Founders Arms

The Founders Arms is one of the few reminders of Bankside’s industrial past. Situated on the Thames Path in between the Bankside exit of Blackfriars Station and Tate Modern, it has riverside seating with terrific views over the River Thames. The modern pub, built in 1979, is owned by Young’s Brewery who bought the freehold of a nineteenth century pub called the Founders Arms that stood there. The pub’s name probably derived from the Falcon Iron Foundry which was located close by. In 1795 it was reported the foundry was owned by Messrs Prickett and Handyside and employed in extensive business.

Walking around the area of Bankside and the Borough today it’s hard to imagine that the area was a centre of manufacture and heavy industry with the associated noise, dirt and noxious fumes. It is difficult to recognize the area as the same place that was described in 1843:

“Those dwellers in and visitors to the ‘Great Metropolis’ who cross Southwark Bridge from the City to the Borough can scarcely fail to have observed the array of tall chimneys which meets the eye on either side of its southern extremity; each one serving as a kind of beacon or guide-post to some large manufacturing establishment beneath – here a brewery, there a saw-mill, farther on a hat factory, a distillery, a vinegar factory, and numerous others. Indeed Southwark is as distinguishable at a distance for its numerous tall chimneys and the clouds of smoke emitted by them, as London is for its thickly-congregated church-spires.”

George Dodd, Days in the Factories

This photo was taken in August 2012, since when, the sign has been replaced. The new one features a large capital 'F' flanked by line drawings of the Gherkin and St Paul's, looking like a large customised facebook logo. Why??