EARLY SOUTHWARK

"And the grey streets of London,
They blossom like the rose."

-          Watson.

ANYONE who stands to-day on London Bridge and watches the hurrying throngs of toilers, who looks down on to the busy wharves by the river side, or who wanders in the narrow begrimed streets of Southwark is tempted to wonder if so prosaic a district can boast any interesting associations. The glory of a historic past, and the romance of a bygone age seem very far away.

In the following pages an attempt is made to re-create vanished scenes, and to

"Summon from the shadowy Past
The forms that once have been."

The first picture is of Southwark before the coming of the Romans. The River Thames, wider then than now, for its course was unconfined by embankments, rolled slowly past a dull, dreary swamp, the home of the bittern and the frog, where, as Kipling tells us, the earliest Cockney

“With paint on his face and a club in his hand Was death to feather and fin and fur."

Then came the Romans, turning the little British settlement on the north bank into a strong walled town, Londinium, and building a broken line of villas on the south, where the main road crossed the river by a ferry. There are no maps and little authentic information to help us here, but from various discoveries made during excavations, we can reconstruct a little. Fragments of tesselated paving, terracotta lamps, vases of Samian ware, coins, and cinerary urns are evidence that here were Roman houses and a Roman cemetery, and perhaps fortifications also. The houses nearest to the river were built upon piles, for obvious reasons, those further inland followed roughly the line of the modern High Street, in ancient times a causeway built through the marsh.

Here then passed the Roman legions, the Imperial post, and swarthy traders from the south, all hasting to Londinium, which was fast rising to a position of great importance.

Four hundred years passed away, and, with the departure of the Romans, silence falls upon Southwark.

The Saxons, farmers and sea rovers as they were, had little use for towns, and Roman London and presumably its southern outpost soon fell into decay. Not until the Danish inroads began did the Saxons realise the importance of well-established fortified towns, and it is significant that the name Southwark is evidence of this change of attitude.

Sutherings geweorc, Sudwerche, Suwere, Southwerk (over fifty variations of the name may be found) means “The southern fortification,” and indicates that it was part of a system of defence for London, a stronghold for the protection of the bridge.

Of the building of this bridge, and the many incidents connected with its history, we shall think in a later chapter. For the present it is enough to remember that the story of the development of Southwark is bound up inseparably with the story of London Bridge. The bridge was used for conveying merchandise, it was necessary for military purposes, it was a barrier against a hostile fleet; hence the approach to it became inevitably a halting place for travellers in times of peace, a battleground in times of war.

During the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries, Southwark suffered greatly because of the Danish invasions, but its importance is shown by the fact that it was made a royal borough, possessing certain privileges, which attracted a heterogeneous collection of traders, and it became the great "cheaping town" of the south.

In the reign of Edward the Confessor it was subject to divided authority. The king had two-thirds of the profits "of the water where the ships plied," and Earl Godwin the remaining one-third. The earl also had a mansion at Southwark.

After the victory at Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror advanced on London, where he met with a stubborn resistance. Southwark was laid in ashes by him, but despite its ruined condition, it was an object of acquisition to Norman lords. The entry in the Domesday Book says "The Bishop of Baieux has in Southwark one monastery and one harbour. King Edward held it on the day he died."

After the downfall of the bishop, the manor in Southwark passed to William de Warren, who married a stepdaughter of William I. Hence it is very probable that the king became an occasional visitor to the southern bank, and with the distinction of royal patronage, and the firm rule of the Norman lord, Southwark began to retrieve its former prosperity. Embankments, made originally by the Romans, strengthened and extended by Saxons and Normans, allowed the one-time marsh land to become habitable; ditches drained away the water, and the fields became a fine hunting ground.

Two large monasteries, St. Mary Overie and Bermondsey Abbey, gave employment to many, and during the 13th century the convenient nearness of Southwark to London caused the building of town houses for great ecclesiastics, e.g. the Bishops of Winchester and Rochester, the Abbots of Battle, Hyde and Waverley, the Prior of St. Pancras (near Lewes) and others. The frequent visits of these stately churchmen with their splendid retinues caused Southwark to become both fashionable and busy. Trade flourished; markets were held in the precincts of the Abbey and in the street leading from the bridge and from the middle of the 15th century till nearly the end of the 18th, a yearly fair was held, which attracted great numbers of people.

The houses of these great churchmen were known as Inns, for the literal meaning of the word is "a dwelling or abiding place." But "inns" in our sense of the term they speedily became. From earliest times travellers were entertained at religious houses, and though in process of years the buildings passed out of the hands of their clerical owners into those of "hostelers" or "herbergeours," they remained halting places for "birds of passage," and an unique character to the borough.

Try to picture, therefore, dignified processions of princes of the Church or of ambassadors, cavalcades of pilgrims, strings of pack horses passing down the one main street of early Southwark; stately mansions fronting the river, with wide parks or gardens at their rear; behind, meadows with rivulets and ponds and, away a little to the west, a thick forest "so dark that the eye of a lynx or cat were needed to find a man.”

This forest, and the lonely fields beyond, formed a convenient hiding place for escaped criminals from the City across the river, and was the cause of a long quarrel between the citizens of London and the burghers of Southwark. By 1326 Southwark had acquired a disreputable character, and the citizens petitioned the king for jurisdiction over it. This was granted, and later on was confirmed by Edward III, but the citizens' authority extended only to what was known as the Gildable Manor - the land nearest the river; beyond that, in the Paris Garden Liberty, and the Clink Liberty, men were free from arrest, unless they happened to have incurred the displeasure of the lord of that manor. prison, ducking stool, pillory and cage, which were to be found within each manor, maintained a semblance of order, but after the dissolution of the monasteries, when the estates of great churchmen were divided up and their houses pulled down, there was no restraining hand, and the district became infested with rogues and vagabonds. The citizens accordingly petitioned, and obtained from Edward VI, an extension of the scope of their charter. Sir John Ayliffe was appointed alderman of the "Bridge Ward Without" and the citizens of London felt themselves charged with the good conduct of Southwark and all who repaired thereto. The Mayor of London and all past mayors were appointed justices of the peace, but constant friction ensued between the City authorities, the men of Southwark, and the Surrey county authorities, each of whom claimed the right to settle affairs.

By the Local Government Act of 1888 Southwark was included in the County of London.

In 1899 the metropolitan borough, as it is now, was constituted; the outlying western and southern parts along Tooley Street and Old Kent Road being included in Bermondsey and Camberwell respectively. Southwark returned two members to the Parliament of 1295 and continued to do so until 1832, when the Parliamentary borough was extended to include the Paris Garden district on the west, and Bermondsey and Rotherhithe on the east.

In 1885, when the seats in Parliament were re-distributed, Southwark was re-divided into three districts, each of which may return a member.

Southwark Fair, to which a passing reference has been made, was for 300 years a characteristic feature of the district. It originated in 1462, when Edward IV granted a charter empowering the City of London to hold a fair in Southwark every year-on the 7th, 8th and 9th of September-the Eve, Feast, and Morrow of the Nativity of the Virgin; hence it became known as the Lady Fair. The charter granted the citizens "all the usual liberties appertaining to such fairs, together with a Court of Pye Powder." This quaint name is probably a corruption of the French Pieds Poudreux, i.e. "dusty feet." It was a court of prompt justice, which settled disputes between the travelling traders, who came to sell their wares at the Fair, and it punished any people found cheating or stealing.

Although the Fair was supposed to last only three days, the travelling showmen and vendors found it so lucrative that they spun out the time to fourteen days. In 1743, the time was limited by law, and the showmen were so angry that they refused to make their usual collection for the prisoners of the Marshalsea Prison. This enraged the prisoners and they threw stones at the people in the Fair! Many were injured, and the Fair was subsequently removed to the opposite side of the High Street, but riots and disturbances continued, and finally it was suppressed.

Hogarth's famous picture of Southwark Fair is now on view in the London Museum, and Evelyn and Pepys, the great diarists of the Stuart period, give vivid word pictures. Here is an extract from Pepys' diary for 21st September, 1668:

"To Southwark Fair, very dirty, and there saw the puppet show of Whittington, which is pretty to see … hrncr to see Jacob Hall's dancing on the ropes … then away with Payne the waterman. He seeking me at the play did get a link to light me. … So by link light through the Bridge, it being mighty dark, but still weather, and so home."