Pension lawyer meets world: Southwark and Bankside

This was a day with a weather forecast of fine in the morning but getting cloudier as the day wore on, so I decided to get up early, meet colleagues for lunch and get home before rain might hit.

First thing it was indeed beautiful blue skies as I arrived in the City and headed towards London Bridge

Crossing London Bridge clouds began to gather, but that made for some great light effects over the Thames

One of the biggest sites just south of the River is taken up by Gus Hospital which was founded in 1721. And one of its most famous practitioners had lodgings here....

Yes John Keats. Who gave up medicine for poetry, but not apparently before contracting venereal disease from a local prostitute. (Prostitution was a major service industry in this part of Town.)

St Thomas' Church

This is in one of the "quads" in Guys Hospital. The hospital's main buildings are very attractive but largely blighted temporarily by Covid tents. For which we should all be grateful. This strange feature is the Lunatick Chair. (its one of those things you wouldn't notice without a walking guide book. I mean you wouldn't walk into hospital grounds normally would you?) It has a very curious history as it wasn't built for here at all. Instead it was one of many alcoves built into the old London Bridge. It was bought by Guys for 10 guineas and placed by the old Lunatick House for shelter for convalescing patients outdoors.

While one might not wander into the hospital, one might very well walk down Borough High Street. But one might not notice this entrance. Hop Factors is not a trade one finds much these days. But this area was an important brewing centre for centuries. (Beer and prostitution - proper vice centre. And also, as we shall see later, home to the earliest theatres. All the vices - basically anything entertaining!)

Of course no point brewing the stuff if you don't drink it. So there are a number of yards off the High Street that used to have taverns, but the one that has survived i the George, owned by the National Trust. In normal times the outside space would be full of drinkers...

An authentic galleried inn

All that vice can lead to only one thing. Punishment. Either prison - wall below is a remnant of Marshalsea Prison, in which Charles Dickens father was incarcerated for debt.

...or if not prison, suffering agonizing sermons. This is the imposing St George the Martyr.

But dominating everywhere is the Shard

But on a totally different scale are the Red Cross Cottages, another place you just wouldn't notice unless you were told they were there. Victorian affordable housing for the poor. A modern version would be 8 storeys high with gravel playground at the front for the local drug dealers' convenience. Here you could have been evicted for swearing or drinking.

This area is dotted with quirky historic sites that a modern developer would love to demolish and replace with housing, given this is all walking distance from the City.

This is the Cross Bones Graveyard. It is where prostitutes used to be buried as they obviously could not be allowed burial on consecrated land. But they were obliged to pay rent and fines to their landlord in the area, the Bishop of Winchester. The church has always been prepared to live off immoral earnings. And this area was renowned for its brothels.

Bizarrely the current owners are Transport for London. It is closed but the fence outside the "Single Woman's Graveyard" is covered in ribbons for the "Outcast dead".

Another spectacularly quirky survivor is the Boot Flogger, the name of which does not derive from any fetish but from a device for extracting corks from bottles.It is the only premises in the country allowed to sell wine without a licence, a privilege granted in Elizabethan times.

This is the very impressive Hop Exchange.

The famous Borough Market - a thriving food market.

Southwark Cathedral. It dates back to the 9th century.

A replica of the Golden Hind which once sailed round the world, but is currently being renovated and hence the rather peculiar angles for photos. Or would just be scaffolding.

The remains of Winchester Palace also being restored - no hiding this.

The Clink Prison, now a museum.

The Anchor pub, taunting me by its closure....

Marker for the original Globe Theatre

This peculiar bit of stonework is apparently a seat used by the ferrymen that used to take people across the River when there was only one bridge. Centuries old.