Kew Railway Bridge
Whereas Kew had pre-empted Richmond by 20 years in building a road bridge, it was 20 years later in constructing a railway bridge. Because of the bend in the River Thames, Kew was too far north for the London and South Western Railway to include it on its route from Nine Elms to Richmond in 1848. However, by 1862 the company decided to provide a service by building a branch line from South Acton, which was on the railway on the north side of the Thames, via Kew Gardens Station to Richmond. Kew Gardens Station opened in 1869 and still retains many of the original decorative cast-iron columns. In 1877, the Metropolitan Railway extended its Underground service over the bridge to Kew Gardens and Richmond.
The necessary railway bridge was designed by W.R. Galbraith (1829–1914). Galbraith was born in Stirling and worked on railways in Scotland and north-west England before joining the LSWR in 1855 as chief engineer. He was responsible for a massive expansion of services to the south-west of England as far as Devon and Cornwall. In the 1880s, he went on to construct the railway lines continuing north from the newly constructed Forth Bridge, and he continued working well into his 70s while building 14 miles of Tube lines for the London Underground, including the line known as The Drain, which linked Waterloo to the City.
The Kew Railway Bridge took five years to build and was opened without ceremony in 1869. Locals often call it Strand Bridge to distinguish it from the main Kew Bridge just upstream. The name comes from the stretch of the river on the north bank to the west of Kew Bridge which is known as Strand on the Green. The bridge consists of five 115-foot spans of wrought-iron lattice girders supported on cast-iron columns with ornate capitals. The riverside abutments are of brick with ornamental stone mouldings. Train passengers will not be aware of the architectural merits of the bridge, but will have a fine view to the west of Kew Bridge and the looming tower of Kew Bridge Steam Museum beyond. Walkers and cyclists along the Thames Path can have a close look at the structure of the bridge, although they are more likely to be heading for the two pubs between which the bridge crosses the river. There they will doubtless be regaled with stories of how, in the nineteenth century, the Lord Mayor used to moor his ceremonial barge at the City Barge pub in winter, or how Oliver Cromwell escaped from the Bull’s Head under the river to Oliver’s Ait. The one disadvantage of this idyllic riverside setting is that the stories will be regularly interrupted by the clatter of trains crossing the railway bridge overhead.
As reported in the Richmond and Twickenham Times of 26 September 1986, an attempt was made to brighten up the dull grey structure of the bridge by painting it in bright colours. Workmen were photographed on platforms underneath the bridge, with straw bales hanging down from one of the navigational spans. This is the traditional method of warning shipping that work is going on overhead. The article also mentions that Sir Donald Gosling’s motor yacht, the Brave Goose, was scheduled to pass through the bridge during the painting project and there was concern that it might have trouble because of its height out of the water. In fact, it was at Richmond Bridge that the boat got stuck, as described in Chapter 1. Today, the bridge has returned to the traditional battleship-grey colour.
Kew Railway Bridge with the City Barge pub in the background
In 1998, Railtrack requested planning permission from Hounslow Council to repair the 130-year-old bridge, as it was in a dangerous condition. The engineers had found that the timbers supporting the rails were rotting in places and had a life expectancy of less than two years. The wrought-iron cross girders had corroded in several places where they were in contact with the timber. The solution was to replace all the timber supports with steel and in addition to renew any parts of the girders that had become corroded. Now that the repairs have been completed without any change to the external appearance of the bridge, passengers can feel safe as they cross the river on the District or North London Line and admire the riverside views. Unfortunately, customers in the historic pubs below still undergo the same noisy disturbance every time a train passes.
CHAPTER 3
Chiswick and Barnes
Chiswick Bridge
As described in Chapter 1, the 1926 Royal Commission on Cross-river Traffic had recommended that three bridges over the Thames at Chiswick, Twickenham and Hampton should be constructed to take the Chertsey arterial road from London to the west. An Act of 1928 empowered the Middlesex and Surrey county councils to carry out the work, helped by a contribution of 75 per cent of the cost from the Ministry of Transport.
The Councils appointed Alfred Dryland as engineer both for Chiswick Bridge and Twickenham Bridge. Sir Herbert Baker (1862–1946) was appointed as architect of Chiswick Bridge. After the design had been approved, the contract was awarded to Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co. for the sum of £208,284. For once, the project was completed on time and within budget, and the bridge was opened in 1933 by HRH Edward, Prince of Wales, on the same day as the other two bridges.
Chiswick Bridge crosses the Thames about 100 yards above the winning post of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, where the river is 450 feet wide. The bridge comprises three arched ferro-concrete spans, the centre one being 150 feet wide, which was the longest concrete span on any Thames bridge at the time. The superstructure is faced with Portland stone, apart from the lower portions of the arches, which have been hammered to give the concrete faces a pleasing appearance. The Thames Conservancy specified that the bridge should allow 25 feet of headroom above Trinity High Water (THW). THW was defined as the mean level of water at the highest spring tide (today, the technical name is Mean High Water Spring). In order to achieve this headroom without any steep inclines, it was necessary to raise the approach road some way back from the river. Therefore on each shore there is a further arch to provide for the riverside roads to pass underneath. These shore spans are divided up with columns between the carriageway and footway in an aesthetic design, and are flanked by flights of steps on either side from the high level of the bridge to the river level. Chiswick Bridge is certainly an elegant structure and Sir Herbert Baker’s architectural contribution was much praised at the time.
Chiswick Bridge with rowers training near the Boat Race finishing post
Sir Herbert Baker (1862–1946)
Herbert Baker was born in Cobham, Kent, of a large farming family. His skill at drawing led him to train as an architect. During his early career in London, he met Edwin Lutyens and they went on sketching trips together. In 1892, he moved to South Africa, where he built many private houses and public buildings, including the main government offices in Pretoria for the South African President Jan Smuts. Here he developed the ‘grand manner’ style of architecture typical of the late British Empire. In 1912, he went to India to work with his old friend, Lutyens, on the massive government complex at New Delhi. Here they succeeded in transposing English classicism to a tropical climate by including elements of local Indian architecture in their designs. After the First World War, Baker returned to London. He designed India House at Aldwych, South Africa House in Trafalgar Square, and Church House, near Westminster Abbey. His final great commission was to rebuild the Bank of England, where he constructed a massive seven-storey structure on top of Sir John Soane’s perimeter wall. His long and distinguished career resulted in his being knighted in 1926.
The fact that Chiswick Bridge was designed by an architect of distinction could be said to mark a radical change in the relative influence of architect and engineer on bridge construction. The nineteenth century had been the age of the great engineers, who took the lead in designing their iron and steel structures. Country Life of 8 July 1933 was enthusiastic about this change in favour of the architect:
The engineer, by his training, is a functionalist. If his figures work out correctly, the result for him is ipso facto beautiful. The architect, on the other hand, is trained to regard his work in relation to its setting, and so to take a broader view than that which sees a structure in isolation as the solution of a problem.
The magazine praised the elegance of Chiswick Bridge as ‘reflecting in its general design the eighteenth century Palladian tradition of Lord Burlington’s famous villa at Chiswick’. Not everyone will agree that all the bridges designed by engineers are inappropriate for their setting any more than that architects’ designs are always sympathetic to their environment. In any case, the remark about Lord Burlington’s villa seems strange, as his villa is some way distant and completely hidden from the river.
Barnes Railway Bridge
The present Barnes Railway Bridge has been described as the ugliest bridge on the River Thames. It is known today mainly for being the bridge under which the Oxford and Cambridge rowing boats shoot towards the end of the annual Boat Race. Barnes itself even has one light-blue oar for Cambridge and one dark-blue oar for Oxford on its coat of arms. By the time the boats have reached the bridge, the winning crew is usually clear, although there have been a few close races, including one tie. The race dates back to 1829 when it was first rowed at Henley. The Putney-to-Mortlake course has been used annually almost without a break from 1845. The finishing post is just downstream of Chiswick Bridge.
The bridge crosses over the river on the south side from the middle of Barnes Terrace. This is still an attractive stretch of the river, with its fine Georgian buildings. It has been the home of many notable Barnes residents, including the composer Gustav Holst. Further upstream, by the Boat Race finishing post, is Mortlake, known in former times for its tapestry works, which were set up by Sir Francis Crane in 1619 under the patronage of James I. The aim of the works was to rival the weavers of Brussels, who had been the pre-eminent designers and makers of tapestry since the sixteenth century. With the slump in demand for tapestry, the factory closed in 1703 and the area went into decline. By 1811, there were only 180 houses in Barnes. The village had not grown in the eighteenth century nearly as much as its royal neighbours, Kew and Richmond. Therefore there was not sufficient population or demand to allow for the building of a bridge until the railway age.
The railway first came to Barnes in 1846. This was the London and South Western Railway from Nine Elms to Richmond, which was in 1848 extended to Windsor across Richmond Railway Bridge. The original scheme also included a ‘loop line’ from Barnes across the Thames to Chiswick and Hounslow to rejoin the Richmond-to-Windsor line at Feltham. Joseph Locke was appointed engineer for Barnes Railway Bridge, as he had been for the bridge at Richmond.
Locke’s first problem was how to embank the river so as to provide a clearance of 21 feet at Trinity High Water without too much disruption to the elegant setting of Barnes Terrace. He managed to avoid the demolition of any important people’s houses on the Terrace, although some property must have been affected. The Barnes and Mortlake Herald of 9 February 1935 records Abraham Badham’s story of how his family lived in a small house here which had to be demolished for the construction of the railway. Demolition was delayed for a month until Abraham was born and mother and baby were in a position to move home. It seems that not all Victorian entrepreneurs were completely heartless.
Like the railway bridge at Richmond, Barnes Railway Bridge was an attractive structure of three cast-iron spans. The spans were each 120 feet long, as opposed to the Richmond spans which were 100 feet. This gives an idea of how the river grows wider as it flows eastwards. Fox, Henderson & Co. were the contractors, and they completed the project in time for it to be opened on 22 August 1849. As was frequently the case with railway bridges, there was no opening ceremony.
Not everyone agreed about the attractions of the new bridge. Barnes Terrace was one of the most fashionable parts of Barnes, and the locals living there were none too happy that a railway should pass through their midst. The proprietor of the White Hart, Mr Will Winch, whose hotel was at the upstream side of the bridge, wrote in his account of Barnes, ‘While you sit there, gentle reader, enjoying the quaint old view of Mortlake riverside, and perhaps anathematizing the railway bridge which blocks the view downstream …’8
By the end of the nineteenth century, engineers were becoming aware of the long-term instability of cast-iron structures. In May 1891, a cast-iron span of the Brighton line bridge at Norwood Junction collapsed, although driver skill avoided a serious accident. Therefore, in July 1891, Royal Assent was obtained for an Act allowing the LSWR to rebuild Barnes Railway Bridge with wrought iron. The contractors, Head, Wrightson & Co., started work in 1894 to extend the brick abutments and piers on the downstream side and then to rebuild the bridge with wrought-iron bowstring girders. An 8-foot-wide footpath was added to allow pedestrians to cross. This also provided room for spectators of the Boat Race. The LSWR saw an opportunity for profit and sold tickets for 15 shillings to view the end of the race from this vantage point. Sadly, today the footbridge is closed for safety reasons during the race. To allow services to continue during the rebuilding, the spans of Locke’s bridge were left on the upstream side. They still remain today, although they have not been used since then. They somewhat relieve the ugliness of the new bowstring girders. The new bridge was opened on 6 June 1895.
Barnes Railway Bridge with its bowstring arches
On 2 December 1955, a tragic accident on the bridge saw 13 people killed. A late-evening passenger train to Windsor ran into a goods train coming the other way. The cause was identified as a mistake by the Barnes signalman, and this led to the old semaphore signals being replaced by coloured lights controlled from a new signal box. Unfortunately, this measure has not provided complete safety, as later railway accidents have shown.
CHAPTER 4
Hammersmith
Together with Tower Bridge, Sir Joseph Bazalgette’s Hammersmith Bridge is the most ornate monument to Victorian engineering on the River Thames. It crosses the river on one of its sharpest bends some three and a half miles west of Hyde Park Corner. Millions of people will know this idiosyncratic structure from television broadcasts of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, when the cameras pick out the crowds by the bridge watching the two crews straining to pass underneath first. Although Hammersmith Bridge is less than halfway to the finish at Mortlake, the race is often won or lost by this stage. Only if the trailing boat is on the Surrey side of the river does it have much chance of catching up, as it will shortly have the advantage of being on the inside of the Surrey bend.
Not everyone has agreed on the aesthetic merits of this bridge. William Morris, who owned a riverside house in Hammersmith, called it simply ‘this ugly suspension bridge’. However, it is now such a historic landmark that any attempt to remove it would cause widespread protest. Built in 1887, the present bridge replaced an earlier one on the same site designed by William Tierney Clark in 1827. At the time, Tierney Clark’s bridge had aroused similar mixed emotions.
Hammersmith, which lies on the north of the river at this point, is today part of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The name is first mentioned in 1294 as ‘Hammersmyth’, being a combination of ‘hammer’ and ‘smithy’, presumably indicating the presence of blacksmiths here. However, by the eighteenth century, the area was covered by nurseries and market gardens which supplied fruit and vegetables to the growing population of London. The most famous of these was the Vineyard Nursery, which cultivated exotic plants, such as the newly imported fuchsia, and employed 200 people by 1824. The riverside location of Hammersmith so near to London attracted aristocrats and wealthy merchants, and many of their Georgian houses still line Upper Mall and Dove’s Passage, upstream of Hammersmith Bridge. During the eighteenth century, road transport from London was much improved with the introduction of turnpikes. It was at this time that the road from London’s Hyde Park to Hammersmith and on to the west of England became known as the Great West Road because of the considerable traffic passing along its route. As a result, the population of Hammersmith grew to 5,600 by 1801 and to over 10,000 by 1831.
A most remarkable set of events in 1820 brought the previously quiet suburb to national prominence. George IV had just succeeded his
father, George III, as King. He had been separated from his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, who had lived abroad for several years with her Italian servant, Bergami. On hearing of the death of George III, Caroline returned to England to claim her position as Queen. Rejected by her husband, she came to live in Hammersmith in Brandenburgh House, which was sited just downstream of today’s bridge. A Bill was introduced in the House of Lords to dissolve the royal marriage on the grounds of Caroline’s adultery with Bergami, but it failed. Popular feeling was so much on her side that crowds flocked from all over London to Brandenburgh House to witness the many ‘congratulatory addresses’ delivered in her support. Despite all this adulation, which was probably more due to the general feeling that George IV had treated her badly than to any merit of her own, Caroline was turned away from the coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey the following year. She died shortly afterwards. Thomas Faulkner, Hammersmith’s first true historian, described the situation of Brandenburgh House in 1839: ‘South of Hammersmith Bridge on the Middlesex side is the site of Brandenburgh House, once the seat of gaiety and fashion … It is now derelict and no longer attracts visitors’ attention.’9 Brandenburgh House was then pulled down. From an architectural point of view, this was a pity, as the juxtaposition of this Jacobean mansion with the Tuscan towers of the soon-to-be-built suspension bridge would have created a sensational view. A distillery was later built here and remained until the 1960s. Today the Riverside Studios occupy part of the site.
Crossing the River: The History of London's Thames River Bridges From Richmond to the Tower Page 6
