Southwark Cathedral

Lonely Planet review

The earliest surviving part of this relatively small cathedral is the atmospheric retrochoir, which was part of the 13th-century Priory of St Mary Overie (from 'St Mary over the Water'). However, most of the building, including the nave, is Victorian.

You enter via the southwest door and immediately to the left is the Marchioness memorial to the 51 people who died when a pleasure cruiser on the Thames hit a dredger and sank near Southwark Bridge in 1989. In the north transept, you'll see a memorial tablet to Lionel Lockyer (a quack doctor celebrated for his pills) and its humorous epitaph. On the eastern side of the north transept is the Harvard Chapel, originally the chapel of St John the Evangelist but now named after John Harvard, founder of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was baptised here in 1607.

A few steps to the east is the 16th-century Great Screen separating the choir from the retrochoir. The screen was a gift of the bishop of Winchester in 1520. On the choir floor is a tablet marking the tomb of Edmond Shakespeare, actor-brother of the Bard, who died in 1607.

In the south aisle of the nave is a green alabaster monument to William Shakespeare with depictions of the original Globe Theatre and Southwark Cathedral; the stained-glass window above shows characters from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tempest . Beside the monument is a plaque to Sam Wanamaker (1919-93), the American film director and actor who was the force behind the rebuilt Globe Theatre.

Audioguides to the main cathedral, lasting about 40 minutes, are available from the gift shop. Evensong is at 17:30 weekdays, 16:00 Saturday and 15:00 Sunday.