A contemporary engineer said it was
perhaps the finest large masonry bridge ever built in this or any other country’ ‘ the noblest bridge in the world’ ‘ Italian sculptor Antonio Canova called it
A contemporary engineer said it was ‘perhaps the finest large masonry bridge ever built in this or any other country.’ Italian sculptor Antonio Canova called it ‘the noblest bridge in the world’ and said it was worth going to England just to see it. Painters loved it so much they painted it – Monet from the window of his room at The Savoy Hotel. Demolition throwback: The original Waterloo Bridge
The original Waterloo Bridge was built by the Strand Bridge Co., who opened it in 1817. It was going to be called The Strand Bridge but was instead renamed to provide a lasting record of the British victory two years earlier; the Duke of Wellington himself attended its opening ceremony.
Waterloo Bridge was designed by the Scottish engineer John Rennie, complete with dramatic Doric columns. When it opened it did so as a toll bridge. But few people used it, as it was always possible to cross the Thames using Blackfriars or Westminster bridges instead, which were free. This particular battle of Waterloo was finally lost in 1878, when the bridge was nationalised and the tolls removed.
In 1889 the bridge was passed onto the London County Council (LCC). But it was discovered that an increase in the flow of the Thames had resulted in erosion of the foundations of the bridge piers. In 1924 the bridge was closed, and though a temporary steel framework enabled it to re-open, in 1930 the LCC decided it should be demolished. But the LCC’s subsequent attempts to do so came up against strong opposition, leading to a national debate among politicians, architects, engineers and the general public about the need for preserving or replacing the bridge.
Parliament continued to debate the pros and cons for an incredible 15 years, conflicted between aesthetic and utilitarian opinions about urban space within the modern city. A group of artists from the Royal Academy rallied around the cause, fueling what was described by Maureen Borland – painter, poet and art critic – as ’The “classic battle of the artist against the engineer, the aesthete against the philistine.’ Following much dispute, parliament refused to grant the money for a new bridge, which led to the leader of the leader of the LCC – and future wartime Home Secretary – Herbert (later Baron) Morrison, taking matters into his own hands.
On 21 June 1934, Morrison started tearing the old bridge down with a crowbar, thereby becoming one of the nation’s most famous demolition men. In 1937 Parliament eventually relented, and demolition began, with a new bridge replacing it in the 1940s. As today, recycling was at the forefront of Waterloo Bridge’s reconstruction. Some of the foundations were still so strong that they were retained for its replacement, which helped to mollify some preservationists by creating at least a sense of connection and commemoration to the past.
Some of the old bridge also found its way into the new one, in the form of facading or infill. While many of its granite blocks were offered as gifts to Commonwealth countries. The new bridge’s fate ultimately became entangled with the events of World War II. It experienced its own premature (and thanksfully only partial) demolition – becoming the only bridge in London to be hit by a bomb during the war.
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