London Bridge, its long and interesting history

London Bridge, London Bridge is falling down, Falling down, falling down, London Bridge is falling down, My Fair Lady.

This refers, to the Old London Bridge, not to be confused with Tower Bridge, the drawbridge.

Americans have the bad habit of confusing Tower Bridge with London Bridge,  try and google London Bridge, look at the images and you will see how many photos of Tower Bridge are in the results. But then again an American asked me once, right near the Tower of London, where the Eiffel Tower was, so confusion reigns.

London Bridge exists even now, but it’s a fairly insignificant bridge. So famous, but the new bridge is a big disappointment for tourists, so they confuse it with Tower Bridge.

There have been many bridges between the City of London and Southwark over the centuries. The current crossing, erected in 1973, is a caisson bridge made of concrete and steel. It replaced a stone arch bridge from the 19th century which replaced a medieval stone construction of years.

The Roman bridges

The Roman founders of the city of Londinium built the first wooden bridge. The current bridge is located 30 metres upstream of the previous alignments. The north and south entrances of the medieval bridge were designated by St Magnus-the-Martyr’s Church and Southwark Cathedral. Until 1729, London Bridge was the only road bridge across the Thames until Kingston.

Internal trade along the Thames and its estuary dates back to about 768 years century BC There is evidence of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements nearby, but London proper could not exist until a bridge was built. Two ancient fords were in use in the high tide section of the river. These were apparently connected to Watling Street which was London’s main street in Roman times.  Initially the bridge was made of wood, but in the 1176 one was built in stone.

And on the Thames there were not many bridges in those days, so it was always full of people coming and going. However, the beauty of London Bridge at the time was that it looked a bit like Florence’s Ponte Vecchio, it had houses and shops on its sides and a road that crossed it about 8 meters wide.

Old London Bridge

In the 1200 and 1300 the bridge was a meeting point, with many shops and even the heads of traitors were hung up after the execution. The head of William Wallace, a Scottish hero, was displayed here after the execution.

The bridge survived several fires, but during the Great London Fire of 1666, the bridge was badly damaged (a bridge should take you across a river, if it fails to do so, at that point it doesn’t do much for a bridge) and knocked out use.

Finally it was demolished in 1823. Such a shame, it would have been very photogenic and a major tourist attraction.

Rennie’s Bridge for a new modern city

The Old London Bridge, which had served for 600 years, was replaced by John Rennie’s five-arch granite bridge in 1831. The old bridge was inspected by a parliamentary committee in 1820. The medieval bridge, built in 1209, proved problematic. While the surrounding structures had been removed, the removal of a pier and the widening of an arch made the waterway less navigable. The foundations of the old building were deteriorating. The committee proposed a new bridge in May 1821.

The City of London Corporation obtained permission from Parliament in 1823 to demolish Old London Bridge and replace it with Rennie’s project (1794 – 1874), the works began on 15 March 1824.

Each of the other three spans was wide 42, 6 m. The road was wide 10, 9 m long 19, 5 m. Construction took six years. Bridge House Estates paid for using reserves and a government grant. Bridge House Estates has benefited greatly from the properties bequeathed by grateful merchants who used Old London Bridge to enter London. King William IV opened the new bridge and arrived on a barge from Somerset House .

The old London Bridge was demolished in 1832 and this created problems for the other bridges, as it served as a barrier against the tides, safeguarding them.

The current bridge

At the end of the years’ 50, it was recognized that Rennie’s bridge could not handle traffic and that there was the urgent need for a new bridge. Structural problems prevented the widening of the bridge. The London Bridge Act of 1967 allowed the construction of a new bridge on the same site. The bridge was dismantled and sold to McCulloch Properties Inc of California. Maybe McCulloch was thinking of buying Tower Bridge, we can’t confirm this. The blocks were numbered and sent to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The old Southwark and Waterloo bridges, designed by John Rennie Sr., have also been removed. There remains only a land arch of his London Bridge on the south side of the bridge. It crosses Tooley Street and Montague Close on the south bank near Southwark Cathedral.

It is worth going to the current bridge, which is located under the shadow of the Shard, to take some magnificent panoramic photographs. If you go to St. Magnus the Martyr Church you can see where the bridge ended on the north side of the city. When you enter the church through the porch you are walking on the piece of land where a time there was the road. Also the whole area near the bridge on the south bank of the Thames has been redone and is a great walk. In the summer there are many free events.

• Albert Bridge in London, facts you might not know
• Conwy in Wales, from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Revolution
• The strong tornado that destroyed London Bridge
• Bridge Over Troubled Water