Bankside is a district in the London Borough of Southwark. It is positioned around the southern bank of the River Thames, 2.4 km east of Charing Cross. It is part of the business improvement district generally known as Better Bankside.
Bankside is the riverside of the former liberties of the Clink and Paris Garden. Throughout the Elizabethan period, these places were out of the City of London’s jurisdiction so they became the homes of bear baiting pits and playhouses, including the Rose, the Swan and the Globe Theatre. There has been a lot of regeneration in current years, becoming popular with tourists. The skyline of Bankside is accentuated by the former Bankside Power Station, which is now the Tate Modern.
The Bankside 1/2/3 complex on Southwark Street is the most significant new development in the district. The three buildings house around 5,000 personnel. Bankside One is also referred to as the Blue Fin Building and it's partially occupied by IPC Media, while Bankside 2 and 3 are occupied by the Omnicom Group Ltd.
From 2010, a lot of improvement schemes have transformed Blackfriars Road from the bridge to the south at St. George’s Circus and new buildings stand in place of post-World War II offices. These buildings are residential and hotel accommodation along its length, specially at the junction with Stamford Street where a lot of high rises have been built.