From the café “Morocco Bound” I sketched the distinctive building across the street.
This is 2 Leathermarket Street:
In the distance you see The Shard, at London Bridge Station.
This was the leathermaking district up to the beginning of the twentieth century. We have Leathermarket St, Morocco St, and Tanner St. The former “Leather Hide and Wool Exchange” is further up Leathermarket Street, towards Borough, to the west.
The building was listed Grade II in 1972. It is early 19th century, according to the listing.
Here is the area in 1976, in a picture from the London Archives, used with permission:
image source: (c) The London Archives (City of London Corporation), picture used under licence reference #007089
https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/view-item?i=54304&WINID=1730309548612
The windows are all still there as in 1976, with the same window frames, now painted purple. Even the weird little chimneypot on the top of the turret is still there, as it was 50 years ago. In this 1976 picture the placard between the windows says “Ryedene Ltd” but I have been unable to discover if this company was in the leather business. There is no placard now.
“The Department” now occupies this building. Their business, according to their website, is:
combining cutting edge technology with humanising theatrics to create experiences which are technically masterful and purposely human”
https://www.the-department.co.uk/services/ downloaded 31 October 2025
To the right of 2 Leathermarket Street is a garage, “R.W. Auto’s” which I have sketched previously:
Thank you to “Morocco Bound” for their hospitality while I sketched these pictures. It’s a calm and welcoming bookshop and café in an interesting location. I’ll be back!
Jane Sketching 
What a charming location! I was near the Shard this week, I might see if I can find the coffee shop and try this sketch myself! Love chimneys particularly odd ones. It’s amazing how features of buildings are preserved around London. I went back to my childhood home in Muswell Hill and the block of flats was still there but the shops on the ground floor had shut down. In Hong Kong where I come from, things change so much from year to year when I visit – but there are still fragments of older architecture – I will search it out next time!
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Yes – it’s definitely worth seeking out this coffee shop, “Morocco Bound”. See the map on my post. It’s about 15 min walk from London Bridge. It’s one of my missions to sketch and honour these old and odd buildings – especially those which can be sketched from a coffee shop! Sometimes we miss them in London’s busy streets. I hope you manage to do some sketching in Hong Kong. Catch those old buildings before they disappear.
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Great post, Jane. Lovely work, and I like its presentation (i.e. having the sketch on one page with a little sketched map on the adjacent page). I do similar, but don’t sketch the map, so your idea has given me food for thought! Thank you!
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Hello Jason and thank you for your kind comment, I’m so glad the sketchbook layout gave you inspiration. I like to record where I did the sketch. I’m sort of mapping London in a series of micro-locations. What I saw, where I was, …and sometimes, why I was there.
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