Editing London Bridge (section)

=== <span class="anchor" id="Old London Bridge"></span><span class="anchor" id="1209"></span><span class="anchor" id="London Bridge Act 1771"></span> Old London Bridge (1209–1831)===
[[File:London Bridge (1616) by Claes Van Visscher.jpg|thumb|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 former friend and later opponent [[Thomas Becket]], [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], the penitent King [[Henry II of England|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, born at [[Cheapside]], and a popular figure. The [[Chapel of St Thomas on the Bridge]] became the official start of [[pilgrim]]age to his [[Canterbury Cathedral|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 of Colechurch.<ref name="Thornbury 1872, p.10" /> The costs would have been enormous; Henry's attempt to meet them with taxes on wool and sheepskins probably gave rise to a later legend that London Bridge was built on [[wool bale|wool packs]].<ref name="Thornbury 1872, p.10" /> 

In 1202, before Colechurch's death, Isembert, a French monk who was renowned as a bridge builder, was appointed by [[John, King of England|King John]] to complete the project. Construction was not finished until 1209. There were houses on the bridge from the start; this was a normal way of paying for the maintenance of a bridge, though in this case it had to be supplemented by other rents and by tolls. From 1282 two bridge wardens were responsible for maintaining the bridge, heading the organization known as the Bridge House. The only two collapses occurred when maintenance had been neglected, in 1281 (five arches) and 1437 (two arches). In 1212, perhaps the greatest of the [[early fires of London]] broke out, spreading as far as the chapel and trapping many people.

The bridge was about {{convert|926|ft|m|abbr=off}} long, and had nineteen piers, supported by timber piles. The piers were linked above by nineteen arches and a wooden drawbridge. Above and below the water-level, the piers were enclosed and protected by '[[Starling (structure)|starlings]]', supported by deeper piles than the piers themselves. The bridge, including the part occupied by houses, was from {{convert|20|to|24|ft|metre|abbr=off}} wide. The roadway was mostly around {{convert|15|ft|m|abbr=off}} wide, varying from about 14 feet to 16 feet, except that it was narrower at defensive features (the stone gate, the drawbridge and the drawbridge tower) and wider south of the stone gate. The houses occupied only a few feet on each side of the bridge. They received their main support either from the piers, which extended well beyond the bridge itself from west to east, or from 'hammer beams' laid from pier to pier parallel to the bridge. It was the length of the piers which made it possible to build quite large houses, up to {{convert|34|ft|m|abbr=off}} deep.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=4, 11–12, 16}}</ref>

The numerous starlings restricted the river's tidal ebb and flow. The difference in water levels on the two sides of the bridge could be as much as {{convert|6|ft|m}}, producing ferocious rapids between the [[Pier#Alternative|piers]] resembling a [[weir]].<ref>Pierce, p.45 and Jackson, p.77</ref> 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."<ref>Rev. John Ray, ''"Book of Proverbs"'', 1670, cited in Jackson, p.77</ref>  The restricted flow also meant that in hard winters the river upstream was more susceptible to freezing.

The number of houses on the bridge reached its maximum in the late fourteenth century, when there were 140. Subsequently, many of the houses, originally only 10 to 11 feet wide, were merged, so that by 1605 there were 91. Originally they are likely to have had only two [[storey]]s, but they were gradually enlarged. In the seventeenth century, when there are detailed descriptions of them, almost all had four or five storeys (counting the [[garret]]s as a storey); three houses had six storeys. Two-thirds of the houses were rebuilt from 1477 to 1548. In the seventeenth century, the usual plan was a shop on the ground floor, a hall and often a chamber on the first floor, a kitchen and usually a chamber and a waterhouse (for hauling up water in buckets) on the second floor, and chambers and garrets above. Approximately every other house shared in a 'cross building' above the roadway, linking the houses either side and extending from the first floor upwards.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=13, 19–21, 36, 45–46}}</ref>

[[File:The Frozen Thames 1677 by Abraham Hondius.jpg|thumb|''[[The Frozen Thames]]'' (1677) by [[Abraham Hondius]] in the [[Museum of London]], showing Old London Bridge and [[Southwark Cathedral]] (St Saviours) at right]]

All the houses were shops, and the bridge was one of the City of London's four or five main shopping streets. There seems to have been a deliberate attempt to attract the more prestigious trades. In the late fourteenth century more than four-fifths of the shopkeepers were [[haberdasher]]s, glovers, [[Cutlery#Industry|cutlers]], [[bowyer]]s and [[Fletching|fletchers]] or from related trades. By 1600 all of these had dwindled except the haberdashers, and the spaces were filled by additional haberdashers, by traders selling textiles and by grocers. From the late [[seventeenth century]] there was a greater variety of trades, including metalworkers such as pinmakers and needle makers, sellers of durable goods such as trunks and brushes, booksellers and stationers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=60–75}}</ref>

The three major buildings on the bridge were the chapel, the drawbridge tower and the stone gate, all of which seem to have been present soon after the bridge's construction. The chapel was last rebuilt in 1387–1396, by [[Henry Yevele]], master mason to the king. Following the [[Reformation]], it was converted into a house in 1553. The drawbridge tower was where the severed heads of traitors were exhibited. The drawbridge ceased to be opened in the 1470s and in 1577–1579 the tower was replaced by [[Nonsuch House]]—a pair of magnificent houses. Its architect was Lewis Stockett, Surveyor of the Queen's Works, who gave it the second classical facade in London (after Somerset House in the Strand). The stone gate was last rebuilt in the 1470s, and later took over the function of displaying the heads of traitors.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=26–32}}</ref> The heads were dipped in tar and boiled to preserve them against the elements, and were [[Head on a spike|impaled on pikes.]]<ref name="world and its people">{{cite book|last=Dunton|first=Larkin|url=https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog|title=The World and Its People|publisher=Silver, Burdett|year=1896|page=[https://archive.org/details/worldanditspeop05duntgoog/page/n31 23]}}</ref> The head of [[William Wallace]] was the first recorded as appearing, in 1305, starting a long tradition. Other famous heads on pikes included those of [[Jack Cade]] in 1450, [[Thomas More]] in 1535, [[John Fisher|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:<ref>{{cite web|title=Vision of Britain – Paul Hentzner – Arrival and London|url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/text/chap_page.jsp?t_id=Hentzner&c_id=1|website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk}}</ref>

{{blockquote|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.}}

The last head was installed in 1661;<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Home|title=Old London Bridge|journal=Nature|year=1932|volume=129|issue=3244|pages=232|doi=10.1038/129016c0|bibcode=1932Natur.129S..16.|s2cid=4112097|doi-access=free}}</ref> subsequently heads were placed on [[Temple Bar, London|Temple Bar]] instead, until the practice ceased.<ref>Timbs, John. ''Curiosities of London''. p.705, 1885. Available: books.google.com. Accessed: 29 September 2013</ref>

There were two multi-seated public [[latrine]]s, but they seem to have been at the two ends of the bridge, possibly on the riverbank. The one at the north end had two entrances in 1306. In 1481, one of the latrines fell into the Thames and five men were drowned. Neither of the latrines is recorded after 1591.<ref>Gerhold, London Bridge and its Houses, pp. 32-3; Sabine, Ernest L., "Latrines and Cesspools of Mediaeval London," ''Speculum'', Vol. 9, No. 3 (Jul. 1934), pp. 305–306, 315. Earliest evidence for the multi-seated public latrine is from a court case of 1306.</ref>

In 1578–1582 a Dutchman, Peter Morris, created a waterworks at the north end of the bridge. Water wheels under the two northernmost arches drove pumps that raised water to the top of a tower, from which wooden pipes conveyed it into the city. In 1591 water wheels were installed at the south end of the bridge to grind corn.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jackson|title=London Bridge|pages=30–31}}</ref>

{{wide image|Claude de Jongh - View of London Bridge - Google Art Project bridge.jpg|960px|Detail of Old London Bridge on the 1632 oil painting ''View of London Bridge'' by [[Claude de Jongh]], in the [[Yale Center for British Art]]}}

[[File:London Bridge Fire of 1632.jpg|thumb|''A view of London Bridge burning in the fire of 1633'' Private Collection|518x518px]]

In 1633 fire destroyed the houses on the northern part of the bridge. The gap was only partly filled by new houses, with the result that there was a firebreak that prevented the [[Great Fire of London]] (1666) spreading to the rest of the bridge and to Southwark. The Great Fire destroyed the bridge's waterwheels, preventing them from pumping water to fight the fire. For nearly 20 years, only sheds replaced the burnt buildings. They were replaced In the 1680s, when almost all the houses on the bridge were rebuilt. The roadway was widened to {{convert|20|ft|m|abbr=off}} by setting the houses further back, and was increased in height from one storey to two. The new houses extended further back over the river, which would cause trouble later. 
{{wide image|London-bridge-1682.jpg|850px|align-cap=center|Drawing of London Bridge from a 1682 panorama|box width|center|alt=alt text}}
[[File:London Bridge before the alteration in 1757 by Samuel Scott.png|thumb|right|London Bridge in 1757 just before the removal of the houses, by [[Samuel Scott (painter)|Samuel Scott]]]]

In 1695, the bridge had 551 inhabitants. From 1670, attempts were made to keep traffic in each direction to one side, at first through a keep-right policy and from 1722, through a keep-left policy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=57, 82–90}}</ref> This has been suggested as one possible origin for the practice of traffic in Britain [[driving on the left]].<ref>''Ways of the World: A History of the World's Roads and of the Vehicles That Used Them'', M. G. Lay & James E. Vance, Rutgers University Press 1992, p. 199.</ref>

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = London Bridge Act 1756
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = An Act to improve, widen, and enlarge, the Passage over and through London Bridge.
| year                  = 1756
| citation              = [[29 Geo. 2]]. c. 40
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 27 May 1756
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = 
| revised_text          = 
| use_new_UK-LEG        = 
| UK-LEG_title          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}

A fire in September 1725 destroyed all the houses south of the stone gate; they were rebuilt.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gerhold|title=London Bridge and its Houses|pages=93}}</ref> The last houses to be built on the bridge were designed by [[George Dance the Elder]] in 1745,<ref>Pierce 2001, pp. 235–236</ref> but these buildings had begun to subside within a decade.<ref>Pierce 2001, p. 252</ref> The '''{{visible anchor|London Bridge Act 1756}}''' ([[29 Geo. 2]]. c. 40) gave the City Corporation the power to purchase all the properties on the bridge so that they could be demolished and the bridge improved. While this work was underway, a temporary wooden bridge was constructed to the west of London Bridge. It opened in October 1757 but caught fire and collapsed in the following April. The old bridge was reopened until a new wooden construction could be completed a year later.<ref>Pierce 2001, p. 252–256</ref> To help improve navigation under the bridge, its two centre arches were replaced by a single wider span, the Great Arch, in 1759.

Demolition of the houses was completed in 1761 and the last tenant departed after some 550 years of housing on the bridge.<ref>Gerhold, ''London Bridge and its Houses'', pp. 100–101.</ref> Under the supervision of Dance the Elder, the roadway was widened to {{convert|46|ft|m}}<ref>Pierce 2001, p. 260</ref> and a [[balustrade]] was added "in the [[Gothic revival|Gothic]] taste" together with 14 stone [[alcove (architecture)|alcoves]] for pedestrians to shelter in.<ref>Pierce 2001, pp. 261–263</ref> However, the creation of the Great Arch had weakened the rest of the structure and constant expensive repairs were required in the following decades; this, combined with congestion both on and under bridge, often leading to fatal accidents, resulted in public pressure for a modern replacement.<ref>Pierce 2001, p. 278–279</ref>
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
London Bridge Pugh.jpg|''London Bridge from Pepper Alley Stairs'' by [[Herbert Pugh]], showing the appearance of London Bridge after 1762, with the new "Great Arch" at the centre
File:Joseph Mallord William Turner 065.jpg|''Old London Bridge'' by [[J. M. W. Turner]], showing the new balustrade and the back of one of the pedestrian alcoves
London bridge alcove.jpg|One of the pedestrian alcoves from the 1762 renovation, now in [[Victoria Park, Tower Hamlets]] – a similar alcove from the same source can be seen at the Guy's Campus of [[King's College London]]
Old London Bridge balustrade at Gilwell Park.jpg|A section of balustrade from London Bridge, now at [[Gilwell Park]] in [[Essex]]
File:The King's Arms (7327432882).jpg|A relief of the [[Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom#Great Britain|Hanoverian Royal Arms]] from a gateway over the old London Bridge now forms part of the façade of the King's Arms pub, [[Southwark]]
The Demolition of Old London Bridge, 1832, Guildhall Gallery, London.JPG|The Demolition of Old London Bridge, 1832, Guildhall Gallery, London
</gallery>