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16 reasons to visit SE16
Evening Standard 12 Oct 2011As Jay Jopling opens his new gallery, White Cube Bermondsey, Rosamund Urwin and Jasmine Gardner identify the key attractions that have transformed this thriving area and its neighbour, SE1
1. White Cube
It's the seal of approval Bermondsey was waiting for. Today Jay Jopling opens his third (and largest) White Cube gallery space on Bermondsey Street, marking it out as the place to be. whitecube.com
2. Maltby Street market
A rival foodies' mecca to the now too-touristy Borough Market, Maltby Street opens to the public on Saturdays, 9am-2pm. Monmouth Coffee, The London Honey Company, St John are all regulars.
3. Rotherhithe Village
It doesn't get any quainter than this cobbled village by the river. Spread around the Thames Tunnel - built by Isambard Brunel in 1843 and now part of the London Overground - Rotherhithe has the Mayflower pub, with a terrace hanging over the water's edge, and some great warehouse apartments.
4. Eating on Bermondsey Street
It's a road of restaurants, with Italian Zucca, Spanish chef José Pizarro's tapas and sherry bar, Jose, and its newly opened sister restaurant Pizarro. Just off the track is Constancia, an Argentinian grill on Tanner Street. All get good reviews.
5. Tanner Street Market
A new market in an old warehouse just off Maltby Street, it has 70 stalls selling vintage clothes and treasures. It's also home to the Little Sparrow Tea Company - a tiny table selling oriental teas and offering tastings.
6. Ideas Tap
Bringing arty types to the area, Ideas Tap is an arts organisation based on Bermondsey Street, offering young creative people funding and advice as well as connecting them with each other. It is partnered with the Old Vic New Voices and the National Youth Theatre.
7. Delfina
This former chocolate factory on Bermondsey Street hosts just about any event including art exhibitions and parties and the adjoining restaurant has a "right-on" green policy.
thedelfina.co.uk
8. Merrick and Bermondsey Squares
Two coveted addresses in SE1. You can't buy any of Merrick Square's Georgian terraces - they're owned by the Corporation of Trinity House. The only three-bedroom house currently available (there's a waiting list) is for let at £3,250 per month. At Bermondsey Square, a smart modern development, very few properties have been resold since the complex was completed in 2009. A two-bed penthouse is on the market now for £625,000.
9. Shortwave Cinema
Not only does it, thankfully, show everything you won't see on the screens of the nearest multiplex in Surrey Quays, but it does so for just £6 a ticket. shortwavefilms.co.uk
10. Alex Monroe (moving in soon)
The jeweller, whose whimsical designs have adorned Emma Watson, Sienna Miller and Sophie Dahl, is moving to the area before Christmas. The four-storey building-made from sustainable materials - will house his first shop, headquarters and a workshop where all the designs will be made, with a garden terrace on top.
11. Shad Thames
The abandoned wharves underwent a transformation from the late 1980s when Terence Conran first converted Butler's Wharf - once reportedly the world's largest tea warehouse - into a luxury flat, restaurant and shop complex. Warehouse living, in buildings with exotic names like Vanilla & Sesame Court, was born.
12. Fashion and textile museum
Founded by local designer Zandra Rhodes, the museum, in Bermondsey Street, celebrates London style and hosts events. You have just over a week left to see Rebel on the Row, an exhibition on tailor Tommy Nutter who combined Savile Row cutting skills with Sixties style and dressed Mick and Bianca Jagger for their wedding. Along the road is quirky boutique Cockfighter of Bermondsey where logo T-shirts and bright dresses are loved by artists and fashionable city boys alike. A few doors down, at Pussy Willow, former ballerina Amanda Thompson makes glamorous made-to-measure gowns.
13. Famous residents of SE1 and SE16
IT Crowd actor Chris O'Dowd - who won thinking woman's totty status for his role in Bridesmaids - is among the stars who call Bermondsey home. Artist Norman Ackroyd, fashion designer Zandra Rhodes and actors Emily Mortimer and Patrick Stewart are also residents.
14. Design Museum
Housed in a former banana warehouse close to Tower Bridge, the museum was the first in the world to be dedicated to contemporary design. It is also a top party location.
15. Manze's Pie and Mash
This is the oldest eel and pie shop still in business. The recipe is still the same and still popular. manze.co.uk/
16. Barge Gardens
London's only floating gardens have been created on the decks of the houseboats at the 200-year-old Downings Road Moorings by Shad Thames. It's ironic that Southwark Council, after waging a long - and ultimately unsuccessful - campaign to evict the residents, this year awarded them first prize in a "Southwark in Bloom" Competition. Savethemoorings.org
Reader views (22)
To be frank, SE16 & SE1 are meters apart at certain points. Rotherhithe Village - by the Thames - is tiny, but the cobbled area round St. Mary Church, the Mayflower Pub & the Brunel Museum is one of London's most beautifully-kept secrets. Would have to agree with Penelope Dearsley. The greatest thing about the area is the people and the original culture. You may like it or you may not, but at least it has one. Well done to Peter in expanding the list.
- Hal Oxton, London, UK., 19/10/2011 21:32
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SE16 is great, and the rogue comments about dodgy estates are rubbish. It's a very safe area, and very child-friendly - the closest thing to a garden suburb in inner London.
Most of the housing is 80s brick houses - very normal for any suburb of any city in England, but almost surreal for zone 2; then there are upmarket flats along the river and around Canada Water tube station. There's some old council housing too, and some of it in Bermondsey is certainly nothing special to look at - but it's being replaced by much better new stuff around Bermondsey tube.
As many people have pointed out this isn't a sensible list of SE16's attractions, and many of the ones listed are in SE1 anyway.
I'd name:
- Surrey Docks City Farm, including its excellent café
- Stave Hill, in Russia Dock Woodland
- Southwark Park
- Greenland Dock - the biggest of the old Surrey Commercial Docks, and still intact
- The Wibbly Wobbly (eccentric little floating pub)
- Simplicity restaurant
- The Mayflower (got a mention under Rotherhithe village)
- The Brunel museum - tiny, but really interesting
- The Yellow House - strange opening hours, but great brunches
- The Albion channel - an ornamental canal, very Amsterdam-feeling, lots of moorhens and coots
And these should be joined by Deal Porter plaza and the new Canada Water library, when it's all finished in a couple of months.
- Peter, Canada, 19/10/2011 01:34
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Penelope, you're missing the point. People are saying that visitors should avoid SE16 because of the dodgy estates, but would they say the same about Shoreditch, Camden and even Notting Hill which also have rough patches? Probably not. Also, if most of your neighbours actually worked on the docks, then you must live in an unusual area. The iffy estates near me are full of immigrants who would have arrived long after the majority of the docks were filled in.
- Dave, London, 18/10/2011 08:52
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seems to be a lot of jealous and snide remarks from residents of SE1, SE16 is the only part of London that looks and feels like a country village. But at the end of the day we all live in Southwark whether its Peckham or Shad Thames
- patrico, London, 17/10/2011 17:08
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As someone who lived in Bermondsey Street up to this week, I'd point out it's SE1 and so are the places above mentioned situated in it.
And it's interesting they've recommended Pizarro - when I was there this Wednesday, they were still building it...
- Ian Atkins, Morden, UK, 14/10/2011 14:50
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Why do people feel threatened by 'iffy' estates. I live on what some of you commentators might consider 'the wrong side of the tracks' on a 1940s council estate in Rotherhithe and no we don't spit from the balconies these days. Show some respect to the communities on the river who worked in the Surrey Commercial Docks who made London wealthy so that you can live in your luxury river appartments! There's a rich culture here if you care enough to look beyond your smug perspective.
- Penelope Dearsley, London SE16, 13/10/2011 22:31
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15 reasons to visit SE1 is not such a snappy headline, obviously...
- David, London SE1, 13/10/2011 15:30
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I live in SE16 and to get to the Design Museum, Tower Bridge and then onwards to Borough Market and Bermondsey Street is just a 15-20min walk. If I want to walk to The Angel or Mayflower pubs, on the river, its just another 10-15 minute walk. Within SE16 I have The Blue Market, with a very friendly greengrocer, fish monger and couple selling plants, all cheaper than the usual supermarkets. A lovely library right there too. We have a great turkish/greek/cypriot/polish shop selling freshly made bread, tons of herbs and varieties of honey and meat. Also, a vietnamese/chinese food specialist shop, plus west african food shop and a classic bakery. Its great!
- Lindy, Bermondsey, 13/10/2011 12:05
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17. So you can leave again.
- Brian Ferry, Virginia Plain, 13/10/2011 11:41
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I've lived all over London and have never felt SE16 to be particularly dangerous; I experienced far more crime living in Islington North, Stoke Newington and Streatham, for instance, and it's idyllic compared to, say, Tottenham or Peckham.
- Dave, London, 13/10/2011 10:26
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SE16 is not a welcoming up and coming place as you try to lead us to believe. This is what a journalist wrote around thirty-five years ago; little has changed since:
"many a Northern hard man who had come to London believing Southerners were soft, this was the wrong part of London."
- Mark, Peckham Rye, London, 13/10/2011 09:48
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Cafe East, one of London's best Vietnamese eateries, Simplicity restaurant, the Surrey Docks City Farm, Greenland Dock Watersports Centre (even if you don't take part, watching the windsurfers and canoeists is enjoyable), waterfowl spotting on the docks, brilliant riverside/dockside/canalside walks with amazing views,
the Ship and Whale pub, Southwark Park and Gallery... Yes, the area has some iffy estates, and if you're looking for an Islington-style vibe or Notting Hill-type boutiques, you'll be disappointed. But it's a fascinating corner of London. And, no, I am not an estate agent.
- Dave, London, 13/10/2011 09:39
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Does anyone in your editorial department own an A to Z? These are almost all SE1. Please correct this - it reads like a dodgy estate agent's pitch for SE16.
- Andy, SE1, London, 13/10/2011 08:54
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This is a right lot of crap,have you thought of warning visitors about the dangers of visiting such down and out area,If you not a face in Bermondsey it would be wise not to go there.
- bazza, London, 12/10/2011 19:54
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It doesn't get any quainter than this cobbled village by the river.
Er, I think it does! The writer of this drivel needs to get out a bit more - seriously! Joke to even call it a village.
- Sarah Bradshaw, London, 12/10/2011 14:39
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SE16 is just a spillover of SE1. It's SE1 that's happening. SE16 is the council house and rotweiler territory.
- Tom, London, 12/10/2011 14:39
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Lazy reporting! Also, Shortwave charges £8.
- Philip Wood, London SE1, 12/10/2011 14:11
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How about National Terrace, Bermondsey Wall East SE16 - only properties with private gardens and Quay directly on the river......
- Claire Elizabeth, london, 12/10/2011 13:57
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Today's This is London is poor. This article being another own goal.
- Claudio, London, 12/10/2011 13:20
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...and Pizarro doesn't open for a month.
- Sean, London, 12/10/2011 12:32
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Had you thought about actually checking where 15 of your 16 reasons were ? The only one in SE16 is Rotherhithe Village. Please try and do a bit of background next time. I know the Standard is free but that's no excuse for gross inaccuracy.
- Simon, London SE1, 12/10/2011 12:09
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Almost all of these listings are in SE1, not SE16, and five of them are on the same street! There are lots of great things about SE16, so surely you can try a little harder than this?
- liz, london, 12/10/2011 12:04
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