An equally historic church stands on the Putney side of the bridge. St Mary’s has been the parish church of Putney since the thirteenth century. Like All Saints, it was rebuilt in the nineteenth century but retains its fifteenth-century tower. The church is famous for the Putney Debates which took place there in 1647, when Oliver Cromwell and the Parliamentarians set up their headquarters in Putney after Charles I had been confined in Hampton Court. The debates took place around the communion table. The more radical group known as the Levellers proposed such modern concepts as manhood suffrage, freedom of conscience and liberty of the individual. These ideas were opposed by Cromwell and were not implemented when Parliament ran the country after the execution of Charles I in 1649. Unfortunately, St Mary’s Church was severely damaged by an arson attack in 1973. An appeal was launched for its restoration. In 1979, on the 250th anniversary of the old wooden bridge, a commemorative medal was struck by the Tower Mint, showing images of the old and new bridges on either side. The bronze medal was sold for £3.50 and the sterling silver medal for £26. The proceeds went towards the successful restoration of the church.
On a quiet Sunday morning, the handsome stone-arched Putney Bridge, with the picturesque parish churches on either bank of the Thames, presents an idyllic picture. It is perhaps surprising that few famous artists or writers have used this scene in their work, whereas the old wooden bridge did inspire a number of writers and artists. Disraeli referred to the ‘picturesque bridge’ at the end of the King’s Road, and the bridge also featured in Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The artist Luke Fildes produced an engraving for the front cover of the first edition of Edwin Drood showing four of the characters in a boat with Fulham Bridge in the background. James McNeill Whistler also produced an engraving of the bridge just before it was demolished.
The scene, of course, is not always so peaceful. Putney Bridge is still the busiest bridge over the Thames from the south-west, with an average of nearly 60,000 crossings a day during the week. Nor is it peaceful on the day of the Boat Race, when the crowds throng the riverside as they wait for the starting pistol to send the crews on their voyage around the Hammersmith bend and under Hammersmith and Barnes bridges to the finishing line at Mortlake.
Putney Railway Bridge
Until the nineteenth century, Putney had been a relatively small village, consisting mainly of large mansions and estates and market gardens. When, in 1846, the railway came to East Putney Station on the London and South Western line from Nine Elms to Richmond and Windsor, the population changed radically. Almost all the old mansions were gradually demolished and Putney turned into a middle-class suburb. The District Line had reached Putney Bridge Station on the north bank by 1880, and there was a clear need for the line to be extended across the river to Putney and on to Wimbledon to provide a direct commuting service to the City. Several plans were put forward, but it was the LSWR which finally built the Wimbledon line and the bridge over the Thames. The Act of 1881 stated that the bridge must be of ‘ornamental character’ and approved by such august bodies as the MBW and the Thames Conservancy. After all the complaints about the ugliness of the recent railway bridge at Charing Cross, Parliament was insistent on having some aesthetic control over future railway bridges.
Mr William Jacomb (1832–87), the LSWR head engineer, designed Putney Railway Bridge and it was built by Head, Wrightson & Co. of Stockton-on-Tees. Work started in 1887 and was completed in March 1889. It consisted of five wrought-iron lattice-girder spans of 153 feet, supported on pairs of cast-iron cylinders which were filled with concrete. An agreement was made to allow the District Line to share the tracks. At first, there were too few trains to provide an adequate commuter service to Mansion House. However, in 1905 the line was electrified and 108 trains were run each weekday on the District Line. The LSWR service, on the other hand, was never very successful and continued with few trains until it was wound up in 1941. When British Rail took over the railway network after nationalisation in 1948, it also took over ownership of the Wimbledon line and the bridge, even though all the trains were at this stage run by the District Line of London Underground (LU). This strange state of affairs caused controversy when a 600-ton barge rammed into one of the bridge supports in 1991 and caused severe damage. Consequently, a 10-mph speed limit was imposed on all trains running over the bridge. British Rail refused to repair the bridge, as it claimed it could not afford to pay. In 1994, LU took over the ownership of the bridge and railway line. It undertook a 14-million-pound renovation of the bridge and installed a totally new pedestrian walkway. The repairs were completed in January 1998. A plaque on the south end of the bridge commemorates the occasion.
Putney Railway Bridge with Putney Bridge in the background
Wandsworth Bridge
The story of Wandsworth Bridge is hardly an illustrious one. Unlike Putney, Wandsworth was never an especially desirable location for aristocrats and the wealthy middle classes. There was no great pressure for a bridge until the late nineteenth century, when the area was dominated by riverside industries around the mouth of the River Wandle, which flows into the Thames just to the north of Young’s Ram Brewery. The then fast-flowing Wandle, which meanders with rather less speed today from Croydon to the Thames, was ideal for driving watermills for such industries as flour grinding and calico printing. In 1834, a gasworks was installed in Wandsworth, and by 1864 the riverside area upstream of the Wandle was covered with gasholders. Another large employer was Wandsworth Prison, built in 1851 with no fewer than 708 cells. It had a reputation for a rigorous regime and few managed to escape. It was later famous for incarcerating Oscar Wilde for six months before he was transferred to the less fearsome Reading Gaol, and for the executions of William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and Derek Bentley.
To cater for this increase in the largely working-class population, a company was set up in 1864 by an Act of Parliament to build a bridge there, with the stipulation that it should be 40 feet wide and span the river with no more than three arches. These requirements proved beyond the ability of the company. Consequently, a new Act of 1870 was passed which allowed for a bridge of only 30 feet in width to be carried over the river by five arches. This time, work was started on a design by J.H. Tolmé for a five-span wrought-iron structure. The piers were iron cylinders filled with concrete and sunk 14 feet into the river-bed. The road was carried on iron lattice girders. The bridge should have been completed by early 1873, but the workmen went on strike. Yet another Act was required to allow the company extra time to sort out the strike and finish the bridge. It was finally opened with little ceremony in September 1873. The company had originally hoped that the bridge would allow access to the proposed terminus of the Hammersmith and City Railway on the north bank. Unfortunately, this was never built and profits were meagre.
Following the Metropolis Toll Bridges Act of 1877, Wandsworth Bridge was bought by the MBW for £52,000. This seems generous, since the cost of construction was only £40,000 and the toll income was about half as much as at Putney Bridge, which had been bought for £58,000. J.H. Herring, in his Thames Bridges from London to Hampton Court of 1884, wrote a depressing account:
The new bridge denominated Wandsworth, although the most recent, is perhaps the least frequented by general traffic of any of the metropolitan bridges. Approached by a series of inconvenient roads on the Middlesex side and skirting the few remaining orchards and market gardens of the marshy lands of Fulham, it crosses the Thames to a point on the Surrey side equally inconvenient, midway between Clapham and Wandsworth.
By 1891, the condition of Wandsworth Bridge had deteriorated to such an extent that a 5-ton weight limit was imposed, and in 1927 speed was limited to 10 mph. Many local businesses were thinking of moving because of the poor communications. The 1926 Royal Commission on Cross-river Traffic had recommended that urgent attention be given to Wandsworth Bridge, but the LCC gave priority to work on Chelsea and Putney bridges, much to the annoyance of local people i
n Wandsworth. Eventually, in 1935, a proposal for a new bridge was put to the Ministry of Transport, which agreed to contribute 60 per cent of the total cost of £503,000.
Wandsworth Bridge from the newly developed southern river bank
The LCC engineer, T. Pierson Frank, and architect, E.P. Wheeler, designed a three-span steel cantilever structure with a 60-foot-wide carriageway. The design was presented for approval by the Royal Fine Art Commission with a covering note stating: ‘In the design of the bridge a severe simplicity of treatment has been carried out, expressed in a technique essentially related to the material (steel) proposed for its construction.’ The eminent and highly cultured members of the Royal Fine Art Commission might have been expected to react against any design by engineers and architects from a local authority, especially one constructed in steel. However, they decided to approve the scheme. Doubts were expressed not about the design but about the width of the new bridge. At 60 feet, it was able to cater for only four lanes of traffic, and many thought that six lanes would be required in future. Nevertheless, the work was put out to tender with a specification that all materials should be of British origin or manufacture. The contract was awarded to Messrs Holloway Bros (London) Ltd, which completed the bridge in 1940. Today, it is one of the busiest bridges and carries more than 50,000 vehicles over the Thames per day.
CHAPTER 6
Battersea and Chelsea
Three road bridges and one railway bridge cross the Thames between Chelsea and Battersea. The furthest upstream bridge is the little-known Battersea Railway Bridge of 1863. Battersea Bridge is the first of the road bridges. Opened in 1890, it replaced the old wooden Battersea Bridge of 1771, which was famous for its depiction in James McNeill Whistler’s painting Nocturne: Blue and Gold – Old Battersea Bridge. Next comes the elegant but now fragile Albert Bridge of 1873, which is the oldest original surviving bridge structure over the Thames downstream of Richmond. Finally, we come to Chelsea Bridge. This rather plain suspension bridge was opened in 1937, replacing a much-admired Victorian suspension bridge of 1858.
Battersea Railway Bridge
This railway bridge crosses the river near the border between Battersea and Wandsworth. It is officially known as Cremorne Bridge after the Cremorne Pleasure Gardens that were located near by on the north bank of the river in the eighteenth century. It may seem a romantic name for a railway bridge, but this is a handsome structure of five curved cast-iron spans resting on four river-piers with stone facings. Unfortunately, not many people have had the opportunity to appreciate its merits, since it is located in what used to be an exclusively industrial area until the recent closure of the Lots Road Power Station and the development of the Chelsea Marina at its northern end. It must be London’s least-known river bridge, as it is not easily accessible except by train, and few train services cross it today.
Battersea Railway Bridge with the tower of Chelsea Harbour in the background
The bridge was built in 1863 by the West London Extension Railway. This company had no rolling stock of its own. All the shares were owned by four of London’s railway companies: the London and North Western Railway (LNWR), the Great Western Railway, the London and South Western Railway, and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). The bridge was opened on 2 March 1863, on the same day as the new Clapham Junction railway station. It provided a link between Clapham Junction and Kensington that was expected to benefit all four of the shareholding companies. The bridge was designed by William Baker (1817–78), chief engineer of the LNWR. Unfortunately, none of the companies made a success of their services. From 1940 until recently, the bridge was limited to use by freight trains. Today, it is also used by Eurostar trains on their way to the depot in North Kensington and by long-distance services from Brighton to Watford and the North.
Battersea Bridge
Battersea Bridge is the earliest of the bridges between Chelsea and Battersea. Chelsea, which is situated on the north bank of the Thames and was therefore more accessible from the court in Westminster, has a more distinguished history than Battersea. The origin of the name Chelsea is associated with the river. It is thought to come either from the Saxon word ‘chesil’, meaning ‘gravel bank’, or the word ‘cealchythe’, meaning ‘landing place for barges to unload cargoes of chalk’. From at least the fourteenth century, there were many wharves for the hiring of wherries and for the use of the wealthy owners of private barges for travelling to and from London. The most famous person to live here was Sir Thomas More, who built himself a mansion near Chelsea Old Church in the sixteenth century. Henry VIII often visited him there for entertainment and conversation, arriving in his royal barge. In 1533, when Henry divorced Catherine of Aragon, More registered his disapproval and the visits ceased. More’s last journey from Chelsea was by boat to Lambeth Palace, where he refused to take the Oath of Supremacy which recognised Henry VIII as head of the Church of England and acknowledged its separation from Rome. This resulted in his trial and eventual execution for treason. A modern statue of Sir Thomas More stands today in front of Chelsea Old Church, and the monument he designed for himself and his two wives is located inside the church.
Many distinguished people followed Sir Thomas More in choosing to live in Chelsea, including Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum’s collections. His descendants developed the area in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when it became associated with famous artists and writers such as Thomas Carlyle, J.M.W. Turner, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, George Eliot and, later, Oscar Wilde. Ranelagh and Cremorne pleasure gardens provided fashionable entertainment for locals and visitors from London. The main local employment was for watermen and boat builders, but there was also work in the Chelsea porcelain factory and in producing the famous Chelsea buns.
On the opposite side of the river, Battersea lay on low, marshy ground often subject to flooding. Hence the soil was fertile and by the eighteenth century became famous for growing asparagus and lavender. The present-day Lavender Hill, which ascends from Clapham Junction Station, reminds us of those days by its name if not by its distinctly suburban atmosphere. A small mixed trading and residential village had grown up around St Mary’s Church and the manor house, near which a ferry had crossed the river to Chelsea since the sixteenth century. The ferry is first mentioned in 1550, and it is also listed in a document of 1592 which catalogues all the horse ferries on the Thames in London.
In 1763, Earl Spencer, an ancestor of Princess Diana, bought the manor of Battersea together with ownership of the ferry. He wasted little time in deciding that he could make more money from a toll bridge linking his property to the wealthy inhabitants of Chelsea than from a mere ferry. Earl Spencer formed the Battersea Bridge Company with 16 other investors to raise the finance and manage the maintenance of the bridge with a view to profiting from the tolls. In 1766, an Act was passed authorising the building of a stone bridge along the course of the ferry. However, the estimated cost of £83,000 for its construction was too high, so it was decided to build a wooden crossing instead, for a cost of £15,000. The bridge of 19 narrow arches was designed by Henry Holland (1745–1806) and opened in 1771. It seems that Parliament was not convinced of the reliability of the bridge, as a clause was inserted in the Act to the effect that Earl Spencer must provide a ferry service at the same rate as the bridge tolls in case the bridge had to be closed for repairs.
Unlike Putney Bridge, Battersea was not on a direct route from London, and so returns were low at first. In 1783, the company paid for 50 posters advertising Battersea Bridge as providing the shortest route to Epsom Races. This seems to have had the desired effect, and by 1790 a profit of £1,700 was recorded. Unfortunately, in the severe winter of 1795 the bridge was damaged by the heavy flow of ice, and no dividends were paid due to the cost of repairs. In 1799, oil lighting was installed on Battersea Bridge. This was a first for any bridge on the Thames. The oil lighting was replaced by gas in 1824. The Battersea Bridge Company spent much time negotiating with the
Government about payment for the frequent crossings by troops. In 1818, it was recorded that the Secretary at War, Lord Palmerston, later Prime Minister, agreed to pay £36 2 s. for that year’s troop crossings. Negotiations were also conducted with the police, who requested and were granted free passage. This was clearly a good idea, since Battersea was notorious for harbouring robbers and vagabonds.
1804 view of Old Battersea Bridge with the Horizontal Air Mill and St Mary’s Church spire on the south bank
A more serious issue for the company was the proposed new bridge at Vauxhall, which would have a severe effect on profits. As always, the company opposed any new bridge. The first proposal for a bridge at Vauxhall was put forward by none other than the hapless Ralph Dodd, who, we have seen, was also involved in the first abortive proposal for Hammersmith Bridge. The Battersea Bridge proprietors presented a petition to Parliament attacking Dodd’s proposal in a very personal manner: ‘It is first to be observed that Mr Ralph Dodd, projector of the new bridge, is a well known adventurer and Speculist [sic] and the projector of numerous undertakings upon a large scale most if not all of which have failed.’ However, when a new Bill was presented and it was clear that Parliament would authorise the bridge at Vauxhall, the company demanded compensation. A clause was inserted in the Act to oblige the Vauxhall Bridge Company to pay each of the Battersea proprietors compensation for loss of revenue following the opening of the new bridge. Vauxhall Bridge was completed in 1816, but no compensation was paid. The matter went to court and in 1821, after a five-year struggle, judgment was finally made in favour of the Battersea proprietors, who received £8,234 compensation.
Crossing the River: The History of London's Thames River Bridges From Richmond to the Tower Page 10
