London Bridge - History
London Bridge refers to several historical bridges that have spanned the
River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central
London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box
girder bridge built from concrete and steel. This replaced a
19th-century stone-arched bridge, which in turn superseded a
600-year-old medieval structure. This was preceded by a succession of
timber bridges, the first built by the Roman founders of London.
The current bridge stands at the western end of the Pool of London but is positioned 30 metres (98 ft) upstream from previous alignments. The traditional ends of the medieval bridge were marked by St Magnus-the-Martyr on the northern bank and Southwark Cathedral on the southern shore. Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, London Bridge was the only road-crossing of the Thames downstream of Kingston-upon-Thames.
The modern bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, an independent charity overseen by the City of London Corporation. It carries the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority. The crossing also delineates an area along the southern bank of the River Thames, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, that has been designated as a business improvement district
The current bridge stands at the western end of the Pool of London but is positioned 30 metres (98 ft) upstream from previous alignments. The traditional ends of the medieval bridge were marked by St Magnus-the-Martyr on the northern bank and Southwark Cathedral on the southern shore. Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, London Bridge was the only road-crossing of the Thames downstream of Kingston-upon-Thames.
The modern bridge is owned and maintained by Bridge House Estates, an independent charity overseen by the City of London Corporation. It carries the A3 road, which is maintained by the Greater London Authority. The crossing also delineates an area along the southern bank of the River Thames, between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, that has been designated as a business improvement district
Location
The abutments of modern London Bridge rest several metres above natural
embankments of gravel, sand and clay. From the late Neolithic era the
southern embankment formed a natural causeway above the surrounding
swamp and marsh of the river's estuary; the northern ascended to higher
ground at the present site of Cornhill.
Between the embankments, the River Thames could have been crossed by
ford when the tide was low, or ferry when it was high. Both embankments,
particularly the northern, would have offered stable beachheads for
boat traffic up and downstream – the Thames and its estuary were a major
inland and Continental trade route from at least the 9th century BC.[4] There is archaeological evidence for scattered Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement nearby, but until a bridge was built there, London did not exist.[5] Two ancient fords were in use a few miles upstream, beyond the river's upper tidal reach. They were aligned with the course of Watling Street and led into the heartlands of the Catuvellauni, who at the time of Caesar's invasion of 54 BC were Britain's most powerful tribe. Some time before Claudius' conquest of AD 43, power shifted to the Trinovantes, who held the region northeast of the Thames estuary from a capital at Camulodunum.
The first London Bridge was built by the Roman military as part of a
road-building programme to help consolidate their conquest.
Roman bridges
The first bridge was probably a Roman military pontoon type, giving a rapid overland shortcut to Camulodunum from the southern and Kentish ports, along the Roman roads of Stane Street andWatling Street (the A2). The Trinovantes submitted to Rome; a major colonia was
imposed on Camulodunum, which became capital city of the new Roman
province of Britannia. Around AD 55, this temporary bridge was replaced
by a permanent timber piled bridge,
maintained and guarded by a small garrison. On the relatively high, dry
ground at the northern end of the bridge, a small, opportunistic
trading and shipping settlement took root, and grew into the town of Londinium. A smaller settlement developed at the southern end of the bridge, in the area now known asSouthwark. The bridge was probably destroyed along with the town in the Boudican revolt
(60 AD), but both were rebuilt and Londinium became the administrative
and mercantile capital of Roman Britain. The upstream fords and ferries
remained in use but the bridge offered uninterrupted, mass movement of
foot, horse, and wheeled traffic across the Thames, linking four major
arterial road systems north of the Thames with four to the south. Just
downstream of the bridge were substantial quays and depots, convenient
to seagoing trade between Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire.
Early medieval bridges
With the end of Roman rule in Britain in the early 5th century, Londinium was gradually abandoned and the bridge fell into disrepair. In the Saxon period, the river became a boundary between the emergent, mutually hostile kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. By the late 9th century, Danish invasions prompted
at least a partial reoccupation of London by the Saxons; the bridge may
have been rebuilt around 990 under the Saxon king Æthelred the Unready to hasten his troop movements against Sweyn Forkbeard, father of Cnut the Great. A skaldic tradition describes the bridge's destruction in 1014 by Æthelred's ally Olaf,[10] to
divide the Danish forces who held both the walled City of London and
Southwark. The earliest contemporary written reference to a Saxon bridge
is c.1016 when chroniclers mention how Cnut's ships by-passed the crossing, during his war to regain the throne from Edmund Ironside.
Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, King William I rebuilt the bridge. The London tornado of 1091 destroyed it, also damaging St Mary-le-Bow.[11] It was repaired or replaced byKing William II, destroyed by fire in 1136, and rebuilt in the reign of Stephen. Henry II created
a monastic guild, the "Brethren of the Bridge", to oversee all work on
London Bridge, and in 1163 its Warden, Peter of Colechurch, supervised
the bridge's last rebuilding in timber.
"Old" (medieval) London Bridge
After the murder of his erstwhile friend and later opponent Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury,
the penitent King Henry II commissioned a new stone bridge in place of
the old, with a chapel at its centre dedicated to Becket as martyr. The archbishop had been a native Londoner, and a popular figure. His chapel became the official start of pilgrimage to his Canterbury shrine;
it was grander than some town parish churches, and had an additional
river-level entrance for fishermen and ferrymen. Building work began in
1176, supervised by Peter, a priest and chaplain of St Mary Colechurch,
which until its destruction in the Great Fire of London in
1666, stood in Conyhoop Lane, on the north side of the Poultry. The
costs would have been enormous, and Henry attempted to meet them with
taxes on wool and sheepskins, but the project continued past his own
lifetime. Hence it was that the traditional legend arose that London
Bridge was built on wool packs, and a similar legend arose as to the foundations of Bideford Long Bridge in Devon,[14] and perhaps many others. It was finished by 1209 during the reign of King John.
It had taken 33 years to complete, and John licensed out building plots
on the bridge to help recoup the costs; but it was never enough. In
1284, in exchange for loans to the royal purse, the City of London
acquired theCharter for its maintenance, based on the duties and toll-rights of the former "Brethren of the Bridge".
The bridge was some 26 feet (8 m) wide, and about 800–900 ft long, supported by 19 irregularly spaced arches, founded on "starlings"
set into the river-bed. It had a drawbridge for the passage of tall
ships up-river, and defensive gatehouses at both ends. By 1358, it was
already crowded, with 138 shops. At least one two-entranced,
multi-seated public latrine overhung the bridge parapets and discharged
into the river below; so did an unknown number of private latrines
reserved for Bridge householders or shopkeepers and bridge officials. In
1382-3 a new latrine was made (or an old one replaced) at considerable
cost, at the northern end of the bridge.
The buildings on London Bridge were a major fire hazard and increased
the load on its arches, several of which had to be rebuilt over the
centuries. In 1212, perhaps the greatest of the early fires of London broke
out on both ends of the bridge simultaneously, trapping many people in
the middle. Houses on the bridge were burnt during Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and during Jack Cade's
rebellion in 1450. A major fire of 1633 that destroyed the northern
third of the bridge formed a firebreak that prevented further damage to
the bridge during the Great Fire of London (1666).
By the Tudor era there were some 200 buildings on the bridge. Some stood
up to seven stories high, some overhung the river by seven feet, and
some overhung the road, to form a dark tunnel through which all traffic
must pass, including (from 1577) the palatial Nonsuch House.
The roadway was just 12 feet (4 m) wide, divided into two lanes, so
that in each direction, carts, wagons, coaches and pedestrians shared a
passageway six feet wide. When the bridge was congested, crossing it
could take up to an hour. Those who could afford the fare might prefer
to cross by ferry but the bridge structure had several undesirable
effects on river-traffic. The narrow arches and wide pier bases
restricted the river's tidal ebb and flow, so that in hard winters, the
water upstream of the bridge became more susceptible to freezing and
impassable by boat. The flow was further obstructed in the 16th century
by waterwheels (designed by Peter Morice) installed under the two north arches to drive water pumps, and under the two south arches to power grain mills;
the difference in water levels on the two side of the bridge could be
as much as six feet (two metres), producing ferocious rapids between
the piers.[16] Only
the brave or foolhardy attempted to "shoot the bridge"—steer a boat
between the starlings when in flood—and some were drowned in the
attempt. The bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to
pass under."
The southern gatehouse became the scene of one of London's most
notorious sights: a display of the severed heads of traitors, impaled on
pikes and dipped in tar and boiled to preserve them against the
elements. The head of William Wallace was
the first to appear on the gate, in 1305, starting a tradition that was
to continue for another 355 years. Other famous heads on pikes included
those of Jack Cade in 1450, Thomas More in 1535, Bishop John Fisher in the same year, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. In 1598 a German visitor to London Paul Hentzner counted over 30 heads on the bridge:[18]
| “ | On the south is a bridge of stone eight hundred feet in length, of wonderful work; it is supported upon twenty piers of square stone, sixty feet high and thirty broad, joined by arches of about twenty feet diameter. The whole is covered on each side with houses so disposed as to have the appearance of a continued street, not at all of a bridge. Upon this is built a tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are placed on iron spikes: we counted above thirty. | ” |
Evelyn's Diary noted that the practice stopped in 1660, following the Restoration of King Charles II,[19] but heads were reported at the site as late as 1772.[20]
By 1722 congestion was becoming so serious that the Lord Mayor decreed
that "all carts, coaches and other carriages coming out of Southwark
into this City do keep all along the west side of the said bridge: and
all carts and coaches going out of the City do keep along the east side
of the said bridge." This has been suggested as one possible origin for
the practice of traffic in Britain driving on the left.[21]
In 1758–62, all houses and shops on the bridge were demolished through
Act of Parliament. The two centre arches were replaced by a single wider
span to improve navigation on the river.
"New" (19th-century) London Bridge
By the end of the 18th century, it was apparent that the old London
Bridge — by then over 600 years old — needed to be replaced. It was
narrow and decrepit, and blocked river traffic. In 1799, a competition
for designs to replace the old bridge was held. Entrants includedThomas Telford, whose proposal of a single iron arch spanning 600 feet (180 m) was rejected as unfeasible and impractical. John Renniewon
the competition with a more conventional design of five stone arches.
It was built 100 feet (30 m) west (upstream) of the original site by
Jolliffe and Banks of Merstham, Surrey,under the supervision of Rennie's son. Work began in 1824 and the foundation stone was laid, in the southern coffer dam, on 15 June 1825.
The old bridge continued in use while the new bridge was being built,
and was demolished after the latter opened in 1831. New approach roads
had to be built, which cost three times as much as the bridge itself.
The total costs, around £2.5 million (£192 million as of 2014),[23] were shared by theBritish Government and the Corporation of London.
Rennie's bridge was 928 feet (283 m) long and 49 feet (15 m) wide, constructed from Haytorgranite. The official opening took place on 1 August 1831; King William IV and Queen Adelaideattended a banquet in a pavilion erected on the bridge.
In 1896 the bridge was the busiest point in London, and one of its most
congested; 8,000 pedestrians and 900 vehicles crossed every hour. It was
widened by 13 feet, using granite corbels. Subsequent surveys showed
that the bridge was sinking an inch (about 2.5 cm) every eight years,
and by 1924 the east side had sunk some three to four inches (about
9 cm) lower than the west side. The bridge would have to be removed and
replaced.
Sale of Rennie's bridge to Robert McCulloch
Main article: London Bridge (Lake Havasu City)
In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on
the market and began to look for potential buyers. Council member Ivan
Luckin had put forward the idea of selling the bridge, and recalled:
"They all thought I was completely crazy when I suggested we should sell
London Bridge when it needed replacing." On 18 April 1968, Rennie's
bridge was sold to an American. It was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. The claim that McCulloch believed mistakenly that he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge was
denied by Luckin in a newspaper interview. As the bridge was taken
apart, each piece was meticulously numbered. The blocks were then
shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from
Long Beach to Arizona. The bridge was reconstructed by Sundt
Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie's London Bridge spans
the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from the Uptown area of Lake
Havasu City and follows McCulloch Boulevard onto an Island that has yet
to be named.
The London Bridge that was rebuilt at Lake Havasu City consists of a frame with stones from Rennie's London Bridge used as cladding.
The cladding stones used are 150 to 200 millimetres (6 to 8 inches)
thick. Some of the stones from the bridge were left behind at Merrivale
Quarry at Princetown inDevon. When Merrivale Quarry was abandoned and flooded in 2003, some of the remaining stones were sold in an online auction.
Modern London Bridge
The current London Bridge was designed by architect Lord Holford and engineers Mott, Hay and Anderson. It was constructed by contractors John Mowlem and Co from 1967 to 1972,and opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 17 March 1973. It comprises three spans of prestressed-concrete box girders, a total of 928 feet (283 m) long. The cost of £4 million (£47.9 million as of 2014),] was met entirely by the Bridge House Estates charity.
The current bridge was built in the same location as Rennie's bridge,
with the previous bridge remaining in use while the first two girders
were constructed upstream and downstream. Traffic was then transferred
onto the two new girders, and the previous bridge demolished to allow
the final two central girders to be added.
In 1984, the British warship HMS Jupiter collided with London Bridge, causing significant damage to both ship and bridge. On Remembrance Day 2004,
various London bridges were furnished with red lighting as part of a
night-time flight along the river by wartime aircraft. London Bridge was
the one bridge not subsequently stripped of the illuminations, which
are switched on at night. The current London Bridge is often shown in
films, news and documentaries showing the throng of commuters journeying
to work into the City from London Bridge Station (south to north). A recent example of this is actor Hugh Grant crossing the bridge north to south during the morning rush hour, in the 2002 film About a Boy. On Saturday 11 July 2009, as part of the annual Lord Mayor's
charity Appeal and to mark the 800th anniversary of Old London Bridge's
completion in the reign of King John, the Lord Mayor and Freemen of the City drove a flock of sheep across the bridge, supposedly by ancient right.[31] In vaults below the southern abutment of the bridge is 'The London Bridge Experience.'
Source: wikipedia.com
