SE16
SE1 has been a long time arriving. For many years now it has been touted as the up and coming place to live and be seen. The London Eye ferris wheel, the conversion of Bankside Power Station into the Tate Art Gallery, the long-awaited reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe and the technological novelty of Waterloo International are just the most obvious signs of how things have changed. The Financial Times, the Express, IBM, Sainsbury's, Shell Oil, PC Magazines and Independent Television are all now by the river.
These are only a few of the big hitters in SE1, and to give this postcode any justice this guide would have to be considerably longer. There are major hospitals (Guy's and St. Thomas's), major train stations, many theatres, the largest cruiser ever built for the Royal Navy, eleven bridges, and the new MI6 building. Terraced housing in the west and flats in the east are the dominant subject to this postcode. Bermondsey in the east has seen many of its old industrial and transport sites undergo residential renovation.
The section of SE1 between Tower Bridge and Shad Thames, once an area for breweries and livestock, is now as trendy as anywhere in the capital, with hi-tech work units carved out of old warehousing. The National Theatre and the South Bank Centre are here, with their subsidiary attractions, such as the Museum of the Moving Image and the National Film Theatre. The restored Oxo Tower and the Millennium Bridge are other notable developments nearby.
This leads west to northern Lambeth and Waterloo Station, to the north and east of which is solid terraced housing, now going for prices beyond what their builders could have imagined. Intense building work has been going on to the east of the station and round the Waterloo roundabout in recent times, with the notable creation of the great glass drum that is the IMAX cinema, boasting Britain's largest cinema screen - 26 meters across.
To the west of Waterloo station is the old County Hall, site of London government from 1922 to 1986, now a hotel, a block of apartments and an increasingly famous aquarium. To the south of Waterloo is Lower Marsh with its regular market, and the grounds of Lambeth Palace. No other postcode can provide so much in the way of transport. Two of London's major train stations (Waterloo/Waterloo East and London Bridge) are here, as are the bridges to three others (Charing Cross, Cannon Street and Blackfriars).
There are seven tube stations - including the Southwark station - on the Jubilee Line extension that runs west to east through SE1. There are buses that go in every imaginable direction and the many roads include the Roman A2 and A3.
