The Battersea Bridge Company archives throw light on the working conditions of the employees. The following regulations on the terms and conditions under which the tollmen were to work were issued in 1796:
1. That the Salary of each Tollman be twelve shillings a week.
2. That they relieve each other every other day at one quarter before seven o’clock in the morning from the 1st of March to the 30th of September; and from the 1st of October to the 28th of February at a quarter before eight o’clock.
3. That besides the three days and three nights, the Proprietors may require of each of the Tollmen one day’s work each week; and upon Sundays both Tollmen to attend at the Hours and Gates as may from time to time be ordered.
4. Not allow any person to drink in the Tollhouse, nor have any liquor there except for their meals.
5. Not to suffer any person to pass without paying Toll, unless the Check Clerk gives permission to do so.
6. If any serious complaint is made against the Tollmen, the Proprietors for the first offence may fine them five shillings, for the second offence, ten shillings and upon the third offence they must be discharged, as also in case any Peculation or Fraud is proved against them.
7. Each Tollman to be appointed in future must produce a Security for the faithful discharge of his Trust in the sum of Thirty Pounds; and the present Tollmen must take an Oath (as often as the Proprietors may require it) that subsequent to this period they have faithfully accounted for all Moneys they have received, and have never wilfully increased the amount of bad coinage whether halfpence or silver.
8. That provided no complaint is made against them and having complied with the above Laws and Regulations, they shall be paid a Gratuity every month of five shillings each.15
In 1810 the company raised the tollmen’s salaries to 16 shillings a week and stipulated ‘that three pints of Porter be allowed them every day they are on duty except that the allowance be stopped on the days that any Person is found tippling in the Tollhouse’. Shortly after this, the salary was increased to 18 shillings and the beer allowance stopped.
By the second half of the nineteenth century, the bridge had undergone so many repairs that it looked like a dilapidated ancient monument. Its safety record was poor, it was clearly inadequate for the increasing traffic that resulted from the growing population of both Chelsea and Battersea, and it was an obstruction to shipping. Opinion was divided on its aesthetic merits. George Bryan wrote in 1869:
The number of lives that have been sacrificed at this bridge, together with the barges sunken at it even within the last few years is really too painful to contemplate. It is a sad contrast in every respect to the elegant structures that now span the river and it is to be hoped there will soon be erected another one in its place.16
On the other hand, many artists produced paintings and engravings which tended to show the bridge as a picturesque and even romantic structure. Walter Greaves, whose most famous painting was of Hammersmith Bridge on Boat Race day, worked in the family firm of boat builders close to Battersea Bridge. He was evidently fascinated by the swift flow of the water through the narrow arches, where young watermen took up the challenge to shoot the bridge at considerable risk to themselves. He recalled how as a boy he once watched a barge sink when it collided with one of the piers, and local watermen dragged the corpses of an entire family from its cabin. Greaves frequently depicted the bridge and the adjacent riverside in a rough but naturalistic style.
Whistler, who had been Greaves’s artistic mentor but who later fell out with him, used a very different approach in his series of nocturnes. He depicted a variety of riverside scenes including some at Chelsea. Like Greaves, Whistler had a house in Chelsea, and the area by Battersea Bridge was familiar ground to him. His Nocturne: Blue and Gold, painted between 1872 and 1875, shows Battersea Bridge looming out of the water in a gloomy haze and lacking any clear details. It reminds us of a late Turner or even a Monet. Whistler’s nocturnes achieved notoriety when John Ruskin wrote a scathing attack on them, accusing the artist of ‘flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face’ with his Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket. Whistler sued for libel and won the case. The judge, however, seems not to have taken the matter too seriously. Referring to Nocturne: Blue and Gold, he caused much laughter in court when he asked Whistler, ‘Which part of the picture is the bridge?’, and he awarded damages of just one farthing. The painting was startling, even revolutionary, at the time and now hangs in Tate Britain. The bridge itself did not survive so long. However, its artistic memory is preserved by the statue of Whistler, sculpted by Nicholas Dimbleby in 2005, which stands at the north end of today’s Battersea Bridge.
In 1864, the Albert Bridge Company obtained an Act of Parliament enabling them to build a bridge a few hundred yards downstream of Battersea Bridge. As this would seriously damage the finances of the Battersea proprietors, a clause was inserted to give powers of compulsory purchase, so that the new company took over ownership of Battersea Bridge before starting work on the Albert Bridge. In 1879, the Metropolitan Board of Works bought both bridges for £170,000 and freed them from tolls. Soon after this, Battersea Bridge was declared unsafe. In 1883, after 111 years of constant repairs, it was closed and replaced by a temporary footbridge while a new Battersea Bridge was constructed to the design of Sir Joseph Bazalgette.
Bazalgette’s bridge consists of five segmental arched spans constructed of cast iron. It is one of the narrowest of London’s Thames bridges, with a roadway width of only 40 feet. The two 8-foot-wide footpaths are supported on arms cantilevered out from the main structure of the bridge. Although not as ornamental as Bazalgette’s Hammersmith Bridge, his Battersea Bridge has some fine cast-iron decoration. The parapet consists of a line of delicate arabesque arches. The main spans are topped by a strong cornice and have ornamental shields and foliate decoration in the spandrels. The bridge was opened on 31 July 1890 by Lord Rosebery, the first chairman of the London County Council. Since almost all previous metropolitan bridge-opening ceremonies had been conducted by a member of the Royal Family, he decided to meet any objections head-on in his opening address, as reported in The Times of 22 July 1890: ‘I understand that there are some in this neighbourhood who make it a matter of complaint that I am not of Royal extraction. (Laughter.) That is a feeling which I entirely share. (Renewed laughter.)’ This experience must have given him great confidence for his next opening ceremony, when on the following day he opened the major new road between Clerkenwell and Holborn, and named it Rosebery Avenue after himself.
Bazalgette’s Battersea Bridge of 1890, viewed by Derwent Wood’s statue of Atalanta on the Chelsea Embankment
Although the new Battersea Bridge was praised by Lord Rosebery at its opening, like many of its Victorian counterparts it was designed before the invention of the motor car and has proved less than satisfactory for modern traffic. It has also caused problems for navigation, as it is low and the swirling current on the bend in the river makes steering difficult. Passing boats have crashed into the bridge on a number of occasions, often resulting in its closure for repairs. In March 1950, the collier John Hopkinson caused severe damage to the centre pier when it was blown into it during a gale. The LCC was concerned that the whole structure would collapse and closed the bridge for repairs until January 1951. Most of the cost of the repairs was borne by the local ratepayers because the Merchant Shipping Act limits the liability of vessel owners to £8 per ton. Since the John Hopkinson weighed 1,300 tons, the owners had to pay only £10,400 out of the total of £35,000. The reaction of local residents when the bridge was eventually reopened was remarkable. The Star of 17 January 1951 quotes one resident as saying, ‘The return of the traffic noise makes us feel we are a community again. It was really ghostly, especially at weekends – almost like living in the country.’ The point was also made that local traders estimated they were losing £15 a day on average during the closure.
The most serious incident from a human
point of view involved the motor vessel Delta, which became jammed under the bridge in 1948. Its master, Hendrikus Oostring, was trapped in the wreckage of the wheelhouse for some time before he could be rescued. He had to be operated on for broken arms and the Delta itself was towed away to dry dock for repairs. On this occasion, Battersea Bridge suffered only minor damage. More recently, on 21 September 2005, a barge crashed into the bridge causing its immediate closure. The following day, pedestrians and cyclists were allowed to cross, but the bridge remained closed to vehicle traffic for several months while repairs were undertaken.
Battersea Bridge is now Grade II listed and currently there are no plans to replace the Victorian structure. Its history is relatively uneventful apart from its frequent closures. The Times of 26 May 1958 does record an amusing incident when five youths jumped naked off the bridge at midnight after a heavy bout of drinking. They had to cling to a boat for several minutes before the police came to rescue them. They were immediately taken to Battersea Police Station wearing just their underpants and charged with being drunk and disorderly.
On a sadder note, Battersea Bridge witnessed the furthest limit of the fatal journey of a 19-foot-long northern bottlenose whale which swam 40 miles up the Thames on 20 and 21 January 2006. Normally, these rare mammals inhabit the Atlantic Ocean, and it is thought that the whale must have taken a wrong turn off the north of Scotland and so ended up at the Thames estuary. There, its natural instinct to travel west so as to return to its usual habitat caused it to swim up the Thames. Attempts were made to persuade the whale to swim back downstream to the North Sea, but to no avail. Eventually, rescuers managed to lift the massive bulk onto a barge, which then proceeded on its way towards the sea. Unfortunately, the whale was by then exhausted from lack of food. It died before it could be returned to the open sea, but not before it had created headline news throughout the world for its 48-hour battle for survival in the River Thames.
Albert Bridge
The Albert Bridge crosses the Thames from a little to the east of Chelsea Old Church to the west side of Battersea Park. It is named after Prince Albert, who had the original idea for a bridge here. Although Albert died before the bridge was completed, it still bears his name today, unlike the next bridge downstream, which was opened as Victoria Bridge but has since changed its name to Chelsea Bridge. The Albert Bridge proposal was fiercely contested by the Battersea Bridge proprietors. It was finally allowed to go ahead when the 1864 Act of Parliament forced the Albert Bridge Company to take over ownership of the by-now-decrepit Battersea Bridge under a compulsory purchase order. The Act specified that the bridge should be completed within five years and also laid down the rates of the tolls.
Construction was delayed because of uncertainty about the plans to build an embankment at Chelsea. Consequently, a new Act was required to allow an extension of the time limit. Work started in 1870 and the bridge was opened without ceremony in 1873 for a total cost of £200,000. The design of the bridge, by Rowland Mason Ordish (1824–86), was innovative and almost unique. The two river-piers rest on cast-iron cylinders filled with concrete. These were the largest castings ever made at the time. The roadway is supported both by cable-stayed rods, which radiate out from the top of the twin ornamental cast-iron towers resting on each of the piers, and also by suspension chains. Because the towers were constructed outside the parapets, they do not obstruct the pathways.
The only other bridge to use Ordish’s system was the old Franz Joseph Bridge in Prague, which was over 800 feet long, compared with the 710 feet of the Albert Bridge. The Franz Joseph Bridge was demolished in 1949, while the Albert Bridge still stands today as the only original vehicular bridge structure remaining on the Thames in central London, apart from Tower Bridge. It is perhaps surprising that cable-stayed designs were hardly used again until the latter half of the twentieth century. Today, some of the most imposing bridges in the world, including the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford, with its 450-metre main span, are cable-stayed.
Like Bazalgette’s Battersea Bridge, Albert Bridge has not worn well and, with its narrow carriageway of 27 feet, has proved unsatisfactory for modern traffic. Problems were first noticed when the bridge was taken over by the MBW and Sir Joseph Bazalgette diagnosed rust in the supporting chains. New chains were installed in 1887. In the 1950s, the LCC planned to demolish the old bridge and build a new, wider one. John Betjeman led the campaign to save the old Albert Bridge, which became known as ‘the Trembling Lady’ because of its tendency to wobble, especially when troops from the nearby Chelsea Barracks marched across. The Times published several letters both supporting and opposing the LCC plans. Betjeman used the full power of his invective against a scientist, Mr Hill, who had ventured to suggest that we should move with the times and build for the twentieth century. In his letter of 9 June 1957, Betjeman wrote:
I quote the statement of your correspondent of June 7 that it is a sign of progress when a nation destroys the buildings of the days of its greatness. I cannot believe he wants the country to be all airports, glass towers and sodium lights, with no old bridges at all.
Unlike the abortive campaign to save Waterloo Bridge in the 1930s, this protest was successful, and the LCC abandoned its plans at least for a while.
By the 1970s, the bridge had become so fragile that a weight limit of 2 tons was imposed. The LCC produced another plan, this time to close the bridge to traffic and limit it to pedestrians and cyclists. This plan again aroused fierce controversy, and supporters and opponents enlisted the endorsement of celebrities. The Royal Automobile Club, which opposed the idea, brought in the film star Diana Dors to front its campaign. Local groups had the support of the poet Robert Graves in their campaign to close the bridge. The latter group managed to obtain 1,000 signatures for a petition, but this was derided by the British Road Federation, which wrote: ‘If you send a lot of students around to council flats, most people will sign anything without knowing what it is all about.’ The 1974 public inquiry decided in the end not to close the bridge to traffic, although the 2-ton weight limit was maintained and work was undertaken to strengthen the deck. More controversially, the LCC was allowed to install two new cylindrical concrete piers to support the middle of the deck despite protests from the Royal Fine Art Commission, which argued that this would entirely spoil the elegance of Ordish’s design. These piers were supposed to be a temporary measure to give the LCC five years to decide what to do with the bridge. The chief engineer of the LCC had told the public inquiry that the bridge could last a maximum of 30 years even with the central supports. In the event, the supports were never removed and the bridge still stands.
Albert Bridge with night-time reflections in the river
Albert Bridge is now Grade II listed. Its survival would have pleased William Blake, who lived nearby and admired it greatly. During the 1990s, it underwent considerable redecoration and rewiring, which has resulted in making the bridge one of London’s most attractive sights both in the daytime and at night. The delicate Wedgwood colour scheme of salmon pink, light and dark blues and green complement the ornamental intricacy of its cast-iron towers and the slim wrought-iron bars splayed out from their tops. The engineers claim that the colour scheme is also designed to stand out in murky light, so that shipping will not collide with the piers. The bridge really comes to life at night, with its award-winning lighting system. Four thousand low-voltage tungsten halogen bulbs hang from its cables and towers, lighting up the river in a glitter of fairyland. As well as adorning the river at night, the bulbs have a lifespan of 18 months, much longer than traditional lighting, and so the bridge does not need to be closed too frequently for changing the bulbs. A Certificate of Commendation was awarded in 1993 by the Lighting Industry Federation for this innovative lighting system and was presented by Mary Archer, chair of the National Energy Council. Albert Bridge has come of age in style, hopefully to last many more years, provided that traffic obeys the 2-ton weight limit, that troops obey the notice at its appr
oach requesting them ‘to break step when crossing the bridge’ and that the central props do not have to be removed, despite the fact that they were supposed to be only a temporary measure 30 years ago.
The notice to troops to break step at the approach to Albert Bridge
Chelsea Bridge
The first Chelsea Bridge was closely connected with government plans to develop the unruly Battersea Fields area into a pleasure park for public enjoyment. In 1842, the Commission for Improving the Metropolis recommended that a suspension bridge be constructed between a point downstream of the Royal Hospital Chelsea and the notorious Red House Inn on the south bank so as to allow access to the proposed Battersea Park.
The Red House had been a popular destination for revellers since the sixteenth century, when people travelled there by wherry from London. One moralist described the area around the inn as a place where ‘lawlessness, Sabbath desecration, immorality and vice are rampant’.17 Sundays, when fairs were held with pugilistic fights, dog fights and general rowdiness, were especially riotous. The inn was also notorious for duels, which were officially illegal but often took place there because of the lack of police presence. One famous duel occurred when the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo and Prime Minister, challenged the young Earl of Winchilsea, who had insulted him because of his support for the Catholic Emancipation Bill in 1829. With their seconds present, the two men walked to their places. The Duke fired first and missed. It is not known if this was deliberate, but he insisted that Winchilsea fire in his turn. Winchilsea fired into the air and rendered his apology, thus ending the matter in a gentlemanly manner.
Crossing the River: The History of London's Thames River Bridges From Richmond to the Tower Page 11
