Place talk:Southwark, London, England

Bankside [18 May 2015]

Bankside is no more than a street. It is not significant enough to have an entry in WR places. --Goldenoldie 09:28, 18 May 2015 (UTC)

Southwark makeup [24 December 2019]

Southwark was originally a "borough" made up of several ecclesiastical parishes on the south side of the Thames. It eventually became a "metropolitan borough" between 1900 and 1965 and a "London borough" since 1965. Prior to 1900 we find the following parishes, ordered here from west to east along the river:

• Southwark Christchurch
• Southwark St. Saviour
• St. George the Martyr which had a most peculiar shape wrapping around other parishes to the west and east
• Newington St. Mary which is inland of St. George the Martyr
• Southwark St. Olave and
• Southwark St. Thomas (merged in 1896) and
• Southwark St. John Horsleydown

When the metropolitian boroughs of the County of London were formed in 1900, St. Olave & St. Thomas and St. John Horsleydown ceasted to be part of Southwark but joined Bermondsey and Rotherhithe to make up another metropolitian borough named Bermondsey.

During the 19th century this area was still located in Surrey, not London, but greatly expanded in population as bridges and railways and, to a point, the underground, permitted easier access to London and Westminster across the river. This expansion led to the building of more churches within the various parishes. As in the East End of London, poverty was widespread. By the end of the century population had moved even further south and the population of these parishes began to decline.

This is a practice session in which I am trying to sort out the naming of this part of London. Explaining it even after reading Wikipedia (there is more than one article) and Genuki is difficult. A recent discovery was Genuki's modern day map with churches marked (except for St. George the Martyr for some reason). This was a great help.

Southwark is used when contributors only mention the whole borough; the ecclesiastical parishes are used if they are mentioned (or if they are obvious in additional notes). Therefore, if you are using WeRelate to find stray branches of your families, be sure to inspect "What links where" for the ecclesiastical parishes as well.

This practice was first put into use when I started looking at London. "London, England" is a very general term defining what has been Greater London since 1965. Individual parishes and boroughs are used when known. In the City of London, all 106 individual church parishes exist in the database, but areas and neighbourhoods outside the City are gradually being redirected to their individual parishes because these individual parishes kept the records--many of which have ended up in London Metropolitan Archives, copied (image and all) by Ancestry and FindMyPast, and available for WeRelate users to employ as Sources.--Goldenoldie 12:40, 24 December 2019 (UTC)