Wednesday Picture: Is London Bridge getting better – or worse?


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For any of you who live, work or just spend lots of time around the London Bridge area, local irritations are probably a toss-up between the hordes of tourists flocking to gawp at the Shard, push up prices at the divisively swished up Borough Market, and photograph Tower Bridge when you’re running late – and the constant noise and disruption in your face caused by the place being what feels like a permanent building site.

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City Hall, with Potters Field Park in the foreground

But there’s also loads to love about the area. Unsurprisingly, we’re rather fond of the riverside, but also of Zandra Rhodes’ Fashion & Textile Museum, the hotdogs at the new Miller pub on Snowsfields, the annual Rioja Tapas Fantasticas event in Potters Field Park (and the park, generally), the wonderful, free, open-air entertainment at More London’s The Scoop amphitheatre – in fact, all the culture full stop: surely this is south London’s own West End with all the theatres, not to mention the Tate…?

Whether you agree or not, right now you have the chance to have a say in what good stuff you’d like more of, and what bad stuff you could do without. Local champions, Team London Bridge (TLB), the organisation formed by local businesses with the aim of improving the area, is in the middle of a consultation period with everyone who works, lives in or has simply has a love-hate relationship with this bit of SE1. It ends soon – July 6 – so scroll down to see how to get your two-penneth in the mix sharpish.

Or thriving right now? Clockwise from left: Bermondsey Street's Fashion and Textiles Museum, the new Miller pub in Snowsfields and The free, open-air theatre at Scoop at More London
Is London Bridge thriving right now? Clockwise from left: Bermondsey Street’s Fashion and Textiles Museum, the new Miller pub in Snowsfields and The free, open-air theatre at Scoop at More London (click on image to enlarge)

THE GOOD
The new rooftop cafe on HMS Belfast * Borough Market  (especially when you need a hangover Friday sausage sandwich) * The railway arches * The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret  * Shad Thames * The amazingly friendly staff at Caphe House on Bermondsey Street * The view from the Shard * White Cube, Bermondsey * Alex Monroe’s jewellery shop * Hutong, the Chinese restaurant at the Shard * The Magdalen, Tooley Street * Gibbons Rents * The Woolpack * The Rastafarian Big Issue Seller outside Guy’s Hospital * Andrew Logan’s boutique * The new outdoor gym in Tabard Park * Boris cycling along on Tooley Street, chatting to pedestrians

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Or was it better back in the day? Clockwise from left: Borough Market in the 1920s, Tooley Street in the 1880s and an almost unrecognisable station front (click to enlarge image)
…AND THE BAD
Borough Market (it’s a love-hate thing) * Constant construction and road works * The tourist crowds * The view of the Shard * Too many branches of Pret! * Cable nightclub closing * Not enough clothes shops * The noise * Overzealous security guards * Not enough late night bars * The foreboding long tunnels under the railway * Pitiful cycle parking * That the station will be a mess for the next five years * Chuggers on Borough High Street * Yet another Sainsbury’s opening – on top of the ones on Borough High Street and Tower Bridge Road * There’s hardly anywhere good to go and eat or drink in the evenings

Got an opinion? Want to tell the people with some power to act on it? Over at the TLB website you can leave comments, complete a survey or have an old-fashioned rant down the phone. Check it out here

And we’d like to know what you think too – maybe we’ll do a follow up full of excellent ideas to improve SE1. So do hit us up with your brilliant suggestions.


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