Southwark has a long history stretching back to the Roman period and its rowdy generations have needed a whole host of laws and rules to keep them in check.
Some of these bizarre regulations have long since fallen by the wayside while others might still earn you a slap on the wrist.
From stolen goods being fair game in Bermondsey Market, to strict restrictions on who can take their sheep over London Bridge, here are seven of the borough’s weirdest laws past and present.
Legal to sell stolen goods in Bermondsey Market
For much of its history, Bermondsey Antiques Market was one of the few places in the country where you could legally sell stolen goods.
The market, which moved to Bermondsey from Islington in 1950, operated under marché ouvert rules. Under this law, any item sold between certain times could not have its provenance questioned. This explained why, for years, Bermondsey Market kept the unusual 4 a.m. opening time.
The market’s Del-Boy character came to an end in the early 1990s when it was revealed that a number of prized paintings had been sold for just £100 each in the market. The artworks had been taken from Lincoln’s Inn, a prestigious law society, which took its revenge by killing off the marché ouvert law in 1994.
Prisoners in Borough can walk free
The King’s Bench Prison in Borough was renowned for its infamous ‘Rules’ system, which meant prisoners could roam the streets.
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Inmates with enough cash and influence could rent lodgings within a certain radius of the prison. According to contemporary accounts, it meant that some supposed convicts became little more than weekend visitors to the jail confines.
They were not supposed to stray beyond the boundaries of ‘The Rules’ but enforcement was lax. Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough once gravely joked that the jail borders stretched all the way to the East Indies.
The King’s Bench Prison, which was established south of Borough Road in 1758, kept this bizarre system until around the time of its dissolution in 1880.
Woolmen can drive their sheep over Southwark Bridge
Back when Smithfield was a major livestock market, sheep farmers would drive their flocks over London Bridge.
Most would have to pay a toll, but Freemen of the City—people with special licenses to trade in the Square Mile—were exempt.
This age-old tradition continues to this day. Since 2013, the Worshipful Company of Woolmen has been exercising their ancient right by driving sheep across a Thames bridge once a year for charity.
They used to use London Bridge, but it has now been swapped for Southwark Bridge. This year, Hollywood actor Damian Lewis joined a long list of stars to take part in the eccentric ritual.
Ban on bear fights clashing with the theatre
In 1591, Queen Elizabeth I banned theatres, including Shakespeare’s Globe, from performing on a Thursday.
Why? Her Majesty much preferred watching bears being mauled to death by dogs. Bear-baiting was a blood sport popular around what is now Bankside. The gruesome displays saw a chained bear forced to fight against one or more dogs, normally of the Old English Bulldog variety.
When plays clashed with the gory spectacles, ‘the players do recite their plays to the hurt of bear-baiting, maintained for Her Majesty’s pleasure,’ the Lord Mayor of London is said to have complained.
No touching the dinosaurs
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, built in 1854, are Britain’s first-ever dinosaur sculptures and a quirky symbol of Victorian imagination.
Sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, guided by paleontologist Richard Owen, created the beasts to awe and educate, though some look hilariously inaccurate by today’s standards.
Nestled in Crystal Palace Park, these life-sized statues were groundbreaking, giving the public its first glimpse of prehistoric creatures. Initially, Victorians marveled at these “terrifying” monsters, but over time, they became a beloved oddity.
Today, a notice on the Friends of Crystal Palace Dinosaurs website warns, ‘anyone climbing on the statues is trespassing. They’re risking charges for criminal damage because Grade 1 listed monuments are protected under law.’
Pre-dawn pints on Borough Market
The Market Porter pub by Borough Market was built in 1638, although it was originally named The Harrow.
The boozer was popular with market workers who, after finishing their early morning shifts, would often head straight inside for a pint, sometimes as early as 6 a.m.
Once upon a time, ale was far safer to drink than water, which was ridden with diseases. So pubs’ early opening times were a health necessity. Today, whereas most pubs have adjusted to have later serving hours, the Market Porter has retained its 6 a.m. – 9 a.m. licensing certificate on weekdays. It then reopens from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Even today, you might catch market workers, students, and thirsty city workers nursing pints before the sun has even come up!
‘Hay, watch out!’
In 2023, maintenance workers on London’s Millennium Bridge decided to hang a bale of straw from the bridge’s undercarriage.
According to an ancient bylaw, repair works to the footbridge mean straw must be dangled to warn boats of the work going on beneath it. The large bale, which these days is lowered by workers in hi-vis jackets, is intended to alert river traffic of the reduced headroom.
The Port of London Thames Byelaws, clause 36.2, says: ‘When the headroom of an arch or span of a bridge is reduced from its usual limits, but that arch or span is not closed to navigation, the person in control of the bridge must suspend from the centre of that arch or span by day a bundle of straw large enough to be conspicuous and by night a white light.’
