Southwark Gateway

Our small but significant insertions in the concrete jungle between London Bridge Station and the bridge itself draws attention to the area’s fascinating history without compromising its role in the modern city.

We started by observing how the area was used, by commuters but also residents and pleasure-seekers who drew our attention to ways in which the unprepossessing concrete walkways and undercrofts could be used.
Our most prominent design intervention is a sharp stone obelisk, routed in the southern end of London Bridge but intriguingly visible from the northern side.

This marks commuters’ entry to, or release from, the world of work – as TS Eliot, quoting Dante, alluded to in The Wasteland – and is the focus for skate-boarders amidst new hard landscaping. We also added retail units and a tourist information centre in the undercrofts.

Our work was part of seven proposals for parts of northern Southwark, which have played a significant part in transforming the interstitial public realm between the hugely successful new attractions of Tate Modern, Borough Market and the Globe Theatre.