The earliest reference to the site was in the Domesday Book survey of 1086, when the "minster" of Southwark seems to have been under the control of William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux.

The Old English minster was a collegiate church serving an area on the south side of the Thames.
In 1106, during the reign of Henry I it became an Augustinian priory, under the patronage of the Bishops of Winchester, who established their London seat Winchester Palace immediately to the west in 1149.
A remaining wall of the palace refectory, with a rose window, survives in Clink Street.

The Priory was dedicated to the Virgin Mother as 'St Mary' but had the additional soubriquet of "Overie" ("over the river") to distinguish it from the many churches in the City of London (on the opposite bank of the Thames) with the same name.

Some fragments of 12th-century fabric survive.
The church in its present form, however, dates to between 1220 and 1420, making it the first Gothic church in London.
The earliest reference to the site was in the Domesday Book survey of 1086, when the "minster" of Southwark seems to have been under the control of William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux.
The Old English minster was a collegiate church serving an area on the south side of the Thames. In 1106, during the reign of Henry I it became an Augustinian priory, under the patronage of the Bishops of Winchester, who established their London seat Winchester Palace immediately to the west in 1149. A remaining wall of the palace refectory, with a rose window, survives in Clink Street.
The Priory was dedicated to the Virgin Mother as 'St Mary' but had the additional soubriquet of "Overie" ("over the river") to distinguish it from the many churches in the City of London (on the opposite bank of the Thames) with the same name.
Some fragments of 12th-century fabric survive. The church in its present form, however, dates to between 1220 and 1420, making it the first Gothic church in London.
Southwark Cathedral