The Blue

For other uses, see The Blue (disambiguation).
The Blue
Location Bermondsey, Southwark, Greater London
Coordinates 51°29′32.48″N 0°03′48.96″W / 51.4923556°N 0.0636000°WCoordinates: 51°29′32.48″N 0°03′48.96″W / 51.4923556°N 0.0636000°W
Address Southwark Park Road
Management Southwark London Borough Council
Owner Southwark London Borough Council
Environment Outdoor
Goods sold General goods
Days normally open Monday–Saturday
Number of tenants 24

The Blue is a central market place in Bermondsey an area in London.[1] The market is open Monday to Saturday from 9am until 5pm and has about 10 stall holders, selling food and clothes.[2][3] The area has been known as The Blue for more than two hundred and thirty years and is probably named after the original Blue Anchor public house that gave its name to Blue Anchor Lane.[4][5][6] The market has capacity for 24 stalls.[7]

Immediately north of Blue Anchor Lane on an arched viaduct are the multiple railway tracks of the Brighton and South East Main Lines. The Blue Anchor Lane joins St. James's Road where the viaduct arches to the immediate north west contain the remnants of the disused Spa Road railway station which was the original terminus of London's first railway.

In 2005 a Metropolitan Police report described the area as a crime hotspot for "race crime and youth disorder".[8] In 2009 during the funeral procession of Jade Goody a white dove was released at The Blue, where her family once had a stall.[9]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Bermondsey Lion.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Blue, Bermondsey.
  1. Bermondsey Community Council, on the website of Southwark Council "The central market place in Bermondsey is called The Blue. We’re not clear why it’s called The Blue, but possibly because of Bermondsey’s nautical ties or its location to Blue Anchor Road. If anyone knows better, let us at Bermondsey community council know!"
  2. The Blue Market, www.bluemarket.co.uk, retrieved March 2013
  3. Street markets of Southwark, www.myvillage.com, archived from the original on 13 September 2008
  4. A short account of the PARISH OF BERMONDSEY with notes on its boundaries
  5. Kenneth Alford Haines, A Bermondsey Boy's War. Part 2-Prelude to the Blitz, "An archive of World War II memories written by the public, gathered by the BBC". "known as the 'Blue,' after a pub called the 'Blue Anchor' on the corner of Blue Anchor Lane."
  6. Edward Walford (1878), Bermondsey: The abbey', Old and New London: Volume 6 (1878), pp. 117-133., British History Online. Describes the area around the Blue Anchor Road, that was according to the source named after the Blue Anchor pub.
  7. http://www.nmtf.co.uk/markets.php?id_mar=422
  8. 2913/Southwark Crime A4 AW Metropolitan Police, 1 January 2005 p. 18 (PDF p. 19)
  9. Staf. Thousands watch Goody's funeral, BBC, 4 April 2009

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