool--some arriving and others departing-these are the appearances which a wool-warehouse presents. It may, perhaps, not be wholly unnecessary to observe, that the sheep's wool here spoken of is only that portion which is taken from the pelt or skin of the slaughtered animal, and which is known by the name of skin-wool. The portion which is taken from the animal during life, and which is called

shear-wool,

The leather-dresser, to whom the pelts (the name applied to skins when the wool has been removed from them) are consigned by the fell-monger, undertakes the preparation of all the thinner kinds of leather, whether from the sheep-pelts just alluded to, or from goat, kid, deer, dog, or other thin skins. The leather for gloves, for women's shoes, for bookbinders, for coach-trimmings, and for ornamental purposes, is mostly prepared by the leather-dresser, who differs from the tanner in this, that the latter prepares the thicker hides, which require the process of tanning; whereas the former manufactures those thinner kinds of leather which are prepared with alum, with oil, and with other substances, but not by tanning. The same remark may be applied to the leather-dressers of the metropolis as to the tanners, the fell-mongers, and the wool-staplers-Bermondsey contains them all, with few exceptions. A leather-dresser's manufactory presents many of the features observable in a tannery. There are the pits or cisterns in which the skins and pelts are steeped; there are the blocks on which the skins are placed while being scraped; there are the drying-rooms in which the prepared leather is hung. But there are points in which the kinds of factories differ. When the tanner has tanned his leather, any staining, softening, or farther preparation which it may require is performed by the currier; whereas the leather-dresser brings the thinner kinds of leather to a completion, carrying

tawing

shammoying

morocco-leather

The stores of prepared leather kept at an establishment of this kind are immense. The mills here spoken of were built or years ago by a company who attempted the manufacture of paper from straw; but this failing, the premises passed into the hands of others, who established the leather-manufacture. In illustration of what was formerly stated respecting the tide-streams, we may remark that this is of the factories which still obtain their supply of water from this source. We have thought that a wood-cut representation, given in a previous page, of a leather-manufacturer's establishment, will convey a general idea of the appearance which derives from the numerous examples of them.

Glue-manufactories form another item in the list for which is so remarkable, and which, so far as the metropolis is concerned, is confined almost wholly to that locality. Here, as in the leather-manufacture, both buildings and open ground are required. The small erections which we have spoken of as being visible in the glue-manufactories from the Greenwich Railway are covered stages, or tiers--of frames, each frame having a net-work stretched across it, for the reception of thin cakes of glue, which are thus dried by the access of air. In passing of these factories more closely, the eye of a stranger is attracted by the appearance of thousands of small white substances, either suspended under roofs or lying on stages exposed to the open air. These are scraps and parings of hides and skins, useless to the leather-manufacturer, but valuable to the gluemaker, as the substance whence his glue is produced: they are thus exposed for the purpose of being dried before the gelatine is extracted from them. After all this has been done-after the tanner and the fellmonger, the leather-dresser and the glue-maker, have derived from the hides and skins all that is valuable to them, and have coined gold out of these rude substances--the refuse still possesses a value as manure, for which purpose it is sold to agriculturists and gardeners.

There was a time when the manufacture of hats formed of the characteristics of this neighbourhood; but this branch of manufacture, from some cause with which we are not well acquainted, has suffered a curious migration. At about the end of the last century and the beginning of the present, the

Maze

London Directory,

The connexion between fur, hair, wool, and skin-all being portions of the coating of animals-might raise a supposition that the manufacture or rather preparation of the , like that of the other , is carried on at . But this is the case only to a small extent. The fur for hatters is cut from the pelts of the beaver, the neutria, the rabbit, and other fur-bearing animals, by a class of tradesmen called

hatters' furriers,

A walk through the streets of shows us that everybody is busy and active. Scarcely any houses are shut up-scarcely any loiterers or idlers are looking about for a leaning-post. Unlike Spitalfields, which experiences great and frequent depressions in trade-thus bearing heavily on the resources and the comforts of the weaver--the staple manufacture of seems always more or less flourishing. We seldom hear of petitions, and subscriptions, and appeals, for the

poor tanners;

If this article should fall into the hands of any who are accustomed to cross daily in the course of their regular avocations, they will probably understand to whom we allude when we speak of the sack and bag women of . Not more regular are the

short stages

Emerald Isle;

something to do

sack and bag hire-warehouses.

The women to whom we allude are the persons who make these bags and sacks. They go to the warehouses, principally on the northern side of the water, receive each a bundle of coarse canvas or other woven material sufficient to make a certain number of bags, place the bundles on their heads, and-braving weather and crowds and interruptions right merrily-hasten to their own poor

moving pictures

[n.18.1] London-No. XLIX. Spitalfields, p. 385.

[n.20.1] Oliver Twist, vol. iii. p 240.