Old (medieval) London Bridge

An engraving by Claes Visscher showing Old London Bridge in 1616, with what is now Southwark Cathedral in the foreground. The spiked heads of executed criminals can be seen above the Southwark gatehouse.

After the murder of his erstwhile friend and later opponent Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, the penitent King Henry II commissioned a new stone bridge in place of the old, with a chapel at its centre dedicated to Becket as martyr. The archbishop had been a native Londoner, and a popular figure. His chapel became the official start of pilgrimage to his Canterbury shrine; it was grander than some town parish churches, and had an additional river-level entrance for fishermen and ferrymen. Building work began in 1176, supervised by Peter, a priest and chaplain of St Mary Colechurch, which until its destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666, stood in Conyhoop Lane, on the north side of the Poultry.^[13] The costs would have been enormous, and Henry attempted to meet them with taxes on wool and sheepskins, but the project continued past his own lifetime. Hence it was that the traditional legend arose that London Bridge was built on wool packs,^[13] and a similar legend arose as to the foundations of Bideford Long Bridge in Devon,^[14] and perhaps many others. It was finished by 1209 during the reign of King John. It had taken 33 years to complete, and John licensed out building plots on the bridge to help recoup the costs; but it was never enough. In 1284, in exchange for loans to the royal purse, the City of London acquired the Charter for its maintenance, based on the duties and toll-rights of the former "Brethren of the Bridge".

The bridge was some 26 feet (8 m) wide, and about 800–900 feet (240–270 m) long, supported by 19 irregularly spaced arches, founded on "starlings" set into the river-bed. It had a drawbridge for the passage of tall ships up-river, and defensive gatehouses at both ends. By 1358, it was already crowded, with 138 shops. At least one two-entranced, multi-seated public latrine overhung the bridge parapets and discharged into the river below; so did an unknown number of private latrines reserved for Bridge householders or shopkeepers and bridge officials. In 1382-3 a new latrine was made (or an old one replaced) at considerable cost, at the northern end of the bridge.^[15]

The buildings on London Bridge were a major fire hazard and increased the load on its arches, several of which had to be rebuilt over the centuries. In 1212, perhaps the greatest of the early fires of London broke out on both ends of the bridge simultaneously, trapping many people in the middle. Houses on the bridge were burnt during Wat Tyler's Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and during Jack Cade's rebellion in 1450. A major fire of 1633 that destroyed the northern third of the bridge formed a firebreak that prevented further damage to the bridge during the Great Fire of London (1666).

Detail of Old London Bridge on the 1632 oil painting "View of London Bridge" by Claude de Jongh.

By the Tudor era there were some 200 buildings on the bridge. Some stood up to seven stories high, some overhung the river by seven feet, and some overhung the road, to form a dark tunnel through which all traffic must pass, including (from 1577) the palatial Nonsuch House. The roadway was just 12 feet (4 m) wide, divided into two lanes, so that in each direction, carts, wagons, coaches and pedestrians shared a passageway six feet wide. When the bridge was congested, crossing it could take up to an hour. Those who could afford the fare might prefer to cross by ferry but the bridge structure had several undesirable effects on river-traffic. The narrow arches and wide pier bases restricted the river's tidal ebb and flow, so that in hard winters, the water upstream of the bridge became more susceptible to freezing and impassable by boat. The flow was further obstructed in the 16th century by waterwheels (designed by Peter Morice) installed under the two north arches to drive water pumps, and under the two south arches to power grain mills; the difference in water levels on the two sides of the bridge could be as much as six feet (two metres), producing ferocious rapids between the piers.^[16] Only the brave or foolhardy attempted to "shoot the bridge"—steer a boat between the starlings when in flood—and some were drowned in the attempt. The bridge was "for wise men to pass over, and for fools to pass under."^[17]

This pedestrian alcove, now in Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets is one of the surviving fragments of the old London Bridge that was demolished in 1831.

The southern gatehouse became the scene of one of London's most notorious sights: a display of the severed heads of traitors, impaled on pikes^[1] and dipped in tar and boiled to preserve them against the elements. The head of William Wallace was the first to appear on the gate, in 1305, starting a tradition that was to continue for another 355 years. Other famous heads on pikes included those of Jack Cade in 1450, Thomas More in 1535, Bishop John Fisher in the same year, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540. In 1598, a German visitor to London, Paul Hentzner counted over 30 heads on the bridge:^[18]

“

On the south is a bridge of stone eight hundred feet in length, of wonderful work; it is supported upon twenty piers of square stone, sixty feet high and thirty broad, joined by arches of about twenty feet diameter. The whole is covered on each side with houses so disposed as to have the appearance of a continued street, not at all of a bridge. Upon this is built a tower, on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are placed on iron spikes: we counted above thirty.

”

Evelyn's Diary noted that the practice stopped in 1660, following the Restoration of King Charles II,^[19] but heads were reported at the site as late as 1772.^[20]

By 1722 congestion was becoming so serious that the Lord Mayor decreed that "all carts, coaches and other carriages coming out of Southwark into this City do keep all along the west side of the said bridge: and all carts and coaches going out of the City do keep along the east side of the said bridge." This has been suggested as one possible origin for the practice of traffic in Britain driving on the left.^[21]

In 1758–62, all houses and shops on the bridge were demolished through Act of Parliament. The two centre arches were replaced by a single wider span to improve navigation on the river.

Drawing of London Bridge from a 1682 panorama

Дата добавления: 2015-09-06