The House and Manor were granted to Sir Robert Southwell, Master of the Rolls. He sold it to Sir Thomas Pope, founder of Trinity College, Oxford. Sir Thomas pulled down many of the monastic buildings, and erected a stately house with the materials. The house with the gardens he sold to Sir Robert Southwell, from whom he had bought it; the Manor he sold to Robert Trapps, citizen and goldsmith.
In 1583 the Earl of Sussex, Lord Chamberlain to Queen Elizabeth, died in the House.
The parish church of St. Mary Magdalen was built by the monks for their tenants. The Earl of Sussex had to rebuild it when it was reported to be falling into a ruinous condition.
Among the various benefits conferred upon the country by the monastic houses, that of hospitality was by no means the least. But it is evident that hospitality could only be practised when the House stood near to a highway. As Bermondsey Abbey was removed from any roads or highways, the monks could only carry out their duties towards the poor by placing their almonry on the High Street of Southwark. But the Abbey possessed a school of great repute. Leland, in his Cantu Cygni, written a few years before the Dissolution, says:
“And hail thou, too, O House of Charity, the nurse
Of many students helped by Gifford’s purse.
Thou happy, snowy swan, hast thy serene abode,
Where Burmsey of her well-known isles is proud—
Well-known, indeed, for there is seen the shrine
Where her priests labour in the work Divine.”