NOT SO SQUARE

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29 October 2008

A cinema, shops and a restaurant containing an eleventh century monastery in it feature in the new Bermondsey Square development

THE RUNAWAY success that is Bermondsey Street is creeping inland. The new look Bermondsey Square was opened just weeks ago, and the developers hope it will also become a hot spot for the young and trendy, writes Alex Steger...

The revamped area will feature new shops, a hotel, restaurant and a new independent cinema.

Del Aziz, a Mediterranean delicatessen and brasserie, will open in December, with a bespoke hotel scheduled to open in April. The hotel will also have a bar, bistro, conference facilities, and a Moroccan terrrace.

The obligatory supermarket chain has also set up shop. Sainsbury’s Local is one of the first businesses to open on the square.

The  Shortwaves cinema, scheduled to open at the end of the year or the start of next, will specialise in showing cult and independent films and will also run workshops teaching teenagers to become film directors. The first feature to be shown is the camp classic Rocky Horror Picture Show.

But bringing in the new does not mean the old have been forgotten. The famous New Caledonian Antiques Market will still be hawking its wares from the square, as it has done for at least 60 years, and has space for up to 200 stalls.

The market itself dates back to 1855 and was a 'place to trade with impunity,' or rather a place where stolen goods could be sold.

In fact, an even longer history will also be worked into the development, which took longer than originally planned, due the extent of archaeological remains unearthed beneath the square.

Honor Boyd, Development Director, said: "In London you'd be hard pressed not to find a site without archaeological remains underground. We knew there'd be some, but not to this extent, so it took a bit longer."

The square lies within the Scheduled Ancient Monument of Bermondsey Abbey which was founded as a monastery around 1086 AD. The monastery later became a Benedictine Abbey in 1399, before it was eventually dissolved by Henry VIII in 1538. The last upstanding Abbey building, the inner gatehouse, was destroyed in the 19th Century, by which time much of the site was covered in poor houses and factories.

As the new development was building over a Scheduled Ancient Monument, it meant effort was made in the design and work to preserve as much of the archaeology in the ground for posterity.

Honor Boyd added: "The development retains a significant chunk of the Abbey underground. It can be seen under glass in the restaurant."

Robert Knight, said of the new development: "I think it will bring a new vibrancy to the area. It was formerly a derelict site for years. The new businesses and mixed tenures provide a new focus to the regeneration."

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