London Bridge

Architect: John Rennie

1825-31

Note the open-topped double-decker horse-drawn omnibus at the lower left.

Image and text scanned by Nathalie Chevalier.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

The present London Bridge stands about sixty yards higher up the river than the old bridge (removed in 1832). It was designed by John Rennie, a Scottish Engineer, begun in 1825 under the superintendance of his sons, Sir John and George Rennie, and completed in 1831. The total outlay including the cost of the approaches was about �2,000,000. The bridge 928 feet long and 54 feet broad is borne by five granite arches, of which that in the centre has a span of 152 feet. The lamp posts on the bridge are cast of the metal of French Cannon captured in the Peninsular War.

A great improvement has lately been effected by the widening of the bridge, which has now a total breadth of 65 feet, while the footways are each fifteen feet wide, being an addition of nearly six feet in width to each pathway.

It is estimated that notwithstanding the relief afforded by the Tower Bridge that about 22,000 vehicles, and about 110,000 pedestrians, cross London Bridge daily.[text accompanying photograph]

Bibliography

The volume containing these images by an unidentified photographer bears the imprint "With H. and C. F. Feist's compliments" but no name, date, or place of publication, though the Feists were dealers in port wine, and Plate 30 demonstrates that the photograph must have been taken after 1902, and John R. Mendel offers evidence that it dates before mid-1906 [GPL].

Last modified 10 October 2001