LONDON BRIDGE HOSPITAL

13 4 5CHAMBERLAIN’SWHARFThe present Victorian Chamberlain’s Wharf building,which houses the London Bridge Hospital’sMain Building, was built as a warehouse in the1860s. It replaced earlier warehouses, which hadbeen rebuilt several times and dated back to theseventeenth century. Before that time, the site hadbeen occupied by one of the splendid ecclesiasticpalaces, the Inn of St Augustine’s Abbey, whichwas turned into warehouses after Henry VIII closeddown the monasteries and sold off church property.The previous Chamberlain’s Wharf buildings weredestroyed in the disastrous Great Fire of TooleyStreet, which burned out many hundreds of squarefeet of warehouses in 1861. Chamberlain's was thenrebuilt as a single building, with the ground plan ofthe old multiple buildings lending to its particularshape on the entrance front. The earlier buildingswere spared a fire in 1843, which destroyed all thebuildings upstream, including St Olave’s Church.The warehouses were built anew with the churchbeing restored to its eighteenth century condition.The warehouse was used for tea storage and goodsfrom the Baltic Sea, with the ships berthing on thequay in front.2ST OLAF HOUSESt Olaf House, which houses London BridgeHospital’s Consulting and Administration Rooms,was built as the Headquarters for Hay’s Wharf in1931. This fine example of an Art Deco building wasdesigned by the famous architect, H.S. Goodhart-Rendel, and is one of his best known works. It is alisted building with its well-known river façade andDoulton faience panels by Frank Dobson, showingdock life and the unloading of goods, ‘Capital,Labour and Commerce’. Its boardroom, the heart ofthis Pool of London Wharfage Empire, has been usedin several television commercials, including BritishAirways.The Chairman of Hay’s Wharf, Sir David Burnett,was also an artist who drew several scenes on thedocks, including the Chamberlain’s Wharf area. Asthe docking industry moved downriver to Tilbury, itwas Sir David who started the move to a commercialdevelopment of the area, with offices, shops, housingand the founding of London Bridge Hospital.The site of St Olaf House had been occupied formany centuries by the historic St Olave’s Church,which was the parish church for the area and whichremained through all the changes to the district rightup to 1928. The tower has always been a landmarkin the area through medieval times, and wasreplaced by a fine new tower as part of its rebuildingin the eighteenth century to the designs of HenryFlitcroft, a well-known architect of the period.EMBLEM HOUSE(IncorporatingDenmark House)Emblem House and Denmark House, whichhouses part of London Bridge Hospital’s OutpatientDepartment, were both built in 1900 as shippingand general offices. The larger Emblem House hasan interesting façade all in faience, and DenmarkHouse has a large intricate stone sculpture at rooflevel showing a merchant ship. This is typical of theoffices that served the adjacent wharfs, all bringingin many varieties of food products, so much so thatthis side of the Pool of London was known as the‘Larder of London’.The extensive cellars were used for storage,including the Czar of Russia’s silver reserves, andlater that of Lenin’s, which were shipped out of thebuilding when necessary in a plain-looking breaddelivery van.6LBH HistoryLft.indd 4-6 18/07/2011 15:39