Where to go in Southwark

85 places in Southwark, each one on the Guide on merit.

Bermondsey

• 40 Maltby Street

  Wine bar

  A natural-wine warehouse wedged into a railway arch where the menu is a chalkboard that changes every week and nobody takes your booking.

• Anspach & Hobday: The Arch House

  Brewery taproom

  The arch where Anspach and Hobday started before Croydon took the kettles, now a dozen keg lines deep under the railway.

• Bermondsey Corner

  European

  A counter-only Bermondsey Street wine bar where the natural list changes constantly and the summer terrace borrows White Cube's courtyard.

• Bianca Road Brew Co.

  Brewery taproom

  A railway-arch taproom on the Beer Mile, recently rescued and expanded by five mates who crowdfunded the bigger space.

• Hakata Ramen + Bar

  Ramen restaurant

  Hakata cooks Tonkotsu ramen from a 12-hour pork broth in a 50-seat ground floor room. Noodles come hard as standard, and you can ask for soft or very hard. Downstairs is an izakaya bar pouring Japanese craft beer and sake.

• Kanpai London

  Asian

  The first sake brewery in the UK, making modern British sake on Druid Street with tastings and the odd Wagyu omakase night. A genuine one-off on the Bermondsey beer mile.

• Kappacasein

  Cheese counter

  Raw-milk cheese made in a Bermondsey railway arch, and the cult toastie and raclette that come with it: Montgomery's cheddar on Poilâne, or melted Ogleshield scraped over new potatoes. Worth the queue.

• Little Bread Pedlar

  Bakery

  A Spa Terminus bakery doing excellent bread, pastries and proper sandwiches.

• London Glassblowing

  Glass studio

  Peter Layton's Bermondsey Street studio-gallery, free to walk in and watch artists shape molten glass behind the showroom. One of Europe's foremost hot-glass studios since 1976.

• M. Manze

  European

  The oldest eel and pie shop still in business, by its own account, and in the Manze family since 1902.

• Morocco Bound

  Bookshop-bar

  A Bermondsey bookshop-bar with zines, folk nights and open mics, and just enough mess to feel alive.

• Nine Lives

  Tropical cocktail bar

  A basement that thinks it is a beach bar, in the best way. Come for the mezcal and stay for the DJ.

• Pique-Nique

  European

  The Casse-Croûte team's park pavilion, wrapped in a fairy-lit conservatory, doing French roasts built for two to share.

• Pizarro

  European

  José Pizarro's big-hearted Spanish flagship on Bermondsey Street.

• The Kernel, Spa Road

  Brewery taproom

  The brewery that started the Bermondsey Beer Mile, in a big semi-industrial taproom off Spa Road, pouring its own pale ales, table beer and stouts at fair prices, with a serious Japanese izakaya kitchen in residence.

• These Days

  Cocktail bar

  A railway-arch spritz bar with St John bread and Neal's Yard cheese a few doors down.

• White Cube Bermondsey

  Gallery

  Europe's largest commercial gallery, hidden behind a Bermondsey Street shopfront. Vast white halls, blue-chip names, and a double-height room built for art that needs the ceiling. Museum-quality shows, free, and impressive on a Saturday.

Borough

• Akara

  African

  West African cooking under the arches from the Akoko team: the black-eyed-bean fritter that names it, ox-cheek and Scotch-bonnet, some of the friendliest service around.

• Bar Daskal

  European

  The Harts' Spanish wine and sherry bar, cold tapas and fino by the glass near the Market.

• OMA

  European

  A Greek-ish restaurant above Borough Market from David Carter of Smokestak and Manteca, with Jorge Paredes formerly of Sabor. The pair spent 18 months developing their masabacha-style hummus. You enter through Agora, a downstairs bar with a separate menu, then climb to a more elegant dining room. The 450-strong wine list and dishes like labneh with crispy salt cod XO sauce show the painstaking detail.

• Oudh 1722

  Asian

  Aktar Islam's Awadhi cooking, in a listed townhouse.

• PYRO Restaurant

  European

  A live-fire Greek taverna with a serious CV in the kitchen and a huge garden out back. Refined cooking that still feels unhurried.

• Sollip

  Asian

  Modern French with Korean ideas threaded through, cooked by two hands that clearly trust each other.

Borough Market

• Kismet

  Middle Eastern

  A Turkish-Cypriot meyhane on the first floor of a Borough Market pub, £48 a head for the set. Keiran Mustafa cooks, after BiBi and the Harwood Arms. Start with the atom, which is strained buffalo yoghurt under chilli butter.

• Kolae

  Asian

  No-holds-barred southern Thai from the Som Saa team, in a converted Borough Market coach house. Smoky, spice-packed cooking best eaten at the counter, and kind on the bill for what it is.

• Wright Brothers

  European

  Seafood-merchant pedigree and a counter of native and rock oysters done properly. The cooking still holds up, but the Borough flagship is now swallowed by the market-day tourist crush. Go well off-peak, or head to the calmer Battersea and South Kensington rooms.

Camberwell

• Blackfinger Coffee Roasters

  Coffee roastery

  A worker co-op roastery in a Camberwell railway arch, open since June 2026. The coffee is sourced, roasted and poured in the same building, and everyone on the team holds a stake in it. Bags are £13.80 to take home.

• Cafe Mondo

  European

  A sandwich counter by day and dive bar by night, on the Camberwell end of Peckham Road.

• Habesha Restaurant & Bar

  African

  A family-run modern Ethiopian on Camberwell Church Street built around sharing platters and a proper cocktail list, with gluten-free injera as standard.

• Jazzlive at The Crypt

  Live music venue

  A sold-out crypt under a Camberwell church, which tells you most of what you need to know.

• Nandine

  Middle Eastern

  Kurdish food with smoke, colour and substance. The opposite of generic small-plates London.

• South London Gallery

  Gallery

  Free, serious contemporary art in Camberwell, easy to fold into a day of eating round here.

• The Bear

  European

  A Camberwell pub with a 14-cover counter restaurant tucked away at the back. The kitchen runs a constantly rotating menu with seasonal ingredients and an Asian fusion bent, turning out dishes like cavatelli with XO sauce and duck kiev. The bar stays open until 1am on weekends with vinyl DJs, and there's a Sunday quiz.

• The Camberwell Arms

  European

  A pub shell with serious seasonal cooking and a relaxed room. The Camberwell move when you have done Peckham to death.

• The Kerfield Arms

  European

  The Baring team corner gastropub. Go for the roast. It took a Michelin star within the year.

• TOAD Bakery

  Bakery

  A crowdfunded Camberwell bakery doing long-fermented sourdough from UK-grown grain, plus pastries that wander off-piste. It was named London's best bakery at the 2025 National Bakery Awards and the morning queue knows it.

• Veraison Wines

  Natural wine bar

  Patrycja Lorek ran the floor at 10 Cases before opening this small Camberwell room. A weekly staff pick, drawn from growers most lists never reach. Drink in, or take a bottle home.

• Zeret Kitchen

  African

  Homely Ethiopian cooking in Camberwell, generous injera platters shared by hand. Warm, critically warm and filling a real gap on the map.

Canada Water

• Cha-Fe

  Asian

  A calm Taiwanese-run nook by Canada Water dock where the matcha comes from Japan and the Basque cheesecake comes out green.

Dulwich

• Dulwich Picture Gallery

  Gallery

  The oldest public art gallery in England, an 1817 Soane building in leafy Dulwich whose top-lit rooms set the template for every gallery since. Old Masters, beautifully hung.

East Dulwich

• 377 by Victus & Bibo

  Middle Eastern

  A speakeasy-styled Turkish meze room in the old Le Moulin site, run by a family who have been feeding London since a Greenwich market stall in 2003.

• Banook Bagels

  European

  A husband-and-wife bakery on East Dulwich Road selling hand-rolled, boiled and baked bagels to take away. Started as a lockdown micro-bakery before trading from an industrial estate near Burgess Park, then opened this bricks-and-mortar shop in June 2026. Expect plain bagels from £1.80, filled versions like chalk stream smoked trout (£12), and cream cheese pots in flavours including maple, green onion and jalapeño.

• Eric's

  Bakery

  Croissants on Friday and Saturday only, gone by early afternoon. Ex-Flor baker Helen Evans.

• Kartuli

  European

  Long Georgian feasts under hanging foliage in the old David Greig building.

• Kix Bar + Kitchen

  Asian

  A lockdown pop-up grown into a dark, jazz-soundtracked room on Lordship Lane, where tacos and bao buns share a menu and somehow make complete sense.

• Kokum

  Asian

  East Dulwich Indian cooking with Gymkhana-grade pedigree and neighbourhood energy. Chef Sanjay Gour, ex-Gymkhana head chef, off the high street.

• Norbert's

  European

  A walk-in-only rotisserie on a quiet East Dulwich terrace that fills from six with dates and mates, doing chicken, potatoes and very good piña coladas.

• The Victory

  European

  Jamie Younger revives the old Franklins as a proper pub with British-French bistro cooking. A neighbourhood spot worth the trip south.

• Trinco

  Asian

  Modern Tamil Sri Lankan cooking tucked inside a co-working and wellbeing space on Lordship Lane, which is exactly why nobody who should know about it does.

• Yama Momo

  Asian

  Tsunami's East Dulwich sibling: an izakaya and sushi counter running gyoza, sashimi and Korean-leaning small plates on Lordship Lane.

Elephant & Castle

• Little Louie

  Café & cocktail bar

  Coffee and pastries by day, then the lights drop and it is natural wine, cocktails and hi-fi till late. Candlelight, vintage furniture for sale, weekend DJs. The Louie Louie team's Elephant Park room.

• Temple of Art & Music (TAM)

  Live music venue

  Grassroots live music every night of the week, where the person carrying your drink might also be the bass player.

• The Electric Elephant Cafe

  Vegetarian café & gallery

  An owner-run vegetarian café on the corner of Crampton Street, open since 2008, with a side door straight onto the cobbles of Iliffe Yard and its artists' workshops. Cakes, soup and bread are made on site, the coffee is Monmouth, and the walls carry work from the studios next door.

London Bridge

• Lady of the Grapes

  Wine bar

  Carole Bryon's second natural-wine bar, in the Menier Chocolate Factory, championing female and natural producers alongside French bistro plates.

• Nancy's

  Cocktail bar

  Four floors up a brutalist block at London Bridge, open since June 2026, with a 2am licence at the end of the week. Negronis arrive on a trolley and you roll a dice to pick one of six. The produce comes off Borough Market downstairs.

• Old Operating Theatre Museum

  Museum

  Europe's oldest surviving operating theatre, up a tight spiral stair in a church garret by London Bridge, herbs drying in the rafters. Pre-anaesthetic surgery, vividly told.

Maltby Street

• Comptoir Bakery

  European

  A proper French bakery hiding in a Maltby Street warehouse, run by the same family for years. Come for the croissants, leave with a brionut.

Nunhead

• El Vermut

  Vermouth bar

  A tiny Nunhead corner doing Spanish vermouth, jamon and pavement barrels like a transplanted Barcelona bar.

• Nunhead Cemetery

  Victorian cemetery

  One of the Magnificent Seven Victorian cemeteries, wild and half-overgrown in South London: headless angels, ivy, lime avenues, bluebells in spring. Open every day, and a Local Nature Reserve.

Peckham

• Bà Ba

  Asian

  Five Nguyen siblings cooking their grandmother's Saigon recipes, now built around rarely-seen Vietnamese sharing plates rather than pho. The plywood room is warm and stylish, and the plant-based dishes pull their weight.

• Bar Levan

  Listening bar

  A vinyl-first wine bistro named for Larry Levan, sound system as considered as the list.

• Bara

  European

  A Welsh bakery and cafe in Peckham from a MasterChef: The Professionals alum. Focaccia sandwiches, proper bakes and a neighbourhood-canteen warmth that put it on the critics' radar within weeks of opening.

• Copeland Park

  Event Venue

  A creative complex off Rye Lane housing the Bussey Building with its rooftop bar and cinema, plus studios, shops, restaurants and bars. The site hosts a year-round calendar of art and cultural events. Home to Vintique for mid-century modern furniture and Copeland Social for Japanese fusion food.

• Forza Wine

  Wine bar

  A rooftop wine bar on a former Rye Lane car park, with Italian-ish small plates and a skyline terrace. Covered and heated, so it works in winter too.

• Ganapati

  Asian

  A snug South Indian on a quiet Peckham side street, going strong since 2004. Come for the flaky Kerala paratha and the weekday thali, and grab the glass-roofed room when it rains.

• Hausu

  Listening bar

  A listening bar in a converted Victorian public toilet near Peckham Rye: vintage hi-fi, DJ nights, refined Asian-Western plates. The room does as much as the records.

• Jumbi

  Caribbean & Latin

  Bradley Zero's hi-fi bar. One turntable, a growing rum focus.

• Kruk

  Asian

  A railway-arch Thai from ex-Som Saa chefs. A Bib Gourmand within months.

• Lai Rai

  Asian

  The Bà Ba family's tiny Rye Lane sibling, doing new-school Vietnamese small plates and cocktails in the coolest little room in Peckham. Bib Gourmand. No pho by design, so come for the snacks and the prawn lollies.

• Levan

  European

  A railway-arch bistro by Peckham Rye station that runs loud and slightly chaotic, built on a low-intervention wine list people come back for. The three-course set lunch is 25 pounds.

• Melange Chocolate

  Artisan chocolatier

  A one-woman chocolate obsession in Peckham, with a hot chocolate worth crossing town for.

• Mr Bao

  Asian

  The original Peckham bao room, bare brick and good cocktails. The mushroom bao is the one worth crossing London for.

• Peckham Bowls

  Lawn bowls club bar

  Lawn bowls on a genuine old-school green with a clubhouse bar pouring pet nat and negronis, Yard Sale Pizza on the side. Competitive socialising with actual taste.

• Peckham Cellars

  European

  A neighbourhood wine bar and restaurant with a serious low-intervention list and modern European small plates. Built for a long, unhurried table.

• Shai Space

  Listening room

  A Peckham studio that runs biweekly listening sessions and calls itself the neighbourhood living room. Sami and Reuben programme it. The same room hires out for photography, workshops and private events during the week.

• Tava Rakh

  Asian

  Mala Lal's one-woman plant-based Punjabi kitchen in a small Copeland Park unit, cooking her family's comfort food without the dairy: crisp parathas with pickle, aloo methi puffs, a Marmite tofu toastie with masala beans and proper masala chai.

• The Carpet Shop

  Night Club

  A 200-capacity club under a Rye Lane arch from the team behind Corsica Studios. The stripped-back space has a Funktion-One sound system and books underground DJs across psytrance, Italo disco, house, techno, grime and dubstep. In summer the courtyard opens for day parties, and by day it runs as a taco restaurant.

• The Kiln Rooms

  Ceramics studio

  Ten years deep and still the warmest clay room in Peckham, where the brew matters as much as the kiln.

• The Peckham Pelican

  Café and bar

  A coffee-art-gig space by day and night with DIY bagels, a proper creative haunt.

Shad Thames

• Luna

  Wine bar

  A snug wine bar on Shad Thames pairing biodynamic bottles with simple seasonal plates.

South Bermondsey

• Venue MOT Unit 18

  Underground club

  Unglamorous, off the map and properly loud, which is exactly why it works.

Southwark

• Crossbones Garden

  Memorial garden

  A medieval burial ground for London's outcast dead, the Winchester Geese, reborn as a volunteer-run memorial garden. Tiny, ribbon-tied and moving. Open a few lunchtime hours midweek.

• Seabird

  European

  A 14th-floor Iberian seafood rooftop above The Hoxton in Southwark, with sweeping city views and a marble raw bar of nine oyster varieties. A sunset terrace built for a special occasion.

Spa Terminus

• Dockley Road

  European

  A railway arch at the top of the Beer Mile where roughly four fifths of the menu comes from traders on the same street. Emily Chia cooks, after St. John and Joe Beef in Montreal. There is a wall in the toilets listing everyone the kitchen learned from.

Walworth

• Diogenes the Dog

  Wine bar

  A wine bar where nearly all the staff are working sommeliers, so a solo seat is a free education.