South of the River

We featured a map showing London’s North Bank earlier in the summer – just in time for the peak holiday season, the rivals across the Thames now have a new map of their own!

“South of the River” (larger version here, or download a PDF here) aims to map everything of tourist and local interest between Vauxhall Bridge and Tower Bridge. The fold-out guide helps the visitor navigate along the South Bank and understand how it, and the nearby Vauxhall, Waterloo, Bankside and London Bridge neighbourhoods all fit together (the business promoters for all five areas have collaborated for the project). With a copy of the map, you can start at, for example, Vauxhall City Farm, and then navigate to Gabriel’s Wharf for lunch, stroll past City Hall, and end up at the White Cube in Bermondsey. A couple of specific trails are included – the Thames Path is shown by black dots, while a blue line shows the new Low Line, which weaves in and out of the railway arches that are a defining feature of, but no longer a barrier to, the area.

Train and tube stations are marked, along with river boat piers and public toilets. Attractions are generally shown with little sketches. On the other side of the map, each of the five districts has a pen portrait.

It’s a really nice piece of local-area mapping, creating an attractive piece that invites the holder to explore (N.B. smaller roads and most paths are not included for clarity, so you might still need Google Maps for the fine detail). The distinctive and pleasant colour scheme is bright without being overpowering.

There is a “mini-map” for getting to the area from the other side of the river, which conveniently has the District/Circle tube line running right along it. From there, South of the River is just across one of the many bridges:

Every area of London should have it’s own custom map – and this is a great one for a very central, but occasionally overlooked, part of the capital. The map not currently available online but should be obtainable from some of the attractions and outlets in the area.

Design & illustration are by Superfantastic, commisioned by South Bank Employers’ Group/South Bank BID, Better Bankside, Team London Bridge, WeAreWaterloo & Vauxhall One.