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What's the story behind the Tower Bridge? | History of the City
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Oct 7, 2024
For over 100 years, Tower Bridge has been one of London’s most iconic sights. Well, sort of... The Bridge was finished in 1894 and it was not popular with architectural experts. It was described as “absurd” and “pretentious” by commentators, which no doubt would outrage bridge lovers today. But why does it look that way anyway? What’s the story behind the Bridge? And was the Bridge a haven for prostitutes and pickpockets? Join City A.M. as we explore the history of Tower Bridge in the very first episode of History of the City, thanks to @City-Bridge-Foundation. Click for more information ⬇️ https://www.cityam.com/history-of-the-city-whats-the-story-behind-the-tower-bridge/ Get more of City A.M. 👇 🌐 http://www.cityam.com X(formerly Twitter): http://twitter.com/CityAM Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cityam Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/city_am LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/cityam #towerbridge #history #london
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0:00
Until the 18th century, London Bridge was the only crossing point over the River Thames
0:09
but in the following 100 years or so, a number of new bridges would be built connecting the north side of London to the south
0:18
The only problem was none were built east of London Bridge. This meant the growing population in the east end of London was increasingly disconnected from the south
0:27
This put great strain on London Bridge itself. It was a very strain on London Bridge itself. It was a very strong was very, very busy. A report from the late 19th century found that over 22,000 vehicles
0:35
and 110,000 pedestrians crossed the bridge in just 24 hours. Crossings could take up to two
0:41
hours due to all the commuters, farmers and vehicles on the bridge. So in 1876, the special
0:46
bridge or subway committee was formed to find a new design for a new bridge. The tower bridge
0:51
we see today prove the eventual winner. Hey, I'm Chris, economics reporter at City AM, but today we're going to be talking about history and in particular, Tower Bridge
1:15
Often on my lunch breaks I'm walking along this stretch of river and I'm looking at it and I'm thinking, how did it get there
1:22
Why does it look like that? Who built it? So today we're going inside and we've got an expert to show us around and he's going to answer
1:29
all of our questions. So come on, let's go. So we're inside Tower Bridge and Joe has very kindly agreed to show us around
1:46
And so where are we now? So just to orientate you, you're now in the South Tower, up at the top at the level of the high level walkways
1:55
And here at the top of the South Tower, as you look around, you can see a really good example
1:59
of the original Victorian steelwork which holds this whole bridge together. I like to think of this as being like the skeleton of the body
2:09
A lot of people don't realise actually that if you only ever see Tower Bridge from the outside
2:14
you would think it's a stone building. But as you look around you, you can see this beautiful 11,000 tonnes of Victorian steel
2:22
11,000 tons. Exactly, yeah, massive structure. And it's just got the stone and the brick around it to give it
2:28
and brick around it to give it a beautiful outer coating. It's quite a nice architectural feature
2:34
Just reach your arm in here. There's a clear gap for the steel to expand
2:39
with the weather between it and the outer casing. Oh wow, how much does it expand
2:44
Well, it depends on the weather and also what's coming across the bridge. Okay
2:49
So for example, if you were here on London Marathon Day with all of the runners coming across
2:53
the bridge does sort of move around a little bit. So the whole design had that in mind. Interesting
2:59
From here, you can see the steelwork and also these grey coloured models
3:06
Now this is helping you to understand how the health and safety worked in the Victorian times
3:13
Some people complain about too much red tape these days. Well I'm quite glad to know that when I come to work, my employer keeps me safe
3:21
In 1894, when they were finishing building this, as you can see, there were no safety harnesses
3:27
no ropes, no hard hats, not even a high visibility jacket inside
3:31
Yeah. So they were working over 60 metres up in the air above the water
3:35
with nothing underneath to catch them if they fell. Yeah, I was going to say it doesn't
3:39
look like they're taking health and safety very seriously. Not really, no, it's
3:43
in my opinion health and safety gone mad. Yeah. In that it doesn't exist. Now I'm taking
3:48
you through to the east walkway first It a lovely view towards Canary Wharf on that side Lovely
4:03
The big problem with building a bridge east of London Bridge was that it couldn't block access to London's port
4:09
which at the time was the busiest port in the world. 75% of London's fresh food, for instance
4:14
was unloaded at warehouses on the dock. The bridge therefore needed to have ways of allowing river traffic
4:19
continue relatively unhindered. Over 50 designs were submitted to meet this need, and some of them
4:25
were quite strange. Some of them more interesting than others. For example, there was one which I quite
4:30
like, which was a platform which would lift up like that. Now, the problem is, if you're at either end
4:37
you're not particularly safe getting on and off. So I think they learnt their lesson from that one
4:43
There was one that was going to be a very big tunnel under the river, actually, rather than being a bridge over
4:47
but there'd already been a couple of tunnels in East London which had never worked
4:51
They were never deep enough or wide enough. And there is a new tunnel being built in London today
4:57
next to Blackwall, kind of for the same reason, really. So, you know, traffic problems in London are nothing new
5:03
So just the best design was this what's called a bascule bridge one that lifts open like that
5:10
In fact, if we come to the glass floor, we can actually look down on how that works. Yeah
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So I'm going to stand on the glass. You are perfectly safe if you do so. If you prefer, you can of course stay on the wood. It's entirely up to you
5:27
I'll try it. To make you feel better, if an African elephant somehow managed to get its way up the lift and walked across this, it would be perfectly safe
5:34
Have you tried it? They're not too easy to corral, unfortunately, but it has been tested for strength. Five tons it can take
5:40
Nice. So as you look straight down, you can see the two sides of road that open. They're called the bascules
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It's a French word which means seesaw because as the road lifts open, there's a counterweight on the back of it which actually slides downwards inside an empty chamber inside the bottom of the tower
6:01
So it's balanced really beautifully. So when shipping comes along, we can lift upwards in as little as a minute
6:09
Wow. Yeah, it's really quick. About a second per degree it goes up
6:12
How quick did it open when it was first built? It's exactly the same now as it always was
6:17
Yeah. The only real difference now from how it used to be is how it's powered. So it used to be powered with steam engines. These days it's powered by electricity. Other than that, it's still pretty much the same. We've got the same moving parts still in use, same road, same counterweight, everything
6:36
It wasn't until 1884, a years after the committee was first formed that Sir Horace Jones's model was chosen. Jones was a chief city architect who had been responsible for the construction of Smithfield, Leden Hall and
6:47
Billingsgate. He was also one of a judges on the panel selecting the design, so it perhaps
6:52
isn't a complete surprise that his design was the one that ended up being chosen. The bridge took
6:56
eight years to build, but Jones died after just one year, leaving it to be completed by Sir John
7:00
Wolf Barry. Barry made some adjustments to Jones's design, including turning what was meant to be
7:06
an arched walkway into a straight line. So this is a quote from a newspaper, but to be honest
7:10
I think there were quite a lot of jealous artists who might have felt the same. So this was the
7:14
arch I was talking about, which was rejected, but they said go back to the drawing board
7:19
have a think about it, and with John Wolfe Barry's help, this is what they came up with
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The building that we know and love today, this is quite nice because this shows you the workings
7:28
inside in a cross section. So as the ship's coming through, just keep an eye on the inside
7:34
of the tower base here. You'll see the road go up, that's the counter 분들�
7:38
sliding down. Yeah. So it's all about balance and precision. It's just like two children on a
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sea so in the playground going up and down So I wanted to show you this room
8:00
This is the middle of the South Tower. But as you see, as you look up the walls
8:04
and on the floor at your feet as well, these are actually the original blueprints for the bridge
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Wow. Okay. Blown up or this was very original. Yeah, blown up so you can see it
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Now, do you remember Sir Horace Jones we met earlier? Yeah. Sadly died one year into the building of the bridge
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It actually meant that it was his assistant, George Daniel Stevenson, who kind of went forward with the design based on Horace's early plans, but made it so much bigger and better
8:31
So as you look up the wall here, this stonework is George's idea
8:36
Horace actually kind of envisaged a red brick building, which would have looked quite different from what we know now
8:42
I also love the fact that built into this, we have this lovely picture of some of the workers who actually put it all together
8:51
As you can see, looking down here at the front, you've actually got children involved as well
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So we know of a lad called John Chalk. I think he was about 14 years of age who was a rivet boy
9:03
So someone who was working in the riveting of the building, bearing in mind there were white, hot rivets that were literally heated up and then hurled
9:12
to each other to catch and then hammer in. Someone as young as this was involved in that
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So yeah, it's quite an interesting comparison maybe with working practices today
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Now this is a replica of a diving helmet. Why do we have a diving helmet in a bridge
9:28
Well, to do the foundations of the bridge took four years and it was actually undertaken
9:33
partly by divers working in old suits like this. For up to about nine hours per day
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but not the whole time under the water. They'd freeze, you know, but a nine-hour shift swapping over between six men
9:48
But just think about the size of the porthole that you're looking through here
9:54
Very small. Not much visibility. Yeah, it must have been dark as well
9:59
Really dark. So the river is clay-bottomed. So every time a boat comes past and churns that up, the sediment is in the water
10:06
They couldn't see their hands in front of their faces as they were. So it's all done by touch alone
10:10
Wow, that must have taken a long time. I can see why they had nine hour days. Absolutely
10:15
Well, as I say, it was four years it took them. What they were doing were they were working inside big steel cages, known as casons
10:22
They would sink those into the water and then dive inside them, digging out as they went, pumping the water and the mud out
10:30
putting concrete in its place to form the foundations. So today we would do something not too dissimilar, but of course with machinery
10:38
Yeah. This bridge was entirely done by. hand. The only machinery involved anywhere were steam-powered cranes for lifting some of the steel
10:46
work higher to rivet in place. So this is kind of the end of the age of manpower being replaced
10:53
by mechanism. It's quite incredible that it's still here 130 years later looking as incredible as it does
11:04
The walkways were constructed to allow people to continue crossing the river, even when the bridge was
11:10
being lifted. It was open to pedestrians when the bridge opened in 1894, although it was never
11:15
very popular. By the time you've walked all the way to the top, walked over and then back down
11:20
again, it was probably just as quick to have waited for the bridge to come down. There's also
11:24
reports that the walkway was filled with prostitutes and pickpockets, which also would have put people
11:28
off. The walkways were closed in 2010 due to a lack of use and were only reopened in 1982
11:33
as part of the new visitor attraction. The pickpocket thing, it's a lovely story, but we know
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from documents that there were eight different police officers stationed here Unless they were the worst police in the world it probably unlikely there was much crime going on Okay that makes sense
11:50
Despite its current popularity, the bridge initially faced criticism from architectural experts
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H. H. H. Stratham wrote in 1916 that it represented the vice of tawdiness in pretentiousness
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Rangwin and Sparrow's Booker Bridges labelled the structure absurd. So this is now the top of the north tower
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as you look around you again you can see the beautiful steel work
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but also you can see the faces of the four men who are involved
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in building the bridge so this man in the middle on the left the second man here this is Sir William Arol
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now he's an incredible man he started out his career as a small child in a cotton mill
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and he was just so driven he worked his way up from there and he became actually one of the most
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influential important steel manufacturers in the whole country He had a works in Dalmanuk just outside Glasgow and he produced all of the steel for this bridge
12:43
Wow, got it got it from Scotland. We got it down from Scotland. This is a piece of Scotland here in London. Okay. Yeah
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We've also got the man next to him, middle right, the third man. This is another William
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This is Sir William Armstrong. Now he's a hydraulic engineer. So it's down to him that everything moves and works
13:00
All the clever bits. All the clever bits, exactly. Yeah. So his steel works
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linked with these hydraulic parts, what make the bridge so famous around the world
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And this is quite nice. So coming up now, this is actually the first time they ever filmed Tower Bridge
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raising its road for a ship. So this is from the year 1903
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As you can see there, it says the bascules from the south, so we're looking from the south at the road lifting
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And you can see those ropes that are across the street, stopping pedestrians come across
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But the guy that just walked through. Like the guy who just walked through, he worked for the bridge. Yeah, absolutely
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I think he knew where to stand safely, luckily. Now, the safety they used to have was just putting a rope out
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In 1894, the traffic coming along is horse and carriage. They can stop at a rope, no real problem
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But if you fast forward in time to the 1950s, by this point we have cars and buses in London
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Well, on the 30th of December 1952, a bus was coming along
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and the men there who were supposed to put the rope out to stop the traffic were too slow in doing it
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Indeed, yeah. So the bus actually got onto one of the bascules as it started to lift
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Yeah, a little bit dicey. Now luckily, the driver that day, a man called Albert Gunter
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he'd been a tank driver during World War II. So he was kind of used to taking tanks
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across ditches in occupied France and things like that. So he simply put his foot down
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and he actually jumped his bus across with himself and 19 passengers, got to the other side safely
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There was a broken leg and a broken collarbone, but it could have been so much worse
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And for his trouble for basically saving 20 lives, he was given a £10 award from the City of London Corporation
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You can actually see a nice interview of him accepting it, and he's asked what he's going to spend it on
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and he says his wife's going to take £5 a bit straightaway for being a bit of a silly person getting onto a bridge as it's lifting
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£10, I guess that's worth a lot more today. It's a lot more than it would be today
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for sure. Yeah. Regardless of the opinions of the critics
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Tower Bridge is a beloved London landmark and despite the complexities of its construction
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it remains a fully operational artery of the city. Join us for our next episode of the history of the city
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when we will venture into the monument