The Forbidden

Local history vividly brought to life on these guided walks with writer-performer John Constable, author of The Southwark Mysteries and Secret Bankside.

For centuries, what was forbidden in the City was permitted south of the river in the 'Liberty' around the Clink prison. We take a walk around this 'Outlaw Borough' of taverns, bear-pits, theatres and 'stews', where women of the world's oldest profession were licensed by the Bishop of Winchester, yet buried in unconsecrated ground. Here too, Shakespeare's theatre was born.