Just beside Tower Bridge, in an oft-overlooked nook of south London is the exquisite area of Shad Thames. The riverfront is lined with beautiful restaurants, bars and cultural hotspots with incredible views along the Thames in either direction and across to the City of London.

With stylish converted warehouse accommodation and quality restaurants afoot - including Butlers Wharf Chop House and Le Pont de la Tour, the area has steadily attracted top businesses. Zoopla ZPG Ltd, the online property portal, relocated there recently taking a whopping 44,000 square feet in Courage Yard.

In January 2019 Southwark Council confirmed it had purchased the area from Colombia Threadneedle who bought the site for around £48 million in 2015. After a successful rebrand and refurbishment, the site went back on the market for a significantly higher price of £89 million last year. Southwark Council is adding it to the existing rental incomes it enjoys from its 2017 purchases in Shand Street and Holyrood Street nearby, each close to the council's HQ on Tooley Street.

The entire Courage Yard area is situated on a 2.2 acre freehold site with almost 70,000 square foot of office space, 18,000 square foot of shops, 160 residential units and hundreds of car parking spaces. It's estimated that the yearly rental yield from all of these will exceed £5 million.

Councillor Victoria Mills, Cabinet Minister for Finance, Performance and Brexit said, “Over the years we have acquired commercial assets that we can manage to generate revenue. Projects are chosen based on being in Southwark and the size and resilience of their revenue return, which can then be used to support our frontline services.”

Once upon a time, if Courage Yard (back in the 80s known as Horselydown Square) had been a place on the Monopoly board, it would have been positioned somewhere between the Old Kent Road and Whitechapel, but with its recent transformations the area might now be better placed far further around the board.