London - Bankside and Southwark Travel Guides | London | Sub Regions | London - Bankside and Southwark

Over the last 10 years or so the south bank of the river between Blackfriars and Tower Bridge has been transformed. The conversion of the old Bankside Power Station into a world class modern art gallery at Tate Modern was the most recent and most spectacular confirmation of the area’s new-found success, but it joined a wide variety of other attractions that were already well established. A memorable walk downstream from the gallery passes Shakespeare’s Globe, the Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral and London Bridge. Further ‘inland’ to the south, Southwark and the Borough have rediscovered some of the energy that has always characterized their long history, with thriving markets, pubs, cafés and streetlife. That said, neither has entirely shaken off its reputation for being the gateway to south London’s bandit country.

Sights

T 020-7887 8000; ticket bookings T 020-7887 8888; information T 020-7887 8008, http://www.tate.org.uk/modern. Sun-Thu 1000-1800; Fri and Sat 1000-2200. Free (charges for special exhibitions). M Southwark or Blackfriars.

Heading east along the south bank of the river, the Queen’s Walk passes beneath Blackfriars Bridge and enters Bankside. And there stands Tate Modern, one of the most popular new additions to London in years. Opened in May 2000, the converted Bankside Power Station now houses the Tate’s collection of international modern art from 1900 to the present. An extraordinary great solid box of brick with a single free-standing square chimney front centre, the power station was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to be a striking landmark, responding architecturally to its position across the river from St Paul’s Cathedral. The building was begun in 1937 but didn’t start generating electricity until 1963. Decommissioned in 1986, it was left desolate and empty for a decade. Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron were finally appointed to adapt the building to its new role. Typically, the praise for their work was not entirely unqualified but the hype surrounding the project as a whole now seems to be completely justified.

The main entrance is through the west, right-hand side of the building (turn right, away from the river, just beyond the riverside pub the Founder’s Arms). A wide sloping ramp of brick leads down into the immense Turbine Hall, an astonishing space for artworks on a grand scale. In here, towering up through seven storeys on the north side of the building facing the river, linked by central escalators and stairways, are the galleries themselves, standing proud as illuminated boxes of light.

In a much-publicized break with traditional historical and chronological hangings, the collection is permanently arranged around four themes suggested by the four genres of fine art laid down by the French Academy in the 17th century: Still Life, Landscape, the Nude and History.

On level 3, Still Life/Object/Real Life covers the contents of the 14 exhibition spaces on the east side of the building, while Landscape/ Matter/Environment covers those on the west side. Level 4 is taken up with temporary exhibitions (admission charged), while on level 5, the Nude/Action/Body galleries are on the east side, and History/Memory/Society on the west. Under these headings the galleries are devoted to selections from the collection that are changed every six months or so, arranged as monographs to single artists. The method is designed to ensure that the gallery as a whole can respond to changing currents in contemporary art as well as commenting on how the traditional subjects of artistic activity have been interpreted throughout the modern era.

Because of the mission and layout of the gallery, it’s impossible to say exactly what can be seen or heard where and when, but a visit to the website in the Clore Study Room on level 1 enables the location of specific works or of artists room by room. The collection (which even in this vast building cannot be permanently on display in its entirety) contains examples of work by most of the big names of 20th-century art, from Duchamp, Matisse and Picasso through to Bacon, Beuys and Warhol, whose pieces are likely to be found in striking juxtaposition to those of lesser-known or more contemporary artists.

From the Turbine Hall information desk and also on level 3, hand-held audio tours (£1) in several languages are available, including the Collection Tour, with illuminating commentaries by artists and curators explaining the galleries’ themes (each room also has an explanatory panel), specific works and artists. Free audio points are also available in some of the rooms and free guided tours leave from level 2 at 1030, 1130, 1430, and 1530, from near the Starr Auditorium, which incorporates a cinema showing free films throughout the day and special seasons by art directors in the evenings.

Overall, the gallery’s popularity is the strongest testament to its success in making modern art accessible: each of the rooms provokes different atmospheres, but few the hushed reverence traditionally associated with art galleries. The place has an industrial impersonality, and yet comfortable armchairs and sofas overlook the Turbine Hall on several of the levels; on level 4, the espresso bar has an outside terrace, while the Reading Points on level 5 provide another chill-out zone with great views and some relevant reading matter. And then there are the views: the East Room on level 7 hosts special events and gives an impressive panoramic view over the thatched circular roof of the Globe Theatre towards the City. Of the three shops, the one on the ground floor is the largest, those at the north entrance and on level 4 the quietest, each stocking stacks of Tate merchandising (including desk tidies, shoulder bags, umbrellas and rainjackets), postcards and books on modern art.

M Blackfriars.

Opposite Tate Modern, the new Millennium Bridge – a footbridge designed by architect Norman Foster with the sculptor Anthony Caro and engineered by Ove Arup – arcs gracefully over the river to St Paul’s. Unfortunately when it opened in the summer of 2000 its experimental design caused an alarming wobble. Some thought it an exciting feature of the new crossing – the London Evening Standard even launched a campaign to ‘Save the Wobble’ – but safety concerns prevailed and the engineers were called back at enormous expense to stop the swaying.

T 020-7902 1500, http://www.shakespeares-globe.org. May-Sep, 0900-1200 daily; Oct-Apr, 1000-1700 daily. An exhibition and the theatre’s balustraded balconies and gorgeously decorated stage can be viewed throughout the year on guided tours. Adult £8, £6.50 concession, £5.50 child. M Cannon St or Southwark.

A short walk downstream brings you to Bankside pier and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. The brainchild of American actor and film-maker Sam Wanamaker, who sadly didn’t live to see its completion, this sweet little open-air Elizabethan playhouse – Shakespeare’s ‘wooden O’ – reconstructed using original techniques and materials, has been an enormous success: under the inspired directorship of Mark Rylance, its summer season of four productions played in rep, some in period dress, often sells out well in advance.

Cheap standing room in ‘the pit’ for ‘groundlings’ is usually available for £5, but be prepared to stand, not sit, for the entire show.

T 020-7367 6700, http://www.dswark.org. 0900-1800 daily (closing times vary on religious holidays). Three services each day throughout the week. Free (donations appreciated). M London Bridge.

Continuing the walk along the riverbank towards London Bridge takes you past the historic and frequently overcrowded Anchor pub and into one of the most evocative and distinctive parts of Bankside, hidden away beneath giant road and railway arches.

Nearby, in Montague Close, is Southwark Cathedral, a beautiful place of worship dating back to the seventh century. It may be small in comparison to other cathedrals in the country, but its place in the heart of a crowded inner-city community makes it distinctive. Both the new London Bridge and the railway nearly ploughed straight over it. The tower was completed in the late 17th century, still standing over the fourth nave that was constructed for the church in the late 19th century, and refurbishment still continues.

Inside, notable monuments include the tomb of John Gower, a friend of Chaucer’s and like him one of the fathers of English poetry; a monument to Shakespeare; and a rare wooden effigy of an unknown 13th-century knight. In the north transept, which dates from the same era, a chapel has been dedicated to John Harvard, founder of the American university, who was baptized here in 1607.

M London Bridge.

Nestling beneath the cathedral, Borough Market is a wholesale fruit ‘n’ veg market that has probably been trading near this spot since the Middle Ages and certainly on this spot since the middle of the 18th century. Nowadays it shelters beneath a great cast-iron Victorian canopy but like other old buildings around here is under threat from the proposed widening of the railway viaduct above. The market itself caters mainly to the restaurant trade and other fruit ‘n’ veg stallholders, and is at its busiest at dawn. The retail food market on Fridays 1200-1800 and Saturdays 0900-1600 is famous for the superb variety of high-quality organic, traceable and seasonal produce peddled by specialists. This is the place to find some of the finest bread, meat, fish, fruit, nuts and veg in the capital.

M London Bridge.

From the market, steps lead up to London Bridge. Built 1967-72, this is the third stone bridge to have crossed the river near this point. The first, a little further downstream, stood for over 600 years, crowded with houses, a chapel in the middle and almost damming the river with its 19 arches. For several centuries it was the only bridge in London, and Southwark’s position at its southern end, beyond the jurisdiction of the City fathers, was responsible for the area’s importance to trade, as well as its heavy drinking, gambling, prostitution and lawlessness. The approach from the south was dominated by the famous drawbridge and gate once adorned with traitors’ heads pickled in tar and stuck on stakes. The second bridge, built 1823-31, was sold and rebuilt in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

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