Borough · Southwark
The Southwark Tavern
A Victorian-tiled corner boozer with a cellar bar that used to be a debtors’ prison
- Address22 Southwark Street, Borough, London, SE1 1TU
- Phone020 7403 0257
- Websitethesouthwarktavern.co.uk
- OwnershipPart of Mitchells & Butlers (Castle Pubs)
About The Southwark Tavern
A Victorian pub on the edge of Borough Market, its ground-floor bar wrapped in the original Friary Meux tiled exterior, with vaulted cellar seating below.
The Southwark Tavern's glazed tile frontage is a rare surviving example of Friary Meux brewery branding from the pub's Victorian rebuild, and it anchors one of the busiest corners of Borough Market's fringe. Downstairs, the cellar bar occupies what locals say was once part of the area's notorious debtors' prisons — Southwark had several, including the Marshalsea and the Clink — and the vaulted brick booths give the space a suitably atmospheric, subterranean feel for an evening pint. It operates today as part of Mitchells & Butlers' Castle Pubs division, the same brand behind several other London heritage sites, running standard pub hours with screens for major sport upstairs.
On tap
Cask ales alongside a standard keg and lager range
Food
Pub food menu with burgers, pies and sharing plates
More pubs in Borough
- The George InnLondon's last galleried coaching inn, and the only one still pulling pints
- The Market PorterOpens at 6am for market traders and never really slows down after that
- The RakeLondon's original craft beer bar, roughly the size of a garden shed