London Southwark Backstreets History Walking Tour (Booze, Brothels & the Bard)

Walk through 1,000 years of backstreet stories
in Borough and Bankside, outside the City of London

Starting outside Borough Station, you walk about 3.2 km over roughly 2 hours. Lying outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, Borough and Bankside were for centuries a place of drink, entertainment and all kinds of trouble. Your guide explains why the area became notorious for sex work after the Romans arrived, and shares stories of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and the ghost of a 19th-century pub landlady.

Visit notorious prison sites and an old pub

Pass the site of the Marshalsea Prison, closely linked to Dickens, Crossbones Garden, the Hop Exchange and the George Inn, one of London's old coaching inn pubs. Parts of Southwark's two most notorious prisons can still be seen today.

Explore Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral

Take in the sights of the thousand-year-old Borough Market, then pass the Old Operating Theatre Museum & Herb Garret, Southwark Cathedral and London Bridge.

Head to the medieval palace ruins and Shakespeare's Globe

Pass the ruins of the Bishop of Winchester's palace and the Clink Prison Museum, and finish the tour by finding both the original site of the Globe Theatre and today's Shakespeare's Globe.

※ The itinerary is for reference only and may change depending on local conditions.