London Bridge

“ When some decay in the draw-bridge on London-bridge had rendered it necessary to prevent the passage of persons and vehicles, in order to its repair in April 1722; the silence and desolate appearance of a place so much frequented at all other times attracted the attention of some wealthy tradesmen, who entered into the whimsical resolution to have a table set in the midst of the street, where they sat drinking for an afternoon, that they might be enabled to say at a future period, "however crowded the bridge is at present, I have drank punch on it for great part of a day." ”

“ The New London Bridge, which forms so striking a feature in this View, is justly considered the finest specimen of bridge-building in Europe. It is alike the admiration of strangers and natives, and unites in the highest degree the useful and ornamental—elegance of design with solidity of structure. ”

“ Such was London Bridge after it was rebuilt, ‘peopled’—as Evelyn says of the City, but a very few days after the fire,—‘with new shops, noise, and business, not to say vanity.’—‘A Bridge,’ exclaims Richard Bloome, in his continuations to Stow, volume i. page 499, ‘not inferior to any in Europe for its length, breadth, and buildings thereon, being sustained by nineteen great stone arches, secured by piles of timber drove to the bottom of the river, having a Draw-Bridge towards Southwark, as also strong gates ”

“ The year 1632-33 must be ever memorable in the history of London Bridge: for scarcely in the awful conflagration which consumed almost the whole City, did our brave old edifice suffer so severely. And now, Mr. Barbican, you must forgive me if I be a little prolix in describing that desolating fire, since it not only destroyed more than a third part of the Bridge Houses, but, at one time, its ravages were feared even in the City itself. I shall commence my account then by reminding you that Richard Bloome, one of Stow’s continuators, on page 61 of his ‘Survey,’ thus speaks of the calamity. ”

“ The citizens have always regarded London Bridge with peculiar pride and affection. There was no other bridge like it in the whole country, nor any which could compare with it for strength or for size. ”

“ That the Bridge itself was in some danger, may be inferred from the same paper of Wednesday, February 23rd, where it is recorded that ‘three engines are at work driving piles, for the security of the large Arch of London Bridge; some of the small ones, it is said, will be entirely stopt, to prevent the water from ebbing away too fast.’ It was probably this circumstance that was alluded to by Mylne, the Architect, in his Report to the Corporation of London, concerning a new grant to the Water-works, made in June, 1767 ”

“ James Walker, and Stephen Leach, Superintendant of Improvements in the Thames Navigation, that its effect would extend as far as Kew Bridge. They also supposed that the water would ebb sooner from the wharfs, and thus leave their barges less time afloat; from all which circumstances, it seemed important that the River should be artificially deepened, the shoals cleared, and the whole navigation gradually prepared to meet the effects of the enlargement of London Bridge. ”

“ It is also rather curiously observed, that ‘’tis computed that there are drowned at London Bridge, about 50 people upon an average every year; which, as they are the prime of watermen, bargemen, and seamen, amount, at £400 each, to £20,000 per annum.’ The ‘Continuation of Maitland’s History,’ page 73, states, that on April 10th, in this year, the Thames was so remarkably low, that it was with difficulty even a wherry could cross it, the sand-banks on both sides of the Bridge being entirely dry. ”

“ This new Bridge consisted, then, of a stone platform, erected somewhat westward of the former, 926 feet long, and 40 in width, standing about 60 feet above the level of the water; and containing a Drawbridge, and 19 broad pointed arches, with massive piers varying from 25 to 34 feet in solidity, raised upon strong elm piles, covered by thick planks, bolted [74] together. Such was the first stone London Bridge, commenced by Peter of Colechurch, A. D. 1176. ”

“ It was not, however, until the middle of the year 1759, that the new Arch of London Bridge began to assume its intended form; though we can trace its progress only by slight occasional notices contained in the periodicals of the day. Thus we learn from a paragraph in the ‘London Chronicle,’ of Saturday, July the 28th, 1759, page 88, that ‘the grand Arch at London Bridge is now completed. It is finished in the Gothick taste, and the ballustrades upon it are fixing. The foot-paths will be rather wider than those at Westminster ”

“ He states that he has felt with his measuring rods the timber, &c., placed in the river to strengthen the piers of the Great Arch, and that his sounding leads have been broken by catching in it. In April, 1826, the opening of the roadway of London Bridge for throwing of two more Arches into one, to increase the water-way during the building of the New Bridge, also made a curious discovery of many of the more ancient parts of the original building. ”

“ The Jurors of the Ward of Fori, or Fore-street, page 406, column 2 of the same book, and Membrane 4 of the original Roll, ‘said that London Bridge had been for a long time in the hands of the City and Citizens of London, and that such had been always accustomed by general consent, to be made keepers of the common Bridge of our Lord the King, and of his City, and of all passers over it; and now,’ they continued, ‘the aforesaid Bridge is in the hands of the Lady the Queen, and they know not by what warrant. ”

“ Too soon after this calamity, at a most inauspicious time for commencing, or executing, expensive public works, in 1097, King William Rufus imposed a heavy tax upon his subjects for the re-building of London Bridge,—though that might very well be defended,—the erecting of the palace of West-Minster Hall, and the construction of a wall round the Tower. The ‘Saxon Chronicle’ speaks of these ill-advised undertakings in the blended tones of sorrow and of anger. ”

“ A finer and more freshly-breathing air was certainly never abroad, than that which cooled the atmosphere and blew out the gaily-coloured flags around old London Bridge, on the morning of Wednesday, the 15th of June. At a very early hour, the workmen began erecting the barriers, which were double, and at a considerable distance apart. Across the whole space of Fish-Street Hill, from Upper and Lower Thames Street, and again at Tooley Street, there stretched wide wooden railings, having a moveable bar at each pavement, with an opening wide enough [637] for one person only ”

“ In 1820 and 1822, the average fall at High water was only from 8 to 13 inches; and in 1823, after the [543] removal of the London Bridge Water-works, it decreased to between 3 and 4.
“Mr. Barnaby! Mr. Barnaby!” exclaimed I, fretted by this long digression in the Antiquary’s narrative, “I protest you really put me out of all patience: there’s no keeping you to one subject; for the last of your annals referred to that most wearisome alteration and repair of London Bridge which began in 1757, and now you are bewildered in a discourse on the navigation and tides of the Thames! ”

“ The earliest view of London Bridge in this century, I take to be that very barbarous print by Sutton Nicholls, an Engraver who resided in London, about the year 1710, was much employed by the booksellers, and who executed several of the plates in Strype’s edition of ‘Stow’s Survey.’ His prospect of the Bridge is a large and coarse engraving in two sheets, measuring 35 inches, by 221⁄2, and is divided lengthways into two parts ”

“ The present London bridge is substantially built of granite on the site of the older one. It cost £2,566,268, and was opened to the public on August 1st, 1831, by King William IV. There are five arches, the central one having a span of one hundred and fifty-two feet. The entire length is nine hundred and twenty-eight feet and the width fifty-four. A curious interest attaches to the lamp posts along the side, which are cast from the metal of French cannon captured in the Peninsular War. The constant stream of traffic that pours across this bridge is prodigious. ”

“ We know not, Mr. Barbican, at what exact period London Bridge was first occupied by shops, but in the Survey of Bridge-lands which I have already repeated to you, it appears very probable that some of the shops in the Bridge Street were actually erected on the Bridge. Houses with distinguishing [374] signs, however, must have been built upon this edifice at a very early period; for the first notice of one, which I can now recollect, is in the fire which brake out at the Pannier, at the North end of the Bridge in 1504 ”

“ It was dangerous to walk the streets, the bricks and tiles falling from the houses, that the whole streets were covered with them; and whole chimneys, nay, whole houses, in two or three places, blowed down. But above all, the pales on London Bridge, on both sides, were blown away;’—almost the very words, you observe, which I have quoted you from Richard Bloome,—‘so that we were forced to stoop very low, for fear of blowing off the Bridge. We could see no boats in the Thames afloat, but what were broke loose, and carried through the Bridge, it being ebbing water. ”

“ Such, then, were the designs laid before the House of Commons; and the Committee concluded its labour for the year 1800, by recommending the rebuilding of London Bridge of iron, with a centre Arch of at least 65 feet above high-water. It was advised, also, that the old edifice should remain till the new one were completed; the place for erecting which was [598] opposite the West end of St. Saviour’s Church, as being the narrowest part of the River, and having buildings of the least value upon its banks, whilst the Northern end should form a street to the Royal Exchange. ”

“ From these scanty notices of misery, infatuation, and crime, it is with much delight that we turn to a spectacle of the greatest magnificence, and the most distinguished character, which London Bridge ever witnessed: the entrance of King Henry VI. to the City, after his Coronation as King of France, in the Church of Nôtre Dame, at Paris, on Friday, the 7th of December, 1431. On the 9th of the February following, he landed at Dover, and upon Thursday, the 21st of the same month, he was met by the Mayor and Corporation of London at Blackheath. ”

“ The attraction possessed by London Bridge over all other London bridges is that there, on the left hand side starting from the City, a man can lean his elbows on the parapet and look at a scene of hard work on the vessels below, thus obtaining all the satisfaction of labour without its attendant inconvenience. ”

“ An Architect of nearly an hundred years since, however, has considered these objections with somewhat more of mathematical proof; and what is better, even whilst he admits their full force, he still venerates the memory, and dares to applaud the public spirit, of the blessed Peter of Colechurch. You will [76] readily guess that I allude to Master Nicholas Hawksmoor’s ‘Short Historical Account of London Bridge, with a proposition for a New Stone Bridge at Westminster,’ a quarto pamphlet of 47 pages, and 5 folding Copper-plates, originally published in the year 1736, for two shillings. ”

“ Small watercarts creep along close to the parapet and insinuate a quiet stream of water, which trickles away across the stone pavement to the gutter and baulks the intentions of dust. The Bridge is cared for by a number of other attendants, who are ever giving it a wash and brush up, ever removing distracted pieces of contents bills and advertisement slips which fly about on its surface, ever begging its pardon and setting it to rights solicitously. ”

“ In the upper of these prospects, the Northern end of London Bridge is shewn to be a passage fenced by wooden palings without any houses, excepting one building, which occupies the whole width of the Bridge; having a gate in it surmounted by the King’s Arms, and standing immediately before the old Church of St. Magnus. ”

“ In the second volume of this work, and on page 14 of the part relating to England, he thus speaks of London Bridge. ‘After having passed this place,’—that is Greenwich, which the Author calls Grenuche,—‘we soon came to London, of which the length is truly incredible; but more than two thirds of the River sides are occupied by warehouses and very small buildings of wood, even upon the Bridge, at the foot of which, on the City side, is a large edifice erected wholly of wood, without any iron, which seems to be of hewn stone it is so regularly built. ”

“ The city Corporation, which had so strenuously opposed the erection of a bridge at Westminster as unnecessary, set to work, as soon as that became an accomplished fact, to improve their own communications across the river. First, as we have seen, they cleared away the houses and other obstructions on old London Bridge, and next they started to build themselves a new bridge at Blackfriars. ”

“ We can hardly think of a subject we should be more pleased to write about, and there are few by which our readers would be more entertained, than these old bridges in London. Only one of them can have attention, and that shall be London Bridge, more especially the old one. A London Bridge is mentioned in a charter of William the Conqueror, granted to the monks of Westminster Abbey in 1067 ”