Bridging the gap

In TS Eliot’s epic 1922 poem The Waste Land, he imagines zombie-like crowds shuffling across London Bridge “under the brown fog of a winter dawn”. While the poem throws up fragmented imagery, the poet’s choice of this particular River Thames span to evoke the post-war horrors of this “unreal city” was telling.

At the turn of the 20th century, London Bridge was the British capital’s busiest thoroughfare with almost 9,000 cars and pedestrians crossing it every hour. It was widened in 1902, yet that did little to help the strain of traffic, and the bridge was reportedly sinking by around an eighth of an inch every year.

And though it lacked the architectural drama of nearby Tower Bridge, it nevertheless provided a vital link between the two halves of the British capital.