Vauxhall Bridge
Vauxhall Bridge | |
---|---|
lowest astronomical tide[1] | |
History | |
Designer | Sir Alexander Binnie, Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice |
Opened | 26 May 1906 |
Replaces | Regent Bridge (Old Vauxhall Bridge) 1816–98 |
Statistics | |
Daily traffic | 50,533 vehicles (2004)[2] |
Location | |
Vauxhall Bridge is a
The building of both iterations of the bridge was problematic, with both the first and second bridges requiring several redesigns from multiple architects. The original bridge, the first iron bridge over the Thames, was built by a private company and operated as a toll bridge before being taken into public ownership in 1879. The second bridge, which took eight years to build, was the first in London to carry trams and later one of the first two roads in London to have a bus lane.
In 1963 it was proposed to replace the bridge with a modern development containing seven floors of shops, office space, hotel rooms and leisure facilities supported above the river, but the plans were abandoned because of costs. With the exception of alterations to the road layout and the
Background
In the early 13th century,
With the exception of housing around the New Spring Gardens (later Vauxhall Gardens) pleasure park, opened in around 1661,[5] the land at Vauxhall remained sparsely populated into the 19th century,[3] with the nearest fixed river crossings being the bridges at Westminster, 1 mile (1.6 km) downstream, and Battersea, 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream.[6] In 1806 a scheme was proposed by Ralph Dodd to open the south bank of the Thames for development, by building a new major road from Hyde Park Corner to Kennington and Greenwich, crossing the river upstream of the existing Westminster Bridge.[3] The proprietors of Battersea Bridge, concerned about a potential loss of customers, petitioned Parliament against the scheme, stating that "[Dodd] is a well known adventurer and Speculist, and the projector of numerous undertakings upon a large scale most if not all of which have failed",[n 2] and the bill was abandoned.[7]
In 1809 a new bill was presented to Parliament, and the proprietors of Battersea Bridge agreed to allow it to pass and to accept compensation.[7] The Bill incorporated the Vauxhall Bridge Company, allowing it to raise up to £300,000 (about £23.2 million in 2024[8]) by means of mortgages or the sale of shares, and to keep all profits from any tolls raised.[9] From these profits, the Vauxhall Bridge Company was obliged to compensate the proprietors of Battersea Bridge for any drop in revenue caused by the new bridge.[9]
Old Vauxhall Bridge
Dodd submitted a scheme for a bridge at Vauxhall of 13 arches. However, soon after the 1809 Act was passed, he was dismissed by the Vauxhall Bridge Company and his design was abandoned.[10] John Rennie was commissioned to design and build the new bridge, and a stone bridge of seven arches was approved.[3] On 9 May 1811, Lord Dundas laid the foundation stone of the bridge on the northern bank.[3]
The Vauxhall Bridge Company ran into financial difficulties and was unable to raise more than the £300,000 stipulated in the 1809 Act,[9] and a new Act was passed in 1812 permitting the Company to build a cheaper iron bridge.[11] Rennie submitted a new design for an iron bridge of eleven spans, costing far less than the original stone design.[3] Rennie's design was rejected, and instead construction began on a nine arch iron bridge designed by Samuel Bentham.[11] Concerns were raised about the construction of the piers, and engineer James Walker was appointed to inspect the work.[12] Walker's report led to the design being abandoned for the second time, and Walker himself was appointed to design and build a bridge of nine 78-foot (24 m) cast-iron arches with stone piers, the first iron bridge to be built across the Thames.[13]
On 4 June 1816, over five years after construction began, the bridge opened, initially named Regent Bridge after
Usage
In anticipation of the areas surrounding the bridge becoming prosperous suburbs, tolls were set at relatively high rates on a sliding scale, ranging from a
Usage rose considerably in 1838 when the terminus of the London and South Western Railway was built at nearby Nine Elms. Nine Elms station proved inconvenient and unpopular with travellers, and in 1848 a new railway terminus was built 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) closer to central London, at Waterloo Bridge station (renamed "Waterloo Station" in 1886), and the terminus at Nine Elms was abandoned.[12]
With the closure of the rail terminus, Vauxhall Bridge's main source of revenue was visitors to the Vauxhall Gardens pleasure park.[12] In addition to people visiting the Gardens themselves, Vauxhall Gardens were used as a launch point for hot air balloon flights, and large crowds would gather on the bridge and surrounding streets to watch the flights.[12][n 3] A large crowd also assembled on the bridge in September 1844 to watch Mister Barry, a clown from Astley's Amphitheatre, sail from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge in a washtub towed by geese.[12]
Public ownership
Despite early setbacks and the construction nearby in the 19th century of three competing bridges (
In 1879 the bridge was bought by the MBW for £255,000 (about £27,580,000 in 2024[8]) and tolls on the bridge were lifted.[12] Inspections of the bridge by the MBW following the purchase found that the two central piers were badly eroded, exposing the timber cradles on which the piers rested.[15] Large quantities of cement in bags were laid around the wooden cradles as an emergency measure;[15] however, the cement bags themselves soon washed away.[16] The piers were removed, replaced by a single large central arch.[12] By this time the bridge was in very poor condition, and in 1895 the London County Council (LCC), which had taken over from the MBW in 1889, sought and gained Parliamentary approval to replace the bridge. Permission was granted by Parliament to raise the projected replacement costs of £484,000 (about £59,480,000 in 2024[8]) from rates across the whole of London rather than only local residents, as a new bridge was considered to be of benefit to the whole of London.[16]
In August 1898 a temporary wooden bridge was moved into place alongside the existing bridge, and the demolition of the old bridge began.[16]
New Vauxhall Bridge
Sir Alexander Binnie, the resident engineer of the London County Council (LCC), submitted a design for a steel bridge, which proved unpopular. At the request of the LCC, Binnie submitted a new design for a bridge of five spans, to be built in concrete and faced with granite.[12]
Work on Binnie's design began, but was beset by problems. Leading architects condemned the design, with Arthur Beresford Pite describing it as "a would-be Gothic architectural form of great vulgarity and stupid want of meaning",[17] and T G Jackson describing the bridge designs as a sign of "the utter apparent indifference of those in authority to the matter of art".[18] Plans to build large stone abutments had to be suspended when it was found that the southern abutment would block the River Effra, which by this time had been diverted underground to serve as a storm relief sewer and which flowed into the Thames at this point. The Effra had to be rerouted to join the Thames to the north of the bridge.[16][n 4] After the construction of the foundations and piers it was then discovered that the clay of the riverbed at this point would not be able to support the weight of a concrete bridge. With the granite piers already in place, it was decided to build a steel superstructure onto the existing piers, and a superstructure 809 feet (247 m) long and 80 feet (24 m) wide was designed by Binnie and Maurice Fitzmaurice and built by LCC engineers at a cost of £437,000 (about £50,010,000 in 2024[8]).[19]
The new bridge was eventually opened on 26 May 1906, five years behind schedule, in a ceremony presided over by the
Sculpture
The new bridge was built to a starkly functional design, and many influential architects had complained about the lack of consultation from any architects during the design process by the engineers designing the new bridge.
Frampton resigned from the project through pressure of work,[19] and Drury and Pomeroy carried out the project, each contributing four monumental statues, which were installed in late 1907. On the upstream piers are Pomeroy's Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering and Pottery, whilst on the downstream piers are Drury's Science, Fine Arts, Local Government and Education. Each statue weighs approximately two tons.[22] Despite their size, the statues are little-noticed by users of the bridge as they are not visible from the bridge itself, but only from the river banks or from passing shipping.[16]
Usage
The new bridge soon became a major transport artery and today carries the
Millbank Bridge
During the Second World War the government was concerned that Axis bombers would target the bridge, and a temporary bridge known as Millbank Bridge was built parallel to Vauxhall Bridge, 200 yards (180 m) downstream. Millbank Bridge was built of steel girders supported by wooden stakes; however, despite its flimsy appearance it was a sturdy structure, capable of supporting tanks and other heavy military equipment. In the event, Vauxhall Bridge survived the war undamaged, and in 1948 Millbank Bridge was dismantled. Its girders were shipped to Northern Rhodesia and used to span a tributary of the Zambezi.[21]
The Crystal Span
In 1963 the
Recent history
In 1993, a remnant of the earliest known bridge-like structure in London was discovered alongside Vauxhall Bridge, when shifting currents washed away a layer of silt which had covered it. Dating to between 1550 BC and 300 BC, it consists of two rows of wooden posts, which it is believed would originally have carried a deck of some kind. It is believed that it did not cross the whole river, but instead connected the south bank to an island, possibly used for burial of the dead. As no mention of this or similar structures in the area is made in Julius Caesar's account of crossing the Thames nor by any other Roman author, it is presumed that the structure had been dismantled or destroyed prior to Caesar's expedition to Britain in 55 BC. The posts are still visible at extreme low tides.[6][28]
Following the closure of a number of the area's industries, in the 1970s and 1980s the land at the southern end of Vauxhall Bridge remained empty, following the failures of multiple redevelopment schemes. The most notable came in 1979 when Keith Wickenden MP, owner of the land at the immediate southern end of the bridge, proposed a large-scale redevelopment of the site. The development was to contain 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) of office space, 100 luxury flats and a gallery to house the Tate Gallery's modern art collection. The offices were to be housed in a 500-foot (150 m) tower of green glass, which was nicknamed the "Green Giant" and met with much opposition.[29] The then Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, refused permission for the development and the site remained empty.[29]
In 1988
In 2004 the
The only significant alteration to the structure of the bridge itself since the addition of the sculptures in 1907 came in 1973, when the
The bridge was declared a Grade II* listed structure in 2008, providing protection to preserve its character from alteration.[30]
See also
Notes and references
Notes
- ^ The popular belief that the name derives from Guy Fawkes is based on a misconception; Fawkes' co-conspirator Robert Catesby owned a house in Lambeth, but Fawkes had no connection with the area.
- Gravesend. A plan to dig a canal between London and Epsom was abandoned after reaching Peckham, three miles away. He provided the original designs for the new Waterloo and London Bridges, both of which were taken over by John Rennie, while his design for Hammersmith Bridgehad to be suspended when the owners of a strip of land blocking the approach road refused to sell it to the bridge company.
- ^ In the 1990s sightseeing balloon flights from Vauxhall Gardens – by then renamed back to Spring Gardens – were resumed. The service closed in 2001 following the opening of the nearby London Eye.
- ^ The River Tyburn also joins the Thames near Vauxhall Bridge, 200 yards (180 m) upstream of the bridge on the northern bank.
References
- ^ Thames Bridges Heights, Port of London Authority, retrieved 25 May 2009
- ^ Cookson 2006, p. 316
- ^ a b c d e f g Matthews 2008, p. 80
- ^ Carpenter 2003, p. 306
- ^ Timbs 1855, p. 745
- ^ a b Cookson 2006, p. 144
- ^ a b c Cookson 2006, p. 120
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Cookson 2006, p. 145
- ^ Skempton 2002, p. 185
- ^ a b c d Cookson 2006, p. 146
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Matthews 2008, p. 81
- ^ Cookson 2006, p. 138
- ^ Cookson 2006, p. 143
- ^ a b c d Cookson 2006, p. 147
- ^ a b c d e Cookson 2006, p. 148
- New York Times, 7 December 1902, retrieved 18 May 2009
- ^ "English Architect Indignant: T.G. Jackson Denounces the Plan for the New Bridge in London" (PDF), New York Times, 14 December 1902, retrieved 18 May 2009
- ^ a b c d e Matthews 2008, p. 82
- ^ Cookson 2006, p. 149
- ^ a b c d e f g Cookson 2006, p. 150
- ^ a b c d e f g Matthews 2008, p. 83
- ^ a b De Maré 1954, p. 108
- ^ a b Jeremiah 2000, p. 176
- ^ Murray, Stevens & Cadman 1996, p. 100
- ^ Jeremiah 2000, p. 175
- ^ Wallace Yeung Chi Hung (March 1997), Urban Spine in Wan Chai: a social collector/connector (PDF), Hong Kong University theses online, p. 66, retrieved 18 May 2009
- ^ Matthews 2008, p. 8
- ^ a b c d e Moore, Rowan (16 September 1992), "George Smiley would have hated it: Discreet the new MI6 headquarters is not", The Independent, archived from the original on 11 August 2022, retrieved 18 May 2009
- ^ London bridges get listed status, BBC News, 26 November 2008, retrieved 26 November 2008
Bibliography
- OCLC 52594503
- Cookson, Brian (2006), Crossing the River, Edinburgh: Mainstream, OCLC 63400905
- OCLC 255670618
- Jeremiah, David (2000), Architecture and Design for the Family in Britain 1900–70, Manchester: Manchester University Press, OCLC 186445752
- Matthews, Peter (2008), London's Bridges, Oxford: Shire, OCLC 213309491
- OCLC 36113250
- ISBN 0-7277-2939-X
- OCLC 3807583