Southwark packs in more genuine sightseeing per square mile than almost anywhere else in London, a thousand-year-old food market, Shakespeare’s own theatre and the tallest building in the country all within a short walk of each other.
We’ll admit Southwark is the area we send visitors to when they claim they’ve “done” London already. It never quite works as an argument, because there’s always something they’ve missed: a prison museum with a genuinely dark history, a pub Dickens actually drank in, a beer mile that didn’t exist twenty years ago and now runs to nineteen breweries.
It sits right along the river from London Bridge down towards Bermondsey, and it rewards a full day rather than a rushed afternoon. Here’s what we’d build that day around.
The best things to do in Southwark
Cross the bascules at Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge was the work of Sir Horace Jones, the architect also behind Leadenhall Market and Smithfield Market, working alongside civil engineer Sir John Wolfe Barry. Jones died in 1887, seven years before the bridge was finished, so he never actually saw the finished thing. It is possible to walk across it, though the best photo of the bridge itself is usually taken from beside the Girl with a Dolphin statue near St Katharine Docks.
It was first painted red, white and blue in 1977 for the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, and last had a full repaint in 2010.
Take in the art at Tate Modern
Housed inside a former power station on the South Bank, Tate Modern is one of London’s best free museums and one of its more unusual-looking buildings. Its collection spans 1900 to the present, with work by Monet, Pollock and Picasso among the highlights, alongside a rolling programme of exhibitions.
Graze your way round Borough Market
Borough Market has been trading in some form for around a thousand years, and it is close to essential visiting for anyone spending time in Southwark. Artisan bread, French cheeses, fresh pasta and dishes from across Asia all have a stall here, alongside plenty more worth an hour or two of grazing, and we’ve never once left without picking up something we didn’t plan on buying.
Get locked up at The Clink Prison Museum
The Clink Prison Museum sits on the site of one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons, in use for more than 600 years. The tour is part history lesson, part theatrical experience, walking visitors through what life was really like for the people held here.
Worth knowing: the phrase “in the clink”, meaning in prison, actually comes from this exact building, so you’re technically visiting the origin of a piece of everyday English.
Watch a play at Shakespeare’s Globe
This faithful recreation of the theatre where Shakespeare staged his own plays is worth a visit whether or not there is a performance on. The original burned down in 1613, and the current building, opened in 1997, took American actor and director Sam Wanamaker something like 30 years of campaigning to bring about, as we found digging into the building’s stranger history in our Globe Theatre facts piece. The first Globe was, bizarrely, physically carried across the river from Shoreditch plank by plank in 1598, after a dispute with the landlord over the lease.
Catch Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or whatever else is running at the Globe, or simply take in the building itself, a rare and striking piece of Elizabethan-style architecture on the South Bank.
Go up the Shard
At 309.6 metres, the Shard is the tallest building in the UK and hard to miss from almost anywhere in the city. Designed by architect Renzo Piano to resemble a shard of glass, it houses shops, restaurants, bars and viewing platforms, plus the Shangri-La Hotel and cocktail bar Gong for anyone after a proper splurge.
Ride the ramp at City Hall
Sitting beside Tower Bridge, City Hall is where the Mayor of London conducts official business, and it is open to visitors at set times through the week. The building is best known for the spiral ramp that winds up through its centre towards the roof. Check current visiting arrangements before you go, opening hours for the public areas change from time to time.
Walk the wobbly Millennium Bridge
The Millennium Bridge had a famously wobbly opening day in 2000, closing within minutes as the crossing began to sway underfoot. What started as a short shutdown turned into a two-year fix involving more than 90 dampeners, as we’ve written about in more detail in our Millennium Bridge facts piece. It has long since settled into being one of the more popular river crossings in London, free to cross and offering one of the better views of St Paul’s Cathedral along the way.
Browse the Fashion and Textile Museum
Founded in 2003 by designer Dame Zandra Rhodes and now run by Newham College, the Fashion and Textile Museum charts the evolution of fashion through the decades, alongside workshops and talks from designers and makers. You can’t miss the building itself on Bermondsey Street, a riot of hot pink, burnt orange, bright yellow and baby blue designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorretta, a detail we cover in our guide to Bermondsey Street.
Find some quiet at Southwark Cathedral
Standing in the shadow of the Shard, Southwark Cathedral tends to get overlooked next to grander cathedrals elsewhere in the capital, but it has welcomed a genuinely notable cast of visitors over the centuries, among them Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and John Harvard, of Harvard University.
Drink where Dickens drank at The George Inn
Now looked after by the National Trust, the George Inn is London’s last remaining galleried coaching inn, dating back to the 17th century. Charles Dickens is said to have drunk here when it operated as a coffee house, and it turns up in passing in Little Dorrit. It remains a working pub, and a proper pint here is a fitting way to finish a day exploring the area.
Work your way down the Bermondsey Beer Mile
Running for around a mile and a half, the Bermondsey Beer Mile links more than fifteen breweries and two gin distilleries under a run of railway arches. It started small, with just The Kernel going it alone, and has since grown to somewhere around nineteen breweries, depending who’s counting and how generous you’re being with the boundaries.
Saturdays are when most of the tap rooms open to the public, with stops including Southwark Brewing Company and Hiver, known for its honey-infused beer.
Grab a coffee or a cocktail at Vinegar Yard
This outdoor, canteen-style spot serves local craft beer, wine and cocktails alongside street food from vendors including Sugo and Baba G’s. For an earlier stop, The Gentlemen Baristas at Vinegar Yard does a solid coffee and breakfast before a day of sightseeing.
Eat under the arches at Maltby Street Market
A smaller, quieter alternative to Borough Market, Maltby Street Market runs under a stretch of Victorian railway arches with a tight, well-chosen line-up of stalls. Bad Brownie and Waffle On cover the sweet end of things, while The Beefsteaks handles anyone after something more substantial.
Pick a stall at Flat Iron Square
A slightly more grown-up food hub than some of its neighbours, Flat Iron Square combines a food market with indoor and outdoor bars and the music venue Omeara, which hosts club nights through the year. It’s occupied a set of previously disused railway arches since 2016, and Tatami Ramen and Bar Douro are worth seeking out among the stalls.
Order the cacio e pepe at Padella
Technically part of the Borough Market cluster, Padella earns its own mention for pasta dishes that are both excellent and fairly priced for the quality on the plate. The cacio e pepe, with a spritz on the side, is the order most regulars make without needing to check the rest of the menu.
Finish with a browse at Hay’s Galleria
Hay’s Galleria pairs an impressive Victorian dockside structure with a solid mix of high street shops, chain restaurants and independent retailers, making it a useful one-stop spot when other errands need running alongside the sightseeing.
