BRIDGE WARD WITHOUT. One of 26 wards of London, (another name for the Borough of Southwark), and so called from lying without, or beyond, London Bridge. Southwark was long an independent borough, a sanctuary for malefactors of every description; and was first annexed judicially to the City in the reign of Edward I. In 1550, in consideration of the payment of a sum of money into the Augmentation Office, Edward VI. resigned his right as lord of the manor, only reserving to himself two messages, one called Suffolk Place, the other The Antelope.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850