Southwark's firm ground is the reason London stands where it does
Two thousand years ago the south bank of the Thames was mostly marshy tidal islands, except for one firm strip of ground. Roman engineers built their bridge there around 43 AD, and London grew up at its northern end. The district at the southern end, Southwark, is the oldest part of South London.
In Roman times the Thames was wider and shallower, and much of Southwark flooded at high tide. A narrow north-south ridge of firmer land offered a shorter crossing, making it the lowest point where the river could be bridged. Without that bridge, historians doubt a significant settlement would have formed; earlier the main crossing had been a ford near modern Vauxhall. Two great Roman roads, Stane Street and Watling Street, converged on what is now Borough High Street. Excavations have turned up a plaque bearing the earliest known Roman reference to Londoners and, in 2022, a large dining-room mosaic dated to between 175 and 225 AD.
When Roman rule ended, Southwark was deserted by the late fourth century and the bridge decayed. Revival came under King Alfred's successors, when a fortified burh was created about 886 to guard the crossing. Its Old English name meant the southern defensive work. The bridge figured in the wars of 1014 to 1016: according to Snorri Sturluson's saga, King Ethelred's ally Olaf tied ropes to its piles and dragged it down, perhaps inspiring the rhyme London Bridge Is Falling Down. Cnut later dug a trench around Southwark to haul his ships past the defended bridge, and in 1066 William the Conqueror failed to force the crossing but devastated the district.
Medieval Southwark was one of four Surrey towns sending members to the first parliament in 1295, and its busy High Street market eventually moved in 1756 to become Borough Market. It was famous for inns, above all the Tabard, where Chaucer's pilgrims gather in The Canterbury Tales. The bridge again proved decisive in 1450, when Jack Cade's rebels were beaten back trying to cross into the City.
Parts were loosely governed, and the Liberty of the Clink became an entertainment quarter. Southwark was fully separated from City administration only in 1900. Today it holds Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe, The Shard and Tate Modern.
Source: Southwark
