page_title: Southwark
section_title: Rome
hierarchical_section_title: Southwark / History / Rome
caption_attribution_description: English: Museum of London, inscription on stela that mentions for the first time 'Londoners' Español: Inscripción votiva romana de finales del siglo II procedente de Londres (Reino Unido), depositada en el Museum of London, correspondiente con AE 2002, 882 = AE 2003, 1015 = AE 2008, 774 = RIB 3, 3014: Num(inibus) Augg(ustorum) / deo Marti Ca/mulo Tiberini/us Celerianus / c(ivis) Bell(ovacus) / morit&lt; e = I &gt;x / Londiniensi/um / primus [---] / [---]VA[-----
context_page_description: Southwark is a district of Central London situated in the northwestern portion of the London Borough of Southwark. Centred 1 ¹⁄₂ miles east of Charing Cross, it fronts the River Thames and the City of London to the north. The oldest part of South London, it was at the lowest bridging point of the Thames in Roman Britain, providing a crossing from Londinium, and for centuries had the only Thames bridge in the area, until a bridge was built upstream more than 10 miles to the west. Its entertainment district, in its heyday at the time of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre has revived in the form of the Southbank which overspills imperceptibly into the ancient boundaries of Lambeth and commences at the post-1997 reinvention of the original theatre, Shakespeare's Globe, incorporating other smaller theatre spaces, an exhibition about Shakespeare's life and work and which neighbours Vinopolis and the London Dungeon.
context_section_description: Southwark is sited on a once slightly marshy area south of the River Thames. Recent excavation has revealed prehistoric activity including evidence of early ploughing, burial mounds and ritual activity. Much of the district was, in pre-Roman years, a series of tidal islands in the Thames, formalised into ditches such as the so-called River Neckinger. This formed the best place to bridge the Thames and the area became an important part of Londinium, owing its importance to its position as the endpoint of the Roman London Bridge. Two Roman roads, Stane Street and Watling Street, met at Southwark in what is now Borough High Street. Archaeological work at Tabard Street in 2004 discovered a plaque with the earliest reference to 'Londoners' from the Roman period on it. Londinium was abandoned at the end of the Roman occupation in the early 5th century and both the city and its bridge collapsed in decay. Archaeologically, evidence of settlement is underlain by a largely featureless soil called the Dark Earth which probably (although this is contested) represents an urban area abandoned.
caption: Museum of London, inscription on a stele that mentions 'Londoners' for the first time
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