Bridges No.16 - Albert Bridge

On the downstream end of Battersea Park is the impressive Albert Bridge and comes close with Tower Bridge as one of London's most beautiful. At night it takes on a different look when it is floodlit, with lights along all of the cables as well.

The building of Albert Bridge was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1864, but construction work was delayed and the bridge did not open until 1873. It was designed by Roland Mason Ordish as a cantilever bridge. Each half of the bridge was supported by the cables radiating from the top of the supporting towers. Tolls of initially charged as the bridge was in private hands. The small toll booths are still in place at both ends of the bridge to this day. However, alongwith many of the other 19th century built bridges, ownership passed to the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1879.

The great Victorian enginner, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who oversaw the development of a new sewage system for London under the Victoria Embankment, undertook strengthing work to the bridge in 1884. This work changed the nature of the bridge and structurally became more like a suspension bridge. A 5 ton weight limit was also put in place.

But after WWII the bridge was beginning to weaken as modern transportation became heavier. At one stage London County Council considered demolishing the bridge, but conservationist won the day and the bridge was saved. So unusally for a London bridge, despite some structural concerns, the Albert Bridge has never been replaced.

In 1973 two concrete piers were put in place in the centre of the bridge to provide additional support for the roadway. At the same time the weight limit was reduced to 2 tons which is still in place today.

Concerns about the bridge also continue, and only a few days ago the Evening Standard were reporting new weight limit restrictions that Kensington & Chelsea Borough Council are to put in place. This will reduce the northbound traffic down to one lane in order the restrict the number of vehicles on the bridge at any one time. If this fails to address the engineer's concerns the council may even close the bridge off to all northbound traffic. Amusingly the Standard reported that the finger of blame was being pointed at the growing use of large 4x4 vehicles or the 'Chelsea Tractors', some makes of which are well in excess of the 2 ton limit.

Bridges No.15 - Chelsea Bridge

Battersea Park sits between our next two bridges, which often get mixed up. The first in Chelsea Bridge, a self-anchored suspension bridge. As you can see from the photo it was undergoing a little refurbishment work during my walk. The need for a bridge here arose because of London's growing population and the growth of the city westwards. The population on both sides of the river expanded once Westminster Bridge had been built (previously the only bridge had been London Bridge, way downstream by the City). The 19th century in particular so rapid building programmes in suburbs such as Chelsea, Fulham and Battersea and the need for new bridges upstream of Westminster became evident.

In 1851 work began on Chelsea Bridge following the designs of Thomas Page. Like most new bridges, Chelsea charged tolls and did so until 1879. It opened in 1858 and was built at the same time as Battersea Bridge (further upstream). However, the bridge was never formally named and in its early years was informally known as Victoria Bridge. But in 1880 its name changed to Chelsea Bridge at a time when an additional chain was added due to safety fears.

Just as other London bridges were replaced on the grounds of safety, so Chelsea went the same way. In 1935 demolition work began and the new bridge was given far stronger foundations. The new bridge was designed by G Topham Forest and opened in May 1937. The roadway is suspended using 37 galvanised steel wires and the upright supports for the cables also act as lampstands and are decorated with golden galleons.

Bridges No.14 - Grosvenor Bridge

Next we have another railway bridge, this one being the main line into Victoria Station. Firstly a note about the photo above. The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice that this is taken from the north bank, whereas all my other pictures to date have been taken from the south bank during my walk along the Thames Path. However, because of the diversion around Battersea Power Station, you never actually walk past Grosvenor Bridge. Now I did spy a little path under the Chelsea Bridge, and this may have given me the opportunity to take a photo from the south bank, but it was a hot day, and I just wanted to get on. So instead I've borrowed the photo above from the nice people at Wikipedia.

Grosvenor Bridge also goes by the name of Victoria Bridge (logically really) and it was the first railway bridge in London. Work began on the bridge in June 1859 for London, Brighton & South Coast Railway (LB&SCR). The designer was John Fowler and he was required to build a bridge whose piers aligned those of Chelsea Bridge, just a few hundred yards upstream. The build time was remarkably quick, with the first services using the bridge in the summer of 1860.

LB&SCR often leased out its tracks to other rail companies, one such company being the London Chatham & Dover Railway (LCDR). The two companies started to work closer together and jointly worked on a second bridge immedatley alongside the first. The new bridge was designed by Sir Charles Fox, but it was always intended that it should match the original. The extended bridge opened in 1866 and was now 100 feet wide.

But the demand placed on the railways grew ever more and it became necessary to build a third bridge. This occured in 1907 and widened the bridge to 174 feet, enough to accommodate ten tracks.

Extensive replacement work took place between 1963-67 by the engineering company Freeman, Fox & Partners. This involved the replacement of each track and the bridge beneath it. On this basis Grosvenor Bridge is really ten bridges in one!

Bridges No.13 - Vauxhall Bridge

Speaking of the secret services, the next bridge comes to ground alongside the other large secret service HQ, this time for MI6 at Vauxhall Cross. Vauxhall Bridge was originally proposed in th 1809 Act of Parliament that could have resulted in an earlier attempt at Lambeth Bridge. The plan was to create a new route from Hyde Park Corner to Greenwich, with the road crossing the river at Vauxhall. The bridge was design by James Walker and was London's first cast iron bridge. It had nine arches and charged tolls from its opening in 1816 until 1879.

As we have seen with other bridges, tidal scour started to make the original Vauxhall Bridge dangerous. Repairs were too expensive and a temporary wooden bridge was put in place until a replacement could be constructed. In 1898 demolition of the original bridge commenced, but it was a further six years before work began on the bridge we see today.

The present day bridge was designed by Sir Alexander Binnie following adapting a earlier design by Sir Maurice Fitzmaurice (someone should really have had a word with his parents!). The bridge has five spans and was the first in London to carry trams. A notable feature of the bridge is its decoration. Its piers feature huge bronze statues stood in heroic pose. The statues were created by Alfred Drury and F.W. Pomeroy and each symbolise a different profession. On the upstream side they portray pottery, engineering, architecture and agriculture, while on the downstream side science, fine arts, local government and education are represented.

Bridges No.12 - Lambeth Bridge

We're now out of the hustle and bustle of Central London, but the bridges don't stop. Indeed some of the bridges to follow are equally impressive, if not more so, than anything in the centre. The first of these West London bridges is Lambeth Bridge.

Lambeth Bridge is a long established river crossing, but not always was this by bridge. The clue lies in the name of the approach road from the north - Horseferry Road. Originally this was the location of the dangerous Lambeth Horse Ferry which often prooved treacherous in the Thames' strong tidal currents.

During the 17th century the population of Lambeth grew rapidly. In 1809 an Act of Parliament was passed for a new bridge, but difficulties in raising funds for its construction delayed the start of building work. It took over fifty years for the situation to be rectified and in 1862 P.W. Barlow's three-arch iron suspension bridge opened. Tolls were charged to cross the bridge during its first 17 years and when they were lifted in 1879 the bridge was rusting badly. Major repairs were carried out in 1887 and in 1905 weight restrictions were imposed. Gates were even installed at both ends to control the number of pedestrians crossing the bridge at any one time. In 1929, work on a replacement bridge finally got underway following the five-arch design of George Humphreys. The bridge is made of steel and reinforced concrete, with granite facings. The bridge today connects the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury (Lambeth Palace) with Thames House, the headquarters building of MI5. And speaking of the secret service...

Bridges No.11 - Westminster Bridge

With the Houses of Parliament standing proudly in the bankground, the approach to Westminster Bridge is one of the best, with the sole exception of Tower Bridge. On my walk, it was still undergoing a bit of repair work, hence the blue scaffolding on the nearside arch and the floating crane.

Westminster Bridge was the second London bridge. For hundreds of years the only possible way to cross the Thames was either in a boat or along London Bridge. During the reign of Elizabeth I attempts were made to have a bridge built here, but the City of London persistently objected to the plan. It took until 1734 for a design to be accepted, that of Charles Labeyle, a Swiss-born engineer. He received support from the Earl of Pembroke and by 1736 and Act of Parliament had been passed allowing the bridge to be constructed. It was funded through a lottery and led to its early monicer "The Bridge of Fools". The building of the bridge was delayed by problem after problem. A combination of harsh winter weather, financial difficulties, wars in Europe, sabotage, general accidents and even a small earthquake meant that the bridge was not complete until 1750. Not a lot changes when it comes to large infrastructure projects! Even after it was opened, the problems didn't stop. The bridge tended to sway on its foundations and its foundations were undermined further following the demolition of the old London Bridge.

Ten years of work, led by James Walker and starting in 1836, involve the reconstruction of the bridge. Once complete Walker, alongwith Charles Barry, the architect of the Palace of Westminster, George Rennie and Thomas Page submitted plans for a replacement bridge. Work on the new bridge began in 1854 and it opened in 1862. It is now the oldest bridge in Central London and also has the most arches, numbering seven. The bridge is supposed to be green in colour to match the benches in the House of Commons (Lambeth Bridge, which we'll come to next, is red to match the benches in the House of Lords). However, from my photo, and others I've seen I'd swear it was light blue.

Bridges No.10 - Hungerford Bridges

Now to a bridge I walk across on my way back to Waterloo station. The Hungerford Bridges are strictly three separate crossing, but I'll treat them all as one. The main structure is the railway bridge leading into Charing Cross station. On either side are two modern footbridges, also known as the Golden Jubilee Bridges which have been another successful addition to London's river crossing and will assist in the renewal of the South Bank arts centre including the Royal Festival Hall, currently being refurbished.

The first crossing at this point was a suspension footbridge designed by the great Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It opened in 1845, four years work on the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol came to a halt. The Hungerford Bridge was an opportunity for Brunel to experiement with ideas that could then be applied to other projects. Brunel's bridge must have been impressive consisting of Italinate style towers connected by four cast iron chains. The bridge was built to connect Hungerford Market on the north bank with the south bank. It proved to be very popular providing anchor points on its piers for the steam-boat companies. With the opening in 1848 Waterloo station the use of the bridge further increased as Londonders began the walk that I myself now do.

Hungerford Market closed in the mid 1800s and a proposal was put forward for a new station at Charing Cross. South Eastern Railways (SER) purchased the footbridge in 1859 in order to secure this point for the railway crossing from London Bridge station into Charing Cross. Sir John Hawkshaw, the resident engineer at SER, was also working on the Clifton Suspension Bridge following Brunel's death earlier that year. His plan for the bridge led to the chains and suspension equipment being removed and transported to Bristol, where they were reused at Clifton. The towers were dismantled, but the piers and abutments were retained to support the new railway bridge.

An iron girder bridge was built and was completed in 1864. The bridge was cantilevered out to support two footbridges. As this had originally been a pedestrian crossing, SER were obliged to maintain this function once the railway was in place. It was widened in 1882 resulting in the loss of the upstream footbridge. However, with the Festival of Britian in 1951 on the South Bank, an Army bailey bridge was temporarily built to provide additional pedestrain capacity. Later in 1980 another temporary upstream bridge was built whilst the downstream bridge was refurbished.

The footbridges were narrow and dark and had a notorius reputation. They were close to the railway and were a crime hotspot at night. As a child on a visit to London in the 1980s I remember crossing the Hungerford Bridge and not being completely happy about the prospect. Surprisingly I've had great difficulty finding a picture on the web of the old footbridges. There are plently etchings of Brunel's original, but very few of the 20th century version. All I found was this photo that accommpanied a story the murder trail in 2000.

In 1996 a competition was held to find a suitable replacement for the footbridges. Architects Liftschutz Davidson won with their four metre wide designs. Painted white, with high light pylons the bridges are much friendlier places to be. People now linger here and contemplate the views of either St Paul's and the City or the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. The bridges are airy and equally stunning at night. The prospect of leaving a concert at the Festival Hall on a chilly clear winter's evening is now distinctly more appealing. It was also helpped that the footbridges have been built a good distance away from the railway tracks. Quite rightly the bridges have received considerable praise and won a number of design and engineering awards. Their construction was no easy task and rather than rattle on here about it, I'll direct you to the pages of Gifford, consulting engineers on the project.

Bridges No.9 - Waterloo Bridge

Now to the main bend in the Thames within Central London and Waterloo Bridge. Two bridges have crossed the river at this point. The first was designed by John Rennie and opened in 1817. Rennie then went on to design the 1831 London Bridge. Rennie's design consisted of nine arches and was built from ganite. Until a year before its opening the bridge was to be known as Strand Bridge. However, the bridge opened on the second anniversary of the Duke of Wellington's victory at the Battle of Waterloo and the bridge therefore renamed. The bridge was originally private and operate for 61 years as a toll bridge. In 1878 the ownership of the bridge was handed over to Metropolitan Board of Works, the forerunner of London County Council, and the toll was lifted.

But like other original London bridges, there were structural problems. Tidal scour was causing series wear to the foundations, which had only increased following the demolition of the old London Bridge. Reinforcement works were carried out in 1882-84, but by 1923 the central piers had suffered from considerable settlement and the bridge had to be closed. There were vocal support for restoration of the bridge, but London County Council prefered to go ahead with a new bridge. Giles Gilbert-Scott, architect of Bankside and Battersea Power Stations, was appointed to design a replacement.

Work began in 1938, but was delayed by the onset of World War II. However, work did continue during the war years with women workers. The bridge also suffered from German attacks during the war, surprisingly the only bridge to suffer in this way. By 1942 the bridge opened to pedestrians and two lanes of traffic, and was fully opened in 1945. The bridge is the widest of the London bridges.

Bridges No.8 - Blackfriars Bridge

Blackfriars Bridge, carrying road and foot traffic, is the third oldest bridge crossing of the Thames in London, but like many London bridge's this is not the original. In 1753 London was in need of a new bridge and a new gateway into the City. A design competition was held in 1759 and Robert Mylne was the victor. The design was quite different from the present day bridge, consisting of nine arches. When the foundation stone was laid in it was named Pitt Bridge, after the then Prime Minister, William Pitt. However, by 1769 when the bridge opened Pitt had become deeply unpopular and so earlier name was swiftly dropped in favour of Blackfriars. Like many of the impressive buildings built in London at the time the Mylne bridge was constructed out of Portland stone. Hovever the saline waters of the Thames and the pollution from the nearby confluence of the River Fleet led to the erosion of the bridge supports and by the 1840s is was clear that Blackfriars would have to be replaced.

Mylne's bridge was finally demolished in 1860 to be replaced by a temporary crossing. In the meantime a replacement was being designed by Joseph Cubitt. Originally a three arch bridge was proposed, but soon after a new bridge was required for the railway into St Paul's (later Blackfriars) station. Cubitt was appointed to design the railway bridge as well, which led to the designs for the road bridge to be adapted. As the two bridges were so close together, the road bridge also had to have five arches.

Day 4: Vauxhall - Barnes Bridge

Nearly a month since my last stage and its very very hot day. This was the Sunday before the hottest week of the year in London. So an early start from Vauxhall seemed to be the best plan. St George’s Wharf, the vile residential development on the upstream side of Vauxhall Bridge lured us onto its riverside walkway, for our path only to be blocked by hoardings. So, it was a sharp turn away from the river and back to the main road. Eventually we were able to return to the river walkway to capture a brief glimpse of Battersea Power Station. It’s a real shame that this magnificent building is still a wreck, when Bankside Power Station has been put to such good use as Tate Modern. The architect of both, Giles Gilbert-Scott must be turning in his grave. How much better would Battersea have been as the site of the millennium celebrations, rather than the other large rotting building further downstream.

Battersea, due its physical state, remains out of bounds and requires Thames Path walkers to divert away. However, it did provide an opportunity through large blue security gates, to catch a glimpse of a former Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion. Why this is here, I’m not certain. It seems quite surreal, but there it is. My photo doesn’t do it justice and there are better ones elsewhere.

By being forced around the power station you do get to walk past the world famous Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. To be fair I didn’t realise they did cats, but the dogs seemed quite subdued in the heat with very little barking to be heard. Then it’s under a couple of railway bridges to a roundabout and the entrance to Battersea Park. The park is a real contrast to the area we’d just walked through and allowed a pleasant walk back down to the river. The park was already busy, mainly with a few dog-walkers but loads of joggers. I can’t say I’ve seen as many in one place before, with many going to extreme lengths to get hot and sweaty. I’m sure there were a few people with their personal trainers in tow! The walk along the river front in the park was calming and to come across the large Buddhist Peace Pagoda was somewhat surprising. It was built here in 1985 as part to commemmorate the dead of Hiroshina. and is one of 70 around the world. The pagoda is definitely a hidden gem of a London landmark. But the sun was already quite strong by now, so it was a relief to get some shade from the buildings immediately after the Albert Bridge.

Only a short section to Battersea Bridge, but a couple of noteworthy buildings, both designed by Sir Norman Foster's architecture practice. The first and Foster & Partners own offices and the next is the more recent Albion Riverside, a large wavy residential scheme which also includes the Albion art gallery. I’d been down here before on a very windy winter’s day to see an excellent exhibition by Andy Goldsworthy, so it was good to be back in more clement weather.

Not much to say about the next stretch. More apartment blocks, some of which force you off the river front, but generally not for long. The view is pretty much the same on the other side of the river, with the buildings of Chelsea Harbour. Only the Lots Road Power Station adding variety and interest to the skyline. On the southbank most of the flats are easily forgettable. However, a couple stick in the mind: the fabulous glass, steel and wood of te Montevetro Building and the hideous bulk of the recently completed Battersea Reach development at Wandsworth.

But we’re soon away from that, past Wandsworth Bridge and heading through the back streets to Wandsworth Park. It’s here were we really meet the cyclist and they remain with us until well past Putney. Today turns out to be the annual London Bikeathon and people have turned out in their thousands with their bikes for charity. Can’t knock that at all, but they were all going in the opposite direction to us and at narrow points, like the entrance to Wandsworth Park, it proved difficult getting past masses of cyclists. But once through, we were into the back streets of Putney and a ploughmans lunch at the Duke's Head pub.

From Putney we began are walk along the Boat Race course. After passing a gaggle of boat club buildings on the south bank and Craven Cottage on the north bank we were soon into woodland and a world away from the hustle of London. Other than the cyclists it was very quiet along this stretch past the Barnes Wetland Centre. However, from the Thames Path itself there is nothing to seeing of the wetlands and we didn’t have time to pay them a proper visit. The other difficulty here is the trees on both sides of the path, blocking any view of the north bank and the river. At Hammersmith the trees thin out a little to catch a view of Hammersmith bridge.

Then the path rounds the top of this meander and heads south towards Barnes. We pass a disused reservoir while we walk along a narrow strip of land. But this is only what the map tell you, there’s no way of verifying it from the path itself. Have got used to the ever changing view from earlier in the walk, the woodland feel along this stretch seems to go on forever. But soon we emerge into civilisation again – along the prom at Barnes. It’s also when we really feel the full force of the hot sun and its becomes pretty wearing as we walk towards Barnes Bridge. Under the shade of the bridge a cooling drink is quickly gulped down and we decided to head home after walking about 10 miles. It would have been nice to have finished at Chiswick Bridge, the end of the Boat Race course, but the lure of an air-conditioned train was just too great.

Bridges No.7 - Blackfriars Railway Bridge

At Blackfriars there are two bridges over the river - one for the railway and one for the road. On this occassion I'll treat these as two separate bridge as, unlike the Hungerford Bridge, the bridges do stand apart from one another.

The original Blackfriars Railway Bridge was opened in 1864 and was designed by Joseph Cubitt for the London, Chatham and Dover Railway. Cubitt was already working on a rebuild of the adjacent road bridge and he became the obvious choice of designer. Twenty years later mor tracks were needed and a second bridge built to match the spans of Cubitt's bridge. The second, and present day, bridge was built immediately downstream of the first bridge. It was designed by John Wolfe-Barry and Henri Marc Brunel, built by W. Mills and opened in 1886. In 1923 following a reorganisation of the railways, Southern Railway decided to use Waterloo and Victoria for most of their long-distance services. Consquently the importance of St Paul's Station (as Blackfriars was originally known as) dwindled. By the 1960s the original bridge was considered too weak for modern day trains and by 1984 had been fully dismantled. Only the red columns and piers remain, as well as one of the cast iron LCDR badges on display along the Thames Path.

Bridges No.6 - Millennium Bridge

On now to the newest of London's bridge, the Millennium Bridge. The bridges links St Paul's Cathedral with Tate Modern and has been part of a major revitalisation of the South Bank of the Thames around the former Bankside Power Station (now Tate Modern). The Millennium Bridge is open to pedestrians only and is the first new crossing since Tower Bridge in 1894. Arguably this bridge, Tate Modern and other developments on the Southbank such as the London Eye are all lasting legacies of the millennium than the big white elephant a few miles downstream.

The London Borough of Southwark organised a design competition for a new bridge in 1996 which was won by a consortium of engineers and designers. Appropriately for a bridge to connect with a modern art gallery one of the designers was an artist: Sir Anthony Caro. He was joined by Norman Foster and engineers Arup. Compared to other London bridges the Millennium Bridge has a very shallow profile. It is a suspension bridge with a difference - the cables run alongside the bridge itself rather than above it. Planning policies restricted the height of the bridge, so this shallow, 'blade', design was ideal.

The bridge is 325m long and the eight suspension cables pull with a force of 2,000 tons against the piers on either bank. This is sufficient to support 5,000 people of the bridge at any one time. Now under normal circumstances than number of people probably wouldn't be on the bridge at the same time. However, when it opened in June 2000, it came close to capacity and didn't cope very well. The bridge started swaying as hundreds of charity walkers started to cross it. Needless to say, this was not expected and there were memorable TV pictures of the bridge swinging side to side rather eratically. It quickly earned it's alternative name 'The Wobbly Bridge'. Indeed as I passed it on my walk I heard numerous people using that name even though the wobble was fixed and it is now perfectly stable. The wobble was the reaction of people to small natural lateral movements in the bridge. Their readjustment set up driven harmonic motion in the bridge, thereby enhancing the wobble. It was decided to close the bridge after three days and Arup consequently fitted 89 dampers to control horizontal and vertical movements. It finally reopened in February 2002, wobble-free. The strangest thing to happen since must have been the sheep drive over this bridge on 17 Jun 2006 as part of the London Architecture Biennale.

Bridges No.5 - Southwark Bridge

Next up is another bridge which is not the original crossing at its present site. The original crossing came about, like the other bridges, to ease congestion and London's economy grew. The Southwark Bridge Company was established in 1813 and commissioned John Rennie, the designer of the 1831 London Bridge. The design was a cast iron bridge of three arches and operated as a private tollbridge, much to the dislike of the Corporation of London. The bridge opened in 1819 but it prooved to be an unpopular crossing. Approaches to the bridge on both banks were inadequate, the road surface was humped and the presence of tolls were all to its detriment. But in 1864 tolls were dropped and its usage increased. However, it was a double-edged sword and as its popularity grew it became clear that the bridge was too narrow.

The bridge was demolished in 1913, but with the outbreak of World War 1 its replacement wasn't complete until 1921. The new bridge was designed by architect Ernest George and civil engineer Basil Mott.

Bridges No.4 - Cannon Street Railway Bridge

The bridges through Central London are pretty close together, and closely upstream from London Bridge is the first railway bridge to cross the Thames. As its name suggests this bridge takes trains over the river into Cannon Street Railway Station on the north bank. Services from Cannon Street pass over this bridge, travel through to London Bridge station and then out to south and south-east London and occassionaly to Kent and East Sussex.

The bridge was designed by John Hankshaw and John Wolfe-Barry for South Eastern Railways and opened in 1866. Wolfe-Barry later went on to work on Tower Bridge following the untimely death of the original architect, Horace Jones. The Cannon Street Bridge was originally known as Alexandra Bridge, named after Alexandra of Denmark the Queen Consort of the future King Edward VII. It was widened between 1886 and 1893 and underwent an extensive refurbishment between 1979 and 1982. This latter work led to the removal of the ornamental features on the bridge leaving it with it currently industrial look.

Bridges No.3 - London Bridge

Now onto the oldest crossing of the Thames and therefore one which the most history wrapped up in it. A crossing has been in place here for at least 2,000 years and was London's only river crossing until 1750 when Westminster Bridge was opened. Until 1176 London Bridge had always been made of wood but was often subject to being burnt down. However, the bridge that began construction in 1176 was made of stone, but it took 33 years before it was complete. This was to be the famous London Bridge with houses built on top of it. Houses, shops and a chapel dedicated to St Thomas Becket covered the bridge. But the bridge was not immune to being burnt down like its wooden predecssors. During Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt of 1381 the bridge was torched, but the buildings on themselves created their own fire risk. The weight of the buildings also led to problems for the bridge's structure. By the end of the 18th century the bridge was in a parlous state and an altnertive needed to be found.

In 1799 a competition for a replacement was held and engineer John Rennie was the ultimate winner. It was built about 30 metres upstream of the old bridge which itself was retained until the new bridge was complete in 1831. The new bridge was widened between 1902 and 1904 in an attempt to ease traffic congestion, but the foundations were not up to the extra weight and by the east side of the bridge slowly subsided.

The bridge was sold in 1968 to the American oil magnate Robert P McCulloch for $2.46 million. It was dismantled and shipped to Lake Havasu City in Arizona, where it was reconstructed in 1971 to bridge a canal as part of an English 'theme park'.

In London, the bridge was replaced by the present day bridge between 1967 and 1972. It was constructed by the engineering company Mowlam and opened to traffic in March 1973. It is 283 metres long and the only notable event in its history to date is when HMS Jupiter collided with it in 1984 causing damage to both bridge and ship.