Acorn Property Group and Galliard Homes have carefully refurbished and restored a Grade-II listed early-Georgian townhouse at 148 Long Lane in London’s Bermondsey, the property has links to Charles Dickens and has been transformed into a dressed family home with a modern specification, retained heritage features, rooftop garden and private rear garden.
Cited by English Heritage as one of the earliest and most important examples of preserved Georgian architecture in the area, the 2,282 sqft three bedroom townhouse at 148 Long Lane was originally built in 1732, with a twin townhouse built at 146 Long Lane.
Three bays wide and providing accommodation over lower ground, ground, first and second floor, with a roof garden above, the pair of townhouses are set back from the road behind original Georgian iron railings. They have elegant brick facades with red brick dressings, arched sash windows, moulded cornices and classical front entrance, with doors flanked by Corinthian fluted pilasters and entablature.
The townhouse at 148 Long Lane was built for a wealthy leather merchant, who owned a tanning factory behind the property, and the original carved marble fireplace in the study depicts scenes of the leather trade. The twin at No.146 was built for a mill owner Josiah Fogden who ran Spillery’s flour mill, bakery and shop (known as J. Fogden’s Grocery Market & Bakery) adjacent to the houses.
The townhouses and their original owners inspired Charles Dickens (1812-1870), who lodged nearby on Lant Street, to write his novel Hard Times (1854), set in fictional Coketown, which depicts the lives of factory owners and their employees and features a character Josiah Bounderby, a mill owner.
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