LONDON CALLING: Old Billingsgate Walk

A few buildings sighted while walking along the northern shore of the River Thames, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge.

This stretch of the river used to known as The Pool of London: imported cargoes had to stop here to be inspected by Customs Officers, at “Legal Quays.” Customs House is still here (now HMRC, tax office), next door to Old Billingsgate.

Old Billingsate at No.1 Old Billingsgate Walk is an 1875 building, now an events venue but it was originally Billingsgate Fish Market, the world's largest fish market in the 19th century). It was a fish market until 1982.

The design is by Sir Howard Jones, the architect behind Tower Bridge
(see post http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/tower-bridge.html).

George Orwell worked here for a while (read his memoir “Down and Out in Paris and London,” published in 1933.)

No.1 Old Billingsgate features several fish-sculptures, on the roof and even on top of the weather vane. The view of the rest of the building was blocked by some event being set up.

There are three main spaces for hire inside: gallery, grand hall (triple height and sky-lit) and the vault. The plant rooms and the roof tops can also be used as film location.

There is even a little fish on top of the street lamp nearby.

Tower Bridge & HMS Belfast moored across the river.

As described in the previous post, HMS Belfast (1938 navy cruiser) is now

a museum ship and a popular tourist attraction

(http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/london-bridge-shard.html)

City Hall (spherical building, see further down) & HMS Belfast.

HMS Belfast and No.1 London Bridge (see http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/london-bridge-shard.html) as seen from The Tower of London,

City Hall (on left), The Shard, and HMS Belfast, as seen from The Tower of London.

The round glass building is City Hall (2002, designed by Norman Foster).

City Hall is the headquarters for the Greater London Authority, i.e. the London Assembly and the Mayor of London (not to be confused with the Lord Mayor of London who leads the City of London Corporation and resides at Mansion House

(photos in http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/bank-junction.html)

The area surrounding City Hall has been renamed More London Riverside.

HMS Belfast - and ship emblem on the street lamp?

The Shard with the sun in our faces; fish / dolphin figure on the street lamp and the City of London coat of arms with its motto, in Latin “Domine Dirige Nos” (“Lord, guide us”).

From left to right in the pic:

Hay’s Galleria, with an arched glass roof in the middle is a listed structure, named after the merchant Alexander Hay.

Originally a brewhouse in the 17^th c, converted into a wharf and enclosed dock with warehouse, in the 19^th c. and renamed Hay’s Wharf. It was an important place for the arrival of tea.

It was rebuilt after a fire on Southwark in 1861. Shackelton’s ship was docked here in 1921 before he left for his last expedition. The place was bombed during WWII. It closed in 1970 but was redeveloped in the 1980s as offices and shops. The glass roof was added then, making Hay’s Galleria a pleasant shopping mall. One office block is called Shackelton House.

The Shard and below, in front of the London Bridge City Pier, another building with a glass roof in the middle (this one angled.) Next door to that is the London Bridge Hospital (private hospital built in 1986) which has expanded into the next building, St Olaf House, the first Art Deco building in the UK. This building, on the right of the pic, bears the name Hay’s Wharf on its riverside façade (although it is too dark to see in this pic). St Olave’s Church had been demolished in the 1920s to build this office block as the headquarters of the Hay’s Wharf Company.

Gulls and cormorant eyeing the view of Hay’s Galleria, The Shard, London Bridge City Pier, London Bridge Hospital, St Olaf House, No.1 London Bridge, London Bridge.

GULL

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