B is for… Bridges

The River Thames

If I asked you to name London’s most famous bridge, what would you say? And what does it look like? Most people would answer “London Bridge”, which makes sense as there has been a river crossing there for almost 2,000 years; but then many would describe a handsome structure with two towers, and a roadway that lifts to open in the middle. Londoners and regular visitors will know that this structure, though gorgeous, is not actually London Bridge: it’s Tower Bridge, situated just next to the Tower of London at the eastern edge of the city.

Tower Bridge

The reason these two bridges so often get confused for each other is that, while London Bridge has the history, Tower Bridge has the iconic look. It features on many postcards, guidebooks, and Instagram stories as a symbol of London, and rightly so. But in terms of our ancient city, it’s a relative newcomer: built in 1899, it is one of the later additions to the waterscape here in London.

There are 34 bridges in Greater London, and the oldest one still standing is Kingston Bridge out in the western suburbs, which dates back to 1828. However, like several others, its history stretches back centuries – to around 1190 CE. Only one has an origin even further back in time, and that is the famous but oft-misidentified London Bridge.

A model of the Roman London Bridge, credit Steven G Johnson

The first bridge over the Thames was built by the Romans, where London Bridge now stands, in around 50 CE. While the settlement known as Londinium was entirely on the northern side of the river, the Romans realised there was a great military and logistic advantage to have a crossing down towards the towns and ports of Kent, in particular trading ports like Dover, with their access to Gaul (modern-day France).

The bridge was an integral part of the Roman city, and although it became less used in the Saxon period that followed their departure in the 5th century, it was given a new purpose and importance in the late 1100s, when King Henry II commissioned the first stone-built bridge on the site. It was far grander than the previous version, in part because it was not just a support for a road over the water: it was designed like a city street in its own right. With a church located in the centre of its span, dedicated to St Thomas Becket, it also contained many houses, shops, restaurants – up to 140 of them at one time. Although this did help provide money for its upkeep – through rents and taxes – it did also make the bridge a very congested place, and it could take you an hour to cross from one bank of the river to the other.

Model of Old London Bridge at St Magnus the Martyr church

Although we no longer have a bridge in that style in London, you can get an idea of what it was like by visiting St Magnus the Martyr church, which has a beautiful model of Old London Bridge as it was in the early 1400s. By the 1700s, the houses were gone and the roadway had been widened and decorated with elegant stone arches along the sides. However, by the 19th century – with the industrial revolution causing London to more than quadruple in size – the old medieval bridge just wasn’t up to the task any more. And so in 1831 it was replaced with a grand new structure, carrying millions of Londoners across the river each year. Traces of the old bridge do still linger on, with some of those stone archways decorating a hospital, a park, and a housing estate throughout the city.

An archway from the Victorian London Bridge at Guy’s Hospital

The Victorian bridge lasted up until the 1970s, when it spawned the myth that a rich American businessman had bought it in the mistaken belief that it was Tower Bridge – as mentioned, the two often do get confused for one another. However, it was in fact entirely intentional: Mr Robert McCulloch from Arizona bought the old bridge, had it dismantled and every block of stone labelled carefully, and then reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, where it still stands to this day.

Today’s London Bridge is a functional and straightforward concrete road bridge that reaches the south bank of the Thames just beside Borough Market. Not as handsome as its sibling at the Tower, it is still a vital part of the city’s history, and used by thousands of Londoners and visitors alike, every day.

Westminster Bridge and Big Ben

Probably the second most photographed bridge after Tower Bridge is the one at Westminster: first constructed in 1750, it was the first bridge to be built in central London since the Roman bridge, almost 17 centuries earlier. The one you see today was built in 1862, and was designed to complement the gorgeous Houses of Parliament and Big Ben; the details were designed by architect Charles Barry, who also designed Parliament. It offers beautiful vistas of the Palace of Westminster and London eye, and features a statue of the infamous Queen Boudicca at its northern edge. (We’ll learn more about her in the “Q” blog on Queens).

Albert Bridge in all its sugar-pink glory

While Tower Bridge and Westminster are handsome indeed, my favourite is the beautiful Albert Bridge between Chelsea and Battersea. This is probably the prettiest of London’s bridges, especially in the evening when it is lit by hundreds of twinkling lights. With its wedding-cake decorative style of powder pink and white, it is the most delightful way to cross the Thames. Built in 1873 and modified in the 1880s by the incomparable civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette, it is named after Prince Albert, the beloved husband of Queen Victoria. Designed as a kind of suspension bridge, supported from above by steel cables, it earned the nickname the “Trembling Lady”, as it tended to sway if too many people crossed it at one time. This links it nicely to London’s newest bridge – the Millennium Footbridge – which links St Paul’s on the north side to Tate Modern on the south bank. When it first opened in 2000, it was very popular, and huge numbers of people crossed it; this led to what architects termed “synchronous lateral excitation”, and everyone else called “a wobble”, and led to the bridge being closed for almost two years while architect Norman Foster sorted out the issue. To this day, most Londoners know it as the Wobbly Bridge.

The Millennium Bridge - now wobble-free

If you would like to know more about the Thames and its bridges, contact me to book a special tour of the River and its City.