The Anonymous Widower

Findlater’s Corner At London Bridge – 11th February 2023

This restoration was shown on the BBC London news in a story, which was entitled London Bridge: Derelict Railway Arches Restored To Past Glory, and I thought it was worth a visit.

Note.

1. It is a fine restoration.
2. I shall be interested to see, the tenants it attracts.
3. The railway bridge needs an appropriate repainting, to eliminate the graffiti.

I think, that with the right tenants, the tea room could be a gem.

The BBC article says this about the tea room.

The project team also made a surprise discovery when removing a section of plaster from a wall to another of the arches; a glass mosaic for an Express Dairy Tea Room dating back to the early 1900s.

Railway stations were a popular location for tea rooms because at the time they had access to the freshest milk, often transported from farms on trains before being sent to urban milk dairies.

“The tea rooms were one of the first places that ladies, who couldn’t necessarily go and eat in bars or eat in chop houses, could come, get together as single women and meet their friends, so this is perhaps an important part of the emancipation of urban woman in London”, said Mr O’Looney.

Mr. O’Looney is the architect of this project, who is the gloriously named; Benedict O’Looney.

He featured in this blog before in It’s Not April The First, where I wrote about his restoration of the waiting room at Pekham Rye station.

February 11, 2023 Posted by AnonW | Food, World | Architecture, Benedict O’Looney, Graffiti, hei, Heritage, London Bridge, Railway Arches, Restoration, Shopping | 4 Comments