No, Southwark is one of the least safe corners of its own borough. Crime runs about 70% above the borough average. Theft from the person makes up about a fifth of it, a category that barely registers nationally. Violence is a smaller share of the total than across England and Wales. Most of the risk is to what you're carrying.
The Metropolitan Police published a rate of about 268 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents in Southwark for the year to May 2026. That is roughly 70% above the average for the borough as a whole. In total, 28,158 crimes were recorded over those twelve months.
For the Southwark council area as a whole, the rate over the same year was about 158 per 1,000 residents. Southwark's own figure is about 268, and those two numbers are the gap. The rate is calculated against the people who live here, but in a district built around a bridge, a cathedral and a riverside theatre strip, residents aren't the only people on the pavement.
There are about 22,100 people per square kilometre on average, so the place is packed. Unemployment is about 4%, and about 11% of households are overcrowded. That's a lot of people per pavement before a single visitor turns up.
The mix of crime is where Southwark looks unusual. Theft from the person is the largest category, at about 22% of recorded crime here against about 2% across England and Wales. Other theft accounts for about 15%, against about 7% nationally. Violence and sexual offences is a broad legal grouping that includes common assault without injury. Here it makes up about 18% of crime, about half its national share of 35%. Anti-social behaviour is about 17%, close to the national 16%. Shoplifting at about 5% and public order offences at about 5% both run below their national shares of 8% and 7%. Look up your exact street on the police's own crime map. A flat by London Bridge and one deeper into Newington see very different crowds outside the door.
Whether anyone gets charged is a separate question, and it's answered for the whole force. The Metropolitan Police charges a suspect in about 10% of cases, against about 12% nationally, which ranks it 33rd of 42 forces. About 53% of the Met's cases close with no suspect identified. Those figures say nothing about how safe Southwark is, only what tends to happen after a report. On the Met's numbers, reporting a theft and having it solved are mostly two separate events.
Southwark's safety record is poor. The crime rate is high even by its own borough's standards, and most of that crime is aimed at people's belongings.