Southwark's world connections

Southwark is one of London's most historic boroughs. Throughout its history it has been connected to different parts of the world through conquest, trade, warfare and immigration and migration.

Romans, Saxons and the Flemish

Southwark was the gateway for the Roman invasion of Britain in AD45. The Romans imported goods like wine and olives from Spain and Italy and Samian ware pottery from Gaul (France). People from all parts of the Roman Empire came to live and work in Roman Southwark.

After the Romans left, Saxons from northern Germany settled in Southwark in the 700s. The Saxon monk Bede described London in the 8th century as, "A market for many peoples coming by land and sea". The Saxon settlements came under attack a century later by Viking raiders sailing up the Thames. The invading Normans conquered the Saxons 300 years later in 1066.

The next group of people to settle in Southwark came during the medieval period of the 1400s and 1500s. People from Belgium, Holland and parts of Germany, settled in Southwark fleeing religious persecution. Settlers from Holland began making Delftware in Southwark, which became highly popular.

By the 15th century Southwark had one of London's largest immigrant populations. German, Dutch and Flemish craftspeople, excluded by the City of London on the basis that they were not members of a trade guild, settled in Southwark where their skills were put to good use in the leather industry.

Imports and exports

Elizabethan Southwark became home for many people from Europe and Africa in the 1600s. Bears were imported from northern Europe for the sport of bear baiting. In 1620 The Mayflower set sail from Rotherhithe with Protestant pilgrims going to America.

As Britain's trade expanded overseas during this period so did Southwark's docks. Tea was landed from India and China as well as silks, cotton and spices. Sugar came from the Caribbean and tobacco was imported from the new territories of Virginia in North America.

By the mid 1800s whale by-products such as oil were imported and landed at Greenland Dock and then processed in local factories. Timber came from Scandinavia and Russia. Fur and animal skins came from Quebec and rubber from plantations in Sri Lanka and the Belgian Congo.

As Southwark's importance as a trading centre grew, ships carrying imports of dairy produce from New Zealand and foods from British colonies were regular visitors to the wharves along the Thames.

Making Southwark home

As well as goods, Southwark has become home to many people from all over the world. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the population grew from 10,000 to 30,000 as a result of immigration. During the mid 19th century a new influx of immigrants from Ireland fled the potato famine of the 1840s to work on the new London and Greenwich railway.

From the 1600s sea captains bought enslaved Africans to act as their unpaid servants in their homes. Some of these Africans were baptised in local churches. Sailors from various Scandinavian counties settled in parts of Rotherhithe and Bermondsey.

From the 1950s people of African heritage from the Caribbean settled in Southwark. They were invited here to help with Britain's post-war recovery. Many settled in Southwark because of available housing and employment. People from Vietnam came to live in Southwark during 1970s and early 1980s after becoming political refugees. Refugees from Cyprus also settled in southwark in the 1970's.

In recent years people from various West African countries have come to live here. Others have come from countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia and Somalia as refugees, escaping war and conflict.

Southwark is now home to a growing Latin American community as well people from Poland and other Eastern European countries who have come here to find employment. Today Southwark has one of the most diverse and culturally rich communities in the country.

Nearly a third of our population is from an ethnic minority and over a hundred languages are spoken by Southwark children.