London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Southwark


London Borough of Southwark is a borough of Greater London. It is located to the south of the River Thames, across from the City of London, and is one of the boroughs of Inner London. Southwark covers 28.85 sq km (11.1 sq mi). It has a population of 280,000 (2011 estimate).

The London Borough of Southwark borders the City of London and the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Bromley, Croydon, Lewisham and Lambeth.

Southwark is "unique" in that, although Greater London consists of 32 boroughs, when people talk about "Borough" in London without further context, they are usually talking about the area around Borough High Street in Southwark. This area, commonly known as Borough, is near London Bridge and includes landmarks like Borough Market.

The name comes from Southwark historically being a borough of the City of London before it became part of Greater London. To be exact, Southwark was never fully part of the City of London, but rather, it had a unique historical relationship with it. The City of London has always been a self-governing entity with its own borders. Southwark, located just across London Bridge, was historically an important suburb of the City but was never fully incorporated into it.

In 1550, however, the City of London acquired jurisdiction over part of Southwark and made it a "Ward Without", meaning a ward outside the City's main boundaries. This area became known as Bridge Without, since it was outside the bridge leading into the City.

How to reach Southwark

You can take the London Underground to Southwark. Among the stations located there include Bermondsey, Borough, Canada Water, Elephant & Castle, Kennington, London Bridge and Southwark.

Sights in Southwark

Districts of Southwark

Places of Worship in Southwark

 Map of Streets in London

The streets that I have described are marked in the map below in red. To read about the street, point your cursor to the red line and click.

Map of London Boroughs

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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