Bankside
Bankside,an area of land, now located within the London Borough of Southwark, which takes its name from the medieval embankment built along the front of the River Thames. Bankside extends from the Thames in the north to Park Street in the south and from Bankend in the east to Paris Garden in the west. The land was situated within the Liberty of the Clink, in the manor of the bishops of Winchester, although the bishops had alienated most of the land by the 15th century. After the 16th-century Henrician dissolution, monastic land remained at Liberty outside of the jurisdiction of city authorities, although two of Bankside's attractions (prostitution and commercial fishponds) had already become established by the 14th century. The district also became known as ‘the Stews’, from the stewponds (fishponds) and stewhouses (brothels): the word apparently derives from the French estui, meaning a case or sheath or a tub for keeping fish in a...
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