Nice and cosy by day, humming with custom during the evening, the Southwark's a good all-rounder. It's perched on the edge of Borough Market, in the same busy row as the Wheatsheaf and Market Porter, with the famous George across the road. Yet it manages to eke out its own niche.
The main bar is curvy and modern, with Georgian touches to the decor. The beer range (six real ales when firing on all cylinders) gives some of the more famous pubs hereabouts a run for their money. Also, we love the music in this place — whoever puts the playlists together has a taste for chilled-out yet melancholy sounds. Perfect.
If you're after a quieter, more intimate space, head downstairs into the Debtor's bar, presumably a reference to the nearby Marshalsea Prison, made famous as a debtors' home in Little Dorrit.