A
view of Southwark in the early nineteenth century. The
Borough of Southwark stretched southwards from London
Bridge to Newington Butts, to the south-west almost to
Lambeth, and to Rotherhithe and Bermondsey in the east.
It contained five parishes: St Saviour, St Olave, Horsleydown,
St George, and St Thomas. The Saxons called it Suthverke,
or South Work, from fortifications in the area.
Southwark
existed as an independent community on the south-side
of London Bridge for centuries. It was a lawless place,
"affording an asylum to murderers, robbers and other
Malefactors, who, after the perpetration of crimes in
[London] fled to this place where civic officers had no
power over them". By the sixteenth century the City
of London had (after several attempts and decrees by various
kings) gained control over the Borough when it became
the twenty-sixth ward of the city, Bridge Ward Without,
during the time of Edward VI.
Southwark was noted for its inns (Chaucer's pilgrims stayed
at The Tabard on their journey to Canterbury), as it lay
at the head of the main Dover Road into London, and was
for many centuries the only means into Surrey from London.
It also boasted Winchester
House, and it harboured several large churches, such
as St
Mary Overie and St
Olave's, as well Shakespeare's Globe and the Bear
Baiting Pit during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
