| yard which had existed as early as 1812 on what is now Tower Bridge Road later became Sarsons Vinegar Factory.
Ever since the middle ages, the area had been the chief place in England for the manufacture of leather, In 1850 a third of the leather produced in the country was manufactured and dressed in Bermondsey. Leathermaking was an unpleasant, smoky and very smelly trade.
The strong scent of brewing was one of the well known Bermondsey smells too; the Barclay Perkins' (formerly Thrale's and later Courage's) Anchor Brewery employed some 430 men in 1850 and had the largest output of beer of any firm in London,
As with the rest of the London area, Bermondsey's population expanded at a rapid rate in the 19th century; housed for the most part in poorly constructed houses that were soon to become slums. Overcrowding in parts, as with Southwark and Rotherhithe, was to equal that in parts of Bethnal Green and Stepney. Bermondsey's worst area, Jacobs Island, was described by Charles Dickens in his 'Oliver Twist' in the setting where Bill Sykes finally met his end. This breeding ground of cholera was not demolished until about 1860.
For the most part people in their thousands were housed in row upon row of narrow streets and alleys. Families shared crowded little houses built back to back and to have as many as 9 people living in one room was a frequent occurrence, yet often there was no water supply, only a tap in the street to serve up to 25 houses and no proper sanitation. Life must have been very basic and uncomfortable. | |
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Harriet was born (1859) at 39 Crosby Row just round the corner from
St. Paul's Church in Nelson Street where her parents were married.