Showing posts with label Bridge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bridge. Show all posts

Waterloo Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Waterloo Bridge

Street View of Waterloo Bridge



Location: Waterloo Bridge, London, United Kingdom.



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Tower Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Tower Bridge

Street View of Tower Bridge



Location: London, Greater London SE1 2AA, UK.



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Southwark Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Southwark Bridge

Street View of Southwark Bridge



Location: 1 Southwark Bridge Road, London, United Kingdom.



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Rotherhithe Tunnel

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Rotherhithe Tunnel

Street View of Rotherhithe Tunnel



Location: Rotherhithe Tunnel, London, United Kingdom.



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Millennium Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Millennium Bridge

Street View of Millennium Bridge


Location: Bankside / New Globe Walk, London, England, United Kingdom.
Phone: +44 20 7606 3030.



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London Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > London Bridge

Street View of London Bridge




Location: 45 A3, London, United Kingdom.



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Cannon Street Railway Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Cannon Street Railway Bridge

Street View of Cannon Street Railway Bridge



Location: 1 Bank End, London, England, United Kingdom.
Website: 000
Phone: +44 000.



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Blackfriars Railway Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Blackfriars Railway Bridge

Street View of Blackfriars Railway Bridge



Location: A201, London, United Kingdom.
Phone: +44 20 7606 3030.



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Blackfriars Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Southwark > Blackfriars Bridge

Street View of Blackfriars Bridge


Location: A201, London, England, United Kingdom.



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Vauxhall Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Lambeth > Vauxhall Bridge

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Location: A202, London, United Kingdom.

Vauxhall Bridge:
Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a south–east north–west direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge, originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge, built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the south bank of the Thames. The original bridge was itself built on the site of a former ferry.

The building of both bridges 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 balustrade, the design and appearance of the current bridge has remained almost unchanged since 1907. The bridge today is an important part of London's road system and carries the A202 road across the Thames.

History of Vauxhall Bridge:
In 1993, 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 ran to an island in the river, 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.
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.




Westminster Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Lambeth > Westminster Bridge

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Location: 17140 Westminster Bridge Road, London, United Kingdom.
Phone: +44 844 415 6790

Westminster Bridge:
Westminster Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the north side and Lambeth on the south side.

The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the House of Commons which is on the side of the Palace of Westminster nearest the bridge. This is in contrast to Lambeth Bridge which is red, the same colour as the seats in the House of Lords and is on the opposite side of the Houses of Parliament.

In 2005-2007 it underwent a complete refurbishment, including replacing the iron fascias and repainting the whole bridge. It links the Palace of Westminster on the west side of the river with County Hall and the London Eye on the east and was the finishing point during the early years of the London Marathon.

The next bridge downstream is the Hungerford footbridge and upstream is Lambeth Bridge. Westminster Bridge was designated a Grade II* listed structure in 1981.

History of Westminster Bridge:
For over 600 years, the nearest bridge to London Bridge was at Kingston. A bridge at Westminster was proposed in 1664, but opposed by the Corporation of London and the watermen. Despite further opposition in 1722 and after a new timber bridge was built at Putney in 1729, the scheme received parliamentary approval in 1736. Financed by private capital, lotteries and grants, Westminster Bridge, designed by the Swiss architect Charles Labelye, was built between 1739-1750.

The City of London responded to Westminster Bridge by removing the buildings on London Bridge and widening it in 1760-63. The City also commenced work on the Blackfriars Bridge, which opened in 1769. Other bridges from that time include Kew Bridge (1759), Battersea Bridge (1773), and Richmond Bridge (1777).

The bridge was required for traffic from the expanding West End to the developing South London as well as to south coast ports. Without the bridge, traffic from the West End would have to negotiate the congested routes to London Bridge such as the Strand and New Oxford Street. Roads south of the river were also improved, including the junction at the Elephant & Castle in Southwark.

By the mid 19th century the bridge was subsiding badly and expensive to maintain. The current bridge was designed by Thomas Page and opened on May 24, 1862.[2] With an overall length of 252 metres (826.8 ft) and a width of 26 metres (88 ft), it is a seven-arch wrought iron bridge with Gothic detailing by Charles Barry (the architect of the Palace of Westminster). It is the oldest road bridge across the Thames in central London.






Lambeth Bridge

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Location: A3203, London, United Kingdom.

Lambeth Bridge:
Lambeth Bridge is a road traffic and footbridge crossing the River Thames in an east-west direction in central London, the river flows north at the crossing point. Downstream, the next bridge is Westminster Bridge; upstream the next is Vauxhall Bridge.

The most conspicuous colour in the bridge's paint scheme is red, the same colour as the leather benches in the House of Lords which is at the southern end of the Palace of Westminster nearest the bridge. This is in contrast to Westminster Bridge which is predominantly green, the same colour as the benches in the House of Commons at the northern end of the Houses of Parliament.

On the east side, in Lambeth are Lambeth Palace, the Albert Embankment, St. Thomas' Hospital, and the International Maritime Organization. On the west side, in Westminster, are Thames House (the headquarters of MI5), behind which is Horseferry House (the National Probation Service headquarters), and Clelland House and Abell House (the headquarters of HM Prison Service), and the Millbank Tower and Tate Britain. The Palace of Westminster is a short walk downstream to the north through the Victoria Tower Garden.

History of Lambeth Bridge:
Lambeth Bridge is on the site of a horse ferry between the Palace of Westminster and Lambeth Palace on the south bank.

The first modern bridge was a suspension bridge, 828 feet (252.4 m) long, designed by Peter W. Barlow. Sanctioned by an Act of Parliament in 1860, it opened as a toll bridge in 1862 but doubts about its safety, coupled with its awkwardly steep approaches deterring horse-drawn traffic, meant it soon became used almost solely as a pedestrian crossing. It ceased to be a toll bridge in 1879 when the Metropolitan Board of Works assumed responsibility for its upkeep — it was by then severely corroded, and by 1910 it was closed to vehicular traffic.

The London County Council prepared a masterplan for the area, including a replacement road bridge linking to a widened Horseferry Road, which was authorised by London County Council (Lambeth Bridge) Act 1924. Before work had started on the project, the 1928 Thames flood caused extensive destruction of property in the Millbank area. Following the flood the Chelsea Embankment was rebuilt and raised, resulting in some minor redesign of the approaches, and creating the open space to the south of Lambeth Bridge now known as Victoria Tower Gardens South. During the period of delay, the bridge was also redesigned to be able to cope with a higher weight of motorised traffic.

The current structure, a five-span steel arch, designed by engineer Sir George Humphreys and architects Sir Reginald Blomfield and G. Topham Forrest, was built by Dorman Long and opened on 19 July 1932 by King George V. It formerly carried four lanes of road traffic (now reduced to three lanes, one of which is a buses-only lane flowing eastbound) from a roundabout junction by the Lambeth Palace northwards to another roundabout, where the Millbank road meets Horseferry Road .

The bridge is notable at road level for the pairs of obelisks at either end of the bridge, which are surmounted by stone pinecones. However, there is a popular urban legend that they are pineapples, as a tribute[4] to Lambeth resident John Tradescant the younger, who is said to have grown the first pineapple in Britain.

The bridge was declared a Grade II listed structure in 2008, providing protection to preserve its special character from unsympathetic development. The listing designation includes the parapets, lamps, obelisks and the approach walls.






Hungerford Bridge

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Location: Belvedere Road, London, England, United Kingdom.

Hungerford Bridge:
The Hungerford Bridge crosses the River Thames in London, and lies between Waterloo Bridge and Westminster Bridge. It is a steel truss railway bridge—sometimes known as the Charing Cross Bridge—flanked by two more recent, cable-stayed, pedestrian bridges that share the railway bridge's foundation piers, and which are named the Golden Jubilee Bridges.

The north end of the bridge is Charing Cross railway station, and is near Embankment Pier and the Victoria Embankment. The south end is near Waterloo station, County Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, and the London Eye. Each pedestrian bridge has steps and lift access.

History of Hungerford Bridge:
The first Hungerford Bridge, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, opened in 1845 as a suspension footbridge. It was named after the then Hungerford Market, because it went from the South Bank to Hungerford Market on the north side of the Thames.

In 1859 the original bridge was bought by the railway company extending the South Eastern Railway into the newly opened Charing Cross railway station. The railway company replaced the suspension bridge with a structure designed by Sir John Hawkshaw, comprising nine spans made of wrought iron lattice girders, which opened in 1864.[5][6][7] The chains from the old bridge were re-used in Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge. The original brick pile buttresses of Brunel's footbridge are still in use, though the one on the Charing Cross side is now much closer to the river bank than it was originally, due to the building of the Victoria Embankment, completed in 1870. The buttress on the South Bank side still has the entrances and steps from the original steamer pier Brunel built on to the footbridge.
Walkways were added on each side, with the upstream one later being removed when the railway was widened. In 1951 another walkway was temporarily added when an Army Bailey bridge was constructed for the Festival of Britain. In 1980 a temporary walkway was erected on the upstream side while the downstream railway bridge and walkway were refurbished. It is one of only three bridges in London to combine pedestrian and rail use; the others being the Fulham Railway Bridge and Barnes Railway Bridge.

The footbridge gained a reputation for being narrow, dilapidated and dangerous – it was the scene of a murder in 1999.[8] In the mid-1990s a decision was made to replace the footbridge with new structures on either side of the existing railway bridge, and a competition was held in 1996 for a new design. The concept design was won by architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands and engineers WSP Group.[6][9] Detailed design of the two bridges was carried out by consulting engineers Gifford. The two new 4-metre (13 ft) wide footbridges were completed in 2002. They were named the Golden Jubilee Bridges, in honour of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession, although in practice they are still referred to as the "Hungerford Footbridges".

Further justification for new footbridge structures both upstream and downstream of the railway bridge was that Sir John Hawkshaw's railway bridge's brittle wrought iron support pillars were vulnerable to impact from riverboats.[9] Especially following the Marchioness disaster it was felt these should be clad in concrete at water level but the bridge's owners, Railtrack, could not afford the work. The Golden Jubilee Bridges achieved this protection at no cost to Railtrack.






Waterloo Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Lambeth > Waterloo Bridge

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Location: Waterloo Bridge, London, United Kingdom.

Waterloo Bridge:
Waterloo Bridge is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge. The name of the bridge is in memory of the Anglo-Dutch and Prussian victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Thanks to its location at a strategic bend in the river, the views of London (Westminster, the South Bank and London Eye to the west, the City of London and Canary Wharf to the east) from the bridge are widely held to be the finest from any spot at ground level.

History of Waterloo Bridge:
The first bridge on the site was designed in 1809-10 by John Rennie for the Strand Bridge Company and opened in 1817 as a toll bridge. The granite bridge[1] had nine arches, each of 120 feet (36.6 m) span, separated by double Grecian-Doric stone columns and was 2,456 feet (748.6 m) long, including approaches. Before its opening it was known as 'Strand Bridge'. During the 1840s the bridge gained a reputation as a popular place for suicide attempts. In 1841, the American daredevil Samuel Gilbert Scott was killed while performing an act in which he hung by a rope from a scaffold on the bridge.[2] In 1844 Thomas Hood wrote the poem The Bridge of Sighs about the suicide of a prostitute there.[3] Paintings of the bridge were created by the French Impressionist Claude Monet and the English Romantic, John Constable. The bridge was nationalised in 1878 and given to the Metropolitan Board of Works, who removed the toll from it.






Wandsworth Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Wandsworth > Wandsworth Bridge

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Location: A217, London, United Kingdom.

Wandsworth Bridge:
Wandsworth Bridge crosses the River Thames in west London. It carries the A217 road between the areas of Battersea, near Wandsworth Town Station, in the London Borough of Wandsworth on the south of the river, and the areas of Sands End and Parsons Green, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side.

The first bridge on the site was a toll bridge built by Julian Tolmé in 1873, in the expectation that the western terminus of the Hammersmith and City Railway would shortly be built on the north bank, leading to a sharp increase in the number of people wanting to cross the river at this point. The railway terminus was not built, and problems with drainage on the approach road made access to the bridge difficult for vehicles. Wandsworth Bridge was commercially unsuccessful, and in 1880 it was taken into public ownership and made toll-free. Tolmé's bridge was narrow and too weak to carry buses, and in 1926 a Royal Commission recommended its replacement.

In 1937 Tolmé's bridge was demolished. The present bridge, an unadorned steel cantilever bridge designed by Sir Pierson Frank, was opened in 1940. At the time of its opening it was painted in dull shades of blue as camouflage against air raids, a colour scheme it retains. Although Wandsworth Bridge is one of the busiest bridges in London, carrying over 50,000 vehicles daily, it has been described as "probably the least noteworthy bridge in London".

History of Wandsworth Bridge:
Although opposite each other across the River Thames, Fulham on the north bank and Wandsworth on the south bank were historically isolated from each other; the nearest crossing points were at Putney Bridge to the west and Battersea Bridge to the east, both over a mile from Wandsworth. The fast flowing but narrow River Wandle at Wandsworth was well-situated for driving watermills, leading to the rapid spread of industry in the area during the 19th century.[3] Nearby Battersea Railway Bridge opened in 1863,[4] but as the local population grew and London's built-up area began to encroach during the 19th century, pressure from local residents and businesses for a road bridge to be built increased.[5]

In 1864, it was expected that the newly formed Hammersmith and City Railway would build its western terminus on the north bank of the river between Chelsea and Fulham.[5] In 1864, in anticipation of the new railway line generating high demand for a river crossing, an Act of Parliament was passed granting permission to the Wandsworth Bridge Company to build a bridge, to be financed by tolls,[5] with the proviso that the bridge would be at least 40 feet (12 m) wide and cross the river with no more than three spans.[6] Rowland Mason Ordish designed an Ordish–Lefeuvre Principle bridge to comply with the Act's specifications, of a similar design to his nearby Albert Bridge.[5] Wandsworth Bridge and Albert Bridge were authorised on the same day, and were the last private tollbridges authorised in London.






Putney Bridge

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Location: A219, London, United Kingdom.
Website: 000
Phone: +44 000

Putney Bridge:
Putney Bridge is a bridge crossing of the River Thames in west London, linking Putney on the south side with Fulham to the north. Putney Bridge tube station is located near the north side of the bridge.

History of Putney Bridge:
One story runs that "in 1720 Sir Robert Walpole was returning from seeing George I at Kingston and being in a hurry to get to the House of Commons rode together with his servant to Putney to take the ferry across to Fulham. The ferry boat was on the opposite side, however and the waterman, who was drinking in the Swan, ignored the calls of Sir Robert and his servant and they were obliged to take another route. Walpole vowed that a bridge would replace the ferry."

The Prince of Wales apparently "was often inconvenienced by the ferry when returning from hunting in Richmond Park and asked Walpole to use his influence by supporting the bridge."

Construction of a bridge was first sanctioned by an Act of Parliament in 1726. Built by local master carpenter Thomas Phillips to a design by architect Sir Jacob Acworth, the first bridge was opened in November 1729, to become the only bridge between London Bridge and Kingston Bridge at the time. A toll bridge, it featured tollbooths at either end of the timber-built structure.

In October 1795, Mary Wollstonecraft allegedly planned to commit suicide by jumping from the bridge because she returned from a trip to Sweden to discover that her lover was involved with an actress from London.






Grosvenor Bridge

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Location: London, Greater London, UK  378 ft N.

Grosvenor Bridge:
Grosvenor Bridge, originally known as, and alternatively called Victoria Railway Bridge, is a railway bridge over the River Thames in London, between Vauxhall Bridge and Chelsea Bridge. Originally constructed in 1860, and widened in 1865 and 1907, the bridge was rebuilt and widened again in the 1960s as an array of ten parallel bridges.

History of Grosvenor Bridge:
The original bridge was constructed in the mid 19th. century in two stages: the first bridge was built by the Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway between 1859 and 1860 at a cost of £84,000 to carry trains into Victoria station; it was the first railway bridge across the Thames in central London. The engineer was Sir John Fowler.

The bridge was widened on the eastern side for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway and London, Chatham and Dover Railway between 1865 to 1866, at a cost of £245,000. Sir Charles Fox was the engineer.

In 1907 the bridge was widened again, on the western side, for the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1963–67: the foundations were extended; the original piers encased in concrete; and the spans replaced with ten steel spans.[note 1] To avoid disrupting traffic, the bridge was re-built with a separate span for each track. The designer for this work was Freeman Fox & Partners, and the project engineer was A. H. Cantrell, chief civil engineer of the Southern Region of British Rail.






Fulham Railway Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Wandsworth > Fulham Railway Bridge

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Location: A3003, London, England, United Kingdom.

Fulham Railway Bridge:
Fulham Railway Bridge crosses the River Thames in London. It is very close to Putney Bridge, and carries the London Underground District Line between Putney Bridge station on the North, and East Putney station on the South. Fulham Railway Bridge can also be crossed on foot, on the downstream (east) side.

History of Fulham Railway Bridge:
The bridge is of lattice girder construction and 418 metres long, with 5 spans totalling 301 metres actually across the river, two further spans on the southern shore, and one on the north. It was designed by Brunel's former assistant William Jacomb, built by Head Wrightson and opened in 1889.






Chelsea Bridge

World > United Kingdom > England > London > Wandsworth > Chelsea Bridge

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Location: A3216, London, United Kingdom.

Chelsea Bridge:
Chelsea Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames in west London, connecting Chelsea on the north bank to Battersea on the south bank. There have been two Chelsea Bridges, on the site of what was an ancient ford.

The first Chelsea Bridge was proposed in the 1840s as part of a major development of marshlands on the south bank of the Thames into the new Battersea Park. It was a suspension bridge intended to provide convenient access from the densely populated north bank to the new park. Although built and operated by the government, tolls were charged initially in an effort to recoup the cost of the bridge. Work on the nearby Chelsea Embankment delayed construction and so the bridge, initially called Victoria Bridge, did not open until 1857. Although well received architecturally, as a toll-bridge it was unpopular with the public, and Parliament felt obliged to make it toll-free on Sundays. The bridge was less of a commercial success than had been anticipated, partly because of competition from the newly built Albert Bridge nearby. It was acquired by the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1877, and the tolls were abolished in 1879.

The bridge was narrow and structurally unsound, leading the authorities to rename it Chelsea Bridge to avoid the Royal Family's association with a potential collapse. In 1926, with the bridge unable to handle increased volumes of users, caused by population growth in the surrounding area and the introduction of the automobile, it was proposed that the old bridge be rebuilt or replaced. Between 1934 and 1937 it was demolished and replaced by the current structure, which opened in 1937.

The new bridge was the first self-anchored suspension bridge in Britain, and was built entirely with materials sourced from within the British Empire. During the early 1950s it became popular with motorcyclists, who staged regular races across the bridge. One such meeting in 1970 erupted into violence, resulting in the death of one man and the imprisonment of 20 others. Chelsea Bridge is floodlit from below during the hours of darkness, when the towers and cables are illuminated by 936 feet (285 m) of light-emitting diodes. As of 2008 it achieved Grade II listed status. In 2004 a smaller bridge perpendicular to the main bridge Battersea footbridge was opened beneath the southern span, carrying the Thames Path underneath the main bridge.

History of Chelsea Bridge:
The Red House Inn was an isolated inn on the south bank of the River Thames in the marshlands by Battersea fields, about 1 mile (1.6 km) east of the developed street of the prosperous farming village of Battersea.[3] Although not on any major road, since the 16th century its isolation and lack of any police presence made it a popular destination for visitors from London and Westminster who would travel to the Red House by wherry, attracted by Sunday dog fighting, bare-knuckle boxing bouts and illegal horse racing. Because of its lawless nature, Battersea Fields was also a popular area for duelling, and was the venue for the 1829 duel between the then Prime Minister the Duke of Wellington and the Earl of Winchilsea.

The town of Chelsea, on the north bank of the Thames about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of Westminster, was an important industrial centre. Although by the 19th century its role as the centre of the British porcelain industry had been overtaken by the West Midlands,[5] its riverside location and good roads made it an important centre for the manufacture of goods to serve the nearby and rapidly growing London.

The Chelsea Waterworks Company occupied a site on the north bank of the Thames opposite the Red House Inn. Founded in 1723, the company pumped water from the Thames to reservoirs around Westminster through a network of hollow elm trunks.[7] As London spread westwards, the former farmland to the west became increasingly populated,[n 1] and the Thames became seriously polluted with sewage and animal carcasses.[7] In 1852 Parliament banned water from being taken from the Thames downstream of Teddington, forcing the Chelsea Waterworks Company to move upstream to Seething Wells.

Since 1771, Battersea and Chelsea had been linked by the modest wooden Battersea Bridge.[8] As London grew following the advent of the railways, Chelsea began to become congested, and in 1842 the Commission of Woods, Forests, and Land Revenues recommended the building of an embankment at Chelsea to free new land for development, and proposed the building of a new bridge downstream of Battersea Bridge and the replacement of Battersea Bridge with a more modern structure.






Battersea Railway Bridge

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Location: B305, London, England, United Kingdom.

Battersea Railway Bridge:
The Battersea Railway Bridge - properly called the Cremorne Bridge, after the pleasure grounds in Chelsea and originally commonly referred to as the Battersea New Bridge - is a bridge across the River Thames in London, between Battersea and Chelsea and forming part of the West London Line of the London Overground from Clapham Junction to Willesden Junction.

History of Battersea Railway Bridge:
The bridge was designed by William Baker,[1] chief engineer of the London and North Western Railway, and was opened in March 1863 [2] at a cost of £87,000.[3] It carries two sets of railway lines and consists of five 120-foot (37 m) lattice girder arches set on stone piers. Within Network Rail, this bridge is also referred to as "Chelsea River Bridge" (Engineers Line Reference WLL, Bridge No. 9).

Strictly speaking, this structure may be considered a viaduct as it consists of 5 spans (Network Rail Bridge Book definition).

There is a three-arch brick viaduct on the north side of the bridge, with one arch having been opened to provide a pedestrian route under the railway, as part of the Thames Path. On the south side there are four arches, two of which are used as storage for the residents of a houseboat community located immediately downstream of the bridge, whilst the remaining two allow traffic on the B305 to pass under the rail line.

The bridge was strengthened & refurbished in 1969, and again in 1992. During a high tide in late 2003, the structure was struck by a refuse-barge, and some of the lower structural elements damaged significantly. Until the repairs in early 2004, the up line (normal direction from West Brompton towards Clapham (Latchmere junction)) was blocked to locomotive hauled freight traffic, which in turn caused extensive delays to passenger services on the West London Line. Upon completion of the repairs by Edmund Nuttall Ltd, all restrictions were lifted.