By 915 AD the settlement, deserted by the Romans 500 years earlier, was back in business and renamed Suðringanaweorc - the fort of the people of Surrey. That’s where Southwark gets its name. They defended London against the Vikings, minted coins, and left behind loads of rubbish for archaeologists to find.  

The first evidence of early Medieval activity in Southwark comes in the form of three coins, which were all found just round the corner from 46-48 Park Street. The first dates to between 527-65 and is a coin of the Emperor Justinian I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul). The second was a 7th-century gold coin found on the foreshore. The third was a halfpenny of Alfred the Great, whose statue in Southwark was recently discovered to have been made in part from a reused Roman sculpture of the goddess Minerva.