Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, it replaced an earlier bridge, originally known as Regent Bridge but later renamed Vauxhall Bridge, built between 1809 and 1816 as part of a scheme for redeveloping the south bank of the Thames. The bridge was built at a location in the river previously served by a ferry.
The building of both iterations of the bridge was problematic, with both the first and second bridges requiring several redesigns from multiple architects. The original bridge, the first iron bridge over the Thames, was built by a private company and operated as a toll bridge before being taken into public ownership in 1879. The second bridge, which took eight years to build, was the first in London to carry trams and later one of the first two roads in London to have a bus lane.
In 1963 it was proposed to replace the bridge with a modern development containing seven floors of shops, office space, hotel rooms and leisure facilities supported above the river, but the plans were abandoned because of costs. With the exception of alterations to the road layout and the balustrade, the design and appearance of the current bridge has remained almost unchanged since 1907. The bridge today is an important part of London's road system and carries the A202 road and Cycle Superhighway 5 (CS5) across the Thames.
Background
In the early 13th century, Anglo-Norman mercenary Falkes de Breauté built a manor house in the then empty marshlands of South Lambeth, across the River Thames from Westminster. In 1223–24, de Breauté and others revolted against Henry III; following a failed attempt to seize the Tower of London, de Breauté's lands in England were forfeited and he was forced into exile in France and later Rome. The lands surrounding his Lambeth manor house continued to be known as Falkes' Hall, later Vauxhall.
left|upright|280x280px|thumb|Westminster & Lambeth, 1746. Westminster Bridge, opened in 1740, connects Westminster to Lambeth; Huntley Ferry crosses the river on the site of the future Vauxhall Bridge.
With the exception of housing around the New Spring Gardens (later Vauxhall Gardens) pleasure park, opened in around 1661, the land at Vauxhall remained sparsely populated into the 19th century, In 1806 a scheme was proposed by Ralph Dodd to open the south bank of the Thames for development, by building a new major road from Hyde Park Corner to Kennington and Greenwich, crossing the river upstream of the existing Westminster Bridge. and the bill was abandoned.
In 1809 a new bill was presented to Parliament, and the proprietors of Battersea Bridge agreed to allow it to pass and to accept compensation. From these profits, the Vauxhall Bridge Company was obliged to compensate the proprietors of Battersea Bridge for any drop in revenue caused by the new bridge. This has since been renamed: it is now the section of Victoria Street which runs west from Vauxhall Bridge Road to the junction with what is now called Grosvenor Gardens. This gave access to Hyde Park Corner and so to roads to the north. The Company was therefore responsible for building the whole of Vauxhall Bridge Road and the part of Victoria Street in front of Victoria Station.
Old Vauxhall Bridge
right|thumb|New Spring Gardens, 1751
Dodd submitted a scheme for a bridge at Vauxhall of 13 arches. However, soon after the Vauxhall Bridge Act 1809 was passed, he was dismissed by the Vauxhall Bridge Company and his design was abandoned. John Rennie was commissioned to design and build the new bridge, and a stone bridge of seven arches was approved. Rennie submitted a new design for an iron bridge of eleven spans, costing far less than the original stone design. Walker's report led to the design being abandoned for the second time, and Walker himself was appointed to design and build a bridge of nine cast-iron arches with stone piers, the first iron bridge to be built across the Thames.
thumb|left|Regent Bridge shortly after opening
thumb|Share of the Vauxhall Bridge Company, issued 7. February 1815
On 4 June 1816, over five years after construction began, the bridge opened, initially named Regent Bridge after George, Prince Regent, but shortly afterwards renamed Vauxhall Bridge. Meanwhile, the large Millbank Penitentiary was built near the northern end of the bridge, discouraging housing development. A large crowd also assembled on the bridge in September 1844 to watch Mister Barry, a clown from Astley's Amphitheatre, sail from Vauxhall Bridge to Westminster Bridge in a washtub towed by geese. The Metropolis Toll Bridges Act 1877 (40 & 41 Vict. c. xcix) was passed, allowing the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) to buy all London bridges between Hammersmith Bridge and Waterloo Bridge and free them from tolls. The piers were removed, replaced by a single large central arch. and T G Jackson describing the bridge designs as a sign of "the utter apparent indifference of those in authority to the matter of art". Plans to build large stone abutments had to be suspended when it was found that the southern abutment would block the River Effra, which by this time had been diverted underground to serve as a storm relief sewer and which flowed into the Thames at this point. The Effra had to be rerouted to join the Thames to the north of the bridge. After the construction of the foundations and piers it was then discovered that the clay of the riverbed at this point would not be able to support the weight of a concrete bridge. With the granite piers already in place, it was decided to build a steel superstructure onto the existing piers, and a superstructure long and wide was designed by Binnie and Maurice Fitzmaurice and built by LCC engineers at a cost of £437,000 (about £ in ).
The new bridge was eventually opened on 26 May 1906, five years behind schedule, in a ceremony presided over by the Prince of Wales and Evan Spicer, Chairman of the LCC. Charles Wall, who had won the contract to build the superstructure of the new bridge, paid the LCC £50 for the temporary wooden bridge, comprising of timber and 580 tons of scrap metal.
Sculpture
thumb|upright|right|[[Frederick Pomeroy|Pomeroy's Pottery]]
The new bridge was built to a starkly functional design, and many influential architects had complained about the lack of consultation from any architects during the design process by the engineers designing the new bridge. Despite their size, the statues are little-noticed by users of the bridge as they are not visible from the bridge itself, but only from the river banks or from passing shipping.
During the Second World War the government was concerned that Axis bombers would target the bridge, and a temporary bridge known as Millbank Bridge was built parallel to Vauxhall Bridge, downstream. Millbank Bridge was built of steel girders supported by wooden stakes; however, despite its flimsy appearance it was a sturdy structure, capable of supporting tanks and other heavy military equipment. In the event, Vauxhall Bridge survived the war undamaged, and in 1948 Millbank Bridge was dismantled. Its girders were shipped to Northern Rhodesia and used to span a tributary of the Zambezi. inspired by the design of the Crystal Palace, to be called the Crystal Span. The structure itself would have been enclosed in an air conditioned glass shell. which at this time was suffering from a severe shortage of display space. Despite much public interest in the proposals, the London County Council was reluctant to pay the estimated £7 million (£ in ) construction costs, and the scheme was abandoned.
thumb|right|300px|2009 view of Vauxhall Bridge, from upstream on the south bank
Following the closure of a number of the area's industries, in the 1970s and 1980s the land at the southern end of Vauxhall Bridge remained empty, following the failures of multiple redevelopment schemes. The most notable came in 1979 when Keith Wickenden MP, owner of the land at the immediate southern end of the bridge, proposed a large-scale redevelopment of the site. The development was to contain of office space, 100 luxury flats and a gallery to house the Tate Gallery's modern art collection. The offices were to be housed in a tower of green glass, which was nicknamed the "Green Giant" and met with much opposition. The then Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, refused permission for the development and the site remained empty.
See also
- List of crossings of the River Thames
- List of bridges in London