LONDON CALLING: London Bridge & The Shard

The current London Bridge opened in 1974, it is a concrete and steel box girder bridge. It took 5 years to complete.

Photograph of London Bridge (1900)

1831-1968

The previous London Bridge dated from the 19^th century. Opened in 1831 and was designed by Scottish engineer, John Rennie; it had five stone arches. It was the busiest in London, had to be widened and then, in the 20^th c, started to sink on one side. In 1968, it was sold to an American business man and rebuilt piece by piece at Lake Havasu City in Arizona.

Painting of the opening of the “new” London Bridge in 1831.

Column is The Monument, steeple is St Magnus the Martyr.

1209-1831

Before that, stood for 600 years a medieval London Bridge built by Henry II as penance for the murder of Thomas Becket. It had a chapel in its centre and that became the starting point of the pilgrimage to the shrine in Canterbury. That stone bridge, supported by 20 pillars for its 19 arches, had taken 33 years to build (1176-1209.) On completion, the king, then King John, allowed for plots to be sold on it, to recoup some of the cost. It had a drawbridge to let tall ships pass and it had a gatehouse at each end. In 1305, the head of Scottish rebel William Wallace was impaled on a pike and displayed at the top of the southern gatehouse, starting a 355 year-long tradition for convicted traitors such as rebel leader Wat Tyler in 1381, Henry VIII’s councillor Sir Thomas More in 1535, and Henry VIII’s minister Thomas Cromwell in 1540.

Part of a mosaic located near London Bridge (southern riverside)

called “A View of Old London Bridge at Night 15^th c”

Fires occurred on the bridge several times. By the 15^th c, there were so many buildings on it (some 7 storey tall) that the walkway and road was nothing but a dark tunnel and it could take 1 hour to cross the river. The buildings were demolished in the 18^th century.

Part of a long 14 sheet-long view of London by Flemish artist Anton van den Wyngaerde (1543).

Top left the tall spire of Old St Paul’s Cathedral.

Part of a panoramic engraving by Dutch mapmaker Claes Visscher (1616).

Old St Paul’s Cathedral had lost its spire in 1561.

(See close-up of bridge below)

London Bridge By Claes Visscher (1616).

Southwark Cathedral in the foreground and heads of traitors and criminals on pikes above the bridge’s southern gatehouse.

‘View of London Bridge’ an oil painting by Dutch painter Claude de Jongh (1632).

‘Long view of London From Bankside’ by Czech engraver Wenceslaus Hollar (1647) drawn from the church tower of St Saviour’s (now Southwark Cathedral)

The Tower (of London) clearly shown

Southwark Cathedral was then St Saviour’s parish church (and previous to that, Southwark Priory.) Heresy trials took place there during the reign of Queen Mary I (16^th c.) The church houses a stained glass and statue dedicated to William Shakespeare; his brother was buried there in 1607.

'Old London Bridge is falling down' ♫ is a 17^th/18^th century nursery rhyme.

Until Putney Bridge opened in 1729, 7 miles up river, and closer, 2 miles away, Westminster Bridge in 1729, London Bridge was the only bridge over The Thames in London. That explains why, on old drawings, such as above, London Bridge is simply labelled “The Bridge.”

1710 - after the Great Fire of London of 1666.

Today’s London Bridge, seen from the north bank, with the church tower of Southwark Cathedral in the distance, No.1 London Bridge in the centre and The Shard skyscraper.

Information about the aquatic biodiversity, including the eels in The Thames.

Before 1209

There had been several timber bridges here built in 12^th c. and one in 1066 when William the Conqueror arrived. Before that, there are records of a bridge in the 10^th-11^th c. under the Anglo-Saxon rule while the Vikings were attacking. And there was probably a Roman pontoon here, before Boudica’s attack in AD60.

The view from London Bridge:

London Bridge is often confused with the picturesque bridge near The Tower of London, which is in fact aptly named Tower Bridge

– and here it is, seen from London Bridge.

[Post with our photos of Tower Bridge http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/tower-bridge.html]

The military ship is HMS Belfast (see further down)

The Tower of London on the left, Canary Wharf skyscrapers in the distance

[Post with our photos of The Tower of London

http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/the-tower-of-london.html]

London Bridge City Pier, right in front on the south bank.

HMS Belfast – a Royal Navy cruiser built in Belfast by Harland & Wolff shipyard; now part of the Imperial War Museum and painted in camouflage colours. She had been launched on St Patrick’s Day in 1938. She saw action during the British blockade, the Arctic convoys, the Normandy landings and the Korean War, before being decommissioned in 1963.

[More photos of HMS Belfast in the next posts]

The White Tower of the Tower of London - from London Bridge

Adelaide House and ‘The Walkie-Talkie’ skyscraper, 20 Fenchurch Street

(see previous post http://gherkinscall.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/bishopsgate.html )

< Adelaide House, listed building and now home of law firm. 43 metres high, it was the tallest office block in the City of London, when completed in 1925. First building in the City to use steel frame. Art Deco “with some Egyptian influences”, as was trendy 3 years after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb – not obvious to me, but there are some nice decorations on the outside: many stars and button or rivets effects.

The Leadenhall Building - ‘The Walkie-Talkie’ - Old Billingsate (beige)

- Custom House (now tax office) hidden behind a row of trees.

Other sights at London Bridge:

At the corner of the south riverbank and the bridge:

No.1 London Bridge was built in 1986.

Style is “Post Modern.” It has 13 floors and is 51 metres in height, I think.
The recess is 8-storey high.

The rampant dragon, holding the coat of arms of The City of London, is a replica of the two cast iron statues kept from the Coal Exchange building, which stood very near Adelaide House on Lower Thames Street from 1770-1963. The two 2-metre-high original sculptures and 10 half-size replicas have been positioned around the boundary of the City of London district; they are known as the Dragon Boundary Marks. There are in fact two of them on this street.

Locations of City boundary dragons ^

The Southwark Needle, at Southwark Gateway, is a 16 metre-high leaning stone obelisk, made of 25 pieces of Portland stone, by architect Eric Parry. It uses friction and I believe tension rods inside (built 1997-1999). Some have seen a reference to the pikes used on London Bridge to display the heads of criminals but the shape is that of a needle. There is a tourists information centre here.

The Shard was first named The London Bridge Tower.

It only took 3 years to build (2009-2012) and yet its fame is now clearly established.

The closer we get to The Shard, the more difficult it gets to get it all in the shot.

The Shard is the tallest building in the United Kingdom.

309.6 metres high.

95 storeys.

Floors 73 to 95 are the spire and not habitable.

The architect was the Italian Renzo Piano and the style is described as Neo-Futurism.

11,000 panes of glass, some angled.

The Shard is owned by the State of Qatar (95%) and Sellar Property Group.

The building houses hotels, restaurants, shops, apartments, offices, TV studio, etc.

Window cleaning of The Shard

Flyer

There is a tall indoor viewing gallery on floor 69 with a 360° panoramic view and an open-air observation deck on the 72nd floor at over 244 metres from the ground. On a clear day, one can see as far as 40 km. One has to pay to visit this “View From The Shard” and in fact, book in advance for a time slot of arrival. It is privately run and there is a WC facility with view of the skyline from the toilet seat…
The Sky Boutique on floor 68 is currently the highest shop in London.
The lift travels 60 metres a second.

More photos of The Shard in previous and following posts.

< On St Thomas Street - named for St Thomas’s Hospital, now relocated, but Guy’s Hospital is still nearby. This Italianate building is No.24-26 and named Keats House. It was built for Guy’s hospital’s medical staff and poet John Keats was a registered student nearby (in 1815). The building may be from 1862 with the carved heads of some famous people from the world of medicine. It is now a private psychiatric clinic.