OPINION - John Darlington on London Monuments: Vauxhall Gardens from racy arbours to Taylor Swift

Historically, the south side of the river, especially around Southwark, has always had a different vibe from the medieval and Tudor city across the Thames to the north. More relaxed, it was where London’s citizens went for entertainment away from the legal formality and puritanism of the city. It was a place to go to the theatre — there were four on Bankside alone (The Globe, The Rose, The Swan and The Hope), to eat and drink in one of the many taverns (Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are set in The Tabard Inn), to gamble or visit the brothels, one infamously run by the Bishop of Winchester, where the prostitutes were known as “The Bishop’s Geese”.