Battle Bridge

Battlebridge. Mill lane, Tooley-street, Southwark; it was so called from Battle's abbey; it standing over a water-course, which flows out of the Thames, and formerly belonged to that abbey. This bridge was therefore built and repaired by the Abbots of that house. Stow.

Battle Bridge, by Mill Lane, Tooley Street, Southwark.

So called of Battaile Abbey, for that it standeth on the ground, and over a watere course (flowing out of the Thames), pertaining to that Abbey.—Stow, p. 155.

The Abbot of Battle had here his inn or town-house, with its gardens and maze. Here by the Thames, opposite the east end of the Custom House, are Battle Bridge Stairs.

[Battle Bridge] The following particulars of this locality, of which but scant notices are found in any local history or topographical work, were given by the late Mr. G. R. Corner, F.S.A., at a special general meeting of the Surrey Archæological Society, held at St. Olave's Branch School-house, in 1856. "It is difficult," he said, "to imagine that a neighbourhood now so crowded with wharves and warehouses, granaries and factories, mills, breweries, and places of business of all kinds, and where the busy hum of men at work like bees in a hive is incessant, can have been, not many centuries since, a region of fields and meadows, pastures for sheep and cattle, with pleasant houses and gardens, shady lanes where lovers might wander (not unseen), clear streams with stately swans, and cool walks by the river-side. Yet such was the case; and the way from London Bridge to Horselydown was occupied by the mansions of men of mark and consequence, dignitaries of the Church, men of military renown, and wealthy citizens. First, in St. Olave's Street, opposite to the church, was the London residence of the Priors of Lewes. Adjoining to the church, on the east side, where Chamberlain's wharf now stands, was the house of the Priors of St. Augustine at Canterbury; next to which was the Bridge House; and a little further eastward was the house of the Abbots of Battle, in Sussex, with pleasant gardens and a clear stream (now a black and fœtid sewer), flowing down Mill Lane, and turning the abbot's mill at Battle Bridge Stairs. On this stream were swans, and it flowed under a bridge (over which the road was continued to Bermondsey and Horselydown), from the Manor of the Maze, the seat of Sir William Burcestre or Bourchier, who died there in 1407, and Sir John Burcestre, who died there in 1466, and was buried at St. Olave's; and afterwards of Sir Roger Copley. The site is now known by the not very pleasant name of Maze Pond.

Battle Bridge, Tooley Street. Early maps (Braun and Hogenberg, 1572; Agas, 1633) show the bridge as part of Tooley Street spanning over a ditch of water that extends from the Thames to the south of Tooley Street. Some later maps (Faith and Newcourt, 1658) show a bridge perpendicular to and near the middle of Mill Lane. Rocque's map (1746) labels two points as "Battle Bridge"': one perpendicular to Mill Lane, and another at the end of Mill Lane.