Last modified: 28 October 2026

HISTORY OF
WANDSWORTH COMMON

Added 12.4.2019

IN PROGRESS — NOT FOR PUBLICATION



Bevingtons & Sons, Neckinger Mills, c.1862.

[Probably photographed by Geoffrey Bevington, c.1862. See the high-resolution version in the Amica/David Rumsey collection here.]

(Click on image to enlarge)

Bevingtons & Sons Leather Manufactory, Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey

Bevingtons and Sons

Bevingtons and Sons Limited, leather merchants and manufacturers were based at Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey, Southwark. The Bevington family were Quakers originating from Warwickshire and neighbouring Gloucestershire and had been associated with tanning since at least the mid-seventeenth century. For most of its history, the leather industry was in the hands of numerous family firms, of which Bevington and Sons Limited is recognised as a significant example.

By 1795 operations had been established under Samuel Bevington Senior at the former site of Neckinger Paper Mills.  . . . At the Neckinger Mills factory, Bevington and Sons produced and dealt in a wide range of leathers and leather goods, such as gloves. Products were made from foreign and domestic skins including kid, lamb, sheepskin and fine seal-skins. Light leathers, such as Morocco, were produced for making shoes and fancy goods.

[London Metropolitan Archives. See below for longer quotation and source.]

Geoffrey Bevington, Finishing Skivers and Persians for Hats



Finishing Skivers and Persians for Hats

[Copyright V&A]

(Click on image to enlarge)

This image is also recorded on the Museum of London website:

A Photograph recording the process of manufacturing leather, as produced by Bevington & Sons, Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey and St. Thomas's Street, Southwark, London. Three men are shown at work finishing skivers and persians for hat linings and boot making. Photographed outside the factory building. An overseer stands behind the working men. Tools and equipment lie in the foreground. An election bill poster hangs on one of the windows calling 'Layard for Southwark!'. Bevington & Sons Leather Manufactory was established in 1795. A young 23-year-old Geoffrey Bevington, a keen amateur photographer, recorded the scene and others for display on the firm's stand at the 1862 International Exhibition in South Kensington.

[Source: Museum of London: Geoffrey Bevington, ]Manufacturing leather, at Bevington & Sons; c.1875 (accessed 20.4.2019).]

"Layard for Southwark" and the dating of the photograph

The ML notes say c.1875, which may be a decade or more too late - GB died in 1872. Could the "Layard for Southwark" poster be dated? There were General Elections in 1859 [was 1860 a by-election?], 1865 and 1868. Layard was Liberal MP for Southwark December 12, 1860 - February 16, 1870. [Hansard: Mr Austen Layard. The poster could have been in place for some years, but this seems unlikely.

[Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), author, art historian, archaeologist and collector] was elected for Southwark in 1860, and from 1861 to 1866 was Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs in the successive administrations of Lord Palmerston and Lord John Russell. After the Liberals returned to office in 1868 under William Ewart Gladstone, Layard was made First Commissioner of Works and sworn of the Privy Council. Layard resigned from office in 1869, on being sent as envoy extraordinary to Madrid.

[Source: Archinform: Sir Austen Henry Layard (accessed 21.4.2019).]

In addition to proclaiming the Bevingtons' Liberal political allegiance, the Layard poster may also be hinting that the family was also interested in archeology and art - Layard had excavated Nineveh and Nimrud and was a well-known art collector.

See e.g.

In addition to his myriad other accomplishments Layard had also been a soldier in the Crimea. Did this also connect him to Samuel Bevington, who Geffrey Bevington photographed as an army major at this time? Samuel went on to set up the 3rd V.B. The Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment. [Follow up in Harts New Army Lists etc? Also Wikipedia: Queen's Royal regiment (West Surrey).]

Geoffrey Bevington, Three Wool Rug Dressers at Works [check this is the right image & title]



[Copyright V&A]

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Museum of London listing:

The process of manufacturing leather, as produced by Bevington & Sons, Neckinger Mills, Bermondsey and St. Thomas's Street.

Two men and two younger boys are shown at work splitting the sheep skins for skiver and chamois leather, outside the factory building. A pile of skins lie in the foreground. Bevington & Sons Leather Manufactory was established in 1795. A young 23 year old Geoffrey Bevington, a keen amateur photographer, recorded the scene and others for display on the firm's stand at the 1862 International Exhibition in South Kensington.

[Source: https://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/750785/geoffrey-bevington-splitting-sheep-skins-for-skiver-and-chamois-leather-c-1885]

Geoffrey Bevington, "Leather Workers" [title?]



[Copyright V&A]

V&A: Leather tanning at Geoffrey Bevington and Sons: "Photograph of two leather workers tanning hides. They are working on tables outdoors with skins hanging behind them." PB: Why "Geoffrey Bevington and Sons"? Why "unknown photographer"? Some confusion at the VandA, I think.

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Geoffrey Bevington, "Bevington & Sons Tannery (Curriers and Shavers at Work)", 1862



Geoffrey Bevington, "Bevington & Sons Tannery (Curriers and Shavers at Work)", 1862

[Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Also V&A.]

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Henry Mayhew on Bermondsey's army of "Pure-Finders" - collectors of dog dung, a vital ingredient in the tanning of hides

Bermondsey was notoriously nineteenth-century London's smelliest district, largely because of the leather factories that clustered there. No wonder the Bevingtons moved out to salubrious Wandsworth Common. [Incidentally, what does Roy Porter, Social History of London, who grew up in Bermondsey, say about the area?]

Dogs'-dung is called 'Pure', from its cleansing and purifying properties. The name of 'Pure-finders,' however, has been applied to the men engaged in collecting dogs'-dung from the public streets only, within the last 20 or 30 years.

The pure-finders meet with a ready market for all the dogs' dung they are able to collect, at the numerous tanyards in Bermondsey, where they sell it by the stable-bucket full, and get from 6d. to 10d. per bucket, and sometimes 1s. and 1s. 2d. for it, according to its quality. The 'dry limy-looking sort' fetches the highest price at some yards, as it is found to possess more of the alkaline, or purifying properties; but others are found to prefer the dark moist quality.

Strange as it may appear, the preference for a particular kind has suggested to the finders of Pure the idea of adulterating it to a very considerable extent; this is effected by means of mortar broken away from old walls, and mixed up with the whole mass, which it closely resembles; in some cases, however, the mortar is rolled into small balls similar to those found. Hence it would appear, that there is no business or trade, however insignificant or contemptible, without its own peculiar and appropriate tricks.

From all the inquiries I have made on this subject, I have found that there cannot be less than from 200 to 300 persons constantly engaged solely in this business. I have stated that some of the pure-finders, especially the men, earn a considerable sum of money per week; their gains are sometimes as much as 15s.

The pure-finder may at once be distinguished from the bonegrubber and rag-gatherer; the latter carries a bag, and usually a stick armed with a spike, while he is most frequently to be met with in back streets, narrow lanes, yards and other places, where dust and rubbish are likely to be thrown out from the adjacent houses. The pure-finder, on the contrary, is often found in the open streets, as dogs wander where they like. The purefinders always carry a handle basket, generally with a cover, to hide the contents, and have their right hand covered with a black leather glove; many of them, however, dispense with the glove, as they say it is much easier to wash their hands than to keep the glove fit for use.

[Source: http://thehundredbooks.com/Mayhews_London.htm ]