The city of London once had an iconic landmark, famous around Europe for more than six hundred years, which disappeared almost two hundred years ago. Old London Bridge, dating from 1209, and lined with insecure-looking wooden houses providing homes for more than five hundred people above the waters of the River Thames, was the longest inhabited bridge in Europe.
Roman Bridge
The first bridge over the Thames, made of wood, appeared in Roman times. Bridges were regularly rebuilt over the next thousand years, destroyed by fires and even a tornado. Then, in 1176, work began on a new, revolutionary, stone bridge connecting the City to Southwark, which was completed in 1209. A miracle of engineering, the bridge crossed a wide, powerful tidal river . It served as a gateway to the City and was a place of religious pilgrimage and royal pageantry.
The bridge quickly became an important commercial crossing and prestigious business and residential area. Shops appeared on both sides of the roadway built in the middle. Houses were constructed above the shops, and rooms were built over the road in the middle, creating a pedestrian tunnel. Danger was never far away. In 1212, a huge fire destroyed all the buildings and killed three thousand people. In 1481, one of the multi-seated latrines fell into the river, and five men drowned.
Bloody Role
Old London Bridge played a role in England’s affairs of state. Those protesting or rebelling against the state, so-called ‘traitors’, could end up with their heads on spikes on the bridge. The Keeper of the Heads — a great job title — would first of all parboil the decapitated heads and then cover them in tar to preserve them.
Chaotic Traffic
Over the centuries the bridge’s traffic became more and more intense and chaotic. In the 1670s, attempts were made to keep the traffic in each direction to one side, through a keep-right policy, and then, from 1722, through a keep-left policy — a possible origin for traffic in the UK driving on the left!
Long Decline
A few years later, the bridge began a long decline. London’s West End overtook the bridge as a shopping centre, the property market slumped, and a new bridge opened at Westminster in 1750. Inhabitants began to leave the bridge. The final house was demolished in 1761. Plans started for a new bridge.
Lost to History
Demolition of Old London Bridge began in 1831 and the historic medieval landmark disappeared totally in 1832. One year before, the new London Bridge had opened. The new bridge, however, did not last. Less than 140 years later, it also disappeared. Its stone structure was dismantled and sent across the Atlantic Ocean to Arizona, where it served as one of the strangest tourist attractions in the world.