Walk This Way South Bank London Eye to the Imperial War Museum South Bank is an area of incredible history, architecture, culture and regeneration. Originally isolated and defined by the Thames, for centuries this riverside location developed in a very different way from the affluent north bank. A marshy expanse of slum housing and country estates; a rural haven of green fields and pleasure gardens; a dynamic hub of industry and manufacturing; a nucleus of nineteenth-century theatre and entertainment venues; a host to the largest railway terminus in the country; and a byword for post-war cultural restoration. South Bank is now home to great national centres for art and culture, a vibrant and growing community and some of London’s finest achievements in architecture, such as the London Eye, which drew the attention of the world in the Millennium Year. Throughout its history, the South Bank has endured fire, flood, slum clearance, railway demolition, devastating bombing, and the ebb and flow of investment and industry. Consequently, the area is peppered with unique examples of architecture and hidden mementoes from the past that are waiting to be explored. Walk This Way will guide you through this journey of discovery, into the heart and the history of South Bank. See www.southbanklondon.com for a more detailed profile of the buildings and streets featured in Walk This Way – South Bank. At a brisk pace, the Walk This Way South Bank route will take at least 50 minutes, although it is recommended that you allow more time to stop and sightsee at www.southbanklondon.com architecture + history at your feet various points along the route. 1 South Bank Influences The Railway From its arrival in 1848 the Railway has dominated the area, ‘There is a grain of sand in Lambeth that satan cannot find, dividing it from the river with a bastion of brickwork and The Marsh isolating the waterfront. With powers of compulsory purchase, Nor can his Watch Fiends find it: ‘tis translucent and has The Anglo-Saxon origin of Lambeth: ‘Lambhythe’, implies that the railway company was free to demolish anything to many angles’ a muddy harbour or marsh had been present from the earliest increase its railway lines and terminus. (One such casualty in days of London. As the city grew, the Marsh, a prime location 1900 was the insalubrious ‘Whore-terloo’ neighbourhood.) WILLIAM BLAKE, SOUTH BANK RESIDENT but difficult to develop, remained largely untouched, a green The vast number of steam trains running from the Station (as oasis of agriculture and public gardens where urbanites could many as 700 a day by the end of the nineteenth century) find refreshment in a rural surrounding. polluted the local air, already choked by two centuries of industry, with thick smog. One of England’s great religious poets and artists Theatre William Blake ( 1757–1827) spent almost a decade in the In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the area of The Festival of Britain then-rural village of Lambeth Marsh, which would inspire the Lambeth urbanised and the entertainment world burgeoned. Ironically, it was the Second World War, which had done so production of some of his finest works. Away from the rigid theatrical duopoly of the north bank, the much damage to the area, that was responsible for much of its cheap land of Lambeth enabled individual impresarios to regeneration. Intending to create a ‘tonic’ for the war-scarred build and develop their own performance venues, creating all- nation, the South Bank was chosen as the site for the Festival year, all-weather venues. Taverns converted to music halls and of Britain. The bombed-out riverside was cleared and built fringe ‘Penny Gaffs’ were ubiquitious. Without artistic upon, becoming the site, in 1951, of a national celebration. restrictions or censorship (unlike the north bank), the theatres The Royal Festival Hall remained as a permanent legacy, to be of the Marsh were quite permissive and, before modern film followed in subsequent decades by other arts venues, such as and radio put the theatres out of business, many were closed the Hayward Gallery and Royal National Theatre, adding a down for being ‘disorderly houses’. new chapter to the history of the South Bank. Industry Community It was in the eighteenth century that industry also began to Bomb-damage, commercial development and the decline of develop in the area: some needed the Marsh’s fresh water traditional industries took their toll on the post-war population supply (for brewing or cloth bleaching); others exploited the of South Bank and by the 1970’s, the residential population cheap land and river access to move or store their bulk goods had fallen from 50,000 to just 4,000. A proposed skyscraper (limestone, scrap iron and wood). Improved access from the development in 1977 threatened to seal the river off from the new Westminster and Blackfriars bridges, combined with the interior completely, prompting the protests of the Coin Street need for large amounts of industrial labour led to a Community Action Group. By 1984 this group proved population explosion in the once-quiet village as thousands successful and formed a not-for-profit company to redevelop flocked to the South Bank to work on the coal wharves, timber and regenerate the area. Since then, derelict buildings have yards, potteries, dye works, lime kilns, blacking factories and been demolished, new parks and riverside walkways have printing houses. The growth of industry was one of the key been opened up and affordable housing has been built, components in Lambeth’s transformation from rural haven reversing the population decline, as well as introducing into a centre of industry, the other was the railway. workshops, public art and festivals to the area. 2 Lancaster Place nt e Bl nkm ba a Em ck ria to friars Vic MES RIVER THA B ridge nd Waterloo Bridge tra S t n e Savoy Pier 14 m k n a 13 b m E e Ho arg St a B ri R o e nnie t B Key Transport c i r 12 o V a dwall General travel information can be obtained on Transport for Embankment Pier 8 d St 15 r un eet 1 Westminster Bridge London’s 24-hour number: 020 7222 1234, www.tfl.gov.uk Festival Pier 7 Gro 16 Embankment 9 Coin St B 17 Pari 11 la 2 South Bank Lion r c e s p kfria Golde Up Garden 3 County Hall Underground Stations et n 10 tre J C S r u 6 s 4 London Eye Waterloo Northern, Bakerloo, Waterloo & City and Jubilee bilee Bridges o r Ro n 18 St w H o a 5 Golden Jubilee Bridges a a b l m d (Jubilee Line exit is wheelchair accessible) l tfields o Aquinas St ol R C 6 Royal Festival Hall o Southwark Jubilee rd a 5 d 7 National Film Theatre tamfo tt Street (main exit is wheelchair accessible) S eymo 19 M 8 Waterloo Bridge Concert Hall App T e Theed Street n 22 9 National Theatre is 20 Whittlesey Street Buses o n 10 Hayward Gallery Wa y Roupell St The buses that stop at or near Waterloo include: 21 11 South Bank Banners M Exton St Waterloo Jubilee eph G am r 1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 76, 77, 168, 171, 172, 188, 211, 243, 341, 507, 521, S Waterloo East e 12 Millennium Pier Gardens t e Gabriel’s Wharf & Bernie Spain t Southwark d Wooton Street S X68, N1, N68, N171, N381 a t Gardens o R London C e o 4 r W 13 Oxo Tower Wharf r Eye e a n Cons St d t w Waterloo Station erlo Sho e a 23 14 Blackfriars Bridge Riverside (RV1) Bus Service v l l l e oR R rt S B o 15 Stamford House oad a ut t Riverside 1 is a bus service linking Covent Garden, South Bank, d C re e e Waterloo, Bankside, London Bridge and Tower Gateway, Th t 16 London Nautical School 17 Palm Housing Co-operative d Webber rd Street providing a cost-effective, easily recognisable link to over a ffo e 3 o 28 27 U s R 24 lo 18 65–19 Stamford Street C k thirty of London’s attractions. r in o l B 19 Royal Waterloo Hospital for Y p a l 26 h a C c A Co 25 k Children & Women dd Stre f ing r et r t a i Route Accessibility o a n sh l S 20 bfi London IMAX Cinema r t r S a s t 1 2 r M F R There is no through access from point 14. Continue along Upper e r r Gray St e Westmin ster e a o 21 St. John The Evangelist Church t w o zi a B L e d Ground to reach Rennie Street and point 15 to resume the route. ridge r 22 1–72 Roupell Street St Waterloo Ro d reet 23 Young Vic a o Accessibility Information R t 24 1–29 Ufford Street is l ree y t a 29 a d 25 The Stage Door London Eye 0870 990 8885 30 B ey S 26 David Grieg Department Store Royal Festival Hall 020 7921 0971 orl S M E eorges 27 Old Vic National Film Theatre 020 7388 2227 Lambeth North t G M Roy S A al S s 28 Waterloo Millennium Green d tr 31 oad Circu H e e R National Theatre 020 7452 3000 a et r Bridg T te o estmins R 32 W 29 Crown & Cushion R Hayward Gallery 020 7921 0813 E ce V a I l a d 30 London Necropolis Station R P a Oxo Tower Wharf 020 7401 2255 th e o be n R 31 Christchurch & Upton Chapel m a s a L e L l 33 bfi London IMAX Cinema 020 7388 2227 e u l rc 32 Wellington Mills s e li Imperial War Museum 020 7416 5262 r H Lambeth Archbishop’s a oad 33 St.