Podcasts: History of Tower Bridge

Thank you for joining me on this four-part history series about Tower Bridge. My name is David Laird and I work as an Education and Marketing Officer at Tower Bridge.

Over the next four short episodes, I would like to share the history of London's Defining Landmark with you.

Today I will be describing the origins and initial design for Tower Bridge, with following episodes covering the ‘construction process’, ‘how and who lifts Tower Bridge’ and finally some ‘historic tales of this world-famous river crossing’.

So before I start, I can imagine many of you will have passed over Tower Bridge by car, foot or bus.

But I wonder how many of you have visited inside by climbing the 206 steps, or more likely have got the lift to the top?

For apart from being a working Bridge since 1894, Tower Bridge has been a popular tourist attraction since 1982, with our recent installation of a glass floor now bringing some 800,000 visitors inside each year.

But the story of Tower Bridge is one of practicality, eccentricity, local connections and the preservation of a world-famous landmark.  

Now the origins of the Bridge's construction can be found in the decades and indeed centuries before its emergence out of the Thames.

Since Roman times, the Thames has provided both a focal point of London life and the economic highway to the people and City of London.

From the departure of the Romans in the 5th century till the mid-18th century, London flourished with only one bridge across the Thames – London Bridge.

Famed through nursery rhyme by children the nation over, it is sometimes confused with the tall granite and Portland stone heights of Tower Bridge.

You see London Bridge – with its 2000-year story would provide the exclusive and only crossing point across the Thames for much of the city’s past.

But this began to change with the opening of Putney Bridge in 1729, followed by the London Bridges of Westminster, Blackfriars, Waterloo and Southwark.  

Regardless of these new crossings, by the mid-19th century, London Bridge was still providing the principal route for those heading north and south each day.

And to put it simply, this was a problem!

By the late 19th century, the population of London had at least doubled in size.

Indeed, with the arrival of Queen Victoria on the throne, London began to sprawl, as the metropolis became transformed by steam power technologies and the innovations of the industrial revolution.

Contemporary reports described London Bridge as “the only roadway crossing across the Thames for…a population of a million... about one third of the entire metropolitan population of London”.  

To put it into context, about a third of those living east of London Bridge had no adequate local crossing to use.

I am sure you can imagine the chaos as horse-drawn vehicles, crowds of commuters and farmers bringing their livestock to market squeezed across London Bridge each day.

In fact, it was often reported that trips across could take an individual up to two hours to complete - four hours everyday including the return leg.

With the dismissal of trying to enlarge the existing width of London Bridge, the creation of a new crossing became key.

By the late 19th century, both the Government and the City of London Corporation had received numerous petitions calling for a new crossing point to be established to the east of the Tower of London.

This culminated on the 10th February 1876 when the Corporation of London requested that the Bridge Houses Estates – this is the body that maintains the upkeep of the 5 City bridges of London – set up the Special Bridge or Subway Committee to consider the desirability of erecting a bridge or subway under the Thames east of London Bridge and determining the best means of carrying this out.

Now tunnelling had, by this stage, proved both an expensive and unpredictable business. The earlier Thames Tunnel linking Wapping to Rotherhithe, designed by Sir Marc Brunel and his son, assisted by the later famed Isambard Kingdom Brunel would close within only twenty years of construction. Intended to carry vehicles and pedestrians, a lack of funding left the structure ‘damp, stained and peeling’ – becoming a haven for undesirable and criminal elements.

But by 1876, although some subterranean tunnels were proposed, the majority of those submitted were for a bridge crossing. The process to select the winning design was that of an informal competition, without a start or end date, engineers and architects began submitting their designs for the new crossing. In total roughly 50 different entries were received by the committee, with a number of high profile engineers taking part.

I am just going to explain a couple of those designs to you.

The first is by George Barclay Bruce’s, his so-called ‘rolling Bridge across the Thames’. This was ruled out for its operational impracticality, it did however keep to the brief, that at all times river shipping must still be able pass unimpeded.

I should say that the proposed location for a new bridge crossing, was the ‘Pool of London’, a busy dock with close to 4,000 large ships requiring access each year. With this in mind, it was therefore essential that any new design included the functionality to keep what was at this time the busiest port in the world running.

The second design was by Frederic Barnet – he proposed this duplex bridge whereby both vehicle and river traffic could continue uninterrupted by the other. If you can imagine a giant figure-of-eight, looping it's way from  north to south across the Thames.

And, thirdly we have one of three designs proposed by Sir Joseph Bazalgette. Bazalgette who was famed for having earlier designed the London sewer network and subsequent creation of the London embankments. Here Bazalgette proposed a high-level single span bridge that would dwarf in height any shipping of the day and further requirement for a movable element.

One such feature that may come as a surprise in these early submission for a new Tower Bridge is the lack of any Towers.

The reason being that Tower Bridge today, as intended in 1876, was that the name reflected its position adjacent to the Tower of London rather than the design of the Bridge itself.

As these designs were being submitted, so too was the eventual winner ‘Sir Horace Jones’ honing his submission.

Well folks, that’s the end of our origins and design episode, I will be back again soon to tell you more about the construction of Tower Bridge. Goodbye for now.

Thank you for joining me on the second episode of this four-part history series about Tower Bridge. My name is David Laird and I work as an Education and Marketing Officer at Tower Bridge. 

Over each episode:  I will share the history of London's defining landmark with you.

Today I will be describing the construction process of Tower Bridge, with following episodes covering, ‘how and who lifts Tower Bridge’ and some of our favourite ‘historic tales of this world-famous river crossing’. If you missed our first episode, the origins and design of Tower Bridge, this can be found at www.towerbridge.org.uk/stories/podcasts-history-of-tower-bridge.

So we continue from episode one, as we were introduced to the architect of Tower Bridge – Sir Horace Jones. 

Sir Horace was well known in the City of London by the late 19th century. 

Having advanced to the role of City Architect in 1864, his famous works included rehousing the cities markets – as Jones led on the design and build of Smithfield, Leadenhall and Billingsgate Markets. 

In 1877, Jones was asked by the special bridge and subway committee to advise on the viability of each design being submitted for Tower Bridge. But at the same time, he drafted his own.

Now as those of you who have listened to the first podcast will know, the initial design of Tower Bridge was that of an informal competition, with around 50 architects and engineers entering.

However, failure of the bridge and subway committee to choose a winner led to its abandonment  by January of 1876. Having now stepped back from his role as City Architect, Jones would ultimately go on to to lead on Tower Bridge's design.  

Now his initial plan looked different to what we can see today. Initially he intended a curved drawbridge structure hoisted above the Thames by chains.

He would however admit that whilst the design provided an aesthetic and economical answer to the corporation’s brief, it still required significant development from his ‘crude’ concept. 

To develop his design, Jones was assisted by the engineer John Wolfe Barry. The youngest son of Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster), John provided some modifications on Jones proposal stating emphasising – “I think this bascule or lifting system of opening the centre span should not lightly be set aside”. 

With several alterations made, including the insistence that girders over the raising bascules be horizontal and not curved – work commenced in April 1886. Initially scheduled to take 4 years to complete, from which Jones and Barry would receive a commission of £30,000. The build took 8 years to complete and ran to a cost of over £1 million. 

Queen Victoria, unavailable to lay the foundation stone, instead delegating to her son Edward Prince of Wales. This was laid on too much pomp and ceremony on 21 June 1886 and is still visible on the north-west approach of Tower Bridge.

Though it would go on to take 8 years to complete the Bridge, the initial 4 would be largely unseen by the people of east London. 

In these initial years, the Bridges construction was conducted underwater, with large caissons being sunk into the mud and rock of the river base. 

To imagine a caisson, think of a cardboard box open top and bottom, with a rigid edge. These were sunk into the mud of the riverbed, with their weight pushing them down into the clay below.

This hazardous work was executed by a crack team of divers working in groups of up to six, this was specialist work, requiring expert knowledge and teamwork to dig and sink the caissons accurately and evenly to the correct depth. 

So, specialist was the work, that diving teams travelled across the country to work numerous different builds, including the Forth Rail Bridge, and could command fees of up to £10 per minute. 

Not bad, when you schedule in a 6 to 9-hour day.

Within four years, the initial piers, on which the two Towers now stand, were visible above the Thames.

Part of the delay was that both piers could not be built at the same time, due to the scaffolding = required and the need to keep a 160 ft waterway available for passing shipping.  

But by  1890, construction of the Towers could be built in earnest. 

Now whilst Tower Bridge may appear to be a stone/castle like structure. These gothic additions are merely an artistic flourish. 

The real structure of Tower Bridge is a solid steel frame partially visible through the windows of Tower Bridge.

This part of the structure would be overseen by a famous steel magnate of the Victorian Era – William Arrol. 

Based in Glasgow the Arrol steelworks in Dalmarnock would provide the superstructure frame of Tower Bridge. 

Not one to be beaten on quality, to make sure the structure fitted together, Tower Bridge was assembled in Glasgow – before being disassembled and brought to London by barge, 5 tons at a time. 

Building two matching bridge-halves in parallel, required accuracy and skill to ensure that as the south, always followed by the north crept upwards, both would eventually meet to spec in the middle. 

This work was undertaken by a team ranging from 80 to well over 800 onsite personal each day. 

Squads of Rivet Boys and Riveters either by hand or using hydraulic machinery oversaw the elevation of the Towers by inserting over 13 million rivets into the steel.

A hard-working team it was said could put in close to 200 rivets per day, paid by the rivet, so the more you put in the better the pay

For the construction of Tower Bridge, this was administered by not just local people, with many navvies and specialist coming down to work from Northumberland and Scotland. 

One man we are slowly learning more about was Keshavji Shamji Budhbhatti – an engineer, who having studied at the University of Bombay, relocated to Kentish Town and attended the Royal Indian Engineering College at Coopers Hill before applying and working on Tower Bridge's construction. 

Whilst the initial foundation and creation of the piers was not without problems, the progress of the superstructure was completed with a greater degree of ease. 

One particular quirk in this part of the build, was the need for the Bascules, the central rising part of Tower Bridge, to be built vertically, for the purposes of passing shipping. 

Now the word bascule derives from the French for 'see-saw' or 'balance'.

By 1892, the walkways, elevated between the north and south Tower were approaching completion. 

These would provide not only a platform for pedestrians to cross, but also house the suspension cable supporting the full length of Tower Bridge. 

The final phase of the Bridges construction was of course the cladding of Cornish granite and Portland stone to the Towers. 

First, it was decided that stone held the clear advantage over an iron casing. Aesthetically as well as the protection it provided from corrosion. 

The masonry work was carried out by Perry&Co, under the guide of Herbert Henry Bartlett. 

Like the steelwork before, this was cut and brought to London by Barge along with 31 million bricks for the interior. 

But by 1894, four years late and over budget, Tower Bridge was finally complete. 

Well folks, that’s the end of our construction of Tower Bridge episode, I will be back again soon to tell you more about the how and who lifts Tower Bridge. Goodbye for now.

Thank you for joining me on the third episode of this four-part history series about Tower Bridge. My name is David Laird and I work as an Education and Marketing Officer at Tower Bridge. 

Over each episode:  I will share the history of London's defining landmark with you.

Today I will be describing how and who lifts Tower Bridge, with our final episode covering our favourite ‘historic tales of this world-famous river crossing’. If you missed our earlier episodes these can be found at www.towerbridge.org.uk/stories/podcasts-history-of-tower-bridge.

So we continue from episode two, as Tower Bridge stood complete and ready, across the river Thames. 

Now the date for the opening day was the 30th June 1894. Over 1,000 were officially invited with up to 10,000 lining the streets and riverbanks, on both sides of the bridge.

It was described in the times newspapers as follows:

“The opening of Tower Bridge on Saturday was a picturesque and stately ceremony, perfectly performed under the most favourable conditions…the decorations, both by land and water, were brilliant and profuse, the uniforms and robes splendid and varied, while the glorious sunshine brought out in full relief the many beauties of the great display and of the noble river which all true Englishmen love with a proud affection as the chiefest glory of their ancient capital.”

The Bridge was officially opened by the Prince and Princess of Wales, representing Queen Victoria.

Not to be outdone in pomp and ceremony, a silver urn was procured for the Prince to manoeuvre and signal the lifting of the Bridge, for the first time.

With this done, the great bascules rose, and a flotilla of 14 ships processed underneath.

The first to pass was the Harbour master’s vessel Daisy, followed by HMS Landrail, upon which a band played God Save the Queen.

Unfortunately, though, shortly after the bridge’s completion, criticism was soon to follow.

Initially viewed as a harmonising of engineering and architecture, two disciplines which traditionally diametrically opposed between flair and precision, attitudes soon began to shift.

Comments appeared in the press calling Tower Bridge ‘an elaborate and costly make believe’, an ‘architectural gimmick’ or even worse, simply an ‘eyesore’.

Regardless, from the summer of 1894, Tower Bridge was now fully in operation.

But how exactly does it all work?

To give an idea of the weight of each bascule, the moving central span of the bridge, these equate 150 double decker London buses stacked.

Therefore, whilst the concept of a Bascule bridge wasn’t new technology, their sheer weight meant that only the onset of steam power could successfully achieve each lift.

This system was the brainchild of Engineer William Armstrong. A leading British industrialist, whose hydraulic engine utilised water pressure to power the movement of the bascule.

Essentially the Engines produce a bridge lift via five key steps.

The first is the Coalboilers:

Here, a team of stokers worked to create the steam required for Armstrong’s engines.

These boilers could burn up to 25 tons of coal each week, generating the engines steam.

From the boilers this generated steam transferred to two steam engines, still visible today and used operationally up till 1976.

The steam, combined with the momentum of a turning flywheel, pushed and pulled hydraulic pumps.

These would then pressurise the water, located inside 6 giant accumulators.

The accumulators acted if you like as giant battery’s, ready to power the cogs and drive engines connected to the Bascules.

This in turn would lift the bridge.

Now Tower Bridge is still a working Bridge with a dedicated team of 6 fully trained Senior Technical or Technical Officers operating and managing the lifting process.

Today’s training can take up to 18 months to complete, with its focus on troubleshooting the merge  of Victorian bascules malfunctioning against our modern computer system.

On average the Bridge lifts just over 1000 times per year, at an average of 3 times per day.

I will say that lifts are weighted more toward the spring and summer months with a fleet of cruise ships, pleasure boats and Thames sailing barges passing through each year.

Todays operation is however a far cry from the process that opened the Bridge 126 years ago.

So how to open the bridge19th century style?

First, I need to mentioned that by law, river traffic always has priority over road users.

And today, every lift must be booked at least 24 hours prior.

Historically this was not the case.

Originally requiring a staff of 80 to keep the bridge functioning and opening.

Amongst these roles we had: engine drivers to physically operate the bridge, signalmen to control the approaching ships and determine whether a lift would be required.

Watchmen to make sure the shipping and roadways were clear to pass, a delegation of policemen to control the waiting traffic and a maintenance team of up to 30 to keep the bridge operating correctly and lift the Bridge at a moment's notice'

Part of this team included a blacksmith and number of horses, stabled underneath the southern Tower Bridge approach. These were tasked with repairing components and removing debris prior to each lift. 

The senior team that historically managed the bridge were two individuals: a Resident Engineer and the Bridgemaster himself.

Both were residents on site, the Bridge was required to be manned 24 hours per day.

The Superintendent Engineer had overall responsibility for the staff and operation of the Bridge. It was his role to select the bridge drivers each day and inspect both machinery and presentation to military precision.

From 1894, the first Superintendent Engineer was George Edward Wilson Crutwell, who as John Wolfe Barry’s Resident engineer, had been at the bridge from the onset of construction. The Bridgemaster was Lieutenant Bertie Cator, appointed 6 weeks before the official opening. He oversaw traffic control and in this initial year 6,160 lifts

Cator's appointment didn’t just come with onsite bed and board, he was also provided with a cook.

Whilst little information about many of the domestic staff has trickled down into Tower Bridge's story, we do know of Hannah Griggs.

Hannah was born at St Olaves workhouse 200 yards from the Tower Bridge on Tooley Street. She was employed between 1902 to 1915 initially “in Service” for the Bridgemaster and his family before ultimately going on to work as the resident cook for the Bridge's staff.

Progression amongst staff was common, with initial ‘entry’ jobs allowing for a clear career path to develop.

Apart from Hannah another example is that of Charles Bull. Born in Camberwell, Charles worked in the construction of Tower Bridge, before entering employment with the City of London here in 1896 as a stocker. He would go on to progress to Assistant Bridge Driver within only 6 years of arriving.

Each of these roles were among the throng of others undertaken on the Bridge, would remain the same for the best part of 80 years.

Though calls had been made for modernisation of the lifting mechanism from the early 20th century, incredibly the bridge would function in largely the same way till its engine’s electrification in 1976.

And so, as the years past from the opening day till 1982, Tower Bridge became first a local, then international icon of the London’s skyline.

It was during these years that many bizarre goings on took place.

Well folks, that’s the end of how and who lifts Tower Bridge, I will be back again soon to tell you more our favourite ‘historic tales of Tower Bridge’. Goodbye for now.

Thank you for joining me on the final episode of this four-part history series about Tower Bridge. My name is David Laird and I work as an Education and Marketing Officer at Tower Bridge.

Throughout each episode, I have walked you through the history of London's defining Landmark and today I will be describing our favourite ‘historic tales of this world-famous river crossing’. If you missed our earlier episodes these can be found at www.towerbridge.org.uk/stories/podcasts-history-of-tower-bridge.

So we continue from episode three, as bizarre tales of Tower Bridge began to emerge within only a few years of opening.

An early quirky story, taking place in 1917, by a man called Thomas Orde-Lees. Lees was involved in testing parachutes from the Bridges road level on to waiting boats below. This is believed to have provided an inspiration in exploring the viability of forming a Parachute Regiment for the British Army.

This was preceded in 1912 by a different journey at Tower Bridge.

Only nine years after the Wright Brothers' initial flight, aviator Frank McClean flew through Tower Bridge. Starting from the Isle of Sheppey, McClean piloted his Short-Farman hydroplane between the road and upper walkways of Tower Bridge. Not satisfied with his first exploit, he continued upstream, dipping under every remaining bridge as far up the Thames as Westminster.

He later told the press “It isn't so risky as it appears, For the arches of the bridges are tremendous things when you get close to them."

McLean’s confidence however would be short lived.

On the return trip, a sidewind hooked him into the water as he was attempting to fly under Tower Bridge. Fortunately, though, McClean was unhurt, and his beloved seaplane was towed to shore for repair.

This was certainly not the only time that pilots would fly between the road and walkways.

In 1968: A RAF pilot, angered by the decisions of his high command, broke formation, and flew over London.

His name was Flight Lieutenant Alan Pollock, who decided to fly his Hawker Hunter jet, measuring a 10m in wingspan, low over the Houses of Parliament in protest at Harold Wilson's government, who it transpired had been stripping back on financing the air force.

Pollock was also dissatisfied at the lack-luster plans to mark the RAF's 50th anniversary.

In a one-man air display, he flew his plane through the gap in Tower Bridge, before going on to buzz several airfields.

He said "It was easy enough to fly over it, but the idea of flying through the spans suddenly struck me. I had just 10 seconds to grapple with the seductive proposition which few ground attack pilots of any nationality could have resisted. My brain started racing to reach a decision. Years of fast low-level strike flying made the decision simple...".

This was the first and last time a jet plane was flown under the bridge's walkways.

But it was not be the most audacious story to take place on Tower Bridge.

On the 30th December 1952, Bus Driver Albert Gunter was happily going about his day job, driving the number 78 bus over Tower Bridge towards London’s Shoreditch

It was on passing the middle of the bascules when, to his utter surprise, the road in front of him seemed to drop away. Gunter described the sensation as of the ground beginning to open. A gap opened up of roughly a metre with a drop of close to two metres. He quickly realised that the bridge was opening and his bus was stuck on the rising bascule!

A tank driver during World War Two, Albert slammed his foot down on the accelerator and managed to jump the gap in the bridge and successfully reach the other side.

In doing so Albert managed to get all of his passengers across safely – barring one who unfortunately broke a bone, and another reported to have never got on the bus again.

For this act of bravery and quick thinking, Albert was awarded a day off work and a reward of £10.

With his newfound time off and wealth, Albert did still find time to appear in the local newspaper. He can be seen looking slightly stunned and showing the position of the bascules with his hands.

Now I mentioned briefing World War two. Tower Bridge has of course survived two world wars. With bombing of the city in the 1910s incomparable to the Blitz of  the1940s, the Bridge was largely unscathed during the Great War.

Likewise, as the Luftwaffe rained down bombs on the docks of east London, Tower Bridge incredibly only sustained only minor damage. Continuing to operate throughout the conflict.

One such reason to explain the lack of damage, was Bridges dominant position as a local landmark for German bombers tracking the City’s port.

Now regardless of the bridge's survival, plans were proposed to change the face of Tower Bridge, encasing it in glass and turning the structure into modern office space.

Thankfully this would never come to pass, though the postwar years would mark a decline in Tower Bridges need to lift for approaching cargo ships.

An overall decline in the position of the London docks from the 1960s in the pool of London dramatically cut the number of lifts taking place.

Whilst the surrounding area was changing, so to the bridge would receive a facelift in the form of red, white and blue paint – replacing the drab grey and white to celebrate the silver jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II’s 25 years as monarch.

Changes weren’t only taking place on the exterior of Tower Bridge. Since the 1910s, the high-level walkways, due a lack of use, were closed off to history off to history till 1982.

It was in this year that these spaces would be opened once again.

Nearly a century in existence, had seen the bridge align with the status of St Pauls Cathedral, Buckingham Palace and Westminster’s Parliament as an established landmark of the city.

So it was decided that a new Tower Bridge Exhibition would open.

Coming at a time of intense redevelopment for the bankside of the River Thames, as warehouses were pulled down and replaced with hotels, bars and restaurants.

And the arrival of the HMS Belfast under the guardianship of the Imperial War Museum.

Our southern bank has increasingly become a trendy destination and home to many.

So since 1982, Tower Bridge has continued to welcome visitors from all over the World.

Indeed, travel the world and it won’t be long till you find the image of the bridge advertising everything, from visits to the capital, to ... well, anything remotely British, cementing its place as the capital's or even the nation's defining landmark.'

Today we still operate as a working bridge, employing a team of Engineers, Technical Officers and Assistants to make sure that our core function of lifting for passing shipping remains viable. 

On the other side, we have a team of roughly 150, tasked with welcoming close to 1 million visitors each year.

We do this via guided tours, concerts in our bascule chambers, schools visits and even early morning yoga sessions.

Open to the public all year round, Tower Bridge has consistently increased those coming in through our recent installation of a glass walkway, providing yet another unique view of our lifting bascules.

Though visitors come to us from all over the world, like our workforce since 1894, we always encourage local people to visit, enjoy and learn a bit more about our connections.

It must also be said that Tower Bridge is often said to mean many different things to many people.

A popular tourist spot for wedding proposals today as it was in Edwardian London, I wanted to end on my favourite fact about the bridge.

It involves a woman called Beatrice Quick.

An honoured guest at the opening of our exhibition in 1982.

Beatrice, in her nineties at the time, was remarkable for having attended the previous opening in 1894.

She recalled how when only 4, her father working as an engineer on the construction, had made sure that she was the first little girl to cross Tower Bridge. She certainly wouldn’t be the last. Thank you

Well folks, I hope you enjoyed this journey through the history of Tower Bridge. Let us know what you think on Facebook and Twitter, where you can also share these podcasts with your friends and family. I've been David Laird and I hope to see you inside Tower Bridge soon.