Live-in Care in Bankside and Borough

Yes, we arrange live-in care across Bankside and Borough, from the river down to Marshalsea Road and Long Lane. Whether the home is a Peabody flat or a new apartment by the river, the carer has the spare room, and their day revolves around your relative: getting up, washing, tablets, meals, a walk along Bankside, with their own daily break written into the plan. We visit first, free, and agree everything on paper. Being ten minutes from London Bridge by train, our Lewisham office can drop in for reviews without fuss.

When is live-in care better than visits here?

Borough is close enough to Lewisham that visiting care is realistic. Live-in care is the better fit when needs are spread across the whole day: someone who is unsteady every time they get up, who forgets to eat or take tablets unless someone is with them, or who is frightened of being alone after a fall. Visits are fixed times. Someone living in covers the long gaps between those fixed times, and in SE1 that is often what stops a hospital admission turning into a care home.

Room for a carer: from riverside flats to almshouses

SE1 has very different homes within a few streets, and the carer's bedroom is what decides whether live-in care is possible:

• Newer apartments near the river and Southwark Street often have two bedrooms, lifts and level access, which suits a carer and any equipment.
• Peabody and council blocks, including Peabody Square on Blackfriars Road and the Tabard Gardens Estate, range from one bedroom to family size. Two bedrooms is usually enough.
• Almshouses and small cottages, such as Hopton's Almshouses and Red Cross Cottages, are often too small for a second bedroom.

Without a separate bedroom for the carer, live-in care cannot start. If there isn't one, visiting home care in Bankside and Borough is the option, and here it is realistic, subject to availability.

Stairs, lifts and the equipment

Victorian model dwellings were built around shared staircases, and not every block has a lift. Before a profiling bed or hoist arrives, check that it can get up the stairs or into the lift and through the flat door. In a new building, ask the concierge about deliveries and which lift to use. At the assessment we walk the route ourselves, street door to bed to bathroom.

Changeovers at London Bridge

Carer changeovers are simple in SE1. An incoming carer can reach London Bridge directly from Lewisham, then walk, or take the Northern line one stop to Borough or the Jubilee line one stop to Southwark. Blackfriars, with its Bankside entrance on the south bank, is another choice. The two carers overlap at the home so the new one learns the routine before the other leaves.

Parking is the hard part. Bankside's controlled zone, C1, runs every day from 8am to 11pm, both Borough and Bankside are inside the Congestion Charge zone, and estates run their own visitor schemes. The council's informal carer permit belongs to a relative or friend doing the caring; agency carers cannot use it. Visiting family should check the council's parking zones first.

An hour off in SE1: gardens, the river, a library

• Red Cross Garden, Octavia Hill's restored Victorian garden between Redcross Way and Ayres Street, looked after by Bankside Open Spaces Trust.
• Mint Street Park, Bankside's largest green park, on the site of the old Evelina Children's Hospital.
• The John Harvard Library at 211 Borough High Street, which has flat access and an accessible toilet, so it can also be an outing with a wheelchair user.
• The Thames Path along Bankside, for a walk by the river.

For your relative, Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral are within a short walk or push. Where your relative cannot be left during the carer's hour off, a family member can sit in, or we can book a short sit-in visit.

After St Thomas' or Guy's

Emergency admissions from Borough and Bankside usually go to St Thomas' in Lambeth, while Guy's, by London Bridge, handles outpatient, cancer and day-surgery work. Southwark's reablement team often comes in for a few weeks after discharge. Where it is plain that your relative will need someone there all the time, phone us from the ward so the carer can be in place on day one, and ask the discharge team whether an NHS Continuing Healthcare check is due. Southwark's going into hospital page explains its side of discharge.

Memory problems, and the service on Blackfriars Road

When forgetfulness is behind the move to live-in care, SE1 has the specialist service close by: the Southwark and Lambeth Memory Service, at 151 Blackfriars Road. Run by South London and Maudsley, it assesses adults with mild to moderate memory problems, normally on a GP referral, and later offers dementia advisers and support for the family. A live-in carer can walk your relative there, sit in on the appointment if they want company, and keep a simple diary of sleep, appetite and mood for the clinicians. Our dementia care page has more.

Couples and funding

A couple can often share one carer. Each partner gets their own assessment; two people needing help at night, or a two-person transfer, means more cover than one carer, and we will tell you so. Costs: our written figure follows the visit, while council assessments and direct payments are explained on live-in care in Southwark and the service itself on live-in care in London.

How live-in care works →