London from the air

A Southwark street. [Photo by Wang Zhenghua/Shanghai Star]

Southwark district

The Shard is located in the Southwark district in Central London, where great moments in the nation's long history have occurred, from the arrival of the Romans to the depressing decay of the docks and industry, swiftly followed by yet another renaissance in commercial activity, another recession, and another struggle for growth and regeneration.

To cross London Bridge and stand at the end of Borough High Street and look about, is to absorb in that one panoramic sweep more than what could be learned from 1,000 history lessons.

Southwark was not the melting pot of kings and courtiers, wealth and power, but rather the cauldron that held the variable ingredients of trade, commerce, and money making skills so vital if wars were to be fought , and great visions made real for the global power that the UK once was.

For me the biggest charm of the area is its association with some of the greatest writers in the English language.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) spent most of his working life at Southwark and his greatest plays, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear were all written for the Globe, a playhouse built in 1599 in the area.

Charles Dickens (1812-70) also knew Southwark very well. His early life was in some ways similar to those experiences depicted in his book David Copperfield and his vivid description of the area provided useful information about 19th century Southwark.

Nowadays you can still find the inn, now a pub, where Dickens used to stay and write.

John Harvard (1607-1638), principle benefactor and namesake of Harvard University, was born in Southwark and later started a new life in the first English colonies founded in America.