Vauxhall Bridge
Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge, originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge, built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the south bank of the Thames. The original bridge was built on the site of a former ferry. The building of both bridges was problematic, with both the first and second bridges requiring several redesigns from multiple architects. The original bridge, the first iron bridge over the Thames, was built by a private company and operated as a toll bridge before being taken into public ownership in 1879. The second bridge, which took eight years to build, was the first in London to carry trams and later one of the first two roads in London to have a bus lane.
Background
In the early 13th century, Anglo-Norman mercenary Falkes de Breauté built a manor house in the then empty marshlands of South Lambeth, across the River Thames from Westminster. In 1223–24, de Breauté and others revolted against Henry III; following a failed attempt to seize the Tower of London, de Breauté's lands in England were forfeited and he was forced into exile in France and later Rome.[4] The lands surrounding his Lambeth manor house continued to be known as Falkes' Hall, later Vauxhall.
New Spring Gardens, 1751
Dodd submitted a scheme for a bridge at Vauxhall of 13 arches. However, soon after the 1809 Act was passed, he was dismissed by the Vauxhall Bridge Company and his design was abandoned.[10] John Rennie was commissioned to design and build the new bridge, and a stone bridge of seven arches was approved. On 9 May 1811, Lord Dundas laid the foundation stone of the bridge on the northern bank.[3]
The Vauxhall Bridge Company ran into financial difficulties and was unable to raise more than the £300,000 stipulated in the 1809 Act,[9] and a new Act was passed in 1812 permitting the Company to build a cheaper iron bridge. Rennie submitted a new design for an iron bridge of eleven spans, costing far less than the original stone design. Rennie's design was rejected, and instead construction began on a nine arch iron bridge designed by Samuel Bentham. Concerns were raised about the construction of the piers, and engineer James Walker was appointed to inspect the work. Walker's report led to the design being abandoned for the second time, and Walker himself was appointed to design and build a bridge of nine 78-foot (24 m) cast-iron arches with stone piers, the first iron bridge to be built across the Thames.
Vauxhall Bridge in 1829
In anticipation of the areas surrounding the bridge becoming prosperous suburbs, tolls were set at relatively high rates on a sliding scale, ranging from a penny for pedestrians to 2s 6d for vehicles drawn by six horses. Exemptions were granted for mail coaches, soldiers on duty and parliamentary candidates during election campaigns.[9] However, the area around the bridge failed to develop as expected. In 1815 John Doulton built the Doulton & Watts (later Royal Doulton) stoneware factory at Vauxhall, and consequently instead of the wealthy residents anticipated by the company, the area began to fill with narrow streets of working class tenements to house the factory's workers. Meanwhile, the large Millbank Penitentiary was built near the northern end of the bridge, discouraging housing development. Consequently, toll revenues were initially lower than expected, and the dividends paid to investors were low.
1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) closer to central London, at Waterloo Bridge station (renamed "Waterloo Station" in 1886), and the terminus at Nine Elms was abandoned. With the closure of the rail terminus, Vauxhall Bridge's main source of revenue was visitors to the Vauxhall Gardens pleasure park. In addition to people visiting the Gardens themselves, Vauxhall Gardens were used as a launch point for hot air balloon flights, and large crowds would gather on the bridge and surrounding streets to watch the flights. A large crowd also assembled on the bridge in September 1844 to watch Mister Barry, a clown from Astley's Amphitheatre, sail from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge in a washtub towed by geese. Public ownership[edit] Despite early setbacks and the construction nearby in the 19th century of three competing bridges (Lambeth Bridge, Chelsea Bridge and Albert Bridge), the rapid urban growth of London made Vauxhall Bridge very profitable. The annual income from tolls rose from £4,977 (about £367,000 in 2020) in its first full year of operation, to £62,392 in 1877 (about £5,917,000 in 2020). In 1877 the Metropolis Toll Bridges Act was passed, allowing the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) to buy all London bridges between Hammersmith Bridge and Waterloo Bridge and free them from tolls. In 1879 the bridge was bought by the MBW for £255,000 (about £26,120,000 in 2020) and tolls on the bridge were lifted. Inspections of the bridge by the MBW following the purchase found that the two central piers were badly eroded, exposing the timber cradles on which the piers rested. Large quantities of cement in bags were laid around the wooden cradles as an emergency measure; however, the cement bags themselves soon washed away. The piers were removed, replaced by a single large central arch. By this time the bridge was in very poor condition, and in 1895 the London County Council (LCC), which had taken over from the MBW in 1889, sought and gained Parliamentary approval to replace the bridge. Permission was granted by Parliament to raise the projected replacement costs of £484,000 (about £56,320,000 in 2020) from rates across the whole of London rather than only local residents, as a new bridge was considered to be of benefit to the whole of London. In August 1898 a temporary wooden bridge was moved into place alongside the existing bridge, and the demolition of the old bridge began.
New Vauxhall Bridge
Sir Alexander Binnie, the resident engineer of the London County Council (LCC), submitted a design for a steel bridge, which proved unpopular. At the request of the LCC, Binnie submitted a new design for a bridge of five spans, to be built in concrete and faced with granite.
Work on Binnie's design began, but was beset by problems. Leading architects condemned the design, with Arthur Beresford Pite describing it as "a would-be Gothic architectural form of great vulgarity and stupid want of meaning", and T G Jackson describing the bridge designs as a sign of "the utter apparent indifference of those in authority to the matter of art". Plans to build large stone abutments had to be suspended when it was found that the southern abutment would block the River Effra, which by this time had been diverted underground to serve as a storm relief sewer and which flowed into the Thames at this point. The Effra had to be rerouted to join the Thames to the north of the bridge.[16][n 4] After the construction of the foundations and piers it was then discovered that the clay of the riverbed at this point would not be able to support the weight of a concrete bridge. With the granite piers already in place, it was decided to build a steel superstructure onto the existing piers, and a superstructure 809 feet (247 m) long and 80 feet (24 m) wide was designed by Binnie and Maurice Fitzmaurice and built by LCC engineers at a cost of £437,000 (about £47,350,000 in 2020). The new bridge was eventually opened on 26 May 1906, five years behind schedule, in a ceremony presided over by the Prince of Wales and Evan Spicer, Chairman of the LCC. Charles Wall, who had won the contract to build the superstructure of the new bridge, paid the LCC £50 for the temporary wooden bridge, comprising 40,000 cubic feet (1,100 m3) of timber and 580 tons of scrap metal.
Sculpture
The new bridge was built to a starkly functional design, and many influential architects had complained about the lack of consultation from any architects during the design process by the engineers designing the new bridge. In 1903, during the construction of the bridge, the LCC consulted with architect William Edward Riley regarding possible decorative elements that could be added to the bridge. Riley proposed erecting two 60-foot (18 m) pylons topped with statues at one end of the bridge, and adding decorative sculpture to the bridge piers. The pylons were rejected on grounds of cost, but following further consultation with leading architect Richard Norman Shaw it was decided to erect monumental bronze statues above the piers, and Alfred Drury, George Frampton and Frederick Pomeroy were appointed to design appropriate statues.
Frampton resigned from the project through pressure of work, and Drury and Pomeroy carried out the project, each contributing four monumental statues, which were installed in late 1907. On the upstream piers are Pomeroy's Agriculture, Architecture, Engineering and Pottery, whilst on the downstream piers are Drury's Science, Fine Arts, Local Government and Education. Each statue weighs approximately two tons. Despite their size, the statues are little-noticed by users of the bridge as they are not visible from the bridge itself, but only from the river banks or from passing shipping.
Usage
The new bridge soon became a major transport artery and today carries the A202 across the Thames. Originally built with tram tracks, New Vauxhall Bridge was the first in central London to carry trams. Initially it carried horse-drawn trams, but shortly after the bridge's opening it was converted to carry the electric trams of London County Council Tramways; it continued to carry trams until the ending of tram services in 1951
