Walk This Way Millennium Bridge St Paul’s Cathedral to Bankside and Borough
The purpose of any bridge is the connection of two objects, and the thinking behind the first bridge in London to be built for more than a century was to bring together old and new, North and South, art and commerce, and the two great London landmarks of St Paul's Cathedral in the City and Bankside’s Tate Modern. Walk This Way will guide you around the history and architecture of these two areas that are now linked by the Millennium Bridge.
See www.southbanklondon.com for a more detailed profile of the buildings and streets featured in Walk This Way – Millennium Bridge.
architecture + history at your feet
www.southbanklondon.com
At a brisk pace, the Walk This Way Millennium Bridge route will take at least 90 minutes, although it is recommended that you allow more time to stop and sightsee at various points along the route. 1
Millennium Bridge The Millennium Bridge is a 350m pedestrian link over the Thames – the first completely new central London river crossing for over a hundred years. Conceived as a marriage of art, design and technology, the winning design was chosen from more than 200 proposals in a design competition organised by the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Financial Times. There were three main contributors to the bridge’s creation: the architects Foster and Partners, the engineering firm of Arup; and the sculptor Sir Anthony Caro. The Millennium Bridge Trust was established to steer the project through in association with Southwark and the Corporation of London. The bridge was required to be high enough to allow ships to pass underneath it, yet low enough not to interrupt views of St Paul’s. The design solution was an innovative and complex structure to achieve a simple form: a streamlined, shallow suspension bridge, 4m wide, with cables that run alongside the deck, rather than above, absorbing 2000 tons of
force through cables that are anchored deep in large concrete slabs embedded on either side of the river. During its opening weekend in June 2000, it became apparent that the structure was swaying beneath the feet of the first 150,000 people to use the bridge and the crossing was closed to investigate the ‘wobble’. The problem was caused by pedestrians unconsciously adjusting their pace to walk in step with minute vibrations given off by a footbridge when it is being used by a large number of people. When the number of pedestrians reaches a critical amount, the structure will suddenly, and without warning, begin to sway. The bridge was fitted with a passive dampening system, like car shock absorbers, to allow smooth passage across the river without affecting the stunning visual image of the bridge. Popular with residents and visitors alike, the Millennium Bridge is now under the care of the Corporation of London through the Bridge House Estates Trust.
‘Everything is visible, nothing is hidden. Beautiful to look at and look out from, it is an architectural achievement, an engineering triumph.’ Deyan Sudjic, Blade of Light
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General travel information can be obtained on Transport for London’s 24-hour number: 020 7222 1234, www.tfl.gov.uk Underground Stations St Paul’s Central Blackfriars District, Circle, Thameslink & National Rail Cannon Street District, Circle & National Rail Southwark Jubilee* London Bridge Northern, Jubilee*, Thameslink & National Rail * the above station exits are wheelchair accessible.
Map reproduced from Ordnance Survey Landplan 1:5000 mapping with permission of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office © Crown copyright; Licence Number 398179
Transport
Key 1 St. Paul’s Cathedral 2 Blitz Memorial 3 St Nicholas Cole Abbey 4 College of Arms 5 Guild Church of St Benet 6 City of London School 7 Tate Modern 8 Bankside Gallery 9 Hopton’s Almshouses 10 Kirkaldy’s Testing Works 11 Union Street 12 Jerwood Space 13 Copperfield Street 14 Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel 15 Southwark Playhouse
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Southwark Street Cardinal’s Wharf Shakespeare’s Globe & Exhibition Wherryman’s Seat Bear Gardens & Hope Theatre Rose Theatre site Anchor Pub Vinopolis Clink Prison Winchester Palace The Golden Hinde & St Mary Overie Wharf Southwark Cathedral Borough Market Hop Exchange St Saviour’s Southwark War Memorial Talbot Yard The George Inn
RV1 Bus Service Riverside 1 is a bus service linking Covent Garden, South Bank, Waterloo, Bankside, London Bridge and Tower Gateway, providing a cost-effective, easily recognisable link to over thirty of London's attractions. Route Accessibility There is a slope leading down to the Bankside Gallery at the western most point of the route, before it turns south to point 8. Accessibility Information The following attractions can be contacted on these numbers: St Paul’s Cathedral 020 7246 8348 Bankside Gallery 020 7928 7521 Tate Modern 020 7401 5120 The Globe 020 7902 1409 Southwark Cathedral 020 7367 6722 Vinopolis 0870 241 4040 Borough Market 020 7407 1002
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St Paul’s Cathedral
1 Christopher Wren 1675–1711
This landmark cathedral overlooks the Square Mile, the city within a city that is the site of London’s earliest settlements. From its earliest incarnations, St Paul’s has dominated its surroundings and the massive cathedral complex of the Middle Ages incorporated schools, markets, ball games, beer stalls and horses. A road ran through the cathedral which, known as Paul’s Walk, acted as a thoroughfare for traders to bring their goods north from Carter Lane and the river wharves. When the City was obliterated in the Great Fire of 1666, it was Christopher Wren, soon to become Surveyor General of the King's Works, who was responsible for rebuilding London. Not only did Wren recreate the cathedral, he also designed fifty-two of the eighty-seven resurrected churches, many of which surround St Paul’s. The cultural significance of the Cathedral has increased over the centuries, from the final resting place of national heroes such as Nelson, Wellington and Wren himself, to a place of jubilee celebrations and royal weddings. St. Paul’s became an inspiration during the bombing raids of the Second World War. At a time when over a third of the Square Mile, including most of the surrounding buildings, was reduced to rubble, the cathedral escaped major damage, its survival becoming a symbol for British endurance.
2 John W Mills 1991
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St Paul’s Cathedral The site of pagan temples from the time of Roman Britain, the first Christian church was built in 604AD by Ethelbert, King of Kent. This burnt down in 675AD and its replacement was ransacked by the Vikings in 962AD. The third St Paul’s, built after a fire in 1087, was a stone cathedral of gothic style and gigantic proportions. 585ft long with a 450ft spire, it took over two hundred years to complete and was the largest building in England, far bigger than the present cathedral. In serious disrepair by the seventeenth century, the building was allbut destroyed by the Great Fire, due to its wooden roof. Work began on the thirty-six year process of rebuilding in 1675 by young architect Christopher Wren. The first proposal was rejected (the original model can be viewed inside) and a second design had to be agreed with the conservative clergy. Despite the compromise, Wren’s creation is spectacular and the massive dome, constructed from 50,000 tons of Portland Stone and rising 360ft, is second only in size to St Peter’s in Rome. ‘Blitz’ Memorial Dubbed ‘The Heroes with Grimey Faces’ by Winston Churchill, this bronze sculpture of three firemen (a sub-officer and two branch-men) is a memorial to the men and women who died in the line of duty during the Second World War. Placed in the City of London, which was devastated by incendiaries and high-explosives, over a thousand names are recorded on the octagonal base.
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3 Christopher Wren 1671–77
4 Morris Emmett 1670–77
St Nicholas Cole Abbey First recorded in 1144, the church of St Nicholas was never actually an abbey (‘cole abbey’ probably derives from ‘coldharbour’, a medieval shelter for travellers). Destroyed in the Great Fire, it was the first church to be rebuilt by Wren: a square stone building with arched windows, its conical spire decorated with an iron balcony and railings. Gutted by WWII fire bombs, it was restored in 1962, and some of the original aspects have survived since the Renaissance: the brickwork of the west wall, the wooden interiors and the royal coat of arms over the south door. It is currently occupied by the Free Church of Scotland. College of Arms Coats of arms (the symbols that identify prominent families) have been recorded and regulated by heralds since the Middle Ages. Granted a charter in 1484, the royal heralds used Derby Palace as their college from 1555. Only the college records were saved from the Great Fire and a replacement was built by the ‘Kings Bricklayer’: three blocks set around an quadrangle, with the river face open (iron and gilded gates were added to the south side in 1956). All three blocks are uniform: three storeys of plain brick with the external stone gallery added in 1776, replacing a more elaborate pediment which had fallen out of architectural favour. The repository of all the coats of arms in the United Kingdom, the college is still the functioning headquarters of the royal heralds, responsible for granting the right to arms and ceremonial duties, such the State Opening of Parliament. 4
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5 Christopher Wren 1677–83
6 Tom Meddings 1986
Guild Church of St Benet Another Great Fire casualty to be rebuilt by Wren, the original St Benet’s dates from around 1111. Wren’s replacement is a simple cube of dark red and blue brickwork, with golden garlands above the arched windows and the royal arms of Charles II above the tower door. The tower itself shares the same chequered brick design and is capped by a lead dome. The final resting place of architect Inigo Jones, St Benet now functions as the Welsh church of the City. City of London School This independent school is the legacy of John Carpenter, a fifteenth century Town Clerk of London. On his death in 1442, Carpenter left property whose income was to be used to the benefit of local children. For the next four hundred years, ‘Carpenter’s children’ were educated, housed, clothed and fed by the proceeds of this bequest. In 1834 the property had become so valuable that the City of London decided to further Carpenter’s aims by building a school from the proceeds. After an Act of Parliament, the school opened in 1837 on the site of Honey Lane Market, Cheapside. Expansion caused the school to move to premises on the Victoria Embankment in 1882 (which still stand today) and finally to a purposebuilt building in 1986. The current fivestorey brick building occupies the same site as Baynard’s Castle, former residence of Henry VII and one of the two London castles built by William the Conqueror (the other being the Tower of London).
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Bankside Deriving its name from one of the medieval causeways built to hold back the Thames, the early history of
7 Giles Gilbert Scott 1947–63 Converted: Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron 1995–2000
Bankside owes much to its riverside location. Beyond the jurisdiction of the City of London, but only a short ferry-ride away, Bankside became home to a number of boisterous establishments that could not be located within the City bounds as they were considered too cheap, too unsavoury or were simply illegal. The main entertainments that drew crowds to Bankside were the ‘stewhouses’ (brothels), animal-baiting pits and public theatres, sometimes all at once, as prostitutes would trawl the playhouses, which doubled as bear-baiting arenas. The Rose, the Swan, the Globe and the Hope were the four Bankside playhouses of the Tudor era, and some of the first ever in London (the very first theatre was in Shoreditch and was dismantled to built the original Globe playhouse). The theatres were forced out of business and out of existence in the seventeenth century by the Puritans, who considered that Bankside was ‘Better termed a foule dene then a faire garden,’ and it was only in the late twentieth century that they were rediscovered.
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Tate Modern Now one of the world’s most popular art galleries, the building was originally Bankside Power Station, which operated from 1952 to 1981. A monolithic construction of four million bricks and a 325ft chimney, the Tate Gallery acquired the option on the site and, in 1995 began a process of demolition, preparation and conversion to transform the building into the new home for its collection of modern art. To provide natural light, the ‘lightbeam’ was constructed: a two-storey glass roof on top of the gallery, housing a restaurant that overlooks the river. Bankside Gallery One of the first cultural organisations to move to the area, the Bankside Gallery is the home to the Royal Watercolour Society and the Royal Society of PainterPrintmakers. The Gallery runs a varied and accessible programme of exhibitions featuring watercolours and prints by members of these two prestigious societies, offering visitors the opportunity to purchase these works at affordable prices. The Old Water-Colour Society, founded in 1804, was the first institution to specialise in that medium, inspiring other groups worldwide. Granted a Royal Charter in 1881, from the beginning of the twentieth century, the re-titled Royal Watercolour Society shared premises with the Society of Painter-Etchers, founded in 1880 to recognise printmaking as a creative art. Also recipients of a Royal Charter, the Etchers evolved with new technology to become the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers by 1989. 5
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9 Thomas Ellis & William Cooley 1746–49
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T R Smith 1872–74
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Hopton’s Almshouses In 1752, twenty-six almshouses were opened for the purpose of providing shelter for poor men of the local parish. Two-storey cottages of red brick with stone quoins on the corners, the buildings are arranged around three sides of a square courtyard. The principal block is a pedimented committee room which bears a foundation tablet crediting its benefactor, Charles Hopton, a fish merchant who died in 1731, leaving a legacy which enabled the houses to be built. Damaged in the Second World War, twenty cottages were rebuilt and modernised in 1988.
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12 London Board School 1892 Converted: Paxton Locher 1998
Kirkaldy’s Testing and Experimenting Works Purpose-built as the testing works for David Kirkaldy, this four-storey building is of multi-coloured stock brick, banded with yellow brick and stucco dressings. The eclectic, round-arched nineteenth century German style of Romanesque architecture is known as rundbogenstil. Kirkaldy was instrumental in the evolution of engineering and pioneered the standardised, scientific testing of materials including those by Krupp, Germany and Westanfors and Fagersta, Sweden. Run as a family business for a century, the building finally closed in 1974, becoming a museum nine years later. The main testing machine (built in 1864-66 by Greenwood and Batley) is preserved in working order on the ground floor. The entrance to the building on the extreme right bears Kirkaldy’s motto on the pediment: ‘Facts Not Opinions’.
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Union Street
Church. The church was built in 1879–80 by G.G. Scott jnr (son of George Gilbert, architect of the Albert Memorial, and father of Giles Gilbert, who designed Waterloo Bridge). The ‘Middle Scott’ was also a gifted architect and the gothic style of All Hallows represented some of his finest work. Near-destroyed in the Blitz, a red-brick building in 1957 incorporated the church’s surviving fragments, while the churchyard was converted into a garden.
Originally Charlotte Street, this road was renamed after the St Saviours Union Workhouse, located to the south-west. The workhouse dates from 1834, and was paid for by uniting the poor law revenues from the parishes of St Saviours and Christchurch, hence its name. Jerwood Space The Jerwood Space is housed in the Orange Street School, which later became the John Harvard School. Harvard was a resident of seventeenth century Southwark, before he emigrated and became the first benefactor of the Massachusetts university which now bears his name. The school buildings were acquired and refurbished by the Jerwood Foundation to provide a suite of affordable rehearsal spaces for professional theatre and dance companies, as well as a café and contemporary art gallery to be enjoyed by the general public. The year-round programme in the gallery features the art schemes and awards of the Jerwood Foundation and the café has recently extended to provide open-air dining.
14 Revd. Thomas Thomas 1872–73
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16 13 Cluttons 1893–95
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Borough Welsh Congregational Chapel The building on the bend of Southwark Bridge Road was designed by a noted chapel architect, Revd Thomas of Swansea, in his own semi-classical ‘Landore’ style. Southwark Playhouse Beginning in the nineteenth century as a tea and coffee warehouse, the building became an engineering workshop and a Filipino church before its present incarnation as a studio theatre. Situated in a Victorian courtyard, the Playhouse has been nominated three times for the Peter Brook Empty Space award. Southwark Street
Copperfield Street Formerly Orange Street, the road is one of the many in Bankside named after the literary characters of Southwark resident Charles Dickens (Pickwick Street, Quilp Street and Little Dorrit Court among them). The south side of the street contains the Winchester Cottages, a small row of Victorian homes. Opposite the cottages are the gardens of All Hallows
Joseph Bazalgette 1862
The Anglo-Saxon Suthringageweork (‘southern fortifications’), refers to the area’s original role as a defended bridgehead. Laid down in the nineteenth century, Southwark Street was the first in London to contain a special duct for water, gas and telegraph services down the centre. It also contains some of the most consistent stretches of High Victorian architecture in the city. 6
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the exploration of Shakespeare in performance. Shakespeare’s Globe Exhibition, housed in the vast Under Globe beneath the Theatre, provides an introduction to the theatre of Shakespeare’s time and the London in which he lived and worked. The annual Globe Theatre Season, which runs from May to September, features productions of the works of Shakespeare, his contemporaries and of modern authors.
Cardinal’s Wharf The street derived its name from nearby Tudor establishments (the ‘Cardinal’s Cap’ inn and the ‘Cardinal’s Hat’ brothel). The older, thinner house in the row dates from the turn of the eighteenth century. Modified in the nineteenth century, this Grade II listed building has a high tiled roof, stucco front and mounded stucco lintels over the windows and door, which also bears male and female coats of arms. 19
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21 John Griggs 1586–87
Wherryman’s Seat
Shakespeare’s Globe Fifteenth Century
Theo Crosby 1997
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Built in 1599, the original Tudor playhouse was financed by a consortium that included William Shakespeare and his acting company. The venue of many of Shakespeare’s theatrical works, the Globe burnt down in 1613, and its replacement was demolished by the Puritans in 1642. Three centuries later the site was found, marked only by a bronze plaque, by American actor-director Sam Wanamaker when he searched for The Globe in 1949. Thus began the project to create an accurate, functioning reconstruction of the Globe, built only 100 metres from the site of the original playhouse and using contemporary craftsmen’s techniques, including the first thatched roof London has seen since the Great Fire. Since there were no remaining plans or construction drawings that clearly depicted the form of the original Globe, the reconstruction was based on a body of knowledge built up from excavations, maps, building contracts, contemporary accounts and surviving buildings. Today, the theatre forms one part of a unique international centre dedicated to
20 Peter Streete 1613–14
The stone seat on the corner of the Riverside House offices is thought to be the last of the wherrymen perches that once lined the Thames shore. These seats were resting places for the Thames boatmen, who waited to ferry Bankside theatregoers home in their passenger boats, or ‘wherries’, to the cries of ‘Eastward ho!’ or ‘Westward ho!’. Bear Gardens & Hope Theatre The practice of bear-baiting, along with bull-baiting, dog-fighting and cockfighting, flourished in Tudor Bankside and could make three times as much money as a theatrical performance. In 1613, entrepreneur Philip Henslowe took advantage of the destruction of the Globe and converted his bear gardens (situated in the alley of the same name) into The Hope, a dual-purpose theatre with animal pits beneath the removable stage. The Hope’s bear-baiting continued until 1642, when it was banned by the Puritans who, by 1656, had pulled down the theatre and shot all the bears.
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Rose Theatre site The first of Bankside’s theatres was built for Philip Henslowe on the grounds of a rose garden. An open-air construction of timber, plaster and thatch, The Rose was prolific with plays by Marlowe, Jonson, Webster and Shakespeare’s early work. Facing competition from The Swan (1595) and The Globe (1599) The Rose fell into disuse and was demolished in 1606. The theatre remained lost until 1989, when an exploratory dig on a building site revealed its remains. Spared destruction by a public campaign, the remains were re-opened in 1999 as a historical exhibition, conducting tours of the excavation site until it can be restored. Anchor Pub Samuel Peyps watched the destruction of London by the Great Fire of 1666 from the safety of ‘a little alehouse on Bankside’. This was the Anchor Pub, taphouse of the Anchor Brewery (see next entry) and named after the shipping interests of its then-owner, Josiah Child. Burnt down in 1676, the present-day replacement is a mix of the surviving features (oak beams and brick fireplaces date from the late-eighteenth century). Ownership passed in 1758 to Henry and Hester Thrale (Thrale Street is to the south), good friends of Dr. Samuel Johnson and a copy of the great lexicographer’s dictionary is displayed within.
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Anchor Brewery The Anchor Brewery was one of the largest in Victorian London and a prominent attraction. It was visited in 1850 by an Austrian General, Baron von Haynau (the ‘Hyena of Brescia’ – an Italian village which was brutally suppressed by the General during the 1848 revolutions). When brewery draymen found out ‘the Hyena’ was visiting, the outraged workers set upon the hapless dictator with stones and broom handles, chasing him through Bankside until he took refuge in the George Inn. This international incident is commemorated by a plaque on Bank Street to the south. The Brewery itself was converted into a bottling factory in 1955 and demolished in 1981. Built on the site of the original Globe theatre, a bronze plaque was placed on the Brewery wall in 1909. This plaque remains on the north wall of Anchor Terrace and, in 1949 inspired Sam Wanamaker to build a fitting tribute to Shakespeare. 23 Hunter and Partners Jasper Jacob 1999
Vinopolis Beneath the arches of a Victorian railway viaduct, the Vinopolis site is spread over two and a half acres of space devoted entirely to the world of wine and its associated pleasures. The tour begins at the recreated remains of a Roman wine store, laid down nearly 2,000 years ago and unearthed 100 metres from Vinopolis. Vinopolis is essentially a series of vaults, which served as one of the oldest bonded warehouses for wine in London.
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Clink Prison An institution so notorious that its name (probably derived from the Middle English word clinken meaning lock or fasten) became synonymous with all prisons. The Clink, which began in 1127 as a cellar in Winchester Palace, was built by the Bishops of Winchester to house all the drunkards, debtors and prostitutes that fell within the ‘Liberty of the Clink’ (a territory awarded to them by Henry II). The prison was much-detested and often became a target during civil unrest. It was attacked during Wat Tyler’s Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, the Jack Cade Rebellion of 1450, and when it was burnt down during the Gordon Riots of 1780, it was not rebuilt. The boundary of the ‘Liberty’ is still shown today by four iron posts outside the Anchor pub.
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Winchester Palace Established in the twelfth century, the Bishops of Winchester’s London residence and its surrounding area lay just beyond the City of London’s strict jurisdiction. Consequently, most of the illegal brothels that inevitably sprang up in Bankside came under the control of the Bishops, who profited from the prostitutes known as ‘Winchester Geese’ for more than four centuries. The clerical connection with this insalubrious industry declined in the sixteenth century with the dissolution of the monasteries and the spread of syphilis; the last resident Bishop died in 1626. During the Civil War in 1642 it became the property of the Parliamentarians, who used it as a prison. The Restoration saw the Bishops regain their palace, by now so
dilapidated that it was turned into tenements and warehouses. The palace was hidden from view until 1814 when a warehouse fire revealed parts of the fourteenth century south and west walls. Still visible today, the west wall contains the impressive rose window. With a diameter of 13ft the window is a unique geometric design that was restored in1972. 26
J. Hinks & Son Shipyard/ G.A.Dunnage 1971–73/1882
The Golden Hinde and St Mary Overie Wharf Berthed at St Mary Overie Dock, the Golden Hinde is a full-sized operational reconstruction of the eponymous sixteenth century warship. From 1577–80, Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the globe in the original craft (initially called ‘The Pelican’) and the present incarnation repeated this feat when it was launched in 1974, sailing more than 140,000 miles and visiting over 300 ports. According to the legend on the nearby wall, the land surrounding this dock was owned in the tenth century by John Overs, a miserly waterman who was killed when he tried to fake his own death. John’s daughter, Mary used her inheritance to found a convent, into which she promptly retreated. Canonised for her generosity, the priory of St Mary Overie (meaning ‘over the river’) was to become the foundation of Southwark Cathedral.
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Borough The Borough of Southwark grew up around the south end
27 William Pont de l'Arche & William Dauncey 1106
of the original London Bridge as a ‘burh’ (Anglo-Saxon for ‘fortified town’) in the tenth century. It has since exploited its proximity to the bridgehead to great effect, becoming one of London’s most important suburbs and being granted various charters and privileges, such as the right to send representatives to parliament in 1295, the only town outside the City to do so. A key transport hub (Borough High Street is based on the line of a Roman road), the fact that London Bridge was closed at certain times led to the large number of coaching inns in the area, where travellers would either spend the night before entering London, or begin their journey from one of the inns (which acted as termini – each inn’s coaches had a designated destination). Another speciality of the area, no doubt necessitated by the number of inns and the insalubrious activities of Tudor Bankside, were the prisons of Southwark, including the King’s Bench, the Compter, the Marshalsea, the White Lion, the Clink and the Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Always a market town (a facet that still survives today), the industrial revolution led to the growth of Southwark’s wharves and warehouses as well as a number of local industries, one of the most significant being the breweries. It was this industrial Southwark that was the inspiration for many of the novels by Charles Dickens, himself a former
28 H. Rose 1851
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Southwark Cathedral Already the site of a Roman Villa, pagan shrine and Saxon monastarium, the oldest surviving portion of this church was built in 1106 by two knights. Confiscated by Henry VIII, used as a heresy court by Mary I and a swineyard during Elizabeth I’s reign, in 1614 the parishioners jointly bought the church from James I. The proposed approach road to the nineteenth century London Bridge threatened the building but by sacrificing some of its smaller chapels, it was saved and became a Cathedral in 1905. After a thousand years of restoration and rebuilding, Southwark Cathedral now contains a varied mix of architecture: from the original Norman walls to the recentlycompleted Millennium restoration.
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29 R H Moore 1866
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Hop Exchange One of London’s few surviving Victorian exchanges, this building demonstrates the importance of the brewing industry to Southwark. Originally of six storeys (the top two floors were demolished after a fire in 1920), the building’s frontage was of three levels, each covering two storeys. The ground and first floors have giant iron columns, while the upper floors have long narrow arches. The entrance is decorated with cast-iron hops and hop-pickers around its iron gates. A glass roof (replaced after the fire) stands 75 feet above the main exchange hall, which is surrounded by galleries. The building now houses offices and warehouse space. St Saviour’s Southwark War Memorial
Borough Market A market in the Borough of Southwark was first recorded in 1014, selling produce and livestock to merchants from London and beyond. Trading in wholesale fruit and vegetables continued in the local area and in 1756 an Act of Parliament was passed, establishing the 4.5 acre area that survives today. The market reached its zenith in the Victorian era, with thousands of tons of imported food unloaded at the nearby wharves or brought from the new London Bridge rail terminus, earning it the title of ‘London’s Larder’. Sheltered by Victorian iron-cast sheds, the wholesale retailers now open to the general public at weekends, together with stalls selling produce from around the country.
Philip Lindsey Clark 1922
Portraying an advancing infantryman with bayonet-fixed rifle on his shoulder, this memorial to the First World War was modelled and sculpted by Captain Philip Lindsey Clark, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order medal in that conflict. The tall plinth has bronze reliefs representing aerial and naval combat. To the front is St George and the Dragon, and to the rear is a mourning woman, Grief, with a baby clasping a dove.
resident, from the slums, workhouses and prisons to ‘Nancy’s Steps’ on London Bridge. 9
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Talbot Yard
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As the main terminus for travellers and goods moving between London and the south of England, Borough was alive with coaches, inns and pilgrims. Probably the most famous wayfarers are the pilgrims of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, who began their journey in 1386 at the Tabard Inn. Named after a heraldic coat, The Tabard was destroyed in Southwark’s great fire of 1676 and rebuilt as The Talbot (a Dalmatian-like coach dog). The coaching trade reached its peak at the turn of the nineteenth century as the roads improved and traffic increased. The arrival of the railway in 1844 put the coaching inns into rapid decline and The Talbot was pulled down in 1875, despite a public outcry. The location of the inn is today Talbot Yard.
IIf you have enjoyed this guide then please visit www.southbanklondon.com to discover the other titles in the series:
The George Inn
This guide has been made possible thanks to funding from the Cross River Partnership, which is supported by the London Development Agency, Transport for London, Corporation of London, Southwark Council and Bankside Marketing Group.
London’s only surviving coaching inn was first recorded as the ‘St George’ in 1542. Destroyed in Southwark’s devastating fire, it was replaced in 1676 with three wings ranged around a quadrangle, made of timber-frame and brick. Two tiers of galleries were later added and remain the only surviving examples in London: the lower tier is supported by cantilevered beams while the upper tiers rest on wooden Doric columns. The building was bought in 1874 by the Great Northern Railway Company to use as a depot and in 1889, two of the three wings were demolished, leaving only the south face standing. The George was given to the National Trust in 1937, who supervised its repair and restoration. It continues to function as a public house to this day.
Walk This Way – South Bank From the London Eye to the Imperial War Museum Walk This Way – Golden Jubilee Bridges From Soho & Covent Garden to South Bank Walk This Way – Riverside London From Tate Britain to the Design Museum Walk This Way – A Young Person’s Guide A discovery of the Thames, especially written for young people
Acknowledgements The Walk This Way series has been researched and published by South Bank Employers’ Group, a partnership of the major organisations in South Bank, Waterloo and Blackfriars with a commitment to improving the experience of the area for visitors, employees and residents.
For further information about Walk This Way or the South Bank, please see www.southbanklondon.com South Bank Employers’ Group 103 Waterloo Road SE1 8UL T: 020 7202 6900 E: mail@southbanklondon.com
Photography: Peter Durant/ arcblue.com Graphic design: Mannion Design Map design: ML Design
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