John Harvard Library

The Marshalsea (1373–1842) was a notorious prison in Southwark, just south of the River Thames. Although it housed a variety of prisoners, including men accused of crimes at sea and political figures charged with sedition, it became known, in particular, for its incarceration of the poorest of London's debtors. Over half the population of England's prisoners in the 18th century were in jail because of debt.Run privately for profit, as were all English prisons until the 19th century, the Marshalsea looked like an Oxbridge college and functioned as an extortion racket. Debtors in the 18th century who could afford the prison fees had access to a bar, shop and restaurant, and retained the crucial privilege of being allowed out during the day, which gave them a chance to earn money for their creditors. Everyone else was crammed into one of nine small rooms with dozens of others, possibly for years for the most modest of debts, which increased as unpaid prison fees accumulated. The poorest faced starvation and, if they crossed the jailers, torture with skullcaps and thumbscrews. A parliamentary committee reported in 1729 that 300 inmates had starved to death within a three-month period, and that eight to ten were dying every 24 hours in the warmer weather.The prison became known around the world in the 19th century through the writing of the English novelist Charles Dickens, whose father was sent there in 1824, when Dickens was 12, for a debt to a baker. Forced as a result to leave school to work in a factory, Dickens based several of his characters on his experience, most notably Amy Dorrit, whose father is in the Marshalsea for debts so complex no one can fathom how to get him out.Much of the prison was demolished in the 1870s, although parts of it were used as shops and rooms into the 20th century. A local library now stands on the site. All that is left of the Marshalsea is the long brick wall that marked its southern boundary, the existence of what Dickens called "the crowding ghosts of many miserable years" recalled only by a plaque from the local council. "[I]t is gone now," he wrote, "and the world is none the worse without it."

The Boar's Head Inn was an inn at Southwark in London, owned by Sir John Fastolf, who is the source for the character-name of Falstaff. While the Eastcheap Boar's Head Inn is not known to have existed during the reign of Henry IV, this inn may have.

St George the Martyr is a church in the historic Borough district of south London. It lies within the modern-day London Borough of Southwark, on Borough High Street at the junction with Long Lane, Marshalsea Road, and Tabard Street. St George the Martyr is named after Saint George. The church is a Grade II* listed building.The church has strong associations with Charles Dickens, whose father was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea prison. The surviving wall of the prison adjoins the north side of the churchyard. Dickens himself lived nearby, in Lant Street, lodging in a house that belonged to the Vestry Clerk of St George's. This was during the darkest period of his life when, as a teenager, with his father in prison, he had to work in the 'blacking factory', and his literary career must have seemed an impossible dream. Later, he was to set several scenes of the novel Little Dorrit in and around St George's Church. There is a small representation of Little Dorrit in the east window of the church.It is also a recognised church of the City of London Company of Parish Clerks and the guild church of the Guildable Manor. From 2008 the annual Southwark Quit Rents ceremony, before the Queen's Remembrancer has taken place there.

Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff. Until September 2007, its studios were located on Denmark Street before moving to its present location at 144 Borough High Street, Southwark. The station broadcasts to a three-mile (4.8 km) radius on 104.4 MHz FM from a transmitter on the roof of Guy's Hospital at London Bridge. Its schedule includes nearly 100 shows catering to many sub-communities of the London area on a wide variety of subjects including a multitude of musical genres, local and foreign current affairs and subjects of local interest. Noted for its policy of giving broadcasters free rein of their creative outlet, it has been described by Time Out as "brilliantly eccentric". The station receives funding grants from Arts Council England.

Borough is a London Underground station in the Borough area of the London Borough of Southwark in central London. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern line between Elephant & Castle and London Bridge stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The station entrance is in Borough High Street (part of the A3), on the corner of Marshalsea Road. The A2 terminates opposite it.

Suffolk Place (or Suffolk House) was a mansion house located on the west side of Borough High Street in Southwark, Surrey, on the south bank of the River Thames opposite the City of London. It was the London town house of the Dukes of Suffolk, and was located near Winchester Palace, London seat of the Bishop of Winchester. The position was highly prominent as Borough High Street (or Southwark Street) was the principal thoroughfare leading from London Bridge and the City of London, to Canterbury and Dover, a route used by monarchs and others, including the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. It was built in the fifteenth century and rebuilt in fine Renaissance style in 1522 by Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk (c.1484-1545) a favourite of King Henry VIII. On 4 February 1536 it was taken over by King Henry VIII who exchanged it with Brandon for Norwich Place on the Strand, on the north side of the Thames, nearer to the Palace of Westminster. King Henry VIII granted it to his wife Jane Seymour in June 1537, but when she died the following October, it reverted to the King. In 1545 the house was converted into a mint. It was occupied by Queen Mary I (1553-1558) and her new husband Philip II of Spain on the night before their state entry into London in 1554. This was possibly the time when it was depicted by Anthony van den Wyngaerde in his Panorama of London, to the left of Borough High Street in the foreground of the picture. It was demolished in 1557 and the area was built over with small tenements, which became known as The Mint, a notorious rookery. A modern office block called Brandon House at 180 Borough High Street (opposite Borough tube station) now occupies the site of Suffolk Place. It is also memorialised by nearby Suffolk Street.

Little Dorrit's Playground, named after Little Dorrit, the eponymous Charles Dickens character, is a public playground and small park just north of Marshalsea Road in Southwark, south London, England.

Southwark Coroner's Court is the Coroner's Court for inner south London. It is located at Tennis Street, London. The court covers cases for the London boroughs of Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.

Borough High Street is a road in Southwark, London, running south-west from London Bridge, forming part of the A3 route which runs from London to Portsmouth, on the south coast of England.

St Margaret was a parish in the ancient borough of Southwark, located south of the River Thames in the Brixton Hundred of Surrey. It was abolished in 1541 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and replaced with the parish of St Saviour. The parish church was located on what is now Borough High Street and the area now forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was from 1444 governed by the Guild of the Assumption of St Margaret's Church.

Cross Bones is a disused post-medieval burial ground on Redcross Way in Southwark, south London. Up to 15,000 people are believed to have been buried there. It was closed in 1853. Cross Bones is thought to have been established originally as an unconsecrated graveyard for prostitutes, or "single women", who were known locally as "Winchester Geese" because they were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester to work within the Liberty of the Clink. The area lay outside the jurisdiction of the City of London and as a consequence became known for its brothels and theatres, as well as bull and bear baiting, activities not permitted within the City itself. By 1769 it had become a pauper's cemetery servicing St. Saviour's parish.

Red Cross Garden is a small park in Southwark, London. It is located on Redcross Way, and named after the street, although the name of the garden is spelt with two words while the street is spelt with one. It is in the London Borough of Southwark. The garden and the associated cottages designed by Elijah Hoole form an early example of one of Octavia Hill’s social housing schemes.