Bermondsey and Old Southwark
Notional 2005 Results:
Liberal Democrat: 17422 (47.8%)
Labour: 11621 (31.9%)
Conservative: 4632 (12.7%)
Other: 2746 (7.5%)
Majority: 5801 (15.9%)
Actual 2005 result
Conservative: 4752 (12.5%)
Labour: 12468 (32.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 17874 (47.1%)
Green: 1137 (3%)
UKIP: 791 (2.1%)
Other: 937 (2.5%)
Majority: 5406 (14.2%)
2001 Result
Conservative: 2800 (7.6%)
Labour: 11359 (30.8%)
Liberal Democrat: 20991 (56.9%)
UKIP: 271 (0.7%)
Green: 752 (2%)
Other: 689 (1.9%)
Majority: 9632 (26.1%)
1997 Result
Conservative: 2835 (6.9%)
Labour: 16444 (40.3%)
Liberal Democrat: 19831 (48.6%)
Referendum: 545 (1.3%)
Other: 1140 (2.8%)
Majority: 3387 (8.3%)
Boundary changes: Loses part of Livesey and Faraday wards to Camberwell and Peckham. Despite the seat being largely unchanged, the name was changed from North Southwark and Bermondsey at the suggestion of Simon Hughes, so as to make clear the constituency did not include the whole of the North of the borough of Southwark, and didn`t include only the northern part of Bermondsey.
Profile: This covers central London south of the river, facing the City of London across the Thames. It includes Elephant & Castle, Walworth, Bankside, borough, Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Surrey Quays. The riverfront has undergone massive redevelopment and gentrification, and is now backed with offices, luxury apartments, the cultural quarter of Tate Modern and the Globe theatre and skyscrapers popping up around City Hall, whose crash helmet style home sits on the riverfront here. The seat also includes Guys Hospital and the fashionable Borough market.
Alway from the trendy apartments to the north though, the rest of the area is still poor, racially mixed and struggling with problems of crime and deprivation. Over half the housing is social housing and there are huge and troubled council estates here like the Heygate estate and planned regeneration has been delayed by tenants voting against being transferred to housing associations. In future years massive regeneration is still planned, but for the moment much of the seat is a testament to the grim concrete social housing of the last century.
Demographically you would expect this seat to return a Labour MP: a poverty striken inner city seat, over 20% afro-carribean, over 40% of properties council owned. In fact it has been held by the Liberals and Liberal Democrats for almost a quarter of a century. Simon Hughes continued tenure is probably due to his own performance as MP, but he probably only became the MP for Bermondsey in the first place because of the unusual circumstances of his election. The Bermondsey by-election must be one of the most infamous in recent political history. The local Labour party had selected as their PPC the left-winger Peter Tatchell (see Oxford East), who was disowned by the then Labour leader Michael Foot. He was opposed by a Labour right-winger, John O`Grady, who stood as a “Real Labour” candidate and was backed by the former MP Bob Mellish. The by-election was notoriously dirty, Tatchell was consistently attacked for his sexuality, received hate mail and a bullet in the post. The Liberal party took the seat on an overwhelming swing and have remained here ever since.
Current MP: Simon Hughes(Lib Dem) born 1951, Cheshire. Educated at Llandaff Cathedral School and Cambridge University. Barrister. The second longest serving Liberal Democrat MP, Hughes was first elected to Parliament in the notorious 1983 Bermondsey by-election. Environment spokesman 1983-1988, education spokesman 1988-1992, environment spokesman 1992-1994, health spokesman 1994-1997, home affairs spokesman 1997-2003. He contested the London Mayoral election in 2004. President of the Liberal Democrats since 2004. Contested the Liberal Democrat leadership elections of 1999 and 2006, during which he was outed by the Sun newspaper (more information at They work for you)
Candidates: 
Loanna Morrison (Conservative) Journalist and businesswoman.
Val Shawcross (Labour) Former Croydon councillor (1994-2000) and leader of Croydon council. London Assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark since 2000. Awarded the CBE in 2002.
Amanda Penfold (Green) born Liverpool. Former fitness instructor, now working in a solicitor`s office, specialising in immigration law.
Stephen Tyler (BNP)
2001 Census Demographics
Total 2001 Population: 108379
Male: 50.1%
Female: 49.9%
Under 18: 20.2%
Over 60: 13.1%
Born outside UK: 30.2%
White: 67.5%
Black: 20.5%
Asian: 4.8%
Mixed: 3.5%
Other: 3.7%
Christian: 61.6%
Hindu: 1.2%
Muslim: 7.2%
Full time students: 12.3%
Graduates 16-74: 34.9%
No Qualifications 16-74: 24.3%
Owner-Occupied: 26.9%
Social Housing: 56.3% (Council: 44.1%, Housing Ass.: 12.2%)
Privately Rented: 13.8%
Homes without central heating and/or private bathroom: 7.2%
Something like;
Lib Dem 17500
Labour 10500
Cons 6500
Green 2500
Others 2000
Which seats have ‘the Borough’ area and cathedral been in since 1885?
Southwark North 1885 – 1950 (Central and South East did not).
Southwark 1950 – 1974
Bermonsey 1974 – 1983
Southwark & Bermonsey 1983 – 1997
Southwark North & Bermonsey 1997 – 2010
Old Southwark & Bermonsey 2010 -
It was Southwark West from 1885 to 1918. Southwark North 1918-1950.
The Southwark Central and Southwark SE seats which existed from 1918-1950 were infact the succesors to the previous Newington West and Newington, Walworth seats respectively. Southwark West was so named because Bermondsey and Rotherhithe were also designated as Southwark seats.
Incidentally the five seats alluded to above (Southwark, Bermondsey; Southwark, Rotherhithe; Southwark, West; Newington, Walworth and Newington West) are now almost entirely contained within this constituency – part of Newington, Walworth are in Camberwell & peckham together with a small part of Rotherhithe, but essentially there were five seats here where now there is one. There are not manya reas where relative and absolute population decline has created such a dramatic loss of seats. In Tower Hamlets there were 9 seats frrom 1885-1918 where there will now be 2 (and currently less than 2.
Cities of London & Westminster includes several seats from that time: City of London (2 seats), Westminster, Strand, St George’s Hanover Square and parts of Marylebone East, Marylebone West, Paddington North and Paddington South.
Other than that you would have to look at the central constituencies of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow to find so many 1885-1918 vintage constituencies contained within one current constituency.
Roy Jenkins said as much in his autobiography. He won the Southwark Central by-election in 1948.
In his career he represented seats in three of Britain’s major cities – London, Birmingham and Glasgow.
How many MPs have that record.
Andre Bonar Law represented seats in London (Dulwich) and Glasgow (central) and also Bootle which did include the freehold voters from Liverpool,
“Other than that you would have to look at the central constituencies of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow to find so many 1885-1918 vintage constituencies contained within one current constituency.”
The Current Glasgow Central was made up of the 1955 – 1974 constituencies -
Glasgow Bridgeton
Glasgow Central
Glasgow Govan (Half)
Glasgow Kelvingrove (Most)
Glasgow Pollok (Half)
Glasgow Woodside (Part)
Assume Manchester Central includes most of Manchester Moss Side (except what is now part of Withington), Manchester Exchange, Manchester Cheetham.
Birmingham Ladywood must also annex Birmingham All Saints, Birmingham Aston and perhaps part of Birmingham Handsworth.
Liverpool Riverside must include Liverpool Scotland, Liverpool Toxteth, Liverpool Exchange, part of Liverpool Edge Hill.
Walton must include Kirkdale.
STOPPRESS…….Glasgow Central also included the whole of Glasgow Gorbals and part of Glasgow Cathcart.
In terms of the 1885-1918 constituencies, of the Six Manchester constituencies then five are now almost entirely within the Manchester Central seat. Only Manchester South covered some areas no mostly in Gorton. The other current Manchester seats were all out in other county seats (Gorton was in Gorton, Withington in Stretford, Wythenshawe in Altrincham and Blackley in Prestwich).
The majority of the Liverpool seats were also in the area now covered by Riverside – Kirkdale, Everton, Scotland, Exchange, Abercromby and West Toxteth. Wards in these places now cover areas which used to be whole constituencies.
I think this seat should be renamed Canada Water.
Might be better for Tories aswell.
I hope you’re not being serious. Few people outside this area know specifically where Canada Water is, whereas Bermondsey & Southwark are traditional areas well-known to many.
Joe James, I do not agree with the name suggestion – a bit like Weaver Vale (wouldn’t that be better as Runcorn and Northwich?)