390 
SOUTH 
hall, a chapel, offices and other accommodations. On the 
top of the platform where executions are performed. Colonel 
Despard and six of his associates, convicted of high treason, 
suffered in 1802. The King’s Bench prison is situated at 
the south-west corner of Blackman-street. This is a place of 
confinement for debtors, and for all other persons under 
sentence of imprisonment by that court. It consists of one 
large pile of brick buildings, comprehending 224 rooms. 
It is surrounded by a brick wall, about 30 feet high, and 
defended, by chevaux-de-frise. Without this the Marshal 
or keeper of the prison has very handsome apartmenls. 
The liberties, or rules of the prison, as they are termed, 
extend about three miles round the buildings, and the right 
of residing in any part of these may be purchased by 
debtors, at the rate of 10 guineas for the first 100/., and 
about half as much for each succeeding 100/., of the sums 
for which they are confined. Prisoners in any other gaol 
may remove hither by Habeas Corpus. Of the parishes 
adjacent to Southwark, Christ Church was taken out of that 
of St. Saviour’s, and was originally part of the district called 
the liberty of Paris Garden. The first church was erected at the 
expense of Mr. John Marshal, of Southwark, and finished in 
1671, when he endowed it with an estate of 60/. per annum, 
for the support of a minister. But this building soon decay¬ 
ing, from the insufficiency of the foundations, Mr. Marshal’s 
trustees applied to parliament in 1737, for an act to rebuild it 
with the sum of 2,500/., which had accumulated in their 
hands, and the present structure was accordingly erected. It 
stands on the west side of the road leading from Blackfriars 
Bridge. It is a plain brick building, with a square tower, 
surmounted by a cupola. Its appearance has been much 
improved by the removal of several old houses, which 
nearly blocked up the view in front, and by the substitution 
of a handsome iron railing. In this parish is a charity 
school, a workhouse, and a neat alms-house. At the foot of 
Blackfriars Bridge is a range of buildings, which formerly 
constituted part of the noted Albion Mills, destroyed by fire 
in 1791. On the opposite side of Albion place, is the 
house belonging to the British plate-glass manufactory. On 
the west-side of Blackfriars road, very near the bridge, is the 
building formerly occupied by the extensive museum col¬ 
lected by Sir Ashton Lever, and which afterwards formed 
the premises of the Surrey Institution. The Surrey chapel 
on the east side of Blackfriars road, is a large octago¬ 
nal building erected for the use of the Methodists, by 
the friends of Rowland Hill. This chapel is capable of 
holding nearly 5000 persons. Farther to the south, and on 
the west side of the street, stands the Magdalen Hospital, for 
the reception, maintenance and employment of unfortunate 
females. The present building was erected in 1769. It is 
calculated for the accommodation of about 80 persons at a 
time. The females are treated with great attention and kind¬ 
ness ; and since the establishment was begun in 1756, up¬ 
wards of 4000 penitents have been reclaimed from their un¬ 
fortunate condition. In the central point, where the great 
south road from London, and the roads from Westminster, 
Southwark, Newington and Lambeth, unite, stands the 
Obelisk, a plain structure of freestone, erected in 1771, 
during the mayoralty, and in honour of Brass Crosby, Esq., 
who had been confined in the Tower with Alderman Oliver, 
for the conscientious discharge of his duty as a magistrate. 
At the end of Blackfriars road, on the west side, near the 
Obelisk, is a place of amusement, formerly denominated the 
Royal Circus. Having been destroyed by fire in 1805, it was 
rebuilt in a tasteful manner. It is now called the Surrey Thea¬ 
tre, and has been much resorted to by the lovers of ranting 
melo-drame. Between the Obelisk and the King’s Bench pri¬ 
son, is the school where Lancaster first practised his system of 
education. St. George’s Fields, so frequently noticed in 
English history, and which about half a century ago were 
little better than a continued swamp, have since the erection 
of Westminster and Blackfriars Bridges, been almost covered 
with streets and buildings, from the ditch at the end of 
W A R K. 
Great Surrey-street, to the Fishmongers’ alms-house on the 
one hand, and from the Marshalsea prison to the late Dog 
and Duck on the other. The Dog and Duck, so denomi¬ 
nated from its sign, was formerly a house of public enter¬ 
tainment, which took its rise from a mineral spring that was 
discovered here, and was much resorted to from its vicinity 
to the metropolis. In consequence, however, of the viola¬ 
tions of order and decorum committed here, the premises 
were shut up by the magistrates, and were latterly occupied 
as a school for the indigent blind. The last mentioned in¬ 
stitution was begun in 1799, and a neat»new school has been 
since erected for its use. Near this school is the house of the 
Philanthropic Society. On the site of the Dog and Duck, 
the corporation of the City of London have obtained a plot 
of ground of 12 acres, on part of which is erected a most 
noble Hospital for Lunatics, instead of the old building in 
Moorfields. Of the parishes adjacent to Southwark, New¬ 
ington Butts lies contiguous to the parish of St. George, at 
the distance of about a mile from London Bridge. It is of 
small extent, but extremely populous. Bermondsey parish 
is bounded on the west by St. John’s, St. George’s and 
St. Olave’s, and by those of Deptford and Rotherhithe 
on the east. In 1082, a priory for Cluniac monks was 
founded here by Aylwin Child, a citizen of London j 
and William Rufus gave his manor of Bermondsey to 
this convent. The site of the abbey was granted by 
Henry VIII. to Sir Thomas Pope, who pulled down 
the church, and built a large house on the spot. The 
church at this place, mentioned in Doomsday Survey, was 
the conventual church then newly built. It was not till long 
afterwards that the monks founded a parochial church, dedi¬ 
cated to St. Mary Magdalen. The present structure was 
erected in 1680. 
Southwark was anciently a distinct corporation, go¬ 
verned by its own bailiffs. In 1327, owing to the in¬ 
conveniences attending the escape of malefactors from the 
metropolis, it was granted by Edward III. to the cor¬ 
poration of London, on payment of 10/, annually. The 
place was then called the village of Southwark; it was 
afterwards made a bailiwic—the mayor and commonalty 
of London appointing the bailiff; and a still more inti¬ 
mate connection with the metropolis being deemed ne¬ 
cessary, it was, in the reign of Edward VI. at the earnest 
request of the citizens, united to the City of London by 
charter. It was formed into the 26th ward, by the style of 
“Bridge Ward Without,” and was subjected to the Lord 
Mayor, who appoints the steward and bailiff. This, how¬ 
ever, is only understood of the Borough liberty, which con¬ 
sists of three of the parishes belonging to the town. From 
the city division, the Lord Mayor, by his steward, holds a 
court of record every Monday, at the sessions-house on St. 
Margaret’s Hill, for all debts and trespasses within his juris¬ 
diction. To the ward of Bridge Without, which is not re¬ 
presented in the common council, the senior alderman, or 
father of the city, as he is called, is always removed as to an 
honourable sinecure, being exempt from the fatigues incurred 
in the other 25 wards. The other division of Southwark is 
called the Clink, or the Manor of Southwark, and is subdi¬ 
vided into the great liberty, the guild-hall ami the king’s 
manor, for each of which subdivisions a court-leet is held. 
This division is in the jurisdiction of the bishop of Win¬ 
chester, who, besides a court-leet, keeps here a court of re¬ 
cord, on the Bankside, near St. Saviour’s church, by his 
steward or bailiff. Court-leets are also kept at Lambeth, 
Bermondsey and Rotherhithe, three districts adjoining to the 
borough. Though so long a ward of the city, Southwark 
still retains the privilege of sending members to parliament, 
and has done so since the 23d of Edward I. The right of 
election is in the inhabitants paying scot and lot, the num¬ 
ber of voters amounting to about 3200. In 1811, South¬ 
wark contained 12,217 houses, and 72,119 inhabitants- 
viz. 33,611 males, and 38,501 females, of whom 116 fami¬ 
lies were employed in Agriculture, and 10,510 in trade and 
manufactures. 
