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St Mary Magdalen dates from the C13th, built next to the Priory Church of Bermondsey Abbey dedicated to St Saviour. The Abbey was built in 1082 and existed until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, after which its burial ground was incorporated into that of St Mary Magdalen, which became the parish church. The churchyard was enlarged in 1783 and 1810; after it closed for burials, it was given to the Vestry of Bermondsey in 1882. It was laid out as public garden and opened in 1883. The railed garden has a number of fine C18th and C19th tombs among the grass, wide gravelled paths, a number of beds with roses, floral displays, shrubs and trees include mature plane, Lombardy poplar and ornamental varieties.

St Mary's Churchyard Gardens were formerly part of the churchyard of St Mary's Rotherhithe, an additional area that was acquired for burial by the churchwardens in 1820 when the churchyard had become overcrowded. It opened in 1821 when the Watch House was built and burials took place here until 1852. It was converted as a public garden and opened in 1901.

Former site of the medieval parish church and burial ground of St Mary Newington, which was demolished in 1876 when Newington Butts was widened as the area became busier; a new church was built in Kennington Park Road. The site was transformed into a garden and opened to the public in 1879, with a clock tower erected in 1877 on the site of the old church. The clock tower was demolished in 1971, its position marked by a memorial stone. A number of gravestones remain along the Churchyard Row boundary. In 2007/8 the garden was re-landscaped to provide improved facilities including a new children's playground with many natural play features, a central grass area surrounded by mature London planes and a plaza area with seating and raised planters.

There has been a church here since at least the C10th, the present church of St Mary's Rotherhithe dating from the early C18th. Rotherhithe had strong maritime connections, with many seafarers among its parishioners. In 1620 The Mayflower sailed from here to pick up the Pilgrim Fathers, and three of its four part-owners were buried in Rotherhithe churchyard. An unusual memorial in the churchyard is that of Prince Lee Boo (d.1784), the son of the King of the Belau Islands, whose monument was erected by the East India Company. The churchyard immediately adjacent to the church was opened to the public in 1909, while the main part of the churchyard had been opened as a public garden in 1901, now called St Mary's Churchyard Gardens.

St Peter's Church, designed by Sir John Soane, was built in 1823-25 and its churchyard was in use until 1853. In 1895 at the instigation of the parish priest, Father Horsley, it was cleared of graves and converted as a public garden for the parishioners. It was laid out by the MPGA with grass and seats, the headstones largely placed around the edge of the garden. Father Horsley also established a small zoo on the rectory garden, nicknamed the Monkey Park, which was landscaped as a community garden with the participation of the local community, a new bench sculpture unveiled in 2005.

St Stephen's Church was built to serve the growing population in South Dulwich that developed following the establishment of the Crystal Palace on Sydenham Hill and the arrival of the railway. The ragstone church with its fine slate spire was built in 1867-8, designed by Charles Barry Jnr, the architect of Dulwich College. Surrounded by Dulwich Woods, the church has a neat garden with war memorial, lawns, shrub and flower beds with hedging to the road. Soon after it was completed, the painter Camille Pissarro painted the church in its woodland setting in 1870.

Stave Hill is on a site which once was part of the Surrey Commercial Docks, which were created on former pasture and marshland in 1864 when Rotherhithe's C19th commercial docks were amalgamated and came to cover over 185 hectares. The Docks were closed in 1969, and Stave Hill is an artificial hill created from spoil when the docks were infilled in 1985/9. From the hill are fine views and at the summit is a bronze map by Michael Rizzello, 1986, commissioned by the London Docklands Development Corporation. The hill overlooks a nature reserve created by the Trust for Urban Ecology, which was planted with saplings in 1987. Trees include field maple, alder, ash, birch, aspen, cherry, rowan and oak and numerous shrubs plus a number of ponds.

Sunray Gardens is a remnant of the landscaped grounds of Casina, a late C18th house on The Dulwich Estate. The grounds were designed by Humphry Repton, including a large lake that survives as the sole remnant from the earlier landscape. By 1920 Casina was empty and the Estate released the land to Camberwell Borough Council for much needed social housing. A clause in the plans for the new estate enabled an area of open space to be preserved for recreational purposes and the area around the lake was chosen and laid out, initially called Casino Open Space, renamed Sunray Gardens in 1923.

Surrey Docks Farm started life as a goat farm in the 1970s, and was then established in 1975 on a 1.5 acre site of derelict dockland between the entrance to Greenland Dock and the River Thames. The early impetus was to raise livestock and produce food from what was regarded as wasteland. In June 1986 the farm was re-located to its present riverside location at South Wharf, a historic site that had seen use as a shipyard, timber wharf, River Ambulance Receiving Station, and a station for the Auxiliary Fire Service.

Surrey Square was part of a scheme by architect by Michael Searles, built in 1793/4 for the Rolls Estate for which he was surveyor. Son of a Greenwich surveyor, Searles designed a number of ambitious schemes, largely uncompleted. Part of his terrace remains, overlooking the public park built as part of the large Aylesbury Estate by Southwark Council between 1967-77. Surrey Square Park is on slightly undulating ground. In the west is the Peter Martin Memorial Garden, a small area of landscaping with path and shrub beds.

The terraces of Sutherland Square were built in 1810-30, with a few houses dating from c.1845. The square was truncated when the railway was built across it, separating the east terrace from the rest of the square. In the centre of the west side was a small oval garden area, which was acquired by Southwark Borough Council for public open space and opened in 1922. Surrounded by hawthorn hedge, the garden is largely grass, with small trees and a couple of seats.

Sydenham Hill Wood and Dulwich Woods to the west are survivors of the Great North Wood, which once covered large tracts of land here, a chain of oak woods and wooded commons that extended from Selhurst to Brockley. After 1787 Dulwich tenants lost their common rights following the Enclosure Acts, although the woods survived until the development of Crystal Palace following the Great Exhibition, which led to housing development. The steep slope of woodland running west from Sydenham Hill became the gardens of several Victorian houses, since demolished, their gardens are now back within the woodland. Although the gardens have disappeared, evidence remains in the form of exotic garden trees, and fragments of built features. Also within the woods is the disused railway track of the Crystal Palace High Level Railway.