My Southwark (part 2)

This is the second half of my little walking tour around Southwark. The first part can be found here: My Southwark (part 1). We take a walk down Borough High Street this time. One thing I have learned through this little exercise is that I need to walk east along the river to explore Southwark around the mayor's office and west from my office to explore the area leading up to Southwark Underground Station.  There is so much more to Southwark than my little walking tour but these are my favourite spots.

6. The George Inn

Just across Borough High Street from Borough Market and Vinopolis, you will find The George Inn.  The George Inn was frequented by Charles Dickens and in fact, features in his novel Little Dorrit.  The inn appeared on the first map of Southwark dating back to 1543 and is the only surviving galleried London coaching inn.

 

The George Inn
77 Borough High Street
London SE1 1NH
020 7407 2056

 

7. The Climbers by Ofra Zimbalista

If you walk a little further south down Borough High Street, you will see the marvellous sculpture The Climbers by Ofra Zimbalista.  This shows three blue men climbing up Maya House, each holding a different musical instrument.  You can find Hiba Lebanese restaurant underneath.

 

8.  St George the Martyr Church

The earliest record of a church on this site was in 1122 but the current buildings date back to eighteenth century.  Like The George Inn, the church has strong links to Charles Dickens and several scenes from the novel take place in and around the church.  Members of the Dickens Fellowship are welcomed to the church each year for an annual service. 

St George the Martyr Church
Borough High Street
London SE1 1JA
020 7357 7331

9.  St George’s Churchyard Gardens

The St George's Churchyard Gardens lie across the way from the church and are interesting in and of themselves.  This was once the site of the Marshalsea Debtors’ Prison where Charles Dickens’ father was incarcerated for debt in 1824.  Seeing his father in the prison haunted dickens for most of his life and the experience dominates Little Dorrit.  The last remnant of the prison wall forms the back wall of the gardens.

 

 

10.  The Shard and London Bridge Quarter

Well, it has been a long and exciting tour around Southwark and now we head back to London Bridge Rail Station and to The Shard.  When it is finished in 2012, The Shard is likely to be the main attraction in Southwark as it will be the tallest skyscraper in the United Kingdom.  It will stand at 310 metres tall (1,017 feet) and will have 72 floors plus 15 radiator floors on the roof.  The good news is that it will also have an observation deck at the top for tourists to visit!  The building will have a glass exterior and will be made to look like a shard of glass striking out from the landscape.  I for one cannot wait until it is finished.

The Shard and London Bridge Quarter
32 London Bridge Street
London
SE1

And that is the end of My Southwark!  It was a great competition, I must say, and I’ll post about the exciting prize giving next week.

My Southwark (part 1)

Southwark is one of the most understated and unknown areas in London but it is steeped in history and full of beautiful and interesting places to visit.  You can reach Southwark by catching the train or tube to London Bridge Station and there is enough to keep you occupied for a whole day.  There is certainly no shortage of interesting things to do but I would suggest the following walking tour:

1.  The London Dungeon

Just outside of London Bridge Rail Station lies one of London’s most popular destinations.  In fact, there are queues to get in all year around and it is best to book your place in advance!  It is certainly my favourite attraction and I have visited it many times.  The London Dungeon is an interactive experience detailing London’s most horrible and macabre history.  Highlights include exhibits on The Great Plague, Sweeney Todd and Bloody Mary and there is also the ride Extremis: Drop Ride to Doom.  Not to be missed!

The London Dungeon
28-34 Tooley Street
London SE1 2SZ
020 7403 7221

2. Southwark Cathedral

Southwark Cathedral is an exquisite example of Gothic architecture and although a church has been on this site since 606AD, it has only been an Anglican cathedral since 1905.  Not only is the Cathedral visually stunning on the exterior, it is beautiful inside too and certainly worth a visit.  It is open daily from 8.00am to 6.00pm

 

Southwark Cathedral
Chapter House
Montague Close, London SE1 9DA
020 7367 6734

3. The Golden Hinde

Just around the corner from Southwark Cathedral lies a full size replica of Sir Francis Drake’s 16th century galleon The Golden Hinde.  Drake circumnavigated the globe in the original Golden Hinde between 1577 and 1580.  The original ship was kept at Deptford for nearly 100 years after she sailed before eventually rotting away.  This replica has not faired too badly either though and she too has circumnavigated the globe.  She has travelled a total of 140,000 miles and is now preserved as a museum.

The Golden Hinde
Pickfords Wharf
Clink Street, London SE1 9DG
020 7407 7056

4.  Borough Market

Borough Market is a dedicated food market that is open to the public on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.  You can buy fresh foods of an extremely high quality and this is a wonderful place to visit if you are catering a fancy dinner or if you just want a lunch time snack.  While you are there, be sure to look up and appreciate the fine Art Deco style of the buildings.

Borough Market
8 Southwark Street
London SE1 1TL
020 7407 1002

5. Vinopolis

Vinopolis is an incredibly popular venue to visit in Southwark.  There you can mix wine tasting with socialising, dine in the adjoining Cantina Vinopolis and purchase world class wines from the attached Lathwaites Wine Store.  Vinopolis is tucked under the arches of the Victorian railway viaduct that carries the trains from London Bridge to Cannon Street rail station. 

Vinopolis
1 Bank End
London SE1 9BU
020 7940 3000

MyCommunity Competition: My Southwark

Yesterday morning, the Eternal Tourist (yours truly) took a self-guided walking tour around Southwark which is the little area in which I work.  It is tucked beneath London Bridge and spreads around Borough High Street all the way to Borough Station.  I think it is safe to say that I am rather enamoured with this historic and understated area and I jumped at the chance to take part in the MyCommunity Contest over at Gumtree.

It has all been quite exciting really. On Saturday morning, I received a mysterious package in the mail. I was thrilled to discover a small digital camera, a Moleskine notebook, a pencil and instructions to capture the very best of my community.  I decided to focus on Southwark because I was long overdue on a photowalk and I had promised you all some more photos of Southwark Cathedral. 

The photos I took are attached in the slide show above and once the competition is over, I'll tell you all about them in more detail and take you on your very own personal photowalk!

For now, I need your help and support!  Success in the competition is based on the number of (relevant) comments I get on this post and over at the forum at Gumtree.

Please can you visit my entry My Southwark at Gumtree and either leave a comment here or on my forum listing there.  Tell me about your own experiences in Southwark – have you been to Borough Food Market or Southwark Cathedral?  Can you tell me something about Southwark I didn’t already know?  What do you think of the photographs?  What will you get in return?  Why, I’ll be posting a personal thank you note with links to your blogs at the end of the week.

Next week will be a bumper filled Southwark week here on Emm in London because not only will I be posting the photos above, I’ll also be posting an update on The Shard development too.  Stay tuned and help me win the competition please!

Wordless Wednesday ~ 20: Southwark Cathedral

Click here for more Wordless Wednesday participants

Lost in Southwark

I went for a walk today to try and find a fabled hardware store that was said to be hiding just off Borough High Street.  I’d already had one failed mission and returned to my office in defeat.  When our security officer then decided to direct me through “the scenic route” I knew I had to take along my trusted Nokia N70 phone and snap some photos!

Little Dorrit Court

Southwark is steeped in history and the story of the writing of Little Dorrit  is linked to Charles Dickens’ visit to his father in Marshalsea prison.  All that remains of Marshalsea prison is the wall which runs along the park next to my work.  So, my walk took me along Little Dorrit Court and the colourful park there.

I guess it would have to be colourful given how wonderfully grey London is for most of the year!

When I got to the end of Little Dorrit Court, I came upon the most wonderful little park.

Red Cross Garden

It is amazing what you can discover in London if you just step away from your usual path. 

Even in the depth of winter, the Red Cross Garden is absolutely exquisite.

The Red Cross Garden was founded in 1887 by Octavia Hill, a co-founder of the National Trust.  According to the Bankside Open Spaces Trust website, Octavia was an ardent social reformer and built the garden as a place for the tired inhabitants of Southwark to sit.  (Yesterday, an overworked Southwark employee simply took photos!)  She also built the houses you can see at the back as a model to how housing conditions could be improved for the working poor.

Not surprisingly, there is a plaque dedicated to Octavia Hill at the back of the garden.

So, I finally found my way to the hardware store and then scooted back to work.

I took the opportunity to snap a photo of the St George the Martyr Church.  That is a section of Borough High Street you can see there and it is completely full of road works as they replace the Victorian water mains.  Utter pandemonium! 

Where I Work: Autumn arrives

If I had to pick out my absolute worst habit, I would have to say that it is neglecting to take lunch breaks.  I get into work around 9am and work straight through until 5pm before running off to catch the train.  I’m terrible!  The last time I took a lunch break was in August and before that I think it was May when I had lunch at Joes!   

One of the biggest differences between England and South Africa is that we have four seasons here.  In Johannesburg, we had 9 months of scorching hot summer and 12 long weeks of ice cold nights and dry, hot days (that is winter!)  All Jo’burgers complain bitterly about the winter and we take for granted the fact that there are more dry, warm, sunny days then the whole of the English summer!

So, combining my rare lunch break and noticing the seasonal changes, I thought I’d post some of the photos I’ve taken on my Nokia N70 over the past 6 months.  All of these photos are taken in the recently renamed St George’s Churchyard Gardens in SE1.  You can read a bit more about the history of the gardens here.

Spring / early summer

This was taken on the 1st of May this year.  Spring was in full bloom and all the beautiful shades of green were starting to emerge.  I love that heady, balmy early summer feeling in England.  We didn’t get that in Jo’burg – it was freezing one day and then summer arrived the next. 

Late Summer

This was my third straight summer in England and in my opinion, it has been the warmest, nicest summer so far.  The first summer in 2007 was alternatively freezing and boiling (as in freezing all the time except when I was on crowded trains) and last year was pretty miserable.

This photo was taken on the 18th of August.  I’d managed to tear myself away from the office and made it about twenty minutes before running back inside!  (I’m shaking my head ruefully right now).

My building is the ivy covered building in the background.  A year after I first posted about the gardens, we are still waiting for Southwark Council to cut back the ivy!!!

Autumn

Taken today.  The leaves are turning orange, red and brown and falling to the ground and autumn is definitely here!  Despite the fact that it is nearly the end of October, I was sitting there today with a sleeveless shirt and a lightweight mac on! 

I managed to sit for a whole half an hour in the gardens today.  I’m reading a really good book (Marked) and I simply had to read as much as I could!

Winter

It has been a long and glorious summer and hopefully I’ll have enough sunny memories to last me through the winter.  I got really bad winter blues the past two years (last year it was exacerbated by having flu for two months) so I am coming out fighting this year!!  Every time I feel blue I can look back on these pictures and start planning my trip to Europe next summer. 

Next Summer

We were planning a road trip around Italy but now I am toying with driving from Dartford (in England), taking a ferry to France and then driving to Portugal.  Sheila from A Postcard a Day posted some gorgeous postcards from Portugal lately and I follow an awesome Portuguese photo blog Photo PT.  Going to Italy is still one of my biggest dreams but going to Portugal next year might just work better.  And the biggest reason for going to Portugal?  I could get to meet one of my best blogging friends Blue Kermit.

Where I work: My walk to work in the mornings part 2

I know - I have been scarce.  It is 29 days until I can reclaim my freedom and I am eager to get my studies over and done with.  This is the best studying experience I have ever had - I usually find it to be abject torture and I hated the time I spent studying my degrees in psychology.  Despite enjoying it (and pretty much making the decision to pursue a career in health and safety), I will be glad to be free from studying again come December.

I thought it was high time I completed my post about the walk to work in the mornings before it gets really cold and my autumnal pictures look completely outdated.

The favourite part of my walk to work in the mornings has got to be the park next to my work.  I really like the story behind it and it is such a pretty place.  I find it very peaceful even though it reminds me of the Garden of Remembrance in the zombie slasher game Catacombs.

Before I get to the park, I slip down beside the Coroner's Court and into this alley.  It's interesting because on the right, we have the ugliest example of modern fencing imaginable yet on the left hand side we have a beautiful brick wall that is hundreds of years old (as we will see inside the park).

I love this gate - once again it represents a contrast between old and new, with a modern office building in the background.  You can see the notice on the gate informing that the park will close at 5pm every day.  This was taken a couple of weeks ago - the time has been reduced to 3:30pm now.

I told you the wall was old!  I love that this wall that is tucked away between the Coroner's Court, an accounting library and John Harvard Library is so old and so significant!  I wonder if Harry Lloyd (Dickens' great-great-grandson and the object of my fangirl obsessions) has been here or even knows about Marshalsea Prison.  I feel a great sense of history whenever I see this sign.

The park wasn't always so neat and well-looked after.  My predecessor had to call up Southwark Council and ask them to take care of it as our building was being overrun by weeds!

There are the gates again with the Historic Southwark Historical sign visible on the wall to the right of the gates. 

I got to work the other day and there was quite a buzz because a massive tree had fallen over in the park.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I walked through the park and probably side-stepped the wreckage itself and did not notice the fallen tree.  I sort of lose myself in my iMandy.

Perhaps the trees had duelled in the night and only one survivor could remain.  Johannesburg might be the largest man made forest in the world but the size and height of the trees take my breath away.  They are absolutely magnificent.

My building is just visible behind the tree.  It is covered in ivy and we have had to call Southwark Council again to come cut it back before the whole building is overcome!