Neckinger Mills

Neckinger Mills

Former warehouse, now in mixed residential and commercial use, with an associated dwelling house. Built in 1864 for Bevingtons and Sons, a major tannery. Some late 20th-century alteration.

The warehouse is constructed of yellow stock brick with red brick and stone detailing. It is rectangular in plan but comprises three distinct elements: a central two-bay block, a four-bay wedge-shaped block to the west (accommodating the neighbouring railway embankment which cuts diagonally past the building), and a five-bay block to the east. The long north elevation faces Abbey Street. A loading tower stands at the west end of the south elevation.

The main building is four storeys high with pitched roofs and eaves to the east and west blocks. The central block terminates in a shaped gable-end to the front, bearing a stone plaque inscribed "NECKINGER MILLS / BEVINGTONS AND SONS". The elevation is heavily fenestrated with distinctive tripartite windows divided by slim cast-iron columns. Each opening is surmounted by a gauged red-brick segmental arch with stone shoulders to the far left and right of each tripartite group. The arches have pronounced stone keystones that extend several courses above the tops of the brick arches. The majority of windows are twelve-light steel casements; in some cases the central window of each group is a six-over-six timber sliding sash. Horizontal bands of red brick connect windows in the east and west blocks; the central block has no such banding. The central block contains a doorway with a deep flat stone surround and a half-glazed timber door that survives behind a metal rolling shutter.

The east elevation has a gable-end and is three bays wide with fenestration matching the front elevation. The central bay contains loading doors on all four floors; the doors, hoist, and fold-down loading platforms survive. A date stone reads "R.K.B / 1864".

The rear elevation is dominated by rows of tripartite windows and has an external metal fire escape fitted to it. A second date stone reads "J.B.B. J.W.B. / S.B.B. H.H. / 1864", the initials of the company's partners. The loading tower has five stages with detailing more elaborate than the rest of the building. The bottom stage comprises vermiculated stone blocks; the four stages above are of yellow stock brickwork with red brick and stone details. At the top is a machicolated cornice. The loading doors on the south face of the tower have stone segmental arches, and a stone band runs beneath the fifth stage. Three loading doors survive, along with the hoist, which features an arched brace and circular bracing in the spandrel.

A setted roadway between the warehouse and No. 166 Abbey Street provides vehicular access to the site. No. 166 Abbey Street is a three-storey, three-bay building orientated to the west, with a central door. The single-bay north elevation faces Abbey Street. Also of yellow stock brick, it has fenestration and banding detailing matching the warehouse, though the windows are smaller one-over-one timber sliding sashes. This building is known to predate 1885 and was possibly intended to house a senior member of staff.

Internally, the warehouse has been subdivided for live-work studios and commercial units, but its structure remains evident. Floor joists are supported by slender cast-iron columns of cruciform section that widen at the top where they join a horizontal rectangular iron plate.

Neckinger Mills was originally a late-18th-century paper mill, taking its name from the Neckinger, a tidal stream providing water. Mattias Koops, working with Elias Carpenter, developed methods for recycling paper and producing it from raw materials such as straw and wood. Following Koops' bankruptcy in 1806, the newly founded Bevingtons and Sons took a lease on the six-acre site and transformed it into a centre for processing animal skins for leather. In 1838, the railway line from London Bridge to Greenwich was constructed, cutting diagonally across the site and dividing it into two uneven parts; the line was widened in 1841 and again in 1850. The building at Nos. 162-164 was constructed in 1864. Plans suggest the narrow central section was built between 1885 and 1900. A 1900 plan identified the three sections as storing wool and leather, hat and glove leather, and hat leather respectively.

Bermondsey's abundant supply of water from tidal streams and ditches, and its location apart from London and Westminster, made it a centre for leather production and associated industries from the medieval period. During the late 18th and 19th centuries, these industries developed into large, organised operations using new techniques and machinery.

Bevingtons and Sons established an international reputation as producers of fine, soft skins and continued operating on the site until 1935, when part of their works relocated to Hawley Hill near Dartford. The larger, western part of the site was sold to Bermondsey Borough Council, which redeveloped it as the Neckinger Estate. The smaller eastern portion, comprising only the warehouse and No. 166 Abbey Street plus tanning pits to the rear, remained under the company's ownership. Bevingtons and Sons finally departed the site in the 1980s, when the warehouse was converted to live-work units.