offices at No. 84]] Tooley Street is a road in South London connecting London Bridge to St Saviour's Dock; it runs past Tower Bridge on the Southwark side of the River Thames, and forms part of the A200 road. (.)

St Olave

The earliest name for the street recorded in the Rolls is the neutral regio vicio i.e. 'royal street' meaning a public highway. In the Agas map of ca 1560 it is shown as 'Barms Street', i.e. street to Bermondsey; in the Stuart period it was referred to as 'Short Southwark' to differentiate it from 'Long Southwark' (the present Borough High Street). The later 'Tooley' designation is a corruption of the original Church of St Olave and the transformation can be seen on maps of the area from that of 'Ralph Agas', through 'Braun and Hozenburg' and John Roque and later which are labelling the church of that name; 'Synt Toulus', 'Toulas', 'Toolis', 'Toolies'. The church takes its name from the Norwegian King Olaf who was an ally of Æthelred the Unready and attacked Cnut's forces occupying London Bridge in 1013. The earliest reference to the church is in the Southwark entry in Domesday Book of 1086. The church was a little to the east of London Bridge of the period. The church was demolished in 1926 for the headquarters of the Hay's Wharf Company, "St Olaf House", an office block built 1929-31 by Harry Stuart Goodhart-Rendel (1887–1959) in Art Deco style. This has a legend and mural depiction of the Saint. The termination of the street is not actually at the junction with Borough High Street, as assumed, for that part of the highway is actually Duke Street Hill. Tooley Street actually joins Montague Close under the arch of London Bridge a little to the north of this.

Tooley Street fire, 1861

This fire happened at a time when the fire ‘brigade’, formally known as the London Fire Engine Establishment, was still run by insurance companies. It began on 23 June 1861 in a warehouse at Cotton’s Wharf in Tooley Street and raged for two days, destroying many nearby buildings. It was two weeks before the fire went out completely. The head of the Establishment, James Braidwood, was killed by a falling wall while fighting the fire.

Afterwards the insurance companies raised their premiums and threatened to disband the brigade until finally the government agreed take it over. The Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed in 1865 and led to a publicly-funded fire service – the first real London fire brigade. http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/English/EventsExhibitions/Past/LondonsBurning/themes/1437/1438

George Orwell

George Orwell lived as a tramp to gain a first-hand view of poverty. He befriended a man called Ginger in the hop-fields of Kent. They came to a "kip" (doss-house) in Tooley Street and stayed there from September 19 to October 8, 1930. Orwell wrote rough notes in the kip then went further along Tooley Street to Bermondsey Library where he wrote them up into the book Down and Out in Paris and London. The library building was demolished in the 1980s and the site is now part of the open space called Potter's Fields'.

Hay's Wharf

The most famous wharf of the south side of the Pool of London was Hay's Wharf, first mentioned in 1651 to the east of St Olave's church. For 300 years it grew, until Tooley Street and the surrounding industrial development was nicknamed "London's Larder". The warehouses burned down in a disastrous fire on 22 June 1861. It burned for two weeks and smouldered for 6 months. The chief of the fire brigade, James Braidwood died in the fire. Hay's Wharf was where Ernest Shackleton's ship "The Quest" lay in 1921. This dock was filled in during extensive rebuilding in the 1980s and is now a shopping mall called "Hay's Galleria". The office block attached to it is called "Shackleton House". Nearby, at no 27 is the private London Bridge Hospital.

Old and new horrors

A 1542 map of Southwark shows only three or four features on Tooley Street, although it is not given a name on this. One of them is a pillory, set up for punishing fraudulent traders. Next to it is a "cage". This was a place to keep drunken disorderly people who were arrested too late in the day to be imprisoned. They would sleep in the cage until sober. The site of those medieval punishments is occupied, quite appropriately, by London Dungeon, a popular tourist attraction. It opened in 1975 and is similar to the "Chamber of Horrors" in Madame Tussaud's Museum (it is owned by Merlin Entertainments). The next building is "Britain at War", another tourist attraction, a recreation of the Blitz. More poignantly in nearby, Stainer Street, off Tooley Street running under the mainline station, there is a 'Blue Plaque' commemorating the 68 people who were killed in the 1941 bombing raid. Popular legend says that there was so much rubble that bodies were simply left behind, and re-buried in the masonry under London Bridge Station. Another museum and tourist attraction has been created under the Bridge at number 2- 4 called 'The London Bridge Experience and London Tombs', the first part of the display is an exhibition of the history of the Bridge and the other part is more of a popular entertainment similar to the 'Dungeon'.

John Keats

Next to Stainer Street, off Tooley Street is Weston Street. Both are among the gloomiest places in London. At this part of their route they became road tunnels under the mainline station as it expanded over the years. In the early nineteenth century, before the station was built, John Keats lived in Weston Street, at that time called Dean Street, when a medical student at Guy's Hospital. It was here that he wrote the poem "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer".

London Bridge City and More London

From 1987 into the early 1990s and again in the period from 1999 to 2009, new developments between the street and the river have been created. In 1987, with the increasing urban regeneration of the Thames Corridor and nearby London Docklands, the area was acquired by the 'St Martins Property Group' as part of their 'London Bridge City' development, stretching from London Bridge easterly to English Grounds where it is terminated by the Southwark Crown Court site and this has caused a remarkable recovery in the area. In the later campaign of urban renewal More London has been created, bounded by the Hay's Galleria site and Tower Bridge Road, it is a pedestrian area connecting Tooley Street with London City Hall . From the Tooley Street end there are a spectacular vistas converging on Tower Bridge, The Tower of London and City Hall. A children's theatre called The Unicorn Theatre, has been built here. 'The Scoop' is an amphitheatre or stepped area of More London upon which regular events (plays, music, open air movies) are held throughout the summertime. Besides City Hall, a number of prominent London companies are also based here including Visit London, Ernst and Young's European Headquarters, Norton Rose's main building and a Hilton hotel.

Public Buildings

The GLA's City Hall was opened here in 2000. In 2009 Southwark Council will open its new civic centre in a modern office block on Tooley Street, replacing some other facilities within the Borough.

Public houses

At the junction between Tooley Street and Bermondsey Street is a historic pub called "The Shipwright's Arms", recalling one of the local industries. It has a large wall of tiles showing ships being built.

There are also three wine bars — The Mug House, which occupies a vault under London Bridge at 1 Tooley Street, Skinkers under the Railway Viaduct at the corner of Joiner Street and The Auberge within the London Bridge City development. During reconstruction work another pub, The Antigallican, has been closed down. Its name celebrates a man o' war wooden battleship named after the ancient enmity that existed between the English and the French.

Several streets that used to be on maps before 1999 have been swept away — Willson's Wharf, Unicorn Passage, Morgan's Lane and Pickle Herring Street. The Bethell Estate that was built in the early 1930s between Tooley Street and the river was demolished in its entirety for redevelopment.This area used to house some of the poorest people in London, and fell victim to cholera in the 1840s.

Theatres

Two recent additions to street are theatres, the Unicorn Theatre is in a custom built building that does shows exclusively for children whilst the Southwark Playhouse is in a railway arch behind "The Shipwright's Arms"

Public Art, Memorials and Statues

On the corner of Braidwood Street on a building that is part of the London Bridge Hospital is the memorial to James Braidwood who died in the fire of 1861. In the foyer of the Cottons Centre, an office block next to the river, is a modern work of art. Likewise, within Hay's Galleria is the sculpture / fountain 'The Navigators'. There are three water features on More London: a channel called the Rill runs the length of the street; at the City Hall end there are 210 fountains; at the Tooley Street end there are three "Water Tables" continuously overflowing with water and above these is a statue, almost like a waxwork, of an ordinary member of the public.

At the fork in the road between Tooley Street and Elizabeth Street and Tower Bridge Road there are two statues. One is a bust of dockworkers' trade unionist, founder of the Transport & General Workers Union, Churchill's Minister of Labour during WWII and Attlee's Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin. This is somewhat overshadowed by the full size monument to local worthy Samuel Bourne Bevington, a member of a Bermondsey leather manufacturing dynasty and philanthropist. He is represented as the first Mayor of the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey, which incorporated this street, and was erected shortly after his death in 1908.

Anecdotal Culture

"The Three Tailors of Tooley Street" is a remark made in regard to any small group pretending to greater representative authority than they have in reality. It is based on the tale that the eponymous characters wanted to have some exemption from a local rate and were informed they would have to petition the Privy Council; accordingly they drafted their appeal, which began with the phrase "We, The People of England ...". It is notable that by far the largest trade occupation in the Street on the Bridge House Rent Roll prepared for the Poll Tax of 1381 was that of the tailors.

Tooley Street Conservation Area

A Conservation Area is defined under the Civic Amenities Act 1967 as an "area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance." Tooley Street falls within the London Borough of Southwark and was designated a Conservation Area in June 1988 (Tooley Street South) and February 1991 (Tooley Street South).

There are seventeen listed buildings in the conservation area, including: St Olave's Grammar School (exterior and parts interior Grade II*), St. Olaf House (grade II*); Hay's Galleria (grade II), Denmark House (grade II), London Bridge Hospital (grade II), and The Shipwright's Arms public house (grade II).

Southwark Council has also identified a number of buildings on Tooley Street that, whilst unlisted, make a "positive contribution" to the local area, including: The Antigallican public house, Devon Mansions, and Magdalen House.

See also

London Bridge station

The London Bridge Experience

References

External links

LondonTown.com information

Restaurants, Pubs & Bars in Tooley Street, London SE1

Category:Streets in Southwark

Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Name	Rick Ross
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	William Leonard Roberts II
Label	Maybach Music Group, Def Jam Recordings, Def Jam South
Url

William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), better known by his stage name Rick Ross, is an American rapper. He derived his stage name from the drug trafficker "Freeway" Ricky Ross, to whom he has no connection (Ross even sued the rapper for $10 million for using his name; see Legal Issues). Ross founded the record label Maybach Music Group, on which he released his studio albums Deeper Than Rap and Teflon Don.

Music career

After being signed to Suave House Records, former label for rap duo 8Ball & MJG, he eventually signed a deal with Slip-n-Slide Records, which has been under the Def Jam umbrella since 2006. While signed to Slip-n-Slide, Ross toured with fellow rapper Trick Daddy and made guest performances on other Slip-n-Slide rap albums.

Port of Miami (2006)

His debut album Port of Miami, was released in August 2006 and debuted at the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart with sales at 187,000 units its first week out. Christian Hoard of Rolling Stone magazine predicted that it would be "the summer's biggest rap record". The second single was "Push It", which samples "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)", the theme song off the gangster film Scarface. The music video for "Push It" was modeled after the film. During that time, Ross made guest performances on two singles from DJ Khaled's debut Listennn... the Album: "Born-N-Raised" and "Holla at Me". Port of Miami received Gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America on November 8, 2006.

Trilla (2008)

In March 2008, his second album Trilla was released and, as its predecessor Port of Miami had, debuted at the top of the Billboard 200. Its lead single "Speedin'" featuring R. Kelly peaked at #121 on the Billboard Hot 100; the next one, "The Boss" featuring T-Pain peaked at #17 on the Hot 100. The third single "Here I Am" featured Nelly and Avery Storm. MTV News ranked Ross on the fourth spot in its 2008 "Hottest MCs In The Game" list among ten rappers. The fourth Single "This Is The Life" featured Trey Songz and was released in July.

Feud with 50 Cent

In January 2009, Ross started a feud with rapper 50 Cent because he supposedly looked at him the wrong way at the BET Awards. 50 Cent told news sources that he did not remember seeing Ross there. In late January, "Mafia Music", by Ross, leaked onto the Internet. There were several lines that seem to diss 50 Cent. Days later, 50 Cent released "Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me)" in response to Ross's disparaging remarks on his "Mafia Music" song.

Before going to Venezuela, 50 Cent uploaded a video entitled "Warning Shot". where he states "Rick Ross, I'm a fuck your life up for fun". In addition, 50 Cent released the first of a series of "Officer Ricky" cartoons. Early February, 50 Cent once again made a video which he uploaded to YouTube where he interviews "Tia", the mother of one of Ross's children. She verifies his being a correctional officer and claims his whole persona is fake and fraudulent. On Thursday, February 5, 2009, Game, who 50 Cent has a long-standing "beef" with, called up Seattle R&B; station KUBE. When asked about the beef between 50 Cent and Ross, Game sided with 50 Cent and said that things are not looking good for Ross. He offered to help, stating "Rick Ross, holla at your boy, man", and, "50 eating you, boy". On his album Deeper Than Rap, Ross references 50 Cent in the song "In Cold Blood". A video for the song was released that portrayed 50 Cent's mock funeral. Upon release, Ross stated that he has ended 50 Cent's career. The same day Ross released a new diss track called "Push 'Em Over The Edge". The next day 50 Cent released the controversial video "A Psychic Told Me" dissing DJ Khaled. On February 12, 50 Cent responded with "Tia Told Me", along with Lloyd Banks' response "Officer Down" and Tony Yayo's "Somebody Snitched".

In an interview, 50 Cent said Ross is "Albert From CB4. You ever seen the movie? He's Albert," he added. "It never gets worse than this. You get a guy that was a correctional officer come out and base his entire career on writing material from a drug dealer's perspective."

Deeper Than Rap (2009)

"I look at the game and the business and all different aspects, it's a lot of great lyricists on the corner that will never properly understand the business and know how to market themselves and get in a position where they can gain capital. I look at all the strategies people use and what made them successful. What made Birdman just as relevant today after selling 50 million records? That intrigues me. To see the class of Jay-Z, his accomplishments and see how he sits backs and accurately makes his moves."

A track from the album called "Valley of Death" was what stood out to MTV reporters. In the song, Ross speaks briefly on his controversial stint as a prison guard. "Keep it trilla, nigga, never had a gun and badge," which he stresses, leaving the word that he was indeed an officer of the law. "Kept a nice watch, smoking on a hundred sack/ Back in the day I sold crack for some nice kicks/ Skippin' school, I saw my friend stabbed with an ice pick/ Can't criticize niggas trying to get jobs/ Better get smart, young brother, live yours." Later, he implies that while he was working as a corrections officer, he was on the streets. "Only lived once and I got two kids/ And for me to feed them, I'll get two gigs," he raps. "I'll shovel shit, I'll C.O./ So we can bow our heads and pray over the meatloaf." Although, he still provided no explanation for lying about being a C.O. to begin with, nor did he explain why he failed to pay child support for his children.

The cover of the May 2009 issue of XXL magazine, titled "Rick Ross Up in Smoke", featured Ross wearing a pair of Louis Vuitton sunglasses. After publication, a spokesperson for the luxury-goods maker contacted XXL to inform them that Ross was sporting fake sunglasses in the cover image. It was later revealed that the rapper was wearing authentic Louis Vuitton sunglasses which were altered by Jacob Bernstein, known as "The Sunglass Pimp". Bernstein defended his customizations despite Louis Vuitton's insistence that such modification and resale of trademarked property is not legal.

Teflon Don and other works (2010–present)

Rick Ross released his fourth studio album entitled Teflon Don, which was released on July 6, 2010. The lead is "Super High" featuring Ne-Yo. Actress Stacey Dash made an appearance in the music video. A second official single was released titled "Live Fast, Die Young" which features and is produced by Kanye West. The album debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 selling 176,000 copies in its first week.

In November, 2010, rapper and frequent collabourator, Diddy announced from his YouTube account, that him and Ross are working on an EP together, which is going to be released in 2011. A single has been released for the project, called "Another One". The song is produced by Diddy and Lex Luger.

Along with his music projects, Rick Ross was nominated by The Source as its "Man of the Year".

Personal life

William Leonard Roberts II was born in Coahoma County, Mississippi. and raised in Carol City, Florida, near Miami.

Corrections officer photos

In July 2008, The Smoking Gun produced details linking Ross' social security number to an eighteen month stint as a correctional officer in a Florida prison facility, along with a photograph purporting to be Ross in his correctional officer uniform. Ross initially denied that the photograph was of him; after overwhelming evidence of his past came into the public's eye, Ross later admitted that he did work as a corrections officer in Florida during the early 90's. In a 2008 interview with AllHipHop.com, "Freeway" Ricky Ross, claimed offense that Roberts used his name and identity when he learned that The Smoking Gun posted documents revealing Roberts' previous employment as a Florida corrections officer.

Legal issues

During a deposition of Officer Rey Hernandez, a Miami Beach cop who arrested Ross in January 2008 on gun and marijuana charges, Ross's lawyer, Allan Zamren, asked Hernandez why Ross’s case was assigned to the gang task force. The officer stated that it was because Ross claimed affiliation with Carol City Cartel and other known gang members. Zamren then pressed Hernandez for a personal link between Ross and the gang members, but ultimately one could not be established.

In August 2008, YouTube entertainer DJ Vlad filed a lawsuit against Ross for assault. Vlad claimed Ross organized an ambush on him at the 2008 Ozone Awards in Houston, Texas for asking questions about his past as a correctional officer.

On June 18, 2010, Freeway Ricky Ross sued Rick Ross for using his name. Freeway Ricky Ross filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Ross in a California Federal Court. He then denied rumours that he would change his name to "Ricky Rozay" as a consequence of the lawsuit. The lawsuit was thrown out of court on July 3, 2010 and his album, Teflon Don, was released on July 20 as scheduled.

Discography

Solo albums

2006: Port of Miami

2008: Trilla

2009: Deeper Than Rap

2010: Teflon Don

2011: God Forgives, I Don't

Collaboration albums

2009: Custom Cars & Cycles (with Triple C's)

2011: Bugatti Boyz (with Diddy)

TBA:The H (With Birdman)

Compilation albums

2007: Rise to Power

See also

List of Miami rappers

References

External links

Rick Ross Official Def Jam Website

Category:1976 births Category:2000s rappers Category:2010s rappers Category:Living people Category:African American rappers Category:Albany State University alumni Category:Def Jam Recordings artists Category:People from Coahoma County, Mississippi Category:Musicians from Mississippi Category:Rappers from Miami, Florida Category:Suave House Records artists