London South Bank University is one of the oldest universities in central London with over 23,000 students and 1,700 staff based in the London Borough of Southwark. The Chancellor is the newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald and the Vice-Chancellor is the historian Professor Deian Hopkin.

The university has four faculties covering health and social care; business and computing; arts and humanities and engineering and the built environment. Many courses hold national accreditation. It hosts the oldest bakery school in the world, the National Bakery School, founded in 1894.

Its most celebrated teacher was the British painter David Bomberg (1890-1957), now recognised as one of the greatest British artists of the last century, who taught painting and drawing part-time at the Borough Polytechnic between 1945 and 1954 and took part in exhibitions with his students organised in the Borough Group (1946-51) and the Borough Bottega (1953-55). Major paintings by Bomberg were acquired by the Tate Gallery only after his death. The University's hall of residence, David Bomberg House, carries his name.