How to pronounce Southwark and why it's called what it is

The English language is full of words and names spelt one way and pronounced another.

Southwark is a classic example and typically divides people into two camps – one reading it as ‘suth-erk’ and the other ‘south-wark’.

It’s no coincidence that the word ‘south’ is in the name but does that mean we should pronounce it clearly just as it is spelt?

So what's the history?

Southwark first appears in written English in the tenth century, when the Anglo-Saxons document the name ‘Suthriganaweorc’ and it’s mentioned in the Domesday Book as ‘Sudweca’.

This is very old English for ‘work in the south’, which is how it became modernised to Southwark.

But while the word ‘south’ is clearly relevant to the name’s origins and evolution, it’s just one of those quirks of the language that you don’t actually pronounce it as ‘south’.

Instead, the correct way to pronounce it is ‘suth-erk’, meaning the ‘w’ is silent and you can pretty much ignore the ‘o’.