London Borough of Southwark

Wikipedia contributors · CC BY-SA · EN · 04/10/2026

The London Borough of Southwark in South London forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.

The part of the South Bank within the borough is home to London Bridge terminus station and the attractions of The Shard, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market that are the largest of the venues in Southwark to draw domestic and international tourism. Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. Major districts include Bermondsey, Rotherhithe, Peckham, Camberwell, and Dulwich.

Toponymy

The name Suthriganaweorc or Suthringa geweorche is recorded for the place in the early 10th-century Anglo-Saxon document known as the Burghal Hidage and means "Surrey folk's fort" or "the defensive work of the men of Surrey". Southwark is recorded in the 1086 Domesday Book as Sudweca. The name means "southern defensive work" and is formed from the Old English sūþ (south) and weorc (work). In Old English, Surrey means "southern district (or the men of the southern district)", so the change from "southern district work" to the latter "southern work" may be an evolution based on the elision of the single syllable ge element, meaning district.

The strategic context of the defences would have been in relation to London, its bridge and preventing waterborne attackers from travelling further up the Thames.

History

Southwark is the oldest part of south London. An urban area to the south of the bridge was first developed in the Roman period, but subsequently abandoned. The name Southwark dates from the establishment of a defensive position in the area by King Alfred in the 9th century.

Southwark was an ancient borough, being described as a borough from at least the 12th century. The area historically formed part of the county of Surrey. Southwark had a complicated administrative relationship with the neighbouring City of London. There was a parliamentary borough (constituency) of Southwark from 1295 onwards. London was given various manorial and judicial rights over parts of Southwark, notably in 1327 and 1550, when Southwark was brought within the city boundaries as the ward of Bridge Without. However, the city's authority over Southwark was not as complete as it was for the older part of the city north of the Thames; certain judicial powers over the borough were still exercised by the Surrey authorities.

From 1856 the area was also governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London. In 1889 the Metropolitan Board of Works' area was made the County of London. From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards. The parishes of Bermondsey, Camberwell, Newington, Rotherhithe and Southwark St George the Martyr were governed by their individual vestries, whilst other smaller parishes and liberties were grouped into the St Olave District and St Saviour's District.

In 1900 the lower tier was reorganised into metropolitan boroughs. Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and the St Olave District merged to become the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey, the parish of Camberwell was made the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, and Newington, Southwark St George the Martyr, and the St Saviour's District merged to become the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark. The City of London's Bridge Without ward which had covered parts of Southwark was effectively abolished as part of the reforms, losing all its territory.

The larger London Borough of Southwark was created in 1965 under the London Government Act 1963, covering the combined area of the former metropolitan boroughs of Southwark, Bermondsey and Camberwell.

Geography

The borough borders the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the north (the River Thames forming the boundary), the London Borough of Lambeth to the west and the London Borough of Lewisham to the east. To the south the borough tapers giving a brief border with the London Borough of Bromley.

The northwest part of the borough is part of Central London and is densely developed. To the east, the Rotherhithe peninsula has lower-density modern housing and open space around the former Surrey Commercial Docks. The southern part of Southwark includes the Victorian suburbs of Camberwell, Peckham and Nunhead, and the prosperous "village" of Dulwich with some very large houses forms the far south of the borough.

Landmarks

Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge all connect the City of London to the borough. The Tate Modern art gallery, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Imperial War Museum and Borough Market are also within the borough. At 1 mi wide, Burgess Park is Southwark's largest green space.

Hills and watercourses

The Norwood Ridge, save for around its broad northern third, forms the borough's boundary. Along these crests, against the extreme of the borough's southern narrow taper, is the highest point of the borough, Sydenham Hill. This is the fifteenth-highest peak in London.

The main watercourse is the Thames bounding the north of the borough into which the area drains.

The southern of the borough is the valley catchment of a present sewerage and surface water drainage basin, once a large stream with complex mouths across the north of the borough, the Effra. It is in very large part converted to a combined sewer under a Joseph Bazalgette-engineered reform to enable general urbanisation; all combined and public foul sewers drain far to the east – to the Crossness works.

Similarly reformed, into all three types of drainage (foul, combined, surface), are the Neckinger and Peck catchments of the borough.

Governance

The local authority is Southwark Council, based at 160 Tooley Street.

As of the 2026 election the council is currently under No overall control

Greater London representation

Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Lambeth and Southwark constituency.

Westminster Parliament

Following the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, the borough has been covered by five parliamentary constituencies since the 2024 general election, three of which extend into neighbouring boroughs. In the 2024 election, all five elected MPs were Labour Party candidates.

Bermondsey and Old Southwark – Neil Coyle

Dulwich and West Norwood (shared with London Borough of Lambeth) – Helen Hayes

Lewisham West and East Dulwich (shared with London Borough of Lewisham) – Ellie Reeves

Peckham – Miatta Fahnbulleh

Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (shared with London Borough of Lambeth) – Florence Eshalomi

Demographics

At the 2001 census Southwark had a population of 244,866. Southwark was ethnically 63.04% white, 5.9% Asian or Asian British, and 25.9% black or black British. By 2021 the population was 307,640, with 51.5% white, 9.9% Asian or Asian British, and 25.1% black or black British. 31% of householders were owner–occupiers.

The area is the home of many Nigerian (Peckham is largely regarded as the heart of London's Nigerian community), Jamaican, South African, South American, Polish, and French immigrants.

Ethnicity

Religion

According to the last census, Southwark was at the time about 50% Christian. It has many notable places of Christian worship and ceremony: Anglican, Roman Catholic and other denominations. These include Charles Spurgeon's Metropolitan Tabernacle, Southwark Cathedral (Church of England), Saint George's Cathedral (Roman Catholic), and Saint Mary's Cathedral (Greek Orthodox). London's Norwegian Church, Finnish Church and the Swedish Seamen's Church are all in Rotherhithe. Saint George the Martyr is the oldest church in London dedicated to England's patron saint. Southwark has the most British-Nigerian churches in the country and the highest concentration of African churches outside the continent.

Places of worship for Sunni Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews exist.

Per the 2011 Census, 35.6% of the borough's resident respondents identified as non-religious, or chose not to state their faith.

The following table shows the religious identity of residents residing in Southwark according to the 2001, 2011 and the 2021 censuses.

Immigration

This list includes top-15 sources of immigration to Borough of Southwark for 2021 census:

Repurposed places of worship

Ex-St Thomas's Church is the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. The other redundant church in public use is Francis Bedford's in Trinity Church Square, as recording studio Henry Wood Hall.

Literature and theatres

Southwark has many literary associations. Charles Dickens set several of his novels in the old borough where he lived as a young man. The site of The Tabard inn (featured in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales), the White Hart inn and the George Inn which survives.

The rebuilt Globe Theatre and its exhibition on the Bankside remind us of the area's being the birthplace of classical theatre. There is also the remains of the Rose Theatre. In 2007 the Unicorn Theatre for Children was opened on Tooley Street. The Southwark Playhouse is in Elephant and Castle and the Union Theatre is on Union Street near Southwark station. The Menier Chocolate Factory combines a theatre and exhibition space, whilst the newly opened Bridge Theatre is next to Tower Bridge and City Hall.

Museums and galleries

The borough hosts the main site of the Imperial War Museum at the south end of Borough High Street.

Peckham Library, designed by Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize for modern architecture. Another architecturally innovative library designed by Piers Gough, Canada Water Library opened in 2011.

South London Gallery between Camberwell and Peckham is split across two buildings on Peckham Road. The Tate Modern is also based at Bankside. MOCA, London, as curated by the artist Michael Petry, and Flat Time House are both contemporary art galleries on Bellenden Road. Dulwich Picture Gallery also is in Dulwich. Bold Tendencies is an annual exhibition space in a former car park on Rye Lane in Peckham which has shown work by Simon Whybray, Jenny Holzer, Derek Jarman, Rene Matić, and Gray Wielebinski.

Another museum is the Old Operating Theatre.

One former museum include the Cuming Museum and the Livesey Museum for Children was a free children's museum housed in the former Camberwell Public Library No.1, which was given to the people of Southwark by the industrialist Sir George Livesey. The museum was closed by Southwark council in 2008.

Economy

The northern end of the borough opposite the Square Mile includes the More London and London Bridge City developments accommodating the offices of major professional service firms. Notable such businesses include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Norton Rose, Ernst & Young, Lawrence Graham and Actis. The Greater London Authority is based at City Hall.

The press and publishing industry is also well represented in Southwark; the Financial Times has its head office in Southwark Bridge Road, and IPC Magazines in Southwark Street. Campus Living Villages UK also has its head office in the borough.

Some of the old industrial and wharfside heritage remains at the now-defunct Surrey Commercial Docks now Surrey Quays, including Greenland Dock and Baltic Quay, where major residential schemes were developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Near Tower Bridge, old warehouses have been converted to new mixed uses at Butler's Wharf and Hay's Wharf. Similarly, further west, the Oxo Tower hosts restaurants, shops and housing.

There are major retail concentrations at Surrey Quays, Old Kent Road, Elephant & Castle/Walworth Road and central Peckham.

Southwark is currently home to three Opportunity Areas (areas with capacity for significant economic development) as designated in the Mayor of London's London Plan. These are Elephant and Castle, Canada Water and Old Kent Road.

Educational establishments

London South Bank University (LSBU) has over 23,000 students and 1,700 staff at its principal Elephant and Castle site. The Chancellor is the entrepreneur newscaster Richard Farleigh.

The University of the Arts London has two of its colleges in the borough: the London College of Communication is at Elephant and Castle, and Camberwell College of Arts is on Peckham Road. Its Creative Computing Institute is also on Peckham Road.

The largest university teaching hospital in Europe, King's College London, is at the Guy's Hospital site, merging the teaching activities of the Guy's, St Thomas' and King's College Hospitals here. St Thomas' was founded in the mid-12th century in the borough and parts of it remain at St Thomas Street; Guy's was founded opposite this in 1725. The Salvation Army maintains the William Booth Memorial Training College at Denmark Hill.

Founded in 1945, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts moved to Peckham in 2018.

Source and attribution

Adapted from “London Borough of Southwark” by English Wikipedia contributors. Main paragraphs and sections are retained; tables, reference markers and technical markup are omitted. This is an encyclopedic adaptation, not a personal review. Original revision and contributor history ↗. Text is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗. Check current visitor access, tickets and transport with the relevant operator.