Isaak Shklovsky, from ‘Richard Kelly’

One of the most savage and destitute places in London is, of course, the St Saviour Parish in Southwark, on the south bank of the Thames. The train bringing the tourist from Dover speeds over the roofs of this part of the city. The traveller sees only a thicket of round red chimneys that Heine once compared to teeth torn out by the roots. If it is a Monday, the eye is also struck by the motley rags hung out to dry on the roofs and in the courtyards. Southwark is a historic seat of poverty. Other districts of London, such as, for example, Bethnal Green, had once seen better days, or, like Park Lane, had a dark past and have only now become a holding pen for millionaires. But Southwark has always been a poor and savage quarter. In the time of Elizabeth, i.e. three centuries ago, the quarter's reputation was exactly the same as today. Only the scenery has changed a little. Once, for instance, Blackfriars Bridge, which leads from the north to the south bank, was covered with pikes on which were impaled the heads and arms of criminals and rebels.4 At the southern end of the bridge there once stood a gallows, upon which swayed always the tarred corpse of a man executed for taking part in strikes or secret labour unions. Here too could be seen in all its glory a huge unwieldy machine that resembled a well sweep, the ducking stool . A chair was attached to the arm of a lever suspended over the river. They used to tie cheating bakers to it and, to the crowd's general amusement, duck them three times over in the river. All this, of course, has long ago become the stuff of legends. In the sixteenth century, there also stood on the south bank near the bridge a tall round building without a roof, the famous Globe theatre, where Londoners gathered to watch, perhaps, a tragedy by Marlowe or Shakespeare or a comedy by the learned Ben Jonson. With equal pleasure, they came here to watch the bearbaiting or some good fight. Then the Globe vanished without a trace and another building appeared in its place, which also exists no longer but which left a profound mark on English literature.

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