The Cathedral building was extended on its north side, providing a library, an education Centre, a shop and a refectory.
St Saviour's church became Southwark Cathedral and the mother church of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, serving over 300 parishes from the River Thames in the north to Gatwick Airport in the South.
Plans to build a new London Bridge close to the church threatened the building's future. To make room, a chapel on the southside was demolished. During the nineteenth century, various aspects of the church were refurbished and rebuilt.
A group of merchants bought St Saviour's from James I. The parish served local residents, merchants as well as actors and women who worked in the nearby brothels.
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, the church became the property of Henry VIII who rented it to the congregation. It was re-named St Saviour's church.
The dates of the first church on the south bank of the Thames, by the Old London Bridge, are uncertain. The first definitive date is in 1106 when the church was reestablished by two Norman knights as an Augustinian priory and dedicated to St Mary, later known as St Mary Overy (“over the river”).