London Guide
Southwark
In Tudor and Stuart London, the chief reason for crossing the Thames, to what is now Southwark www.visitsouthwark.com , was to visit the disreputable Bankside entertainment district around the south end of London Bridge. Four hundred years on, Londoners have rediscovered the habit of heading for the area, thanks to a wealth of new attractions – with the charge led by the mighty Tate Modern on Bankside – that now pepper the riverside from Blackfriars Bridge to Tower Bridge.
In the shadow of the Tate is Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, a reconstruction of one of the Elizabethan theatres for which Southwark was once famous. Close by, the Millennium Bridge provides a wonderful pedestrian link from the City and St Paul's. Further east, you'll find a replica of Drake's Tudor galleon, the Golden Hinde, and, in Southwark Cathedral, some of the city's best-preserved Gothic architecture. At this point, the shops, cafés and stalls of nearby Borough Market, which has become something of a gourmet food haven, provide a welcome refuelling stop.
East of London Bridge lies Bermondsey and the beginning of the south-bank Docklands development, less well known than Canary Wharf, but more innovative architecturally. The wartime cruiser HMS Belfast sits in what was once the busiest section of the Thames, with City Hall, the headquarters for London's mayor and assembly, on the riverbank nearby. Further inland, on Tooley Street, there are regular queues outside the ever-popular London Dungeon.
East of Tower Bridge is the thriving little warehouse development of Butler's Wharf, centred on the excellent Design Museum.