Central to the location is Royal Festival Hall, which reopened in June of this year following a £115 million refit; with it came other venues such as bars and restaurants that made their new home along the riverside. Long-standing neighbours include the Hayward Gallery, National Theatre, British Film Institute and Tate Modern gallery and on the evenings when we are blessed with warm temperatures, crowds of people would chill along the bank of the river. Lounging on the astro-turf outside the National Theatre with a bottle of wine or overlooking the activities down below from the comfort of the new Skylon restaurant in Royal Festival Hall, the emphasis of this area is clearly about bringing people together in an approachably snug cultural environment.

Both socially and culturally there is a lot happening in this part of town. Some of the most groundbreaking and original art exhibitions have opened here, including the recent Anthony Gormley exhibit that inhabited both the space inside the Hayward Gallery and roof tops of approximately 20 buildings in the vicinity with life-size body casts of the artist himself. There’s brilliantly staged theatre, exceptional cinema and a wide range of different types of music performed, as well as plenty of venues to eat and drink.

Understandably, the thought of going for a drink or a dinner in the shadow of a concert hall stuffed to capacity with theatregoers, is hardly an idea of conventional fun. This is the beauty of the South Bank – it proves wrong any notion that such ‘cultural’ activities, like going to the theatre, are aimed at a certain type of person.

On any given day the South Bank can attract as many as 40,000 people and from morning until night there is an enormous amount of things to see and do. The variety is astounding; for instance, if you take a walk into Royal Festival Hall you could attend an evening recital of classical music and during the interval relax with a drink at the bar, overlooking a rehearsal space where you may witness street dancers perfecting their moves to R&B blaring from portable speakers attached to iPods.

The Latin American restaurant and bar, Las Iguanas, is perhaps the liveliest place for a cocktail after working hours and further east towards London Bridge you can stumble across many more popular drinking spots. It may not boast any of the homogenous clubs that London’s West End is home to and it’s doubtful that they will ever settle in this environment, but it’s clear to see that many people have become disillusioned with that and made the journey south for something a bit more unique.