A Guide to Underground London

London Bridge

Posted in Northern Line on Apr 5th, 2010

london_bridge

London Bridge is the only tube station on the network with the word ‘London’ in its name. Roman remains and mosaic fragments were discovered during the construction of a ticket hall for the Jubilee line – some of the mosaic fragments are on display. It is connected to London Bridge mainline station which is one of the oldest in London.

Opened: 1900

Lines served: Jubilee, Bank branch of the Northern line

The First Bridge
London Bridge is where it all started. The first wooden bridge was constructed by the Romans soon after they arrived in AD 43 and next to it, on the north bank of the Thames, they founded the settlement of Londinium. When the Romans lost patience with constantly fending off Germanic invaders and headed back to sunnier climes, the bridge rotted away before eventually being replaced by a Saxon version. Several incarnations and nearly two thousand years later we are left with the present bridge, opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1973. It’s not much to look at and disappoints many an expectant tourist but is commendably functional and supports a heavy volume of traffic.

That Nursery Rhyme
The nursery rhyme ‘London’s Bridge is Falling Down’ is thought to refer to a battle in 1014 when the Norman King Ethelred ordered the deliberate destruction of the bridge in a defensive move against the invading Danes. The Norwegian King Olaf helpfully obliged by setting off down the river with his men. They tied their boats to the bridge supports and then rowed away, pulling it down as they went.

Set in Stone
When one of the wooden versions of the bridge was destroyed by fire in 1136, Peter de Colechurch, the newly appointed warden of the bridge, proposed a stone crossing instead. The first stone bridge opened in 1209 and was lined with houses. It had 19 small arches, a drawbridge to the south and waterwheels to the north (designed to utilise the power of the current). Shops were later added which drew crowds and left limited space for the traffic, inevitably causing intense congestion. As a result, London bridge became the first place where traffic was legally required to keep to the left.

Tragically, in 1212 a fire broke out at both ends of the bridge, killing over 3000 people. Another fire, in 1633 destroyed part of the northern section of the bridge. Mercifully though, this served as a fire break when the Great Fire of London broke out in 1666, sparing the bridge from further damage.

Frost Fairs
The arches of that first stone bridge dramatically affected the flow of the river which meant that it sometimes froze if the winter was cold enough. Never missing an opportunity for a party, London folk held celebrations and events on the ice that came to be known as ‘frost fairs’. The fairs were impromptu, unofficial gatherings involving archery, dancing, the roasting of pigs and general winter merriment.

Once Colechurch’s stone bridge was demolished in 1831, the river no longer froze and frost fairs became a thing of the past.

Severed Heads
A gruesome tradition in medieval times was to display the severed heads of traitors impaled on pikes on top of the southern gatehouse of the bridge. They served as a grim warning of what would happen to anyone contemplating treason. The first head to go up was that of William Wallace in 1305 and it became such a popular tradition that it continued until around 1661. Other famous heads to go on display were those of Guy Fawkes and Thomas More.

For Sale
Colechurch’s bridge lasted for over 600 years before it was finally replaced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The new bridge, designed by engineer John Rennie, had five stone arches and was opened by William IV and Queen Adelaide in 1831. However, increasingly heavy traffic prompted efforts to widen the bridge which damaged the foundations. By the early twentieth century it became clear that yet another replacement was needed.

Rather than simply demolish Rennie’s bridge, it was put up for sale. In 1968, it was sold to American oil entrepreneur Robert McCulloch for £1,029,000 and became the largest antique ever sold. McCulloch had it dismantled stone by stone and shipped to the US where it was rebuilt over a lake in Arizona.

In the Clink
Not far from the bridge, The Clink Prison Museum on Clink Street is built on top of one of the oldest and most notorious prisons in England. In use between 1144 and 1780, it was part of a palace complex owned by the Bishop of Winchester and intended to help control that area of Southwark, a notorious centre of vice at the time. Local prostitutes were nicknamed ‘Winchester geese’ and those unlucky enough to contract an STD as a result of their visit were said to have been ‘bitten by the Winchester geese’.

The name of the prison is thought to derive from the noise made by the chains of the prisoners and is the origin of the expression ‘in the clink’, now meaning generally ‘to be in prison’.

Golden Hinde
Also on Clink Street, at Pickfords Wharf sits a full-sized replica of the Golden Hinde, the flagship of the fleet Sir Francis Drake used to circumnavigate the globe between 1577 and 1580. The original succumbed to rot in the late 1600s but the replica, launched in 1973, has also circumnavigated the globe and put in many more miles than the original.

Drake set sail with a charter from Queen Elizabeth I, permitting him to loot any enemy ships (which essentially pointed to the Spanish). Many Spanish ships were captured and on their return Drake and his crew enjoyed a generous share of the wealth while the rest went to Elizabeth. The Spanish, with just cause, still consider him a pirate.

The Old Operating Theatre
Curiously located in the roof space of St Thomas’ Church on St Thomas Street is the oldest operating theatre in Britain. The women’s wards of the original St Thomas’ hospital (now Guys Hospital – St Thomas’ has moved to Lambeth) were built around the church and the theatre was purpose built inside to carry out surgery away from the main wards and to allow students to observe. The operations carried out were crude, mainly amputations and done without access to anaesthetics and before the invention of antiseptic surgery.

HMS Belfast
Formidably moored on the south bank of the river, not far from London Bridge, is the HMS Belfast, an enormous hulk of military seafaring prowess that now operates as a branch of the Imperial War Museum. The HMS Belfast was in active service for over 32 years, having played a significant role in the Second World War and in Korea. She later served on peacekeeping missions before finally being decommissioned in 1963. She was saved from scrapyard by a dedicated group of campaigners led by her former captain and brought to London and opened to the public in 1971.

The Glass Testicle
Designed by Norman Foster, opened in 2002 and home to the Mayor of London, city hall, on The Queens Walk, is variously referred to as a misshapen egg, Darth Vader’s helmet and a glass testicle (the latter by former Mayor Ken Livingstone). It was designed as a ‘green’ building, enabling it to run on a quarter of the energy typically consumed by standard equivalent office buildings. Areas of the building are open to the public for exhibitions and access is occasionally granted to ‘London’s Living Room’, the top floor of the building which affords spectacular views across the capital.