Southwark

Overview of borough

Resident population: 278,000

Working age population: 199,000

Key town centres: Dulwich, Camberwell, and Bermondsey.
A multi-cultural borough, Southwark is popular amongst the Chinese, almost half the Chinese population lives in inner London, and around 20% is spread amongst the boroughs of Barnet, Southwark & Westminster.

Latin American London is concentrated around the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre – with numerous Latino shops and services. West African culture can be found in Peckham High Street’s shops, at the Elephant Shopping Centre and on over 30 stalls between Rye Lane and Choumert Grove.

Skills and Labour Force

Qualifications:

45.4% of the workforce is educated to degree level (NVQ4+) which is high compared to 38.6% in London

Colleges / Universities

London South Bank University
Web: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk

King's College London
Web: http://www.kcl.ac.uk

British School of Osteopathy
Web: http://www.bso.ac.uk

Southwark College
Web: http://www.southwark.ac.uk/

London College of Communication
Web: http://www.lcc.arts.ac.uk

Business Base

Number of economically active in borough: 153,800

Number of VAT registered businesses: 9,670

Strong focus on business & personal services, wholesale & retail, and transport & communications sectors. Other niche sectors include: creative industries, financial intermediation, and food & drink.

Key companies include: Price Waterhouse Coopers, Ernst & Young, Montagu Private Equity, Hgcapital, Ansbacher & Co Ltd, IG Index, City Fund Management, Iron Mountain, Mitie,  Norton Rose, Withers & Rogers, Serco, Global Crossing, Telinet, Varsatel, Blue Rubicon, the Hogarth Partnership & Addison Corporate Marketing (part of WPP group).

Model based unemployment rate: 8.1%

Transport

London Bridge railway station represents one of the major public transport hubs in the borough (26.9 million people (entries) went through the station in 2007/8.), providing access to much of South London and beyond.

Trains also connect to Victoria, East Croydon, Gatwick airport, Lewisham, Sutton and Dartford amongst a number of destinations.
The Underground lines in the borough are the Northern Line, connecting to Euston and London Bridge, and the Bakerloo Line connecting to Waterloo.

London City Airport is a 35 minute drive and approximately 7.5 miles away, and Stansted Airport is 1hr 10 mins drive and approximately 36 miles away.

Road networks: The A205 leads to the neighbouring boroughs of Lambeth and Lewisham. The A2 leads to the A20 and M20 to Dover for the channel ports.

Cross River Tram: There is a proposal for a tram service running on-street between Euston & Waterloo with a branch to Brixton and Peckham in the south. Transport for London is working with Southwark and other London Boroughs to develop this service. Cross River Partnership will work with the GLA, TfL, the LDA and the Boroughs to find potential funding streams for the Tram project.

East London Line extensions Plans will involve extending the East London line to Dalston Junction, Crystal Palace and West Croydon via Lewisham by summer 2010.

Quality of Life

Interesting attractions:

Tate Modern and the Millennium Bridge

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
Southwark Cathedral and Borough market
Dulwich Picture Gallery
Butlers Wharf and the Design Museum
Business Support

The Southwark Business Desk
businessdesk@southwark.gov.uk

South-East London Chamber of Commerce
Unit 4, Harrington Way
Warspite Road
London
SE18 5NR
Tel: 020 8317 3365
Fax: 020 8854 8273
office@selondonchamber.org
www.selondonchamber.org

Southwark Chamber of Commerce
E-mail: admin@southwarkcommerce.com
www.southwarkcommerce.com

Southwark Council
Town Hall
Peckham Road
London SE5 8UB
020 7525 5000
www.southwark.gov.uk