The part of the South Bank within the borough is home to London Bridge terminus station and the attractions of The Shard, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market that are the largest of the venues in Southwark to draw domestic and international tourism.

The strategic context of the defences would have been in relation to London, its bridge and preventing waterborne attackers from travelling further up the Thames.

An urban area to the south of the bridge was first developed in the Roman period, but subsequently abandoned.

The name Southwark dates from the establishment of a defensive position in the area by King Alfred in the 9th century.

[7] From 1856 the area was also governed by the Metropolitan Board of Works, which was established to provide services across the metropolis of London.

From 1856 until 1900 the lower tier of local government within the metropolis comprised various parish vestries and district boards.

To the east, the Rotherhithe peninsula has lower-density modern housing and open space around the former Surrey Commercial Docks.

The southern part of Southwark includes the Victorian suburbs of Camberwell, Peckham and Nunhead, and the prosperous "village" of Dulwich with some very large houses forms the far south of the borough.

Similarly reformed, into all three types of drainage (foul, combined, surface), are the Neckinger and Peck catchments of the borough.

[12] Since 2000, for elections to the London Assembly, the borough forms part of the Lambeth and Southwark constituency.

[22] Per the 2011 Census, 35.6% of the borough's resident respondents identified as non-religious, or chose not to state their faith.

[30] MOCA, London, as curated by the artist Michael Petry, and Flat Time House are both contemporary art galleries on Bellenden Road.

Bold Tendencies is an annual exhibition space in a former car park on Rye Lane in Peckham which has shown work by Simon Whybray, Jenny Holzer, Derek Jarman, Rene Matić, and Gray Wielebinski.

Notable such businesses include PricewaterhouseCoopers, Norton Rose, Ernst & Young, Lawrence Graham and Actis.

[43] London South Bank University (LSBU) has over 23,000 students and 1,700 staff at its principal Elephant and Castle site.

The Salvation Army maintains the William Booth Memorial Training College at Denmark Hill.

The aforementioned estates have been turned over to local housing associations to demolish and redevelop as mixed-tenure developments.

In many blocks a mixture of social, shared-ownership and private sector housing exists, particularly in those where the right to buy has been exercised and in newer developments.

[51] (31.2) (23.8) (26.7) (19.6) (22.6) (28.4) (23.0) (25.2) (26.2) (26.9) The old Southwark borough hosted many Courts and Prisons of Royal Prerogative, the Marshalsea and King's Bench.

As well as the manorial and borough courts, magistrates met until the 20th century at the Surrey Sessions House which had its own jail for the punitive aspect of its work.

The concentration of major courts, which are unlawful to film save for sentencing with judicial permission, enables their media coverage: Southwark has seven jurisdictions, six of which are London's criminal courts and which commonly receive offences committed in public office or in businesses based in Westminster and several other London boroughs.

Operated by Thames Clippers In 2012 it was revealed that the Southwark borough council has been permanently banned from accessing information from the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency.

This information is normally made available to local authorities for purposes such as enforcing parking fines, but access can be withdrawn if they are found to be mis-using the service.

"[53] In March 2011, the main forms of transport that residents used to travel to work were: bus, minibus or coach, 17.5% of all residents aged 16–74; underground, metro, light rail, tram, 8.5%; train, 8.5%; on foot, 8.2%; driving a car or van, 8.1%; bicycle, 4.9%; work mainly at or from home, 2.8%.

[55] The London Borough of Southwark awards Blue Plaques through popular vote following public nomination.

The two supporters on the coat of arms are, on the left, an Elizabethan player dressed to play Hamlet, indicating the theatrical heritage of the area, and the youth on the right side is the Esquire from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

The rose on the right is from the Southwark arms where it represented St Saviour's parish, i.e. the cathedral.