Route Developer: Robert Scales
Starting from London Bridge Station, Bridge Street SE1 9SG
[1] Leave London Bridge National Rail station via Railway Approach, i.e. towards Borough High Street, and turn left along that. Cross St.Thomas Street via the pedestrian-controlled lights.
From the far side you can see the chapel of St.Thomas’ Hospital, one of the two main clients for the Borough Boys, London’s most active gang of resurrection men (body snatchers).Bodies were sold for profit to hospitals for anatomical study; otherwise hospitals had to rely on the bodies of executed criminals , whose relatives often opposed their dissection by force.
[2] Continue down Borough High Street, looking out for No.54, now a valuer’s.
(A) Here on 11 September 1875, Henry Wainwright brought the dismembered body of his former mistress; he was arrested here and hanged at Newgate.Before that the premises were a brothel. The area contained numerous prisons, none of them remaining. The first on this route was the Marshalsea, in which Charles Dickens was incarcerated along with his parents and which was described as an “earthly hell”. It was between Newcomen Street and Mermaid Passage, whose high wall topped with barbed wire suggests its nature. No. 213 Borough High Street is currently the London Institute of Research, but its frontage was part of that of the Marshalsea and White Lion prisons.After their closure the building was a pub ,the Crown, and a crown embellishes the front wall at the top.(It is best seen from across the road).
[3] Cross Great Dover Street via the pedestrian-controlled lights and go left down it. Take the first turning right (the unsigned Swan Street), and continue to the junction on your left with Trinity Church Square. Turn right past the church, following the road to the left, then go right down Brockham Street, which ends at Harper Road.
Opposite the junction was the site of yet another prison. Here Mr and Mrs Manning were hanged for the murder of their friend Patrick O’Connor in 1849; the scaffold was erected on the roof so that spectators, including Charles Dickens,could see the hanging. Also in Harper Street was found the body the oldest known Londoner, a woman, buried about 50A.D.
[4] Go right along Harper Street to the pedestrian-controlled lights at Borough High Street. Directly opposite is Stones End Street, which marked the eastern limit of the King’s Bench Prison. At its end go left into Great Suffolk Street (unsigned).
This was the boundary of the King’s Bench Liberty, an area where wealthy prisoners paid to live outside the jail walls. Lord John Cochrane, who abetted a swindle, escaped from here in March 1815 by secreting a rope and climbing the wall.
[5] Turn at once right into Toulmin Street and then directly following this into Weller Street, and then right into Mint Street.
Here was a notorious criminals’ sanctuary till the 18th century.Such sanctuaries were meant primarily for debtors, who were allowed only 28 days’ grace but the aggregation of murderers and other violent criminals proved here as elsewhere too strong for the existing law enforcers to deal with, and some wrongdoers stayed there for 20 years or more.
[6] Follow Mint Street to its end, cross Marshalsea Road with care, and go up Redcross Way opposite.
Here the Thieftaker General Jonathan Wild stabled his horse; he lived on rewards for “recovering” property whose theft he had often arranged in the first place.; this criminal godfather was hanged in 1725.
[7] Turn left into Union Street, keeping to the left pavement, and cross Southwark Bridge Road at the pedestrian- controlled lights. Continue down Union Street.
Opposite the junction with Ewer Street stood the Monument Inn, where Severin Klosowski, a.k.a. George Chapman, murdered his 2nd victim, the barmaid Bessie taylor; he was hanged in 1903.
[8] Cross Union Street- the pavement is obstructed- and continue along it. Turn right into Great Suffolk Street, then in front of the White Hart pub up an alley left.
This unsigned alley is Bear Lane, for the route enters an area famous for bear- and bull-baiting in the 16th and 17th centuries. Cross Southwark Street (there are pedestrian controlled lights just to the right) and go up Hopton Street. Paris Garden, a pleasure resort and haunt of prostitutes, was on the left. A brothel opened here in 1603 survived for 30 years. Dinner alone cost £20, a large sum in those days.There were also flourishing public casinos with cards and dice in the reign of Henry the Eighth.
[9] At No.65 turn right. You will see a boom opposite: pass it and go under the arch ahead. You are now on the riverside walkway. Turn right, passing Tate Modern and under the Millennium footbridge.
[10] Continue to the Real Greek restaurant on your right, and take the turning right in front of it (Bear Gardens, unsigned).
The Hope Theatre which stood here also had on site the main bear-baiting ring in Shakespeare’s time.Others were at the Rose and Globe Theatres, whose sites this route is about to pass; the theatre’s owner was created Master of the Royal Bears, Bulls and Mastiff Dogs.(Variants on bear-baiting included the whipping of blind bears and the baiting of a horse with a monkey tied on. Eight people were killed when a stand collapsed in January 1583).
[11] At the end of Bear Gardens, cross Park Street and turn left. Pass the site of the Rose Theatre on your left, then that of the Globe on your right (after going under Southwark Bridge). Go on to the end of Park Street and turn left to the river.
The Anchor pub on your left was the first of the Bankside Stews, a row of brothels run by the state in property owned by the Bishops of Winchester; the sites of the others can be seen to the left along the Thames.
[12] Retrace your steps 30 yards and turn left by Wagamama, along Clink Street. You will shortly pass the Clink Prison, open now as a tourist attraction. Admission is £5 for adults, £3.50 for concessions; it is open from 10a.m. till 9p.m. in summer and 6p.m. in winter; further information can be gained by phoning 0207 403 9981.
[13] Continue between tall atmospheric buildings to the Golden Hind ship, then turn right down Cathedral Street towards Southwark Cathedral; keep it on your left.
In July 1460, the naked body of the Lancastrian Baron Scales was dumped in the south porch.He had been besieged in the Tower of London by Yorkist enemies and was escaping to sanctuary but was recognised by those taking him upriver and murdered.
[14] Leave the churchyard via the gate opposite the porch; turn left, right, then left again into Green Dragon Court, which leads you onto the approach to London Bridge.
For centuries the gated entrance was topped by the parboiled heads of criminals to discourage emulators.
Turn right to cross the approach to London Bridge via pedestrian controlled lights; cross to rejoin Railway Approach and return to London Bridge Station.