Southwark, London Borough Genealogy

Guide to London Borough of Southwark history, family history, and genealogy: parish registers, census records, birth records, marriage records, and death records.



History
The London Borough of Southwark in south London, England, forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas were amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963. All districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council.

Southwark is sited on a previously marshy area south of the River Thames. Recent excavation has revealed prehistoric activity including evidence of early ploughing, burial mounds and ritual activity. The area was originally a series of islands in the River Thames. This formed the best place to bridge the Thames and the area became an important part of Londinium, owing its importance to its position as the endpoint of the Roman London Bridge. Two Roman roads, Stane Street and Watling Street, met at Southwark in what is now Borough High Street. Archaeological work at Tabard Street in 2004 discovered a plaque with the earliest reference to 'Londoners' from the Roman period on it. Londinium was abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation in the early 5th century and both the city and its bridge collapsed in decay. Archaeologically, evidence of settlement is replaced by a largely featureless soil called the Dark Earth which probably (although this is contested) represents an urban area abandoned.

Southwark appears to recover only during the time of King Alfred and his successors. Sometime about 886, the burh of Southwark was created and the Roman city area reoccupied. It was probably fortified to defend the bridge and hence the reemerging City of London to the north. This defensive role is highlighted by the use of the bridge in 1016 as a defense against King Sweyn and his son King Cnut by Ethelred the Unready and again, in 1066, against Duke William the Conqueror. He failed to force the bridge during the Norman conquest of England, but Southwark was devastated.

Southwark appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as held by several Surrey manors. Its assets were: Bishop Odo of Bayeux held the monastery (the site of modern Southwark Cathedral) and the tideway – which still exists as St Mary Overie dock; the King owned the church (probably St Olave's) and its tidal stream (St Olave's Dock); the dues of the waterway or mooring place were shared between King William I and Earl Godwin; the King also had the toll of the strand; and 'men of Southwark' had the right to 'a haw and its toll'. Southwark's value to the King was £16. Much of Southwark was originally owned by the church—the greatest reminder of monastic London is Southwark Cathedral, originally the priory of St Mary Overie.

During the early Middle Ages, Southwark developed and was one of the four Surrey towns which returned Members of Parliament for the first commons assembly in 1295. An important market occupied the High Street from some time in the 13th century, which was controlled by the City's officers—it was later removed in order to improve traffic to the Bridge, under a separate Trust by Act of Parliament of 1756 as the Borough Market on the present site. The area was renowned for its inns, especially The Tabard, from which Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims set off on their journey in The Canterbury Tales.

In 1599 the Globe Theater, in which Shakespeare was a shareholder, was erected on the Bankside in the Liberty of the Clink. It burned down in 1613, and was rebuilt in 1614, only to be closed by the Puritans in 1642 and subsequently pulled down not long thereafter. A modern replica called Shakespeare's Globe, has been built near the original site. The impresario in the later Elizabethan period for these entertainments was Shakespeare's colleague Edward Alleyn, who left many local charitable endowments, most notably Dulwich College.

On 26 May 1676, ten years after the Great Fire of London, a great fire broke out, which continued for 17 hours before houses were blown up to create fire breaks. King Charles II and his brother, James, Duke of York, were involved in the effort.

There was also a famous fair in Southwark which took place near the Church of St George the Martyr. William Hogarth depicted this fair in his engraving of Southwark Fair (1733).

Southwark was also the location of several prisons, including those of the Crown or Prerogative Courts, the Marshalsea and King's Bench prisons, that of the local manors courts e.g. Borough Compter, The Clink, and the Surrey county jail originally housed at the White Lion Inn (also called informally the Borough Jail) and eventually at Horsemonger Lane Jail.

One other local family is of note, the Harvards. John Harvard went to the local parish free school of St Saviour's and on to Cambridge University. He migrated to the Massachusetts Colony and left his library and the residue of his will to the new college there, named after him as its first benefactor. Harvard University maintains a link, having paid for a memorial chapel within Southwark Cathedral (his family's parish church), and where its UK-based alumni hold services. John Harvard's mother's house is in Stratford upon Avon.

In 1836 the first railway in the London area was created, the London and Greenwich Railway, originally terminating at Spa Road and later extended west to London Bridge.

In 1861, another great fire in Southwark destroyed a large number of buildings between Tooley Street and the Thames, including those around Hays Wharf (later replaced by Hays Galleria) and blocks to the west almost as far as St Olave's Church.

The first deep-level underground tube line in London was the City and South London Railway, now the Bank branch of the Northern line, opened in 1890, running from King William Street south through Borough to Stockwell. Southwark, since 1999, is also now served by Southwark, Bermondsey and London Bridge stations on the Jubilee line.

Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge all connect the City of London to the borough. The skyscraper Shard London Bridge is currently the tallest building in the EU. The Tate Modern art gallery, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Imperial War Museum and Borough Market are also within the borough. At one mile (1.6 km) wide, Burgess Park is Southwark's largest green space.

Cemeteries (Civil)
Nunhead Cemetery Linden Grove London SE15 3LP Phone: +44 20 7732 9535

Camberwell Old Cemetery Forest Hill Rd London SE22 0RU Phone: +44 20 7525 5600

Camberwell New Cemetery Brenchley Gardens London SE23 3RD Phone: +44 20 7525 5600

Additional information on cemeteries and crematoria in the Borough can be found on the Southwark Borough web site as follows: https://www.southwark.gov.uk/births-deaths-marriage-and-citizenship/deaths-funerals-and-cremations/cemeteries

Parishes
Southwark Cathedral Church address: London Bridge London SE1 9DA Phone: +44 20 7367 6700

Christ Church Church address: 27 Blackfriars Rd South Bank, London SE1 8NY Phone: +44 20 7928 4707

St George the Martyr Church address: Borough High St , London SE1 1JA Phone: +44 20 7357 7331

St Giles's Church address: Camberwell Church St Camberwell, London SE5 8RB Phone: +44 20 7703 4504

St George's Cathedral Church address: Cathedral House Westminster Bridge Rd South Bank, London SE1 7HY Phone: +44 20 7928 5256

St Peter's Church address: Liverpool Grove London SE17 2HH Phone: +44 20 7703 3139

St James's Church address: Thurland Rd Bermondsey, London SE16 4AA Phone: +44 20 3643 2327

St Mary Magdalen Church address: 193 Bermondsey St Bermondsey, London SE1 3UW Phone: +44 20 7357 0984

St John's Church address: 73 Waterloo Rd Lambeth, London SE1 8TY Phone: +44 20 7633 9819

St Mary's Church address: St Marychurch St Rotherhithe, London SE16 4JH Phone: +44 20 7394 3394

St Saviour's Church address: 118 Herne Hill Rd Brixton, London SE24 0AH Phone: +44 20 7737 4978

St Olave Church address: 8 Hart St London EC3R 7NB Phone: +44 20 7488 4318

Christ Church Church address: 90 Brixton Rd London SW9 6BE Phone: +44 20 7587 0375

Holy Trinity Church address: 3 Bryan Rd London SE16 5HF Phone: +44 20 7237 4098

St Stephen's Church address: 39 Walbrook London EC4N 8BN Phone: +44 20 7626 9000

St Margaret Pattens Church address: Rood Ln London EC3M 1HS Phone: +44 20 7623 6630

To contact the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, use the following link: http://southwark.anglican.org/

Non Conformists
Other Christian groups follow:


 * Baptist
 * Christ Church
 * Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
 * Crossway United Reformed
 * Destiny International
 * Jehovah's Witnesses
 * Methodist
 * Presbyterian
 * Roman Catholic
 * Salvation Army
 * Seventh Day Adventists
 * United Reformed

Non Christian faiths include the following:


 * Ba'Hai
 * Buddhist
 * Hindu
 * Jewish
 * Muslim
 * Sikh

Civil Registration

 * Southwark Borough BMD records


 * UKBMD: Camberwell district


 * UKBMD: Southwark District


 * Surrey County Council Family Records

Local Histories

 * LocalHistories: Southwark


 * VisionofBritain: Southwark


 * British History Online: Camberwell


 * Ye Parish of Cam̃erwell: A Brief Account of the Parish of Camberwell : Its History and Antiquities by William Harnett Blanch. 1877. E.W. Allan : Camberwell (London, England). Online at: FamilySearch Digital Books, Google Books.

Maps and Gazetteers

 * Google Maps: London Borough of Southwark


 * Southwark Council: Maps


 * Oldmapsonline: Southwark


 * VisionofBritain: Southwark Gazetteer


 * GENUKI: Southwark Gazetteer


 * GENUKI: Camberwell Gazetteer

Newspapers

 * The Southwark News


 * The London Evening Standard for Camberwell


 * South London Press and Mercury

Occupations
The northern end of the borough opposite the Square Mile includes the More London and London Bridge City developments accommodating the offices of major professional service firms. Notable businesses include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Norton Rose, Ernst & Young, Lawrence Graham and Actis. The Greater London Authority is based at City Hall.

The press and publishing industry is also well represented in Southwark; the Financial Times has its head office in Southwark Bridge Road, IPC Magazines in Southwark Street, and the Evening Standard and Daily Mail at Surrey Quays. Campus Living Villages UK also has its head office in the borough.

Some of the old industrial and wharfside heritage remains at the now defunct Surrey Commercial Docks now Surrey Quays, including Greenland Dock and Baltic Quay, where major residential schemes were developed in the 1980s and 1990s. Near Tower Bridge old warehouses have been converted to new mixed uses at Butler's Wharf and Hay's Wharf. Similarly, further west, the Oxo Tower hosts restaurants, shops and housing.

There are major retail concentrations at Surrey Quays, Old Kent Road, Elephant & Castle/Walworth Road and central Peckham.

Finally there are a number of electronics companies active in Southwark. These include large companies such as Hughes Electronics, as well as smaller entities like G3 Comms Ltd., Telstra Global, and BAE Systems Ltd.

Societies

 * East Surrey FHS: Southwark Branch


 * Rotherhithe and Bermondsley History SOciety


 * The Peckham Society: local family history


 * Surrey Genealogy and Family History Society

Archives

 * The National Archives: Southwark


 * Historical Newspaper Archives: Southwark


 * Southwark Borough Council Archives


 * Camberwell Collections and Archives


 * Surrey County Council Archives

Websites

 * Southwark Borough Council


 * Surrey County Council


 * London Councils


 * Wikipedia: Southwark


 * Wikipedia: London Borough of Southwark