Denmark House – London Bridge Hospital, Tooley Road, Southwark, London, England

Occupying a commanding position overlooking the River Thames and Tower Bridge, London Bridge Hospital is one of the largest private hospitals in the United Kingdom. One of its component buildings is Denmark House which was built in 1900 as shipping and general offices. At roof level, a memory of this past use is preserved by a large relief sculpture showing a merchant ship. The building’s extensive cellars were used for storage of a variety of items, including the Czar of Russia’s silver reserves (which later became those of the nascent Soviet state). When necessary, the silver was shipped out of the building in a plain-looking bread delivery van. In earlier times, Tooley Street had been a route of pilgrimage to Bermondsey Abbey; crossing various fish-filled streams, and fronted by a whole series of large church palaces, as well as the riverside town houses of the church dignitaries. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Tooley Street became a dock road, serving the giant warehouses of the Pool of London which were used to bring in a variety of food products which led to this side of the Pool of London becoming known as the "Larder of London."