Guinness Buildings

[Phil]

I have relations in the Guinness Buildings in Bermondsey and am try to locate the area of Bermondsey was in. Also any information about the history or type of accommodation. There seem to be a number of Guinness Buildings around is there any special in the name?

Regards

Phil

[Zoe Archer]

I have relations in the Guinness Buildings in Bermondsey and am try to locate the area of Bermondsey was in. Also any information about the history or type of accommodation. There seem to be a number of Guinness Buildings around is there any special in the name?

Regards

Phil

Hi Phil,

They were lodging houses built by Sir Edward Guinness to improve the living conditions of the London poor. They were, apparently, single rooms plus the use of a club room, shared bathroom facilities with hot and cold water baths and access to hot and cold water all day. A far cry from the slums where the water was turned on only for an hour or two per day.

At the same time buildings were erected by another philanthropist, George Peabody.

I don't believe these two gentlemen actually did the building, but their trust funds paid for them.

HTH
Cheers
Zoe Archer

[AnnB]

Quote from 'The London Encyclopaedia' (published 1983)
Guinness Trust - Formed in 1890 by Sir Edward Guinness to provide housing for the urban poor. The first estate was at Brandon Street, Walworth. There were also estates at Lever Street, Finsbury and Pages Walk, Bermondsey - these have been totally reconstructed on site by the Trust. The estates in Vauxhall Square, Lambeth and Brandon Street were sold to local authorities for demolition and redevelopment. The four remaining estates, Draycott Avenue, Chelsea; Columbia Road, Bethnal Green; Snow's Fields, Bermondsey; and Fulham Palace Road are being partly demolished and partly converted into flats.

Hope that helps
Ann

[Phil]

Thank you for this info. It is most enlightening.

Regards

Phil

[Denise]

Snowfields is close to Guys Hospital, hope that helps to to pinpoint area denise

[Phil]

Snowfields is close to Guys Hospital, hope that helps to to pinpoint area denise

Thanks Denise. I have just found a Guinness Court in Snowfields which I will have a look at next time I'm in London. I'm sure things will have changed a bit!

Phil

[Vossy]

I lived in Guinness Buildings in Pages Walk, Bermondsey ( Just off the Old Kent Road. The flats were large Victorian blocks built by the Guinness Trust for poor people. There were Guinness Trust buildings all over London. The flats were not luxurious by todays standards. Thee were four large blocks of buildings and each block had about six entrances. These entrances let to concrete staircases and there were four flats on each landing. The size of the flats varied but most were just two rooms. A living room/kitchen (this had a range(coal or gas) but no running water) and one bedroom. The toilets and sinks( two of each) were outside the flats on each landing and were shared by 4 families. The baths were in two seperate blocks and it was possible to bath on only two days a week. My grandfather was one of the caretakers ( they were called porters) and one of his duties was to stoke the boilers to heat hot water for the baths. The baths were in cubicles and you had to pay( I think it was 2d) and he would run the bath for you ( there were no taps, he had a brass tap which fitted on the square spindle to operate the tap so you couldn't take extra hot water). There was no electricity in the flats, all the lights were gas mantles. I lived there as a small child until about 1960 and they eventually put in electricity in about 1962/3. The flats were demolished in about 1970 and a brand new flats were built. They are still there. We moved away to Guinness Buildings in Kennington Park Road ( where we had our own bath) and they are also still there.
Gunness Trust now have houses and flats all over the UK.
That description of the flats makes me sound ancient but I am only talking about 45 years ago in central London! I am only 52 myself.
I have an excellent photograph of the old Victorian block in Pages Walk if you would like a copy. If your relatives lived in this block, my parents may well remember them. What were their names?

[Ken Boyce]

I believe there were two brothers in the family brewery business

One or both of the brothers were big into real estate. In 1932 the family purchased for the sum of $75,000, 4000 acres of land in a huge sweep of mountainside along the North Shore of Vancouver's Burrard Inlet with the intention of developing upper class real estate The story goes that venture almost went bankrupt because no-one from the upper classes was interested in travelling the ferries across the harbour to and from the City's business area on the south side of the Inlet. Passage by road around the shoreline was blocked by the mountains, the Capilano River and a deep wide fiord known as Indian Arm.

In desperation or inspiration, depending upon who is telling the story, the Guinness Trust via its syndicate company British Pacific Properties Ltd built a bridge across the entrance to Vancouver Harbour The bridge was completed in 1938 at a cost of some 5.8M. The bridge at 1517m was at that time the longest suspension bridge in the British Empire. It was operated as a toll bridge by the Guinness family until 1963 at which time it was sold to the British Columbia Government.

Today the bridge in question is the famous North Pacific landmark known as the Lions Gate Bridge named after the mountain peak which frames as you travel across it to reach the north shore – oh and the mountainside development now consists of multi-million $ homes

Regards

[Ed McKie]

That description of the flats makes me sound ancient but I am only talking about 45 years ago in central London! I am only 52 myself.

I recall visiting a similar block of flats in about 1970 as part of my job, it was in the Borough as I recall in a back Street not far down from London Bridge. I am reasonably certain it was not the Snowsfields one. Anyway I remember the outside toilets, and have often wondered in recent years if my memory was playing me tricks ( I am considerably older than 52!) So thanks for that description of what "modern" homes for the poor were like even as recently as that.

Ed

[Karen Steel]

Hello Vossy,

I have just come across your message, and was very interested in what you had to say.

My Grandfather was born in the Guinness Buildings, Snowsfields, I am not sure if that is the same one as yours?

He was called Albert Henry Steel, b1914, at 322 Guinness Buildings, and his mother and father were James Henry Steel, and Eleanor Steel. His father was a Carman/Journeyman.

Is this the same building do you know, and I would be very interested in any photos you may have, and whether any of your family remember the Steels?

Many thanks, Kind Regards, Karen Steel