Tabard Gardens

Southwark ( (listen) SUDH-ərk) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed due to its position at the southern end of the early versions of London Bridge, the only crossing point for many miles. London’s historic core, the City of London, lay north of the Bridge and for centuries the area of Southwark just south of the bridge was governed by the City. By the 12th century Southwark had been incorporated as an ancient borough, and this historic status is reflected in the alternative name of the area, as Borough. The ancient borough of Southwark's river frontage extended from the modern borough boundary, just to the west of by the Oxo Tower, to St Saviour's Dock (originally the mouth of the River Neckinger) in the east. The urban area expanded over the years and Southwark was separated from the City in 1900. Local points of interest include Southwark Cathedral, Borough Market, Shakespeare's Globe theatre, The Shard, Tower Bridge, Butler's Wharf and the City Hall offices of the Greater London Authority from 2002 to 2021.

Newington is a district of South London, just south of the River Thames, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was an ancient parish and the site of the early administration of the county of Surrey. It was the location of the County of London Sessions House from 1917, in a building now occupied by the Inner London Crown Court.

Great Dover Street is a road in Southwark, south London, England. At the northwest end it joins Marshalsea Road and Borough High Street and there is a junction with Long Lane; Borough Underground station is at this location. At the southeast end is the Bricklayers Arms roundabout and flyover. The road is part of the A2 and this continues south-east as the Old Kent Road.

The Roebuck is a Grade II listed public house at 50 Great Dover Street, Southwark, London SE1 4YG.It was built in the late 19th century.

The Surrey Dispensary was founded in 1777 to administer advice and medicine to the poor of the Borough of Southwark and places adjacent. It was once one of the largest dispensaries in south London.

Long Lane is a main east–west road in Southwark, south London, England. The south side of the medieval-founded St George the Martyr church, of high classical 1730s design, adjoins the street before its western ending. East of the church is a paved, tree-studded, pedestrianised zone before park St Georges Gardens, the successor to its churchyard. This was the church where Little Dorrit (in Dickens's Little Dorrit) was baptised and married. Dickens in reality lodged one block southwest as a child in Lant Street when his father was in the Marshalsea debtors' prison during 1824. It was a traumatic period of his life. A few metres north of the lane's "London" end (so along Great Dover Street) are steps to Borough tube station. Just before its western end, a T-junction with Great Dover Street, it has the north end of the modernised but medieval route of that street, Tabard Street, which is a Georgian renaming of the London conclusion of the Old Kent Road (its conclusion can otherwise be considered bustling Borough High Street/London Bridge beyond, all piling in the traffic to the city from Surrey and Sussex). A few metres north, Great Dover Street has its final crossroads, crossing Borough High Street to face Marshalsea Road which links to Southwark Bridge Road The road is designated the A2198. At the east end, via Abbey Street is a crossroads, crossing Tower Bridge Road (the A100). Before giving over to Abbey Street most traffic is signposted to and from Bermondsey Street (the A2205) which is further east.

Merrick Square is a garden square in Newington, London. The square is named after Christopher Merrick who in 1661 left land to Trinity House. There are 32 houses that were built from 1853 to 1872, and they overlook a private garden in the centre, which is still enclosed by its original 19th-century cast-iron railings.In 1861, the cricketer Alfred Mynn died at his brother's house at 22 Merrick Square.

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.

St Saviour's and St Olave's Church of England School is a secondary school and sixth form for girls located on New Kent Road near Elephant and Castle, in the London Borough of Southwark, England. It is a voluntary aided Church of England school in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark and is affiliated to the Woodard Schools group.

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."

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.

John Harvard Library is a public lending library on Borough High Street in Southwark, London. The library is home to the Local History Library, as well as a Mouse Tail Coffee Stories cafe.