Chronicles of London Bridge

by Richard Thompson

“As I do not find that the famous Frost of 1794 produced any very remarkable circumstance connected with London Bridge, I shall hasten to the year 1799, when it again became the subject of considerable inquiry and speculation, the particulars of which are so fully recorded in that Report to which I have now referred you: pages 5 and 6, section 2, and ‘Appendix,’ B. 1,-B. 11, pages 21-49, plates v.-vii. The amount of these proceedings was, that after a minute survey of the Bridge and River, by Mr. George Dance, Clerk of the Works, and Mr. John Foulds, his assistant, and Engineer to the Water-works, executed between the months of May and July, it was ascertained, that, provided the Sterlings were kept in repair, the structure itself was likely to stand for ages. These defences, they added, had then been recently altered and improved in shape, size, and construction, so as to retain the chalk, &c. with which they were then filling; and though there were many fractures in the building, they had not increased in the last 30 years. The average cost of its repairs had exceeded £4200 annually, for the last six years, and the Wardens’ receipts for the same period had varied from £9772: 2s. 1½d. to £24,848: 10s. 4½d. These financial particulars are recorded at length in the Report whence we derive our information; ‘Appendix,’ B. 10, pages 38-49, in a document entitled ‘An account of the produce of the Estates of the City of London, called the Bridge-House Estates, and the application thereof, from the year 1756 to Christmas 1798;’ which may properly be considered as a continuation of that paper which furnished us with the ancient revenues and expenditures. I should observe, however, that the Report still represents the dangers of the Bridge navigation; stating, that, although the stream was 10 feet deep under the Middle Arch at low-water, yet, at the distance of only a few yards below it, there were not more than 18 inches. These Reports contain also the following engravings.

“1. ‘Ground-plan and Elevation of London Bridge in its present state, 2nd July, 1799, taken by Mr. Dance. R. Metcalf Sculp.’ A most curious and interesting print, measuring 8 feet 5 inches, by 2 feet; shewing the sizes of the several locks; the different heights of the tides; the singular forms of the Sterlings; a Section through one of the arches and roadway, and the measurement of every part set down in figures. See Plate v. in the large folio of Drawings, &c. belonging to the Second Report. If to these particulars we add the Water-works, the line of Soundings taken along the points of the Sterlings, a Section of the bed of the River beneath them, and Mr. Smeaton’s new foundation of the Great Arch, we shall have the most accurate materials for constructing the Ground-Plan and Elevation of Old London Bridge.

“2. Another print belonging to this Report, consists of the ‘Soundings of the Great Arch of London Bridge, taken from the top of the Sterlings, 29th May, 1799, by J. Foulds and I. K.:’ to which are added the depths of the River, at, and between, London Bridge and Billingsgate, taken at low-water. Plate vi. in the same volume. The printed Report also contains three other engravings connected with this subject, from drawings made by Mr. Smeaton, to illustrate his observations on London Bridge, in March, 1763, and afterwards preserved by Sir Joseph Banks, with the original manuscript of his Report. They will be found at page 25, B. 5, of the ‘Appendix,’ and they consist of—1. ‘Section of the Water-way at London Bridge as it was before the opening of the Great Arch, and at the beginning of Feb. 1763:’—2. ‘Plan of the Sterlings of London Bridge, before the opening of the Great Arch;’—3. ‘Plan of the proposed Water-way under the Great Arch of London Bridge,’ shewing the bed of rubble, &c. laid down for lining the foundation, and the additions to the two centre Sterlings. All these engravings, however, you will find reduced upon one plate, by W. Lowry, and inserted in Smeaton’s ‘Reports’ already cited, volume ii., page 1.

“And now, Mr. Geoffrey Barbican, though I am rapidly advancing towards the end of my Chronicles, like the tired post-horse, which exerts all his remaining strength when he sees his resting-place is not far distant, though I may not delay my course to enlarge upon any part of our subject, yet I think it not only a fair opportunity, but a positive duty, to collect all the omissions that I can remember from the former part of my history; ‘unconsidered trifles,’ as Autolycus says, and add them to the end of the 18th Century, which is to us the great barrier between ancient and modern times.

“And firstly, I would observe, that so early as the year 1179-80, the inhabitants of the vicinity of London Bridge appear to have formed themselves into several of those fraternities anciently called Guilds; though, having done so without lawful authority, they were fined in various penalties. Whilst they all bore, however, the title of Gilda de Ponte, or Bridge-Guild, we can only suppose that the members of them lived in the Bridge-street, since the stone edifice had been at that time no more than three or four years begun. You will find these particulars recorded by Madox, in his ‘History of the Exchequer,’ chapter xiv., section xv., pages 390, 391, note z, and cited from the Great Roll of the 26th year of Henry II.; the following being those articles which immediately refer to the present subject. ‘The Bridge-Guild, whereof Thomas Cocus is Alderman, oweth 1 mark,’—13s. 4d.: ‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Ailwin Fink is Alderman, oweth 15 marks:’—‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Robert de Bosco is Alderman, oweth 10 marks:’—‘the Bridge-Guild, whereof Peter Fitz Alan was Alderman, oweth 15 marks.’

“In speaking, too, of the reign of Queen Mary, I omitted to mention that short notice with which John Fox has furnished us, of certain ‘vaine pageants,’ exhibited to her upon London Bridge. You will find the passage in the second volume of that edition of his ‘Acts and Monuments’ which I have already cited, page 1338, and it runs thus. ‘And the next day, being Saturday, the xix. of August—1554,—the King and Queene’s Majesties rode from Suffolk Place, accompanied with a great number as well of noblemen as of gentlemen, through the City of London to White Hall, and at London Bridge, as he entered at the Draw-Bridge, was a great vaine spectacle set vp, two images presenting two Giants, one named Corineus and the other Gogmagog, holding between them certain Latin verses, which, for the vain ostentation of flattery, I overpasse.’ I can discover no other particulars of this exhibition, but the preceding paragraph was copied, by Holinshed, into his ‘Chronicles,’ volume ii., page 1120.

“In mentioning the tradesmen who resided on London Bridge, I ought, also, to have pointed out to your notice that paragraph concerning them, first inserted in Strype’s edition of Stow’s Survey, edit. 1720, Book i.; chapter xxix., volume 1, page 242; where it is said that ‘Men of trades, and sellers of wares in this City, have oftentimes,’—since the days of Fitz Stephen—‘changed their places as they have found to their best advantage. For, whereas, Mercers and Haberdashers used then to keep their shops in West-Cheap, of later time they held them on London Bridge, where, partly, they do yet remain.’

“One would expect to find frequent references to London Bridge, in the works of our ancient Dramatists, yet my memory supplies me with but very few instances; though I may observe, that Shakspeare has an allusion to the heads of traitors erected over the gate of this edifice, in Act iii. Scene 2, of ‘King Richard the Third,’ where Catesby says to Hastings: