Bank End

Bank End is a short pedestrian route in The Borough, running between Park Street and the riverside, in what was once the heart of Elizabethan London’s entertainment district. Today it connects two of the street’s major heritage sites: the reconstructed Globe Theatre complex to the west and Borough Market to the east, forming part of the regenerated South Bank cultural quarter.

The name itself comes from the geography that defined this area for centuries. Before the Victorian redevelopment and modern rail viaducts carved the Southwark landscape into fragments, Bank End marked the actual edge of the reclaimed land along the Thames’s south bank—the boundary between the river and the district that grew up behind it.

British History Online records confirm that the word ‘bank’ in this location did not refer to finance but to the literal bank of the Thames. The name Bank End appears in documentary sources from the early 17th century—specifically in token-books from around 1600 as ‘Bancke-ende’—marking one of two boundaries of the Bankside district. The reclaimed land itself had been owned and managed by the Bishop of Winchester, who controlled the neighbouring Liberty of the Clink. Historical maps in the Duchy of Lancaster archives show ‘the way to the banke,’ and by 1554 the entire riverside area was formally recorded as the ‘Banke syde’—literally the street along the bank of the Thames.

The name is probable rather than certain in its precise origin, but it reflects the most fundamental geography of medieval Southwark: a street was defined not by a building or landmark but by its relationship to the river itself, the defining feature that gave the entire district its character and economy.

Bank End sits within the medieval Liberty of the Clink, a jurisdiction outside the City of London’s authority that attracted entertainments forbidden in the Square Mile. The riverside location made it prime real estate for industries requiring water access—breweries, tanneries, and foundries. But from the 1570s onward, it became synonymous with theatre. The area developed a loose cluster of playhouses, bear-gardens, and brothels, drawn to the district precisely because the Bishop of Winchester’s authority was more permissive than the City’s puritanical rules.

From the Commonwealth through the 19th century, theatres gave way to breweries, dyers, and industrial riverside works. The Anchor Brewery became the most significant landmark, its presence marked on the street even today by a commemorative plaque. The 1860s saw Southwark Street cut across the landscape, and by the 20th century, railway viaducts and new road networks had carved Bank End into a fragment of its former self. But what survived was the name and the memory encoded in it: the street that marked the edge of the bank, where London’s imagination was entertained before its commerce took over.

Bank End is now part of the Borough conservation area, and the street serves as a key pedestrian link in the regenerated Southwark cultural quarter. The nearby Globe Theatre reconstruction (opened 1997) brings Shakespeare’s legacy back to the street, and archaeological finds, including the 1989 discovery of the original theatre’s foundations, underpin the area’s heritage narrative. The modern Borough Yards development, completed in phases from 2018 onward, has reintroduced historic Elizabethan street names like Clink Yard and Soap Yard, stitching the street back into the textile of medieval Bankside geography.

The street remains narrow and intimate, a pedestrian passage rather than a through-route, which preserves something of the lane’s medieval character despite the modern surroundings. Visitors walking from Borough Market toward the Tate Modern or the Globe complex pass through Bank End, often without noticing the name or its history embedded in the pavement beneath their feet.

Bank End today is a short, paved pedestrian lane connecting Park Street to the Bankside waterfront, located between the Anchor Brewery heritage site and the Globe Theatre complex. The street sits within the Borough and Bankside conservation area, and its Victorian and Edwardian warehouse buildings reflect the industrial heritage that replaced the theatres. Modern retail and hospitality uses dominate the street-level experience, though heritage interpretation boards and the proximity to archaeological sites keep the theatrical past visible.

For most visitors, Bank End is simply a route to somewhere else—toward Borough Market, the river walk, or the cultural attractions beyond. But the name persists unchanged since the 1600s, a linguistic fossil that preserves the geography of the mediaeval Bankside, reminding passersby that this corner of London was once defined by its relationship to the river, and by the imagination it sparked.