BANKSIDE AND SOUTHWARK - London - page 232

GOLDEN HINDE
St Mary Overie Dock, Cathedral St London Bridge 020 7403 0123, www.goldenhinde.com . Daily
10am-5.30pm.£6. MAP
An exact replica of the galleon in which Francis Drake sailed around the world from 1577
to 1580, this modern version of the Golden Hinde circumnavigated the globe for some
twenty years before eventually settling permanently in Southwark. The ship is surprisingly
small, and its original crew of eighty-plus must have been cramped to say the least. There's
a lack of interpretive panels, so it's worth booking yourself on a guided tour, during which
costumed guides show you the ropes, so to speak, and demonstrate activities such as firing a
cannon or using the ship's toilet.
CLINK PRISON MUSEUM
1 Clink St London Bridge 020 7403 0900, clink.co.uk .July-Sept daily 10am-9pm; Oct-June Mon-Fri
10am-6pm, Sat & Sun 10am-7.30pm.£7.50. MAP
Housed in the suitably dismal confines of an old cellar, this museum explores the history of
the former Clink Prison , which once stood close by. The prison began as a medieval dun-
geon for disobedient clerics under the Bishop of Winchester's Palace - the rose window of
the Great Hall has survived just east of the museum - and later became a dumping ground
for Bankside lowlife, before being burnt to the ground by rioters in 1780. The exhibition
features a handful of prison-life tableaux and plenty of graphic descriptions of the torture
and horror experienced by the prisoners.
SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL
Cathedral St London Bridge 020 7367 6734, www.southwarkcathedral.org.uk .Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat &
Sun 11am-5pm.Free. MAP
Of the original thirteenth-century Augustinian priory church of St Mary Overie, only the
choir and retrochoir now remain, separated by a tall and beautiful stone Tudor screen;
they're thought to be the oldest Gothic structures left in London. The nave was rebuilt in the
nineteenth century, but the cathedral contains numerous interesting monuments, from a
thirteenth-century oak effigy of a knight to an early twentieth-century memorial to
Shakespeare (his brother is buried here). Above the memorial is a stained-glass window fea-
turing a whole cast of characters from the plays.
OLD OPERATING THEATRE, MUSEUM AND HERB GARRET
9a St Thomas St London Bridge 020 7188 2679, www.thegarret.org.uk .Daily
10.30am-5pm.£6.50. MAP
By far the most educational - and strangest - of Southwark's museums is the Old Operating
Theatre. Visitors must climb up to the attic of a former church tower, which houses an old
hospital apothecary , with displays explaining the painful truth about pre-anaesthetic opera-
tions. These took place in the adjacent women's operating theatre , designed in 1821 “in the