24th May: Westminster Bridge

Westminster bridge opened 1862. Here are ten things you may not know about Westminster Bridge.

1. The current Westminster bridge is the oldest road bridge across the Thames.
2. It is 820 feet (250 m) long and 85 feet (26 m) wide. It has seven spans, the most of any of the Thames bridges.
3. The previous bridge on the site caused a lot of controversy before it was built. A bridge at Westminster was proposed in 1664, since the nearest bridges were London Bridge and Kingston. However the City Corporation and the watermen (think water taxi drivers) opposed it as they would lose their livelihood of ferrying people across the river all day. They were so opposed to the bridge that they bribed the King of the time, Charles II, with an interest free loan of £100,000 (a LOT of money in those days) if he'd refuse permission to build the bridge. The watermen also argued that if their jobs became obsolete, there would be no skilled sailors to call up if England went to war. When George II eventually granted permission for the bridge to be built in 1736, he had to pay the watermen the equivalent of £2 million in compensation.
4. The old Westminster Bridge was funded in a somewhat novel way for the time - lottery funding - rather than tolls and private capital. Lotteries were fashionable, but subject to corruption. Some people, like Henry Fielding, thought lotteries were bad, and hence he called the bridge 'The Bridge of Fools'.
5. Crossing the old Westminster Bridge was actually quite dangerous as it had octagonal turrets along it which were handy hiding places for muggers and prostitutes. It got so bad that twelve night watchmen had to be hired to protect people as they crossed.
6. By the middle of the 19th century the bridge was in danger of falling down, so Thomas Page was hired to design a new one. (Another interesting fact about his is that he also came up with the idea of a Channel Tunnel in 1870.) It opened on 24th May 1862, which happened to be Queen Victoria's birthday. She was meant to open the new bridge, but since Prince Albert had died the previous November, the Queen was in deep mourning and so the ceremony had to happen without her.
7. Artists, writers and film makers have all found this bridge inspiring. It has been painted by Canaletto, Samuel Scott, Antonio Jolli and JMW Turner; William Wordsworth wrote a poem about it (although he was actually writing about what he could see from the bridge rather than the bridge itself). See his sonnet, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802, below. In modern times, films which feature it include 28 Days Later, 102 Dalmatians, Queen of the Damned, Sceptre and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It has also been the site of a Dalek invasion in Doctor Who and a Monty Python sketch about a stolen chair.
8. On the second Wednesday of every month, a 2.3 mile running race known as 'The Lensbury' or The Bridges Handicap Race, begins at Westminster Bridge at 12.30pm, and also ends there.
9. Westminster Bridge is painted the same shade of Green as the leather benches in the House of Commons. This is intentional - Lambeth Bridge, upstream from it, is painted to match the Red seats in the House of Lords.
10. It's not known whether another architectural feature was intentional or not. Given it's a Victorian structure, I suspect not. At about 1pm on a sunny day, when the sun shines through the trefoil designs along the bridge, the resulting shadow shows a line of male reproductive organs on the pavement along the bridge. Since the Bridge leads to and from the House of Commons, if politicians were as bad in the 1860s as they are now, perhaps it was a political comment by the architect!

Earth has not anything to show more fair:

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty:

This City now doth, like a garment, wear

The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.

Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendor, valley, rock, or hill;

Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will:

Dear God! The very houses seem asleep;

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

More Bridges over the Thames

Albert Bridge
Battersea Bridge
Blackfriars Bridge
Cheslea Bridge 
London Bridge
Southwark Bridge

Wandsworth Bridge

Waterloo Bridge

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