“The Officers of old London Bridge, and its estates, are, firstly, Two Masters, or Wardens, who receive and pay all accounts of the Bridge-House, oversee its concerns, watchmen, labourers, &c., summon and attend the Auditors, and Committees, and meet the Corporation on Midsummer and Michaelmas days. The yearly salary of the senior is £250, and a house; and that of the junior, £200, with £86 for house-rent and taxes: their incomes being further increased by some trifling official fees. The Comptroller of the Works and Revenues of London Bridge receives a salary of £300, with other emoluments; and attends all Committees, keeping their journals, and preparing their reports, leases, contracts, and all other documents; he has also the custody of the records, &c., and, being a solicitor, conducts all the Bridge-House law-proceedings. The Clerk of the Works is occupied as a general Architectural Surveyor, attending Committees, arbitrations, &c., and making surveys, valuations, designs, and estimates. He superintends all new buildings and alterations on the Bridge-House lands, inspects the covenants and dilapidations of the tenants; as well as the time and bills of the trades-men, and the Bridge-House stores, of all which he makes reports to the Committee: his yearly salary is £500. The Assistant Clerk at the Bridge-House resides in the upper part of that building, with a salary of £200; assisting the Bridge-Masters in keeping and copying their accounts. The Superintendent of the Works at London Bridge overlooks and directs the repairs, the measuring and examination of the articles, and certifies their quantities, &c., his yearly salary being £100. The Bridge-House Carpenter is foreman of those works, with a residence and £200 per annum; he keeps the workmen’s accounts, and receives and portions out building stores; he also sets up marks on the Bridge-House estates, and repairs such water-stairs as they support. The Bridge-House Messenger is employed in summoning and attending the Auditors and Committees; in delivering notices to the tenants, and in various other duties at the Bridge-House, his salary being 36 shillings per week. To these officers is added a Collector of Rents of Tenants at Will in St. George’s Fields, who resides in a house belonging to the estate, and is paid by a commission of 5 per cent. The manner of letting premises pertaining to the Bridge-House, is, on the expiration of a lease, to have them viewed by the Committee and Surveyor; when, if the Committee and tenant agree, it is so stated to the Common Council; and, if not, the premises are put up to auction. Finally, the Committee of Bridge-House Estates is composed of a certain number of Aldermen, and a Commoner from each Ward; but no payments exceeding £100 are made without the sanction of the Common Council, a brief statement of the accounts being annually laid before the Court, a copy of which is sent to every member. The accounts and vouchers are then examined by four Auditors, annually elected by the Livery, to whom a report is made; the documents being sworn to by the Bridge-Masters; and these statements, fairly transcribed on vellum, are deposited, one copy in the Chamber of London, and another in the Muniment-Room at the Bridge-House. And now, having observed, that these particulars were given in evidence before a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in April 1821, and are printed much more at large in the tract of ‘Reports and Evidences,’ pages 72, 73, 135-138, here I conclude with a parting libation, and many thanks for your long-tried attention.”
Such, then, were Mr. Barnaby Postern’s historical notices of old London Bridge; in which the reader may perceive, that he evinced a fair proportion of antiquarian learning, and rather a large share of reading and memory. When he had arrived at this period, however, as I thought that my own information would enable me to add some curious modern particulars to his narrative, I addressed him with, “My best thanks are due to you, worthy Sir, for your interesting Chronicles of London Bridge; for, although you have sometimes been prosy enough to have wearied a dozen Dutchmen, yet, by my patience and your perseverance, the story is safely brought down to the present day. You have steered it, slowly enough, certainly, but surely, through all the intricate navigation of the Record Rolls, and have carefully avoided several of those rocks of error, upon which so many former historians have been wrecked. And since the narrative has now reached the building of a New London Bridge, pray allow me, so long your grateful hearer, to relate the ceremony of Laying the First Stone thereof, from my own observation, sketches, and memoranda.”
“My very hearty thanks are your’s for that most excellent proposal, Mr. Geoffrey,” said the old Antiquary; “for I am now too far declined into the vale of years, to describe modern ceremonials and festivities with the spirit of a younger Citizen: whilst you are ‘not clean past your youth;’ having yet only ‘some smack of age, some relish of the saltness of time in you;’ therefore the story, good Mr. Barbican, the story.”
“You shall have it, Sir,” replied I; “you shall have it, and with all the skill I can; though, after your highly-finished ancient historical pictures, my modern delineations can appear only faint and imperfect.
“The Coffer-Dam, in which the ceremony of Laying the First Stone took place, was erected opposite to the Southern Arch called the Fourth Lock, and was constructed of three rows of piles, planks, and earth, substantially secured by timbers of great strength and thickness; and when the day for performing it was fixed, it was officially announced by the following notice:—
“‘London Bridge. Mansion House, 23rd May, 1825. The Committee for Rebuilding the New London Bridge having appointed Wednesday, the 15th day of June next, for Laying the First Stone of the New Bridge, Notice is hereby given, that the Foot and Carriage-way over the present Bridge will be stopped on that day, from Eleven o’clock in the Forenoon until Four o’clock in the Afternoon.
‘By Order of the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor.
‘Francis Hobler.