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.