Place Name
The name itself is self evident, as this street is literally beside the River Thames, it was so-called after former earthen banks built to protect against the hinterland from the waters. One early 14thCentury document records concerns over the state of the defences referring to “the Bank in the land of the Bishop of Winchester in Southwark, which having been anciently made for the safeguard thereof, was then ruinous and broken.” It was first mentioned as Banke syde in 1554, taken on an even more archaic spellings Banckes side in 1593, and decade later it was referred to as the bank side. Today, it all looks rather smart but in the Tudor period this was a thriving maze of wharves and dockyards, and being outside the City was also the centre of entertainment, with theatres, bear pits, and stews (brothels). The dockyards continued into the 20thCentury before they were closed.
