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WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, FROM ALBERT EMBANKMENT, Circa 1884. The first Westminster Bridge (the second over the Thames at London) was built 1739-50; its removal was caused through the demolition of old London Bridge in 1831 inducing an increased scour of the current, which wore away the foundations. The present bridge - iron arched, with seven spans - was designed by Thomas Page and opened May 24, 1862. Cost: £400,000. Length: 810 ft. between abutments; Width: 84 ft. between parapets.
Note the one-horse, single-deck omnibus - this ran between Trafalgar Square and Astley's Theatre at a fare of one halfpenny, the passengers dropping their coins into a glass box inside, and visible to the driver.
Copyright photograph (supplied Feb., 1923) by Frith & Co.
WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.
This was built by the Government, primarily because the Westminster of the time had no municipal authority capable of financing or carrying out such an undertaking, although the pressing need for a bridge to replace the ancient ferry here had long been manifest. It was built under an Act of 1736, after very strenuous opposition to the project by the Corporation of London, the watermen, and others who considered their interests to be affected. The necessary funds were raised in part by lotteries and in part by Parliamentary grants. The engineer and architect was a Swiss named Labelye, bridge-building on such a magnitude not having been undertaken by the English since the construction of Old London Bridge, and the Thames at Westminster was 300 feet wider than at the crossing spanned by London Bridge. The first stone was laid on January 29, 1739, and after various difficulties the bridge was completed in November, 1750, and it was opened with great ceremony, with a torch-light procession, the rattle of kettle-drums, the fanfare of trumpets, and the booming of guns, shortly after midnight on the 18th of that month. The bridge was 1,223 feet in length and had 15 large semi-circular arches, the centre one 76 feet in span, and the arches on each side of it decreasing gradually in width to 5 feet. Upon the bridge were 28 semi-octagonal towers, forming alcoves on the footways and supporting lamp standards. The whole was composed of Portland stone, except the spandrils of the arches, and it is said that the quantity of stone used was double that used in building St. Paul's. This was the Westminster Bridge from which Wordsworth surveyed the sleeping city. It stood until the Eighteen-Fifties, when the increased scour of the river induced by the removal of the many-arched Old London Bridge impelled its rebuilding, at which time the alcoves had been taken down and other alterations had been made to stay the impending ruin.
For the effect of Westminster Bridge on the improvement of the Westminster district, etc., see the Gt. George St. Photograph, in the WESTMINSTER (ABBEY DISTRICT) File, and the article THE CONVERSION OF WESTMINSTER, in the same File.
Westminster Bridge, Westminster and Lambeth, SW1 and SE1
Streets and buildings
Westminster Bridge, from the Albert Embankment, with the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben's clock tower in the background. This is a long shot of the bridge, with one horse, single-deck omnibus visible on the right side, which according to White ran between Trafalgar Square and Astley's Theatre at a fare of one halfpenny. The passengers would drop their fare into a glass box inside where the driver could see it.
clock, horse, lambeth, omnibus, theatre, westminster
1 | Publisher: | http://www.ltmcollection.org/ | Source: | London Transport Museum | Identifier: | ltmcollection.org/1999/1483 | Go to resource |
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